Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX

Emotionally pulverizing, even after the third viewing, “Son of Saul” Hungary’s nominee in the Best Foreign Film Category, is my selection for the Academy Award; thirty-eight-year-old Director Laszlo Nemes, shooting on 35 millimeter film, drags viewers through the stench-filled, suffocating, filthy, claustrophobic corridors of dehumanization… Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Listening to the sounds of savagery, wreckage,  howls of the innocent, wracks ... Read More »

Not a “perfect storm” but one that should be seen, especially in 3-D; never has man appeared so negligible, nature’s puppet, plummeted by Thor and his buddies. Based on a U.S. Coast Guard rescue mission that took place in February, 1952, off the coast of Cape Cod. Knowing the outcome does nothing to diminish the harrowing expedition. Chris Pine, trying ... Read More »

 “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Winston Churchill. Akshay Kumar (in his prime role to date) stars as brash businessman “Ranjit Katyal” who orchestrated the evacuation of  170,000 thousand Indians from Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion in 1990 (first Gulf War); historians and neophytes alike should be required to ... Read More »

“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969) is a lifetime favorite, its themes, as universal and compelling today, as almost a half century ago; Maggie Smith brought impeccable royalty to the role of an avant- garde art and music teacher in a private girls’ school; “Miss Brodie” was a free thinker, fearless, flawed but tangibly prescient in her logic; “give ... Read More »

To enter: 1)   You must be a subscriber to Peneflix.com 2)   You may only enter once. 3)   ALL  ENTRIES MUST BE SUBMITTED BY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH, MIDNIGHT. $150.00 TO THE WINNER. HAVE TO ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS CORRECTLY. Best Supporting Actress: PENEFLIX PICK: ROONEY MARA “CAROL” Best Supporting Actor: PENEFLIX PICK: TOM HARDY “THE REVENANT” Best Actress: PENEFLIX PICK: BRIE ... Read More »

Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay give subtle,  profound performances as a retired couple on the verge of their forty-fifth wedding anniversary. Directed by Andrew Haigh, based on a 10-page story by David Constantine, this quietly brilliant psychological scenario will haunt one long after its initial viewing. After two screenings I am still unsettled, pondering, contemplating the conclusion. “Geoff” (Courtenay) receives ... Read More »

Watching this remarkable, perfect film by Director/Co-Writer Deniz Gamze Erguven, Richard Lovelace’s “stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage” pungently informed my viewing experience; five ebullient sisters, running to the beach (Northern Turkey) with some of their male classmates, uniformed, they plunge fully-clothed into the water and engage in joyous, fun-loving, innocent high jinks; it ... Read More »

Knowing the outcome of this disastrous debacle in no way diminishes the intensity of Michael Bay’s film based on the book (“13 Hours: the Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi”) by Mitchell Zuckoff; sensationalized depiction of the days leading up to September 11, 2012, in little-known Benghazi, Libya. Driving through the circuitous, dusty streets the soldiers are met ... Read More »

Strange, eerie Lilliputian-like puppets depict a lugubrious, despondent “slice of life”, pervasive and experienced in the real world, simply “Michael Stone” (voice of David Thewlis) a self-help maven, is suffering from a catastrophic mid-life crisis. His perilous condition leads him to seek out an old flame, cultivate a new one, “Anoma”Lisa” (voice of Jennifer Jason Leigh); she is an anomaly, ... Read More »

In life (if one lives long enough)  negative epiphanies must be dealt with; “never again” to suffer the indignities and remorse of over-eating, smoking, drinking or in this case enduring 180 minutes of inane and foolish repartee by supposedly talented individuals. From commencement to conclusion beer-swilling host, Ricky Gervais, did not disappoint with his iconoclastic slurs, humorless barbs, toothy guffaws; ... Read More »