Netflix and Beyond

At times compelling, oftentimes confusing, generally entertaining if you put history aside and just go for theatricality, drama and scintillating intrigue. With an ending of outrageous possibilities. Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz tests his proficiency with a foreign scenario; the terminal days of Tudor King Henry VIII (1491-1547) and his sixth and final wife Katherine Parr (1512-1548). Acting transcends a vague …

After close to a two-month hiatus from imbibing in the transformative realm of film I sat forlornly with one other individual watching a documentary of such magnitude and wonder that I wanted to scream in frustration at the lack of attendance; here is an atrocious, catastrophic, historical truth of the past that screechingly resonates today: antisemitism is vibrantly alive, pervasive, …

Peneflix will be on a six-week hiatus. Look forward to posting again on our return!

Director Guy Ritchie has been on a media roll: “The Gentlemen”, Netflix and his latest bombastic extravaganza “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” both stylistically captivating; an exercise in camp, for the sole and unmitigated purpose of entertainment; success is served in spades in duo endeavors. Loosely based on Operation Postmaster, Winston Churchill’s desperate design to cripple the Nazi war efforts, …

Actor Matthew Modine is stratospherically stunning as a social worker manufacturing a world of possibilities, a world where the disenfranchised, downtrodden, overlooked can soar, bad boys whose behavior has cornered them in an irredeemable state, with little hope of resurrection. Coach Greg Townsend (Modine) doffs platitudinous presumptions and trains four juveniles to quash the 760 miles between Denver and the …

Dev Patel has accomplished the pristine blending of east and west films aka Bollywood and Hollywood, remarkable on a myriad of levels. The Bollywood genre has fast-tracked in mimicry, imitation of Hollywood’s 6 pack ab heroes, following the trope of: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise vs. Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan. Patel with keen ingenuity follows the …

Over the weekend I binged watched a trio of Ripley movies  (skipping “Ripley’s Game” and “Ripley Under the Ground”) that novelist Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) wrote and lionized “Tom Ripley” a pernicious psychotic with a pleasant façade and amoral core. Commencing with Netflix’s “Ripley” starring Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”), an eight- episode, compelling study of a man who looks …

Liam Neeson shines like a well-polished antique, honed and seasoned, every wrinkle, a badge of glorification; with over a hundred films his 6’4 frame, and craggy countenance still kindle alarm in whomever he stalks; his presence, burnished style galvanized to impeccability in director Robert Lorenz’s “The Land of Saints and Sinners” as retired assassin “Finbar Murphy”, residing in a quiet …

Of all the times I have visited these star-crossed lovers, this Metropolitan Opera version distances every performance I have ever seen; maybe a lifetime must disappear before perfection is granted, achieved. Sitting in the theatre, knowing the outcome, I found myself fervently praying that timing would fortuitously bless this couple, so worthy of togetherness, charmed liveliness, granted the grace to …

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a): “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the world.” Director James Hawes introduces audiences to Sir Nicholas Winton (1909-2015), played with inimitable force by Anthony Hopkins, a man who saved 699 children from the incendiary clutches of the Holocaust. Johnny Flynn with iconic dignity depicts “Nicky” as a young stockbroker who …