Netflix and Beyond

There are times when one goes to a movie simply for its therapeutic, redemptive powers; times when life has delivered the unexpected curve ball; impatiently waiting for the “silver lining” to  rear its healing head. “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” by the Duplass brothers (Jay and Mark “Cyrus”) is quirky, compelling and in the end magical: why we enter a …

This Israeli film delves into the lives and relationship of a father/ son; renown scholars of the Talmud (Judaism’s holiest book; the literal translation is “to teach”). “Footnote” commences with the induction of “Uriel Shkolnik” (younger Professor Shkolnik: solid, sensitive depiction by Lior Ashkkenazi) into the Israeli Academy of Sciences; his speech resonates with respect, close to idolatry for his …

Read no further if spine-chilling, skin-prickling, nightmare-inducing “horror” flicks are not highlighted on your movie menu. It is challenging to verbalize the addiction, affliction, attraction to terrifying, tortuous “scary” genres; they are universally ubiquitous and multitudes flock to first screenings at film festivals. At the risk of offending those whose tastes conflict with mine, I am an elitist when it …

With the name “John Carter” images of elections in the fifth district appellate court; CEO of a Dow Jones Industrial Company, even president of a local school board are conjured up, but never as a mega- muscled hero,  an Adonis, championing the just on Earth and Mars. Based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, produced by Disney and dedicated …

How frequently do you exit a movie with a lighter step and brighter smile? From the commencement of this preposterous, inane, ridiculous scenario; riddled with absurdities, unrealistic fantasies, you smile, chuckle and wallow in the marvelous performances of Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor, (shades of Hepburn/Tracy) as two disparate people conscripted by an idealistic, catastrophically- wealthy Sheik (delightfully sincere and …

At the risk of being pejorative I still prefer “Pina”.   Coming from a family of football fanatics; ingrained from birth, intrinsic in our genetic composition, male/female, there was no cure or escape from the game. Oh, the magnetic, magnificent, spellbinding, addictive oeuvre. There is nothing more compelling than the “underdog”, the omnipresent “defeated”, rising like a phoenix from the …

There are times when a movie is just a movie: entertaining, predictable, shallow but quenching one’s thirst for diversion. A film not worthy of massive movie discussion groups; intense analytical dissection, preposterous, pondering, pontification. Just elementary, mindless fare. “Gone” starring Amanda Seyfried is the perfect antidote for jet lag, escape from the ubiquitous, dunning, recurring chores of every day existence.  …

It is tragic that most of us live in cities where foreign films are rarely shown or featured after the Academy Awards are presented. I have tried and will continue to strive diligently to alter this travesty. “In Darkness” is an exceptional film (an Academy Award contender) based on a true story which occurred in 1942 in the town of …

Two were very close: “Laura” and “Gerry”. Viola Davis was most of our Achilles heel; she was a major force in an iconic film. Meryl Streep was the only force in a mediocre movie; how tragic that she neglected to mention Margaret Thatcher in her acceptance speech (also when she won the Golden Globe). Streep is a genius but I …

Satisfaction. Defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “ the feeling of pleasure that arises when you have the things you need or want or when the things you want to happen have happened”. The feeling of harmony or contentment you experience after the  perfect meal or the result of a flawless film where all the elements are in pristine alignment …