Netflix and Beyond

Director Meghna Gulzar and actor/producer Deepika Padukone bring to the screen the insidiously wicked, immoral, degenerate acid attacks exponentially occurring throughout contemporary India; perpetrated by those ignored, rejected, shunned by women for a myriad of reasons; these crimes are minimally prosecuted, and the penal system, and its forgiving incarceration is a shameful blot on India’s code of conduct/justice. Exquisitely beautiful …

Nelson Mandela states that “the brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”; Bryan Stevenson (impeccably depicted by Michael B. Jordan) a Harvard-educated lawyer is the paradigm of courageous resolve, overturning insurmountable odds, supplying justice, a voice, for death row inmates: disenfranchised, marginalized, poorly defended, fraudulently incriminated and cast off by a …

Listening to Ricky Gervais, who for the most part behaved himself, and the myriad of acceptances from winners and honorees, one comment resonated long after the glamorous conclusion; Patricia Arquette (winner of Supporting Actress in a miniseries) stated that this night will not be remembered; the profundity of these few words struck a realistic, valid cord: Australia, burning; women empowerment, …

During this ponderous hiatus, waiting for the winners of the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, I periodically step out of my comfort zone, imbibing in genres I know little about and have minimal interest in; martial arts falls into this category; even though a neophyte, I found “Ip Man 4: The Finale” dimensionless, pejorative, sophomorically written but plausibly entertaining in …

The narrowing of boundaries between theatre and home viewing is a positive controversy; nothing beats the darkened, enclosed enchantment of the theatre, but television affords exposure and participation by those whose time, lives might be stymied by uncontrolled situations; choice breeds inclusiveness; entertainment touching vast numbers in universal spheres. Here are, not just films, but a streaming series, available to …

Since 1977, “filmites” have been invested in a “galaxy, far, far away” and have experienced a franchise that has grown exponentially through the decades; director J.J. Abrams complication of past scenarios is “out of this world” to view, tweaked historical references infused with present digitalization enhancement, lend freshness to an inflated, fantastical tale; protagonists and antagonists have died, their progeny …

Salman Khan wrote and stars for the third time as “Detective Chulbul Robinhood Pandy”; an excessive three hour egregious homage to himself; self aggrandizement rarely, if ever, seen on the screen; Khan’s a clone of Narcissus, a mythological figure who fell in love with himself; narcissism at its zenith; inflated physique and ego strutting excessive silliness, stale dance sequences, and …

Valium inducing, emotionally pulverizing, “Uncut Gems” sears to the soul one man’s addiction to living on the edge, a gambler, constantly questing the ultimate high, pushing to lethal limits his megalomania; Adam Sandler, like Sacha Baron Cohen in “The Spy”, switches oeuvres, and stuns as “Howard Ratner”, a jeweler, in possession of a stone of such magnitude, he is willing …

Writer/director Sam Mendes’s visual, fictionalized account  of a WW1 incident told to him by his grandfather, Alfred Mendes; “1917” differs from traditional “war” films in its intimacy; two British corporals sent on a death-defying mission, through still volatile, vacated enemy lines, to cauterize an attack by an ally battalion, an attack, orchestrated by the Germans, risking the lives of 1,600 …

This spirited fourth major film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s (1832-1888) seminal “Little Women” (1868) is a refreshing, feisty, revamping of a tale that has everlasting appeal; its timelessness touching imaginations, one generation after another; director Greta Gerwig’s contemporary interpretation resonates with the pungency of twenty-first-century resolve adorned in the accoutrements of the nineteenth century; Concord, Massachusetts; severity of the …