Profoundly sad, agonizing to watch; director Chloe Zhao (“The Rider”) and actor Frances McDormand take viewers on an educated, unveiling journey; a journey, countless travel; those whose jobs, towns have vanished, consumed by advanced technology or outdated worthiness; “Fern” (McDormand at her peak of poetic dramatis) is “houseless”, not “homeless” as she, with the utmost dignity, in her battered van, ... Read More »
Director Shaka King’s docudrama unveils, without sensationalism, the rise of the Black Panther Movement and its leader, Fred Hampton (1948-1969); Daniel Kaluuya is superb in capturing Hampton’s passion, dedication and vision in championing, recognizing that black lives do matter and deserve respect; poetically inspirational, with oratorical might Kaluuya gifts Hampton the lionization he earned and, especially in retrospect, deserves. Chicago, ... Read More »
A portrait of ugliness unseen since “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (which was remarkable). Sam Levinson (Barry’s son) pits actors John David Washington and Zendaya (aka Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor) in a late night vivisection of souls and psyches, a mastication of meanness, cruelty ripped from the depths of heartlessness; one critic stated “after twenty minutes” exit, the bludgeoning, ... Read More »
Abashedly, I did not invest in the first two seasons; no apparent reason; the virtual milieu is bloated with multitudes of culprits, “sinners” and their motives, perpetually titillating my curiosity; the third season’s lure was the actor Matt Bomer. Like actors Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston, Thierry Godard, Ben Whishaw, Bomer is not dancing at the pinnacle of one’s roster of ... Read More »
A trio of Academy Award Winners give it their optimum to generate suspense in director John Lee Hancock’s “The Little Things”: Denzel Washington, always captivating, depicts Deputy Sheriff “Joe Deacon” haunted by an aged blunder; Rami Malek, Detective “Jim Baxter”, too slight for the role, and the weakest character, doomed from the onset to topple from the marketable pedestal the ... Read More »
Awash in bucolic dignity “A Dig” directed by Simon Stone, is a film that is sublimely comfortable, comparable to a well-worn sweater, an unassuming evening with a forever friend, cloaked with time’s cherished reminiscences; an untarnished English landscape; practicing RAF pilots, the only hint of upcoming transitions; it is 1939 and wealthy widow, Edith Pretty (a noble, gifted performance by ... Read More »
For almost a year, connectedness, education, entertainment have been accomplished in a Zoom milieu; enhancing enforced isolation, allowing the unseen to be seen, the learned expanding intellectual horizons; a remarkable tool, liberating the masses from mandatory house arrest. Recently, in a mini review I touted the enticements of viewing “A French Village”; seven seasons, seventy-two episodes, (2009-2017) seemed daunting, but ... Read More »
Anyone who has ever experienced the hair-raising, cacophonous symphony conducted on the streets, alleys, highways of a tireless India metropolis, will empathize completely with the skill of the conductors, drivers of any vehicle, be it rickshaw, car, bus or truck; “Balram” (Adarsh Gourav, genuinely puissant) from a lower caste, splays his rise as an entrepreneur in a series of flashbacks. ... Read More »
Carey Mulligan, along with actors, (to name a few) Natalie Portman, Jodi Foster, Emma Watson, Lupita Nyong’o has a rarefied intelligence quotient; being smart is the characterizing trait of “Cassandra” a coffee counter-girl, pursuing, diligently, men who prey on inebriated women; her virtuosity is disquieting and Mulligan is masterful in the role. Except for the finale “Promising Young Woman” directed ... Read More »
Inimitable Tom Hanks adds to his repertoire of captivating characters with his elucidation of “Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd”, a Civil War veteran, traveling the untutored west in 1870, preaching the “news of the world”, in layman terms, a town crier; Hanks imbues Kidd with a refined elegance, dignity, a compelling grace, but when tested, his ire cannot be bested; discovering ... Read More »
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