Women of a certain age (or all ages), don your jogging suits and run, claw your way into the energizing, entertaining, inspiring, wildly wonderful world of “POTICHE”, “TROPHY WIFE” starring Catherine Deneuve in her prime: sensual, alluring, enchanting, luminous as ever. “POTICHE” reaffirms why we go to the movies; laughing and leaving with a lighter, brighter, fresher perspective on the …
Read More »Netflix and Beyond
THANK YOU (SHUKHRIYA)
This worthless piece of Bollywood drivel is an embarrassment to the India film world, a huge waste of good actors talents; an unforgiveable, monumental insult to the Indian people. The premise that all men are feckless, cheating Lotharios; their wives clueless, brainless beauties, whose days are spent in shopping malls or filing their nails, waiting witlessly, aimlessly for the hours …
Read More »SOURCE CODE
For the few who opened this, brevity will reign. If you are an “Inception” fan (I do not qualify) this one will captivate and hold your attention; each 8 minute train segment is riveting as the “terrorist” and his bomb are hunted. Michelle Monaghan and Jake Gyllenhaal, well- cast in this redundant, reminiscent, lethal version of “Groundhog Day”. Gyllenhaal has …
Read More »TRUST
David Schwimmer has made a fascinating, gut-wrenching film about the insidious plague that has invaded the internet; disguised, depraved predators seducing unblemished children, whose false sense of maturity belies their age. “Trust” tackles 21st century issues where boundaries have dissolved: children, because of unlimited access to the internet, “chat rooms” where masquerade is legitimate, have lost the virginal purity of …
Read More »SOMETIMES 2-3 STARS WILL SUFFICE
Most of us go to the movies to escape, seeking solitude from the cacophony of daily, droning ceaseless obligations; to be entranced, entertained; the darkened theatre smothers the minutiae, petty, pointless details that cloud our perspective, and we exit realizing our intellect has been purified, vacuumed of the insignificant; only thoughts of value left behind. Movies can be cathartic, therapeutic, …
Read More »WIN WIN
Skeptical of the title and with some trepidation I ventured to the first showing of the latest Paul Giamatti flick; my anxieties instantly dissipated, and for 106 minutes I smiled, chuckled and relished this beautifully bland, lightly realistic story about people I would love to have as neighbors. Paul Giamatti, whose talents, ceaselessly overwhelm, is Mike Flaherty a lawyer whose …
Read More »A SAD DAY FOR FILM LOVERS
March 23rd, 2011. Elizabeth Taylor affectionally called “Liz” died. With her death a slice of glamour disappears, cauterized from the soul of Hollywood, never again to rise to such stratospheric heights. Elizabeth Taylor epitomized the “starlit”; her beauty unmatched, her talent monumental; countless husbands, love affairs, celestial jewelry; she was the luscious fodder the tabloids fed upon for almost seventy …
Read More »CERTIFIED COPY (French, Italian, English)
Oftentimes I have been asked for suggestions as to which movie should “star” in film discussion soirees ; usually I equivocate or give a plethora of suggestions depending on the demographics of the group. “Certified Copy” will keep the participants in frenetic, pulsating, nonstop- interruption, interpretation mode. “Certified Copy” is one of the most interesting, entertaining, intellectually -inspiring films of …
Read More »JANE EYRE
Recently relishing Stacy Schiff’s Pulitzer Prize winning “Cleopatra” realizing that although attractive, Cleopatra’s compelling magnetism, allure rose from the radiance, brilliance of her mind, not the perfection of her countenance; the greatest men of her time could not rid themselves of her ebullient wit, comprehensive knowledge, sagacity, linguistic skills; she was a woman who knew that long after man’s incapacity …
Read More »OF GODS AND MEN (FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
Is based on a true story revolving around dedicated French Monks living in a remote village in Algeria’s Atlas Mountains; the monastery, a medical oasis for the poor Muslim population. It is the mid- 1990s and the esoteric, simple and pure existence led by the monks is poignantly portrayed by actors of immense depth; they imbue their characters with an …
Read More »