Netflix and Beyond

Wondrous words, haywire hilarity, auspicious acting imbue writer/director Paul Weitz’s “Grandma” with a treasure trove of entertainment. Lily Tomlin as “Elle”, a bitingly brilliant poet; a woman whose partner of thirty-eight- years “Violet” has been dead for over a year; we meet Elle as she is caustically casting out her latest paramour, “Olivia” (Judy Greer); any hope of revival shrivels …

Almost thirty years ago this powerfully pungent, redolent, avant garde musical genre slammed our audio landscape; I found it salacious, inciting, and pejorative; “rap” predicted to fizzle and fade, surprisingly has entrenched and defined a culture so many shunned.  “Straight Outta Compton” is a terrific biopic of young, gutsy, talented boys, from Compton, Ca. where youth is ephemeral, strangled by …

1976, San Francisco; home of the burgeoning pop and drug culture, Haight-Ashbury, women’s liberation; a city where needs and whims are exacerbated, gratuitously exploited; a city that caters to the disenfranchised, disillusioned, draft dodgers; the dark underbelly of an otherwise, elitist population. Written and directed by Marielle Heller (based on the book by Phoebe Gloeckner) “The Diary of a Teenage …

Greta Gerwig co-wrote with Noah Baumbach (director) and stars in this zany “Holly Golightly”, flippantly glib, inherently intelligent tale of thirty-year-old “Brook”, mistress of countless capabilities but a master of none; Gerwig is sensational in the role; Brook is a flame, dynamic, compelling, an addictive force that cements the devotion of her potential “stepsister” “Tracy”, (Lola Kirke, devastatingly divine),  college …

Reviews commencing August 22nd!   Peneflix

Based on the book by Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”) and starring celestially beautiful Charlize Theron as the only witness to her family’s massacre twenty-eight years ago. “Libby Day” (Theron) has lived her life bilking the notoriety, undeservedly visited upon her;  brother “Ben” has been incarcerated all these years because of her testimony. Libby, jobless, penniless, reluctantly accepts the financial offer …

“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones”. William Shakespeare’s grasp of the human condition was stunning; Joel Edgerton’s  brilliantly conceived, directed, performed, “The Gift”, is a psychological masterpiece with Shakespearean  overtones. A mid-summer’s thrilling  “gift” to moviegoers. Jason Bateman cements his stardom as “Simon”, a likeable, glib,  upwardly mobile, Security Systems …

Infallible Meryl Streep as “Ricki Randazzo”, a pathetic anachronism, a “flash back” to the 80’s, is cringingly embarrassing as a waning rock- and- roll maven in her 60’s; a hairstyle and wardrobe reminiscent of a biker babe, the American flag tattooed on her back; she returns penniless to Indianapolis from a remote California town, when her daughter “Julie” (Mamie Gummer, …

Compelling, hypnotic simulated incarceration project initiated by Professor Philip Zimbardo in 1971 at Stanford University. Billy Crudup (mesmerizing as Zimbardo)  and the actual Professor were guests on “Charley Rose” recently; the interview piqued my interest, especially the manipulative, addictive powers of role-playing. Zimbardo, a philosophy professor, creates a scenario to test the psychology, mentality of prisoners and guards; after a …

Remarkably Tom Cruise’s celebrity does not transcend the plot of this tightly -wrought thriller; the action is intense,  feasible and expertly executed.  Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie eliminates the glibness, tongue-in-cheek parodies pervasive in contemporary “save mankind” films. Cruise’s portrayal of hero “Ethan Hunt” is sensationally seasoned; with equanimity he hangs from planes, stoically survives excruciating beatings; Houdini-like escapes, actualized with slippery …