Netflix and Beyond

Jerzy Kosinski’s 1965 novel of the same name, translates into a horrific, bestial, brilliant visual experience; not for the squeamish or feint sensitivities; there are scenes seared permanently in my memory; moral turpitude on an unimaginable scale; cruelty practiced by a religious populace. Crimes perpetrated upon a young boy seeking safety, sanity in Eastern Europe, during WWII. He is Jewish, …

Of the countless films, programming, entertaining options viewed over the last five Covid months, “Greyhound” suffered pivotally from the pandemic; reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s 2017’s “Dunkirk”, its magnificence needed the vastness of a cinematographic experience, instead of the confinement (regardless of the screen size) of an in-house exploitation; Tom Hanks exponentially, through the years, has matured as an actor and …

Most of us have had it with homeland incarceration; abiding by authoritative regulations, our relationship with the outside world, revolve around our television/computer. Here are a few to view or shun: “GRANDCHESTER”: a British detective series  (PBS, AMAZON PRIME) in its fifth season, surviving the loss of magnetic James Norton (does an about face, from saint to sinner in “Happy …

This, my third foray, into the legendary arena of the American Revolution (1775-1783), starring Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) was scintillatingly positive; first exposure was the play in New York City, at an obnoxious ticket price (my fault, no one held a pistol to my head) that actually had a negative effect on my entertainment scale; fortunately, I was one of the …

Unerringly poignant, sublimely sensitive, an exquisite story within a story directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (“The Shoplifters”); actors Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, imposingly comfortable in their craft are commanding as a mother/daughter team, with unresolved issues; Deneuve, “Fabienne” at the nadir of her career as a scion of the film industry, struggling with memory deficiency, has written a fabricated autobiography; Binoche, is her daughter, “Lumir”, …

This fine Australian film, won prizes at many 2019 film festivals; without sensationalism it splays to the core a family’s horrifying pain of watching their teenage daughter’s loosing battle with intransigent cancer. Director Shannon Murphy (screenplay: Rita Kalnejais) in tandem with an extraordinary cast emotionally sear viewers with a revelatory, insightful vision of coping with the unimaginable. Eliza Scanlen’s, “Milla” …

Shamefully, I have taken too long of a hiatus from my Bollywood Buddies; here are two series guaranteed to keep you in comfortable confinement; performances are creatively captivating (superior casting); detectives of both genders, imbue their roles with intelligence, ingenuity, intuitive integrity. “Paatal Lok” features a long ignored, unpromoted police inspector, “Hathiram Chaudhary” (stellar, Jaideep Ahlawat) who serendipitously gets a life-altering case when four people …

And I suggest you do the same; a watery, nebulous copycat version of 1980’s “The Shining” (hard to top Jack Nicholson’s performance, scary scenario and the eerie, elegant, deserted hotel that haunts with impunity). Kevin Bacon (has many jewels in his filmic crown “You Should Have Left” is faux); “Theo Conroy” a wealthy man acquitted of the murder of his …

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 …