Netflix and Beyond

There are performances, once seen, that take up permanent residency in one’s archival memory bank. Focusing on women actors: Luise Rainer (“The Great Ziegfeld”), Vivian Leigh (“Gone With the Wind”), Bette Davis (“All About Eve”), Meryl Streep (“Sophie’s Choice”), Kareena Kapoor (“Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon”), Maggie Smith (“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”), Helen Mirren (“The Last Station”);  umpteen …

Intentionally ambiguous, Daphne du Maurier’s (1907-1989) novel, leaves readers musing, perplexed about the duplicitous widow, “Rachel”; portrayed marvelously by Olivia de Havilland in the 1952 film and equally exquisite, Rachel Weisz, in this year’s version. The sixty-five-year hiatus, with hindsight, enhances Rachel’s dilemma; the scenario evolves in the mid-1800’s on the Cornish coast of England; “Philip Ashley” (dashingly handsome Sam …

Christopher Plummer at 87, is at the pinnacle of his career; his performance as deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II is smashing; closeted in a mansion in the Netherlands, he longs to be reinstated in Hitler’s warped government; it is 1940 and Germany has pirated Holland. Plummer’s superior depiction of a man stripped of his birthright, wasting his days feeding swans, giving …

Directed by Gabriella Cowperthwaite (“Blackfish”) the unusual scenario focuses on Marine Corporal Megan Leavey and her K-9 bomb detecting canine, Sergeant Rex; their relationship fills a haunting void echoing in both.  Megan, at the nadir of her life, is aimless, depressed  (her best friend is dead), she enlists solely to avoid the bleakness, nothingness looming in her future. Kate Mara’s …

“Wonder Woman”, officially banned in Lebanon, the lead is played by Israeli actor, Gal Gadot. Lebanon, a country whose religious groups are comprised of 54% Muslim, 40% Christian: Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox; Druze and approximately 200 Jews. It’s banning is the prime reason I saw the film; a plethora of surprises: physical, psychological and intellectual piqued, prodded and sealed my …

My paygrade does not include the insipid escapism served in today’s theatres; I have vowed to shun any film with the word “Alien”, “Guardian”, “Pirates”,  and at the risk of anaphylactic shock “Captain Underpants”; Netflix offers a lifeline to those seeking entertainment that enlightens, educates; serving a myriad of genres, demographically designed to quench the cravings of all film buffs. …

If you had never heard of the brilliant statesman Winston Churchill (1874-1965) you’d be hard pressed to reason why this lugubrious film was ever conceived or created; director Jonathan Teplitzky’s biopic is a dull, plodding scenario focusing on the darkest hours of Britain’s Prime Minister, at the conclusion of WWII  (aka D-Day); Brian Cox depicts Churchill as a bilious, cigar …

India’s rich cricket history has been depicted in a myriad of films, both fictional and factual: “Lagaan” (2001), “Iqbal” (2005), “Chak De India” (2007), “M.S. Dhoni” (2016) are a few that have resonated with me.  Admittedly, as a Westerner, the intricacies of the sport, will forever elude my comprehension, but the astounding prowess of the players, the electrifying energy and …

A titillating, scintillating scenario reminiscent of 2007’s “Sleuth” starring Michael Caine and Jude Law. Writers Marc Frydman and Justin Stanley partnering with director Brian Goodman and starring Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Rhys Myers serve a concoction of nerve twisting thrills; impenetrable nuances, hypnotic narrative sabotage one’s attention for its entirety. “Paul” (Banderas) an alcoholic, washed-up writer, lives outside a mountainous …

Wildly witty, charmingly creative, “Michal” (sensational Noa Kooler) is thirty-two, an Orthodox Jew, dumped by her fiancé, she decides to go ahead with the wedding despite being “groomless”; she feels that God will prevail and in thirty days, on the eighth day of Hanukkah she will wed. What transgress is captivatingly unpredictable; Michal, a proprietor of a mobile zoo, is …