Netflix and Beyond

“Youth”. Director Paolo Sorrentino’s  (“The Great Beauty”, 2014, Academy Award for Best Foreign Film) stunning, poignant film is enhanced by the sterling talents of Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Paul Dano. Tackling life’s waning issues on a myriad of levels. A dazzling Swiss landscape and sublime music adds insouciant charm and “beauty” to “Youth”. “Macbeth”. A mesmerizing portrayal of the tortured, …

The concept of “selling short”, betting that a stock, bond, etc. will head south, lose its value seems un-American, pessimistic; I do not purchase “trip insurance” for the same reason; prefer a “bloom” not “doom” mentality. But “The Big Short” directed by Adam McKay, based on the best-seller “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” by Michael Lewis tackles the …

“Girls Lost” (Sweden) was a jewel in the crown of the 51st Chicago International Film Festival; focusing on three pubescent girls in yxtreme emotional havoc, warring with their obvious facades and internal identities; unfathomable, unimaginable pain for those unfortunate to be imprisoned in a limbo of sexual ambiguity. Eddie Redmayne soars in the role of transgender “Lily Elbe” (1882-1931)/ landscape …

Sarah Silverman’s sterling performance cannot rescue this sophomorically written, unquestionably pointless film. “Laney Brooks” (Silverman) living a lovely life with a worshipful  husband “Bruce” (blandly depicted by Josh Charles) and two spectacular children; celestially- addicted, anorexic, unfaithful; her life is one destructive, masochistic moment after another. Questioning whether something atrocious happened in her primary years, either before or after her …

Before the butchery in San Bernardino, California, Chicago starred in this week’s headlines; the slaughter, thirteen months ago, of an inner city teenager, by a Chicago law officer. Chicago has been at the epicenter of violent slayings of  young and innocent children; staggering statistics keep expanding because of gangs, illegal guns, and an amazing cavalier attitude towards life’s sacredness. Spike …

Tom Hardy is the Sir Lawrence Olivier of the twenty-first century; he is a masterful chameleon, from super hero (“Mad Max: Fury Road”), villain (“The Dark Knight Rises”) to the common man (“Locke”) he stuns with his inimitable ability to methodically transform himself into a myriad of diverse characters. His remarkable reserves expand exponentially as he sinks his flawless aptitudes …

Satisfaction is 100% requited when a movie, not only delivers, but blasts predicted ennui, gifting viewers exactly what is needed from a two -hour respite;  escaping protestors, gruesome headlines, ubiquitous shoppers. “Rocky Balboa” (Sylvester Stallone’s iconic franchise) after forty years, comfortable with his fame, history and age, is now training “Adonis Creed”, the illegitimate son of “Apollo Creed”; Michael B. …

Daniel Craig, in his fourth attempt, has sensationally nailed the role of “James Bond”; not the lothario like Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan or even David Niven; directed by Sam Mendes, Craig’s Bond is toughness packaged in a GQ facade, nary a wrinkle appears in his Armani suit after explosives, disintegrating buildings, helicopter headaches test the mettle of the …

If you saw and remember the 2009 Academy Award winning Argentine “The Secret in Their Eyes” you should take a pass on this placid remake; Director Juan Jose Campanella’s taut, stunning thriller still ranks as one of the best psychological studies of vigilante justice ever created. Director Billy Ray’s rendition lacks a spirited scenario, intriguing dialogue and perceptive casting. The …

Superbly written, directed, filmed and performed “Spotlight” focuses on the Pulitzer Prize winning team of the Boston Globe, who in early 2002, splayed across the front page the salacious, egregious history of pedophilia practiced among the Catholic priests in the Boston Archdiocese; a clandestine epidemic of mythic proportions. The “Spotlight” team, all Catholics (Boston, a predominately Catholic city) rose above …