Netflix and Beyond

Enchantment. Having been nurtured, commencing at birth, with an inbred love of mythology; demigods of supernatural, powerful, pungent positivity or daredevil, iconoclastic, detrimental negativity; there is no placid, imperturbable middle ground; weened on the hopes of a fairy tale, realized. Oh, and who has not wished for the magical “Genie in a Bottle”, granting three wishes? The fantastical appeals to all ages, demographics. Director …

“ORPHAN: FIRST KILL” (streaming & in theatres) Isabelle Fuhrman gives a sensationally eerie depiction of a serial killer afflicted with Highlander Syndrome (hypopituitarism, stunted physical growth); she looks twelve but is thirty-one; an orphan from Estonia who poses as an American child, abducted years ago; Julia Stiles, “Tricia” the despondent mother, is equal to the challenge of a newfound daughter. …

James A. Michner’s “Texas” is an edifying novel about the vast state of Texas; it is mammoth, it could fit ten European countries, with room to spare, at approximately 270, 000 square miles (170,902,080 acres) and close to 30 million people; yet it is rare to meet someone who willingly leaves the state; Michner clarifies the anomaly. Because of its …

Last Sunday’s New York Times’s extensive article on writer/director Michael Mann, concentrating on his upcoming movie “Heat 2”, piqued my interest in a film I had never seen; a film of exceptional power, staggering achievement, mesmerizingly dazzling; “Heat” should be seen by anyone who wallows willingly in film’s “absolute beauty, visual joy and dreamlike sensibility”. “Heat” is a crime tale …

Director/writer Jordan Peele’s imaginative fecundity exponentially expands with each titillating, fascinating film; “Nope” casts its realistically horrifying premise from the onset; strange objects fly from the sky, lethally hitting “Otis Haywood” (philosophically prescient, Keith David) the owner of “Haywood Hollywood Horses”, leaving his son “OJ” (a Peele favorite, Daniel Kaluuya) to carry on the franchise; sister “Emerald” (Keke Palmer is …

If one is commanded to watch one documentary a decade; “The Day the Music Died” is unequivocally, unmatched. From my first “listen”, “American Pie” with its bewitching lyrics, timelessness, inclusivity, sent chills from my brain, cascading through every organ, electrifying my soul and culminating in a dance, that even with age, takes flight and defies boundaries; I never experience life, …

PERSUASION (NETFLIX)             Novelist Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) “Persuasion” has survived a myriad of adaptations, many excellent, especially the 2007 version starring Sally Hawkins, Rupert Penry-Jones, Tobias Menzies; the 2022 Netflix rendition is an abomination; miscast, instead of electrifying, disastrously boring, using contemporary actors of all hues, squirming in their restrictive wardrobes, stilted dialogue, sprinkled with platitudeness cliches permeating an emotionless, limited scenario. Dakota Johnson’s (“50 Shades” celeb) valiant struggle …

Delia Owens novel was a sensational bestseller and one that I felt poetically matched its epic core and empathetically, the story of isolated creativity; “Kya, The Marsh Girl” pulsates with prodigious spirit, steadfastness and intelligence, a study of survival in the untrammeled marshlands of North Carolina. Daisy Edgar Jones inherently captures the cunning purity of an abandoned, shunned young woman, …

Seeing these two films back-to-back, pulsating comparisons begged exploration. Not a Marvel maven but a devotee of mythology, “Thor” resonated superficially on the mythological level, but incredibly jejune, silly and shallow when attempting to wallow in the present; director Taika Waititi’s  (“Jojo Rabbit”) Thor, lacks the luster of his previous works and seems to have lost its way between Mt. …

“INTIMACY”              (SPANISH: DUBBED ENGLISH)         NETFLIX A timely tale resonating with today’s invasive and chilling technology; a rising politician is surreptitiously filmed as she and her lover are carnally entwined on a deserted beach. Predictably, it goes viral, and the series evolves as the protagonists gallantly fight to resolve and cope …