Director Heidi Ewing serves a delightful dish of sublime poignancy; a love story peppered with a quest for personal growth; “Ivan” (Armando Espitia) enters the United States illegally, from Puebla City, Mexico, to pursue his dream of becoming a chef, leaving his lover, “Gerardo” (Christian Vazquez) behind; both men have suffered from abuse at the hands of their homophobic fathers; …
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FAST AND FURIOUS 9 (in theatres) & FALSE POSITIVE (Hulu)
From 2001 the action defined “Fast & Furious” franchise has plummeted audiences; this, the 9th version was my first, and in all likelihood, my last; not because it wasn’t good, the thrills, death defying chases, special effects were stupendous, but have been replicated ad nauseam in filmdom: Marvel movies, James Bond, Liam Nesson escapades, cannot neglect the Terminator series; staleness, …
Read More »OUR LADIES (in theatres)
The term “coming of age” has become tiresome, an overused cliché depicting those indecisive teens yearning for an illusory, still to be defined, purpose of being. Director Michael Caton-Jones’s “Our Ladies” takes place in a small Scottish town in the mid 1990’s, as five rambunctious choir girls hanker for boozy, sexual encounters, on a field trip to Edinburgh. Secure in the parameters of blossoming adulthood these jejune “ladies”, with levity, and at times hilarity, toil towards their mission. “Orla” (poignant, …
Read More »SUBLET (HEBREW/ENGLISH) (In theatres)
A sensitive, sweet, slice of life, an episode fated to be a preserved, sacred memory: a May/December relationship ignited by two disparate individuals brought together by chance: a NYT’s travel writer “Michael” (John Benjamin Hickey) sublet’s an apartment in Tel Aviv, for five days, from “Tomer” (Niv Nissim); Michael, represents the past, living as a gay man through the embryonic, …
Read More »IN THE HEIGHTS (MUST SEE IN THEATRES)
Lin-Manuel Miranda serves a banquet of sumptuous joy; a feast for the pandemic-starved, melancholic, woebegone viewer; from its marvelous commencement to its spectacular conclusion, its edifying, glorious, musically magnificent score, innovative, ingenious choreography, stupendous cinematography, culturally iconic scenario, miraculously refashioned an audience steeped in a despondent, yearlong fug, into an exuberant mass, kvelling, knowing this is the stuff of happiness. I loved this movie, there are not enough adjectives to …
Read More »LISEY’S STORY (Apple TV) & THE CONJURING, THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (Theatres & HBO MAX)
A lifelong Stephen King devotee, my fantasy has been to wander the dark, blighted, possessed corridors of his fecund imagination, just for a palpable hour, touching, feeling, experiencing the wizardry pulsating beneath his unorthodox artistry; “Lisey’s Story” might not share the hierarchy of “The Stand”, “The Shining”, “Misery” or one of my favorites “Thinner” but is hefty, semi-autobiographical and sensationally …
Read More »OSLO (HBO) VS CRUELLA (THEATRES OR DISNEY PLUS)
“Oslo”, based upon the Tony Award- winning play (J.T. Rogers), which is gloriously reminiscent and equally worthy of experiencing as a film, choreographs an incredulous moment in history: the power of a visionary couple blending intransigent advisories, Israel and Palestine, channeling their missions into a viable solution for peace; Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott with remarkable aptitude depict Mona Juul …
Read More »A QUIET PLACE PART II & PROFILE (BOTH ONLY IN THEATRES)
Director John Krasinski’s second film about the hunted, haunted Abbott family is surprisingly better than the earlier “A Quiet Place”; it is tautly structured, synchronicity weaves its compelling coincidences involving humans out-maneuvering aerial aliens, keenly sensitive to sound, and presciently frightful to behold; there is magic in its meaning and profoundly acted by the previous cast, and a new member …
Read More »FINAL ACCOUNT (IN THEATRES)
Documentarian Luke Holland (1948-2020) spent his life bringing to the fore man’s errors, injustices, crimes against mankind: campaigning on behalf of threatened tribal people; highlighting Ruby Kennedy’s campaign to compensate slave labourers under Hitler’s demonic regime; it is “Final Account” that will stabilize, confirm his legacy of intuitive brilliance; as a grandson of Holocaust victims; commencing in 2008 he interviewed …
Read More »GEORGETOWN (AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV, YouTube)
Christoph Waltz in his directorial debut and starring as the obsequious, uxorious “Ulrich Mott” (loosely based on the murder of socialite Viola Herms Drath) validates, once again, his transformative powers; with chameleon aptness he imbues Mott’s pathological gallantry with slithering, scintillating charm; he convinced Washington Grand Dame, “Elsa Brecht”, (indomitable Vanessa Redgrave) besting him by forty years, to become his …
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