Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX

This portrait of teen bullying should be required viewing from primary school through the college level (plus their parents/guardians); brutally, achingly realistic, writer/director Amy S. Weber’s pseudo documentary is a masterpiece of blindness: parents unaware of a child’s devastation; children hiding their psychological trauma; teachers shunning their responsibilities, accepting the norm; bullies, their deadly tactics; what deep-seated, festering problems gave ... Read More »

Recently, I turned on the “Charlie Rose” show and lo and behold there was “Danny Collins”; I had seen the film starring Al Pacino at a screening a week earlier; moderately entertaining, loosely  based on Steve Tilston, a British folk singer who received a letter from iconic John Lennon, almost forty years after it was written. Pacino had not doffed, ... Read More »

What might have been an interesting scenario, spirals down tubes of improbabilities, landing on a flatbed of absurdity, resulting in melodramatic,  pandering obfuscation, highlighting the pneumatic pectorals of Sean Penn. Commencing in 2006 in the blighted detritus of the Congo, an unnamed monolithic corporation, uses assassination as a tool for controlling the natural resources; “Jim Terrier” (sour, surly Penn) is ... Read More »

Once upon a time, in the year 1697 a Frenchman, Charles Perrault wrote “The Glass Slipper”; in 1812 The Brothers Grimm elaborated upon the tale of beautiful, orphaned “Ella”, relegated to the status of servant by her heinous stepmother and her two wretched daughters. So, for centuries this bewitching fable has touched the hearts and imaginations of all who have ... Read More »

“Nothin says lovin like somethin from the oven”, the Pillsbury Dough Boy would have expanded to unlimited proportions in the kitchens, of once ubiquitous delicatessens, now just a “chosen” few. “Deli Man” is a scrumptious,  succulent, salivating love story; the heart of this delicious documentary pulsates with the vibrancy of David “Ziggy” Gruber a third-generation “deli man”; Cordon Bleu trained, ... Read More »

There are fictional characters, once encountered, that remain perpetually parked, closeted in one’s literary landscape: Holden Caufield, Scarlet O’Hara, Rhett Butler, Sherlock Holmes, Hester Prynne, Hannibal Lecter, Daniel Deronda, Moby Dick/Captain Ahab, Miss Havisham, Sydney Carton, Becky Sharp, Lisbeth Salander, Fishman; in Robert Koppel’s newest, exhilarating, fantastical “Odyssey” we meet “Ira Fleckenstein” and his hilarious, outrageous relatives and friends; following ... Read More »

Beware of films “On Demand” before they open in theatres; more than likely they are awful and “Maps to the Stars” is a prime example. David Cronenberg exploits every salacious taboo shunned by those with a modicum of morality; blatantly bludgeoning viewers with themes of incest, pyromania, narcissism; repulsive, sickening to view; fine actors wallowing in the roles of slimy, ... Read More »

A distant, vastly disappointing “second”; unfathomable, dreary interpretation of characters so alive and vibrant in the first “chapter”; gone is the exciting, enticing flavor of India; this bland, silly scenario could have taken place anywhere. The same cast, marginalized by mundane writing and superfluous directing (John Madden, “Shakespeare in Love”). Dev Patel, “Sonny” the endearing proprietor of the “Marigold Hotel” ... Read More »

Most writers will testify that the “short story” is probably the most difficult to create; within two sentences you have to ambush the readers’ attention;  sink your literary teeth into their intellectual guts; sabotage all extraneous thoughts;  rush to fruition, instantly gratifying their desire to know the conclusion/solution of the tiny tale. “Wild Tales” is comprised of six vignettes focusing ... Read More »