Netflix and Beyond

For as many times as I have seen “Fiddler of the Roof”, this documentary written and directed by Max Lewkowicz, added clarity, and depth that was truly miraculous; based on tales by Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916), protagonists Tevye and his daughters resonate with a contemporariness that vibrates with its universality. Since 1964, with its Broadway debut, “Fiddler” has exponentially enchanted audiences, …

The Official Secrets Act: 1989, Act of Parliament, UK, removing the public interest defense, prohibiting disclosure of official documents, considered sensitive by the government; in 2003 Katharine Gun (imposing performance by Keira Knightley) working as a translator for GCHQ (NSA), after huge trepidation leaks a memo implying that the George W. Bush Administration (Tony Blair, complicit) was manufacturing egregious inadequacies; …

Director Viktor Kossakovsky’s bludgeoning, bombastic documentary on man’s insignificance, is eighty-nine minutes of terrifying, unpredicted, uncontrolled, volcanic implosions; massive tons of icebergs, cascading regally into nothingness; from Russia’s Lake Baikal, where vehicles are swallowed greedily by thinly, lethally veiled lakes and rivers, to Venezuela’s Angel Falls and the bewitching hurricane “Irma” redesigning Miami’s thoroughfares; compelling, haunting cacophony of thunderous, belching …

Pulverizing, thrilling from its commencement in war ravaged Afghanistan; Marshall Bennett (phenomenal, Michael Roark) a key in the U.S. Army Ranger Motorcycle Unit, injured in the line of duty, saving his partner; returning, disabled to his wife “Sophie” (lovely, feisty, Allison Paige) and father “Cal” (terrific Trace Adkins) and young son; dealing with his damaged foot, depleted financial status, realizing …

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Out of desperation I visited this “horror” film solely to analyze Australian Samara Weaving’s performance as “Grace”, a nascent bride on her wedding day, forced to play a game of initiation into one of the weirdest, wealthiest filmic family’s ever invented; writers Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy along with directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler …

What makes both of these films highly watchable is that they are based on actual events and more importantly, the iconic Bollywood stars who supported them with their “starship”. Unlike Hollywood, Bollywood actors have a huge say in the production, plot evolution and outcome of the storyline.  Hunky, handsome John Abraham, tackles the role of ACP Sanjay Kumar in the …

Predictability, sensationalism, oftentimes, can be comforting; knowing the “hero” will be around to fend off future threats to society; evil felled,  appropriate “bad guys” slain, all in the name of righteousness and a day’s work. “Mike Banning” (ubiquitous Gerard Butler) perpetual savior, initially lacking the spryness of past heroics, eventually saves the nation(hardly a spoiler) with the aid of his …

If a foreign film deeply resonates, oftentimes the American version, is acutely disappointing;  two recent examples, “The Upside” is an anemic adaptation of France’s,  “The Intouchables”, an even sorrier scenario is “Florence Foster Jenkins” contrasted with, again, France’s “Marguerite”; another pale imitation was “Gloria Bell”, Hollywood’s rendition of Chile’s 2014 “Gloria”; 2006’s Danish film, “After the Wedding” ranks as a …

A yummy, creamy, crunchy slice of filmic fun; directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz in “The Peanut Butter Falcon” serve a chunk of ingenuity, packaged in the form  of Zack Gottsagen as “Zak”, a “Down Syndrome character” who creatively escapes his smothering institution to fulfill his wrestling career; Shia LaBeouf is startling, in his best role in years, as a …

“Bernadette Fox” (ambitionally strained, Cate Blanchette) is mean, misanthropic, acerbic and if that isn’t enough, psychologically unbalanced; we intensely dislike her by the time we learn she won a MacArthur Genius Grant for architecture, over twenty years prior to the commencement of this flat, lifeless scenario; married to a savvy techie, “Elgie Branch” (clueless, lost depiction by Billy Crudup) and …