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OUR LADIES (in theatres)

The term “coming of age” has become tiresome, an overused cliché depicting those indecisive teens yearning for an illusory, still to be defined, purpose of being. Director Michael Caton-Jones’s “Our Ladies” takes place in a small Scottish town in the mid 1990’s, as five rambunctious choir girls hanker for boozy, sexual encounters, on a field trip to Edinburgh. Secure in the parameters of blossoming adulthood these jejune “ladies”, with levity, and at times hilarity, toil towards their mission. “Orla” (poignant, ... Read More »

SUBLET (HEBREW/ENGLISH) (In theatres)

A sensitive, sweet, slice of life, an episode fated to be a preserved, sacred memory: a May/December relationship ignited by two disparate individuals brought together by chance: a NYT’s travel writer “Michael” (John Benjamin Hickey) sublet’s an apartment in Tel Aviv, for five days, from “Tomer” (Niv Nissim); Michael, represents the past, living as a gay man through the embryonic, ... Read More »

A QUIET PLACE PART II & PROFILE (BOTH ONLY IN THEATRES)

Director John Krasinski’s second film about the hunted, haunted Abbott family is surprisingly better than the earlier “A Quiet Place”; it is tautly structured, synchronicity weaves its compelling coincidences involving humans out-maneuvering aerial aliens, keenly sensitive to sound, and presciently frightful to behold; there is magic in its meaning and profoundly acted by the previous cast, and a new member ... Read More »

FINAL ACCOUNT (IN THEATRES)

Documentarian Luke Holland (1948-2020) spent his life bringing to the fore man’s errors, injustices, crimes against mankind: campaigning on behalf of threatened tribal people; highlighting Ruby Kennedy’s campaign to compensate slave labourers under Hitler’s demonic regime; it is “Final Account” that will stabilize, confirm his legacy of intuitive brilliance; as a grandson of Holocaust victims; commencing in 2008 he interviewed ... Read More »

MINI MUSINGS FOR THE WEEKEND

“NEW ORDER” (PREVIOUSLY REVIEWED, THEATRES) SPANISH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) A highlight of the 2020 Chicago International Film Festival. Excellent FIVE STAR study of civility versus savagery; enfranchised versus disenfranchised; brutal but brilliant analysis of wealth, spurring anarchy. Still resonating after almost a year. And still… FIVE STARS!!!!! “DREAM HORSE” (THEATRES) If you viewed 2015’s “DARK HORSE” and heartily enjoyed an unlikely ... Read More »

RIDERS OF JUSTICE: DANISH: ENGLISH SUBTITLES (THEATRES) & WRATH OF MAN (THEATRES & HBO MAX)

“Revenge is best served cold”; two prime protagonists, serving vigilante reparation after the death of loved ones; Mads Mikkelsen stars as “Markus” a frigid, calculating Afghani soldier, returning to Denmark to avenge the death of his wife, killed in a horrific train accident; Mikkelsen’s deliciously terrifying performance anchors this sublimely well-written (writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen) scintillating scenario; beautifully balanced, “Riders ... Read More »

LIMBO (IN THEATRES)

“Limbo” in Catholicism, is a bubble where souls of the unbaptized, hibernate until permission is granted to enter the celestial realm; in this scenario, it is a young Syrian refugee longing for permanent asylum on a sparsely populated Scottish island, where he, amongst other exiled, is waiting for the metaphorical gates to open. Director Ben Sharrock with irony and humor ... Read More »

THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN (TUNISIA:ENGLISH, ARABIC, FRENCH) AMAZON PRIME

Artists are perpetually striving to portray the innovative within their own discipline: paint, marble, bronze have been substituted, traded for contemporary mediums: digitalization, interactive technology ignites unprecedented techniques; parameters of “what is art” are swelling; “The Man Who Sold His Skin” with remarkable depth focuses on Syrian refugee “Sam Ali” (spunky Yahya Mahayni) escaping to Beirut and selling his back ... Read More »

THOUGHTS ON THE 93RD ACADEMY AWARDS

There was a strange spirituality, almost a reckoning, comparable to exiting a bomb shelter and checking the remains, revealing the hereafter; a ghostly specter of another era permeated the evening; a staged, glitzy Gotham, populated by ideal mannequins, a purified zone of equality and perfection.  Gone were the “hosts” with their self-deprecating, stale schtick, guffaws and unintended slights; winners, given ... Read More »

TROLLING & STREAMING

With a plethora of options I have become cavalier when investing time in front of my mini movie screen; if it doesn’t look good or kidnap my attention within the first ten minutes, I make a speedy exit, with no regrets. Here are a few that kept me binging well into the wee hours: “Shtisel” (Hebrew: English Subtitles) (Netflix). The ... Read More »

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