Netflix and Beyond

An iconic film, a masterpiece by director Steven Spielberg, a haunting musical score by John Williams and violinist Itzhak Perlman, and daunting performances by Liam Nesson (Oskar Schindler), Ben Kingsley (Itzhak Stern), and Ralph Fiennes (egregiously evil Amon Goeth); why revisit a testament to the incomprehensible shattering of every commandment adhered to, taught by the major faiths, why witness, once …

For those living in unfriendly weather environments, to those with physical challenges and the multitudes who lovingly lounge, cling on long, lazy weekends to their couches, here are some films to fill the hours: “The Kindergarten Teacher” Netflix. Maggie Gyllenhaal enthralls in a remake of 2014’s Israeli film of the same title. A frustrated, mediocre poet, discovers a poetic prodigy …

Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz are perfectly paired as cousins, Abigail Hill and Lady Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, well-spoken, conniving rivals as Queen Anne’s confidants and intimates; Olivia Colman sears as the 18th century monarch, debating England’s most legitimate solution, in its relationship with France, war or peace. Controversial director Yorgos Lanthimos (“Dogtooth”, “Lobster”, “The Killing of Sacred Deer”) in …

Opera will forever remain an enigma to me; at nineteen, in Rome, Italy, Puccini’s (1858-1924) “La Boheme” reaped heavenly havoc on my spirit and the genre’s deliciously toxic tentacles have clasped me ever since; this is an art that generates the deepest form of passion, culling from one’s depth emotions reserved solely for loved ones; mysteriously, indiscriminately it claims the …

Brothers Ethan and Joel Coen once again cull from their scholarly Western aesthetic, (“No Country for Old Men”, “True Grit”) gifting movie lovers another blend of imaginative, macabre brutality with skilled dialogue, hilarity and blazingly terrific performances; six vignettes, tales of post Civil War lawlessness, commencing with songster “Buster Scruggs” Tim Blake bedazzles as an innovative, erudite slayer of the …

“Loving Vincent” last year’s sensationally thrilling, animated rendition of Vincent van Gogh’s (1853-1890) final days, tipped the scales in technological wizardry; artist/director Julian Schnabel (“Basquiat”, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, “Before Night Falls”) in “At Eternity’s Gate” brilliantly, presciently focuses on the effects of religious fervor on Van Gogh’s artistic prodigiousness; son of a Lutheran pastor Vincent was a …

Director Jason Reitman and actor Hugh Jackman ambitiously recreate the meteoric rise and precipitous fall of Senator Gary Hart, the “Front Runner” for the Democratic nomination for President; it is 1987 and Harts’ downfall led to the massive disparity, that is is egregiously exacerbated in today’s world, between the press and politicians (CNN’s reporter Jim Acosta’s White House press pass …

A study in disparate personalities, but karmically meant to bond; Viggo Mortenson and Mahershala Ali shine in their roles as Tony Vallelonga (1930-2013) and Don Shirley (1937-2013) virtuoso piano player, an inimitable road trip, where Italian driver, “Tony Lip”, chauffeurs African-American Shirley to his engagements through the South; it is 1962 and “The Green Book” lists the establishments where people …

English director/artist/screenwriter Steve McQueen first registered on my artistic radar screen in 1996 when the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago featured his short film “Five Easy Pieces”; his meteoric rise has been a quintessential example of the “cream rising to the top”; Museums have lionized him: The Art Institute of Chicago featured a swimmingly sensational exhibit in 2012; winner …

Marie Colvin’s (1956-2012) remarkable life as a foreign correspondent is depicted with stunning refinement by Rosamund Pike. A Yale graduate, Marie worked for the London Sunday Times from 1985 until her death in 2012. “A Private War” devoid of romanticism, depicts a woman of vast intelligence, fearlessly intrepid, treading in theatres of war, where only a few dared to stride. …