Netflix and Beyond

This Bollywood film, directed by Mohit Suri, is a stunner; magical leads with electrifying chemistry (Aditya Roy Kapur, “Advait” and Disha Patani, “Sara”); plaintive musical score; titillating twists, testing the most intuitive of movie sleuths; it salivates with unrestricted love scenes, prevalent drugs and prostitution; not-so-subtle impotency; revenge served violently, justifiably, icily cold; untoward “coppers”, legitimacy camouflaging malevolent iniquities; Anil …

                                                                                              Director Kitty Green capitalizes on the Harvey Weinstein sexual predator saga that the …

The profundity of this documentary shatters illusions, prejudices, and sears with overdue approbation for a man of stature, scholarship, integrity, worthy of his thirty, reticent years on the Supreme Court; writing more opinions/dissents than any other Justice; Clarence Thomas excels as a “man for all seasons”, champions, as a man for all peoples; defying the preordained slot, he flew in the face of expected codes of conduct, scoring as a neophyte of ingenuity, a black …

Beautiful, Blake Lively actually pulls off the implausible; not to be confused or compared with “Lisbeth Salander” or “Evelyn Salt” she is credible as a vengeful assassin seeking justice for those doomed in an airplane bombing, including her entire family; “revenge served cold” with scalding temerity. Director Reed Morano’s (trained cinematographer), pulverizing concentration on “Stephanie Patrick’s” (Lively) emotional and physical …

Viet Nam, and a war (1955-1975) that artistically fractured the modern era, America, no longer the universal rescuer, harbinger of safety, annihilator of the nefarious, champion of the persecuted, oppressed, destroyer of autocratic, despotic regimes; art, lost its power to change mankind by its beauty, grace, the Nabis were dead, slaughtered by misplaced jingoism.  “The Last Full Measure”, directed and …

“Gentleness” is absent in director Guy Ritchie’s slick, schtick caper with veteran actors having the time of their lives: Matthew McConaughey, “Mickey Pearson” an American drug kingpin in London, a role he can perform on auto pilot, wants to sell his underground greenhouse to the highest bidder, erecting a conflict between “Dry Eye” (Henry Golding) and “Matthew” (Jeremy Strong); Michelle …

Based on the novel by music critic Norman Lebrecht, directed by Francois Girard “The Song of Names” lacks the heft of substantiation needed for distinction, prominence in the filmic realm; three sets of actors imbue protagonists “Dovidl” (Polish violin prodigy) and “Martin” (son of an impresario), with somber, soulful dignity; an unlikely bonding precipitated by WWII; Luke Doyle, (Dovidl, 9-13) …

I have an innate prejudice when it comes to dystopian, apocalyptic films; acknowledging their technological wizardry, the aftermath leaves me in a queasy, dissatisfied, jetlagged fug: “The Road”, “Total Recall”, “Mad Max”, “Oblivion”, “Children of Men” and in particular “The Lobster”, were so systemically oppressive, depressive; no matter the ills of the twenty-first century, it is a “far better world” than these futurist prognoses; …

“Dr. Dolittle” and his shenanigans have never appealed to me; this is my first exposure to the franchise of a character capable of communicating with animals, a clever premise that goes horribly awry; directed by Stephen Gagan, starring Robert Downey Jr. (why I invested the time); the film is sluggish, poorly edited, and sinfully boring; Downey’s undefined accent varies throughout …

Peneflix is taking a hiatus from a competitive contest this year; not reneging on listing my “best” picks; ignoring the overlooked, concentrating on the testosterone-driven, “hueless” candidates; no “will/should”, just my feverish, instinctive selections:   BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Brad Pitt, “ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD”  *PENEFLIX PICK* Tom Hanks, A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD Anthony Hopkins, THE TWO POPES Al …