Netflix and Beyond

Emma Thompson is astronomic as “Late Night” host “Katherine Newberry”; twenty-seven years, almost as many awards, surviving in the bemouth, chauvinistic realm of male predominance; she is caustically brilliant, shreds with a sabre tongue and wit any unwanted, even if warranted, criticism; she is losing her edge, threatened with replacement, forced to hire a female writer. “Molly Patel” (Mindy Kaling, …

Roy Halston Frowich (1932-1990) dominated the Olympian fashion world in the 1970’s and early 80’s, until he didn’t; his belief in his artistry, lacked perspective, convinced of his infallibility, living and spending without impunity. Frederic Tcheng’s (“Valentino: The Last Emperor”, “Dior and I”) gauzy, glitzy documentary paints a portrait of a megalomaniac whose willowy, waif-like physique matched his models, “Halstonettes”; …

Salman Khan, long-reigning Bollywood Beauty Boy, at fifty-three, stars as “Bharat”  (referencing a legendary King), an eight-year-old boy, separated from his father and sister in 1947 during India and Pakistan’s partition; multitudes were traumatized, tortured, bifurcated by this unholy division; what could, should have been a compelling tale, is nothing more than a monumental, pneumatic, testament to Khan’s ego; covering …

Jewish legend proposes that every generation has thirty-six righteous individuals, unaware of each other and blind to their specialness, they live life beyond the norm; impossible to define their attributes, they are called Lamed Vovnicks; 2018’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” splayed across the screen, Fred Rogers eligibility, membership in this category, now director Ron Howard, twelve years after his …

Taron Egerton gives an orbital performance as “Rocketman”, Elton John/Reginald Kenneth Dwight; throughout the film, bloated with schtick, gaudy displays of wealth, “sex, drugs, rock and roll” Egerton brilliantly, presciently maintains the aura of a wounded, pristinely fragile, insecure, unloved, little boy. Commencing  when John voluntarily enters a rehabilitation facility, and through a series of insightful flashbacks we visit and …

To be eighteen and graduating from high school in 2019; “The Year of the Pig” an astrological sign of generosity, diligence and tenacity; this astute graduating class has it all, especially “Amy” (Kaitlyn Dever) and “Molly” (Beanie Feldstein); brilliant students (Molly is Valedictorian, off to Yale College; Amy, to Botswana, enabling challenged women); both girls have shunned their fellow classmates, …

Director Raj Kumar Gupta’s history lesson lionizes unheralded, contemporary intelligence officers who captured Yasin Bhatkal (Founder of India’s Mujahideen, terrorist organization) in Pakistan on August 13, 2013. The feat claims remarkability because five men, led by Prabhat Kapoor (Arjun Kapoor, no relation) entered Pakistan, weaponless not witless, tracked, cornered, captured the culprit and escaped without harm; the intensity is not …

An enigmatic, voyeuristic, painfully plodding slice of intimacy, addiction in 1980’s London; “Julia”, (Honor Swinton Byrne) twenty-four, an entitled film student, succumbs to the slithering charms of “Anthony” (Tom Burke) whose garbled, pseudo-intellectualism, fed by his cocaine dependency, woos with vapid, arrogant, sickening poppycock;  Julia’s naivety refuses to recognize his villainy, depravity, as he plummets wantonly into moral turpitude; she …

It wasn’t a petit mal seizure that propelled me to venture into this “war zone” of peppered parabellum (semi automatic machine gun) it was the realization on Monday morning that, of the countless films I visit, rarely have I reviewed or seen more than three of the top ten weekend draws; this week, nada; agonizing over the finality of Game …

For as long as I can remember William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has monopolized my literary sphere as the foremost “bard” ever birthed; no other writer, poet has come within a breath of his genius, which exponentially blossoms with time’s passage; beyond wisdom, his scope of the human condition, knows no boundaries, parameters; no one, king or peasant, escaped his effulgent, caustic, …