Netflix and Beyond

Swedish director, Ruben Ostlund’s 2014 “Force Majeure”, was a darling of worldwide Film Festivals; I did not care for it: excessive teeth-brushing, massive character manipulation, superfluous, annoying minor roles; that being stated, is was colossally superior to “Downhill”, directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash’s homogenized version; actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell cannot rescue it from well-deserved anonymity. Redundancy, repetitiveness …

Vindication has never felt so rewarding; for years I have suffered defeat, going with my gut, shunning the odds, my head and heart in sync; faring better than I imagined, I recognized the brilliant uniqueness of “Parasite” with my first encounter, on a myriad of levels, the film soars beyond assumptions: Biblical,  Shakespearian, mythological, Darwinian; Goethe stated “Before you…there are …

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; …