Netflix and Beyond

Appropriately titled, Will Smith, stars as Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena Williams, two of the greatest tennis players, athletes, of all time; his word is law, he is sovereign in his household. The film was graced with the winning trophy at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival and audiences’ glow and cheer with acceptance and admiration. “King Richard” …

Actors attain peaks, and it is only hindsight that determines the summits: Tatum O’Neal was 10-years-old when she won the Academy Award for “Paper Moon” (1973) her father, Ryan was 29 when “Love Story: (1970) debuted; Tom Hulse, “Amadeus” (1984) at 31 disappeared; Tom Cruise, “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989) was 27 and has never reached that pinnacle …

Recognizing a director’s difficulties in recreating one’s past for film: personal observations competing with historical accuracy, capturing the child’s eye with an adult perspective, unnecessary glorification of events and its participants; Kenneth Branagh (1960-) fares better than director Paolo Sorrentino’s “coming of age” tale in this year’s “Hand of God” but not as well as Alfonso Cuaron in 2018’s “Roma”; …

Two well-to-do women connect after a chance meeting in a New York City hotel; educated, poised, living lives of affluence and grace in the 1920’s; they are black, but one has lived as a white woman. Director Rebecca Hall with an iron will in a gloved fist treats Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella, “Passing” with intuitive discernment, idiosyncratic style, intriguing complexity; …

Undeniably, Kristen Stewart is talented, but talent never assures, likability; skipping her “Twilight” sagas, but seeing her in “Panic Room”, “Personal Shopper” “Seberg” I could not “erase” Stewart from her film’s persona; unfortunately, this proved true for “Spencer”. Not entirely her fault, admittedly I am “Diana Done”; documentaries, “The Crown”, tell-all exposés have slathered, even the most oblivious, with mammoth …

Abashedly, I have neglected Bollywood in this era of pandemic trouncing, but director Rohena Gera’s 2018 “Sir”, has awakened my longing for the scents and enchantments of multi-faceted India: murky, mystical, poignant pollution seizes with its ineluctable tentacles, as one exits the airport, slipping into the blackest of night’s moments; if open to its charismatic, beguiling caprices, a part of …

On the surface not much in common, but after rumination, percolating beneath the exterior the filmmaker’s message simmers; one I agree with the other I question. “THE SQUID GAME’S” (9 episodes) hypothesis is the elimination of “deadbeats” those, so strangled by debt, that they are willing to sacrifice their lives to be saved from “debtors prison”; games, compellingly clever, are …

Of the myriad of festivals, I have engaged in this, the 57th, was the most comprehensive, inclusive I have ever visited. In this age of cancel culture, wokeism, pejorative, purblind sensationalism the festival soared above politics, race, gender, religion but primarily myopic, narrow, restricted minds. Embracing female actors and directors, unveiling worldwide dictates regarding religion, spiritualism, focusing on one’s choices …

“SUNDOWN” Set within the sizzling confines of Acapulco, Mexico. Director Michel Franco, sustained by a momentous performance by Tim Roth, questions man’s dominance over his choices and subsequent consequences. THREE & ½ STARS “LOVE, CHARLIE: THE RISE AND FALL OF CHEF CHARLIE TROTTER” Director Rebecca Halpern’s dissection of Trotter’s escalation from childhood to eminence is a “must see” triumph; Shakespearean …

“THE LAST DUEL” Following the Rashomon Syndrome, viewers must decide which of the three scenarios is closest to the truth; glorious filmmaking and superior acting cement one’s attention for its over two hour duration. Director Ridley Scott focuses on an actual, occurrence in 14th century France: Marguerite, (Jodi Comer, sublime “damsel in distress”) the wife of Knight Jean de Carrouges …