Netflix and Beyond

“Bridget Jones” is a brand with Renee Zellweger as its face. For fifteen years we’ve listened and watched as she unsuccessfully navigates her loves, life and decision-making process. We’ve all known the “Bridget’s” of the world: they arrive at the airport without their tickets; show up a day late for lunch, or forget altogether; never remember a birthday, but we …

Director Mira Nair is an intrepid, fearless force in the film world; she vanquishes taboos, champions the unrecognized, embraces and educates the masses. “Monsoon Wedding” (2002) the most acclaimed of her films but secondary to 1998’s “Salaam Bombay” a heart- wrenching tale of parentless children living on the streets of India; this brilliant film led to the creation of the …

Wild, wacky and wonderfully flawed, director Jocelyn Moorhouse’s adaptation of Rosalie Han’s novel is vastly entertaining, dramatically performed by actors Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving and Liam Hemsworth; reminiscent of Federico Fellini flicks, Irving Penn photographs, infused with meaningless and meaningful metaphors “The Dressmaker” stunningly highlights the prescient acting skills of Kate Winslet and especially Judy Davis (a neglected, …

More often than not, first run movies On Demand are at best anemic or at worst, in need of life support. But “Dancer” is a glorious exception.  A spell-binding documentary about the Royal Ballet’s “Bad Boy”, Ukrainian Sergei Polunin; a magnificent prodigy whose promise was apparent at birth (November 20th, 1989); his muscular liquidity so stellar, amazingly atypical, was recorded …

There have been “whistleblowers” throughout history but the twentieth and twenty-first century have brought many to the fore, lionized or demonized, they have changed the course of history: Mark Felt (aka “Deep Throat”) Daniel Ellsberg, Karen Silkwood, Linda Tripp, and Edward Snowden, the man who in 2013 unleashed secret security documents relating to NSA’s policing policies (Big Brother antics) throughout …

Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger’s interview by Charlie Rose aired on September 9th, the day the film “Sully”, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring the inimitable Tom Hanks, as the man who miraculously landed on the Hudson River January 15th, 2009, saving all 155 passengers, opened in theatres nationwide; Captain Sullenberger’s interview illuminated a remarkable man, a humble man, one whose …

1918. Tom Sherbourne, emotionally crippled after four years in The Great War becomes a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, Australia. He meets and marries Isabel Graysmark. After two miscarriages they rescue a baby who prophetically lands on their isolated beach. This epic film based on the book by M.L. Stedman, directed by Derek Cianfrance, richly studies the decisions made because …

Directed by Fede Alvarez “Don”t Breathe” is a thriller, not a “horror” movie; there are no “Freddy’s”, Michael’s”, headless horsemen resurfacing after multiple stab and gunshot wounds, to stalk again; the protagonists are viable and the scenario is realistic and terrifying. Set in a decaying section of Detroit, three malcontents, yearning for a better life in California, have resorted to …

Directed and written by Jonathan Jakubowicz “Hands of Stone” is not destined to reign in the halls of the best boxing films of all time (“Raging Bull”, “Cinderella Man” “The Fighter”, “Requiem for a Heavyweight” “The Hurricane”, “Rocky” mania) but it is vastly entertaining, well-acted and infused with terrific fight scenes. Edgar Ramirez is galvanizing as the scrappy, brilliant boxer …

A lugubrious film of bleakness and ennui, based on the 2002 autobiographical novel by renown Israeli writer Amos Oz (aka Klausner, 1939). Natalie Portman directs, adapts and stars as Oz’s clinically depressed mother Fania (1913-1951), and her march towards extinction. The location is Jerusalem, 1947. Told through the wizened eyes of an elderly Oz (understand why it took him a …