Netflix and Beyond

SKIP: BECKETT (NETFLIX)  In fairness I could not last for more than 15 minutes of tested endurance; insufferable travails of “Beckett” (John David Washington) and his unflinching, clueless, girlfriend “April” (Alicia Vikander); a sparkless relationship and plot deserving of cauterization at its inception. ANNETTE (AMAZON PRIME) Yikes! Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, two respected, consummate actors had me cringing with …

Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) regardless of her gender, race, or possibly despite it, earned the highest honors of any individual in her league: 18 Grammy Awards, including Lifetime Achievement, Hall of Fame, Pulitzer Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom; she not only touched the celestial, she owned it; her life was informed by the Vietnam War, the assassinations of John and Robert …

 This is NOT a film review; it was a time of rejuvenation, a time to doff, escape the norm, the perpetual titillation of movie manna; deliverance from the cacophonous mayhem of city life: cars, motorcycles, souped up vehicles, whose only purpose is the annihilation of peace; a time to “stop the world” and wallow, effortlessly in a landscape guaranteed to …

“HIT & RUN”  (ENGLISH/HEBREW) NETFLIX A scintillating collaboration between Israel and Netflix starring inimitable, aggressively masculine, swashbuckling Lior Raz (“Fauda”) as “Segev Azulai”, a benign tour guide in Tel Aviv, his lithesome wife, “Danielle”(Kaelen Ohm) a dancer, whose death, initially assumed accidental, proves anything but; bouncing from New York and Israel, the scenario quivers with layers of duplicity, no one, …

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul” and no one understood, cornered or capitalized on this more than Alvin Ailey (1931-1989); director Jamila Wignot employs her intuitive documentary acuity, splaying upon the screen, a poor boy whose feet took him to heights rarely conquered; Ailey, infused his choreography with profound spirituality (“Revelations”); jazz with its unique African-American heritage reverberates …

Meet “Bill Baker” (Matt Damon) a simple man, a recovering alcoholic, relying on a higher power to secure his sobriety; a construction worker hailing from “The Sooner State”, Oklahoma, the least likely individual to have a daughter, “Allison” (Abigail Breslin) serving prison time, for murder, in Marseille, France. “Stillwater” pulsates as a plagiarized version of the Amanda Knox (four years …

Bullies have plagued mankind since the Cain and Abel era; persecuting those whose idiosyncratic individuality is in opposition to the norm: loners, nerds, homosexuals, mavericks, nonconformists; the growth of the internet has fed the epidemic, especially among the young and disenfranchised: Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virigina Tech, Santa Fe High School, the travesty continues; director Reinaldo Marcus Green and actor/producer Mark …

The pathetic pig, source of a major food supply with a heart reminiscent of a human’s, is perpetually maligned, used derogatorily, addressed as a “pig” is never a compliment, a reference to one’s weight, behavior, slovenliness; director Michael Sarnoski’s, fabulously interesting “Pig”, paints a portrait of this mammal as a loving, gifted truffle trapper (begs comparison to 2020’s “The Truffle …

A scrutinization of a man whose bright light was perpetually plagued by the darkest of shadows; history is splattered, tainted with numerous suicides of those whose fame could not deliver them from the agonies of despair: Marilyn Monroe, Ernest Hemingway, Margot Kidder, Jean Seberg, Alexander McQueen, Robin Williams, Jersey Kosinski, Anthony Bourdain: supernovas obliterated by guns, pills, ropes; Bourdain hung …

Wearying of Marvel mania, I skipped the theatre, paying the hefty fee to view on Disney+; it has its redeeming moments but in the end, yawning, I could of passed on this familial saga; parents, “Alexei” (always perceptive David Harbour) and “Melina” (unblemished Rachel Weisz) after a twenty year hiatus connect with their super daughters “Natasha” (pinnacle role for Scarlett …