THE POWER OF THE DOG Director Jane Campion (“The Piano”, 1993) scores radiantly, intelligently with her adaptation of Thomas Savage’s novel of the same name: Benedict Cumberbatch soars as erudite, brutal, misanthropic rancher “Phil Burbank”; his brother “George” depicted with refined docility by Jesse Plemons, valiantly strives to soften Phil’s grotesque persona; Kristen Dunst, simmers as George’s wife “Rose”, a ... Read More »
In the embryonic stages of the 57th Chicago International Film Festival, I can predict it will surpass all expectations because of the astute prescience of Artistic Director Mimi Plauche and Managing Director Vivian Teng. Viewed to date: “Lingui, The Sacred Bonds”. (French: English Subtitles) Director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun focuses on the restricted lives of Muslim women living in Chad; abortion is ... Read More »
Having recently returned from a sojourn in Iceland, where the seasons were still vying for supremacy and man is perpetually subjected to nature’s whim, domination; sheep govern the landscape, their floppy ears tagged with marked ownership; two-legged creatures are rarely sighted and these furry mammals roam with impunity. “Lamb” is eerily strange, mystical and powerfully potent; co-writer and director Valdimar ... Read More »
Daniel Craig has completed his fifth 007 and it is a stunner; initially not a fan, missing the debonaire, dark suaveness of his predecessors: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan; Craig was more of an ale guy, no way “shaken, not stirred”; after his third, “Skyfall” his fair, steely-eyed muscularity convinced me that he was imminently plausible as ... Read More »
Moments of stunning brilliance shrouded in diabolical, draconian, sacrilegious horror; created and directed by Mike Flanagan (an altar boy in his youth); this series of seven episodes has enraptured or scandalized viewers; I find myself vacillating between the two. Familiarity with both the old and new testaments lends concrete legitimacy to Flanagan’s literal, visceral, visual interpretation of the texts; the ... Read More »
I can say in all truthfulness that this is the ugliest film I have ever seen, totally lacking in any redemptive attributes, with the exception of a couple dance sequences; director Julia Ducournau’s (“Raw”) harrowing, bleak, frightening imagination plummets to its bottommost circle, besting Dante’s “Paradise Lost”; protagonist, “Alexia/Adrien” (androgynous, Agatha Rousselle) has a titanium (“Titane”) plate in her head ... Read More »
The play was, and still is, one of the most idiosyncratic gems ever to grace the stage; the film is worthy of a second visit. Ben Platt again scores as the insecure, troubled teenager, “Evan Hansen”; director Stephen Chbosky in tandem with music creators Justin Paul and Dan Romer, for much of the movie, delightfully manipulate viewers emotions; tears were ... Read More »
In the past year we have watched endlessly, refuges on our borders; bedraggled stragglers, parentless children, nameless souls straining for life within the confines of our democratic society; we have also witnessed those who have lived in the United States their whole lives, only to be ripped away from their families because of undocumented status; “Blue Bayou” is an intimate ... Read More »
Clint Eastwood is an urban icon; he’s the “make my day” guy, legendary “Dirty Harry”; I have seen Clint Eastwood and his presence off the screen is just as magnificent as on, pulsating with charismatic enormity; so why in the name of his vast and stellar career would he produce, direct and star in this abysmal testimony of self-aggrandizement? He ... Read More »
You will investigate one of the more intriguing protagonists on today’s screen; “William Tell” (depicted with astounding skill by Oscar Isaac), is a gambler with inscrutable control, a card counter, winning just enough to live, avoiding the casino’s radar screen; Tell is the purist study of PTSD I have ever witnessed; jailed for his role as an interrogator at Abu ... Read More »
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