Netflix and Beyond

Elizabeth Moss at thirty-seven has penetrated and incarcerated “characters” of immense diversity: “Mad Men”, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, my personal favorite “The Square”, recently “The Invisible Man” and now the weirdest, most peculiar “Shirley” a brilliant writer of the horror genre, an agoraphobic, stymied, finding inspiration in a young, pregnant woman “Rose” (well-matched Odessa Young) and her husband, “Fred” (Logan Lerman); …

It is baffling that I missed this profusely profound historical film based on a man, possessing Olympian attributes and daunting, divine courage; Hemingway defines courage as grace under pressure; Jan Baalsrud’s (1917-1988) paranormal, formidable fortitude led to his escape from the Nazi’s in the spring of 1943, Norway; a magnificent testament, celebration of man’s will to transcend normalcy, inhabit the …

Panned by critics when released in 2019; audiences ignored the “panners” and relished its scandalous scenario; an Italian thriller with enough twists to hook one’s attention for the entirety of its eight episodes; coated with an aura of scintillating sleaze, inimitable of Italian and French filmmakers, delicious to ingest and imbibe; superb acting transcends any plot shortcomings: Vittoria Puccini, as …

Based on the book by James Patterson, John Connolly and Tim Malloy. You had to inhabit another planet to be unaware of the salacious sensationalism dumped upon a universe that thrives on the felonies of the staggeringly wealthy; Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire bum, finally held libel for his egregious sex trafficking and personal gratification from underage girls. The mini series …

At times, a pungently preposterous premise, can momentarily, erase the ennui of monotony; especially in the third month of Covid incarceration. Director Vaughn Stein’s “Inheritance”, despite minimal sense and maximum implausibility, held my interest; performances by Lily Collins and Simon Pegg save viewers from a quagmire of anesthetized boredom. Lily, District Attorney “Lauren Monroe”, inherits a skimpy portion of her …

Benjamin Ree’s idiosyncratic portrait of two disparate individuals whose karmic, destined paths collided and blended into an unlikely love story; a documentary revolving around the theft of two paintings by Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova, cautiously removed from a gallery wall in Oslo, and one of the captured thieves, drug addicted Karl-Bertil Norland; as a painter Barbora looks beyond the surface; non-judgmental, …

An Australian psychological thriller,  inventively twisted, freakishly fabulous, starring Aden Young as driven, compulsive detective, “Mike Serrato”; his lust for the capture of a serial killer, a fiend with a tattoo fetish (he excises his victims tattoos), creepy in spades; creepier is that detective Serrato has replications of these scarrings tattooed on his body, as reminders of the slaughtered women; …

Here is a comedic jewel, poetic license on steroids; a contemporary interpretation of questionable historical veracity, creator Tony McNamara (co-wrote “The Favourite”) has the time of his life with Elle Fanning (also a producer) as the inimitable coup mistress, Catherine the Great (1729-1796); Fanning is stupendous as a naïve teenager, with fanciful romantic aspirations, bulldozed precipitously on her wedding night; …

When it comes to detectives, it is all about style; the crime solver has to be more fascinating than the crime; we savor their repeated series, lapping up their techniques, uniquely indigenous to each detective: Sherlock, Poirot, Morse, Foyle, Mrs. Fisher, Fletcher, Luther, Bosch (see past reviews, my avidity for master sleuths is staggering); “Bordertown’s” “Kari Sorjonen” is a detective, …

Unquestionably, Tom Hardy is the quintessential method actor in contemporary film, rivaling, at times resembling, Marlon Brando; from his 2001 debut in “Black Hawk Down”, “The Dark Night Rises”, “Mad Max”, “The Revenant” (Academy Award Nominee), “Dunkirk”, “Legend” and my most preferred “Locke”, a tour de force, rarely and exquisitely witnessed. In this revolting, scatological, rendition of Al Capone’s (1899-1947) …