Netflix and Beyond

Never having seen the video game (nor will, after wallowing in bewilderment for two hours) I was intrigued because historically The Knight Templers and The Assassins were organizations that were informed and grew exponentially around the Crusades (1095-1291); a war for the Holy Land fought by Christians and Muslims; The Knight Templers led by French nobleman Hughes de Payens, consisted …

Director Damien Chazelle’s contemporary musical, with an archival reference to the past, proves on its second viewing, more deliciously palatable than the first; “Mia” and “Sebastian” are pungently poignant, naïve, fanciful starry-eyed lovers; their youthful, optimistic dreams may be realized; they have yet to be stunted by life’s wrenches; they dance, sing, captivating one’s sensitivities. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone …

Jessica Chastain’s commanding and compelling performance as a cutthroat, ruthless, “take no prisoners” lobbyist is astoundingly admirable; with “Zorro’s” deftness, she lunges, parries with alarming precision, eliminating harbingers of irrelevancy with nary a scratch;  “Miss Sloane’s” mantra is to win at any cost, always being a move ahead, anticipating her adversary’s strategy, never revealing her trump card; a master, genius …

Natalie Portman is eerily exhilarating as former first lady Jackie Kennedy (1929-1994) in the aftermath of the horrific, surreal days after President John F. Kennedy’s (1917) assassination in 1963; director Pablo Larrain’s intense, compelling biopic will profoundly resonate with those who remember this nadir in American history and prove immensely educational for those who did not experience first hand, the …

Flirting with sensationalism, reminiscent of archival WWII movies (“Casablanca”, “From Here to Eternity”), a blend of politics, mystery and romance, “Allied” (Directed by Robert Zemeckis) is, in the words of A.O. Scott “elegant escapism”; from its luminous commencement, with the parachuting of Royal Air Force intelligence officer “Max”, (Brad Pitt) on the undulating dunes of Nazi-occupied French Morocco, 1942; part …

Director Aleksey Mizgirev’s “The Duelist” is a mesmerizing tale revolving around the art of “duelism” a knee-jerk, punitive resolution to a legitimate or illegitimate offence; ironically, a “sport” that required noble roots; poverty-stricken sods were not allowed the expediency of dispatching, in moments, one’s foe. You may hire a titled substitute if you are not inclined to precipitously savor the …

If you can stomach Alia Bhatt’s inordinate “cuteness”, pungent pouting, camera mimicry for the first third of the film, you’ll enjoy this flavorful Bollywood flick. “Kaira” (Bhatt) is a talented, but unrecognized neophyte, cinematographer. Commercial work and cameo scenes pay the rent but she is in a lacuna professionally and personally; lacking the aptitude for commitment, intentionally sabotaging her attachments …

If only there were rules to keep this disappointing drivel from being distributed. From its inception to its finished embarrassment “Rules Don’t Apply” is Warren Beatty’s pejorative perspective on Howard Hughes’s diminished decline into his shameful dotage; harrowingly horrible, even if somewhat viable. Aldren Ehrenreich as “Frank Forbes”, is young enough to erase this from his filmography; Frank is part …

Casey Affleck is grippingly profound as “Lee Chandler” a man whose spirit is fractured beyond redemption, no emotional, psychological surgery can mend him, damaged irrevocably, feeling alive when he instigates fights, beaten bloody, a temporal penance worthy of his egregiousness;  a handyman, fixing the pipes, toilets, electricity of meaningless urban occupants, living in a squalid, solitary room, is named the …

2016. Although it is rare, interracial marriage is prevalent and legal, since the Supreme Court in 1967 overturned anti-miscegenation laws; the defining case was Loving vs Virginia. The populace regularly sees splayed across a myriad of media vehicles the actualization of this decision: Kardashian/West, DeNiro/Hightower, Lucas/Hobson, Turner/Bach. Two simple people, Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving married in Washington D.C. in …