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STREAMING AND BEYOND

“INTIMACY”              (SPANISH: DUBBED ENGLISH)         NETFLIX A timely tale resonating with today’s invasive and chilling technology; a rising politician is surreptitiously filmed as she and her lover are carnally entwined on a deserted beach. Predictably, it goes viral, and the series evolves as the protagonists gallantly fight to resolve and cope ... Read More »

HOME OR AWAY

“PEAKY BLINDERS” 6TH SEASON   NETFLIX In my estimation this season tops the others in writing, intense characterization and the effects of moral turpitude; Cillian Murphy, redolently ripe as “Tommy Shelby” sears as a man plagued by his misdeeds, its consequences, and religious retribution; farfetched, but reeks of legitimacy and the power of the mind to transcend reality. FOUR STARS!!!! ... Read More »

“OPERATION MINCEMEAT” & “BEAUTY QUEEN OF JERUSALEM” (NETFLIX)

Double your pleasure, comfortably, with two stunners now watchable on Netflix.  “Operation Mincemeat” is a captivating, engrossing enactment of a British 1943 mission of deception, a key to eventually besting the Germans in WWII; director John Madden (“Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, “Shakespeare in Love”, “Miss Sloane”) with actors Colin Firth, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen portray an intensely intelligent, fiercely detailed ... Read More »

DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA (IN THEATRES)

Having never visited the popular series of the inimitable Crawley family, I judge the films as entities totally without preconceived intimacy of the characters; possibly unfair, but films take precedence above and beyond the world of television (which I also admire). I found 2019’s “Downton Abbey” rather abysmal, apart from Maggie Smith as matriarch “Violet Crawley”; since her riveting Academy ... Read More »

THE INNOCENTS (NORWEGIAN: ENGLISH SUBTITLES) AMAZON PRIME

Foreign films have always held a deep-seated fascination for me; they demand a high level of concentration because of the subtitles and the edifying exposure to the intricacies of filmmakers from variant cultures; their appeal is enormously gratifying. Director Eskil Vogt’s (“The Worst Person in the World”) creepily brilliant tale of children, one with psychokinesis, determining a milieu devoid of ... Read More »

VORTEX (FRENCH: ENGLISH SUBTITLES) IN THEATRES, THE STAIRCASE (NETFLIX), BOSCH: LEGACY (AMAZON PRIME)

“VORTEX”  Dedicated “To all those whose brains will decompose before their hearts”; directed by Gasper Noe, “Vortex”, filmed as a diptych, a metaphor for the bifurcation of two lives, once entwined, now irrevocably fractured by age and its devastating vicissitudes; a husband and wife, “Liu” and “Elle” (incomparable Dario Argento and Francoise Lebrun) navigating the once familiar, now foreign, unknown ... Read More »

BOLLYWOOD & STREAMING MOVIES

“KGF CHAPTER 2”                 (HINDI: ENGLISH SUBTITLES)  THEATRES  Bombastically challenging is the second chapter of Robin Hood facsimile, “Rocky”, a humble boy who rises to gargantuan wealth, power and inspiration of the lower classes; Bollywood hunk, Yash, stars as the gilded gangster (generating adulation in India’s youth) and his monumental physique dominates every pungent, cacophonous moment of this action infused, bloody, ... Read More »

TO “STREAM” OR “SCREEN”

“THE ANDY WARHOL DIARIES”     (NETFLIX)  Excellent, introspective, comprehensive study of a man who changed the medium, meaning of what constitutes “art”; Andy Warhol bulldozed the “pedestal”, “frame”, “vitrine”; rising above traditional “cross & crown”, the angst of Abstract Expressionism, focusing on contemporary, every day, and universal fascination with fame: television junkies, voyeuristic tabloids, shocking sensationalism of untimely demises, race riots, ... Read More »

YOU WON’T BE ALONE (IN THEATRES)

Gratuitous gore, guts and inhumaneness inform the premise of writer/director Goran Stolevski’s film, located in 19th century Macedonia; witches, lusting after the blood of newborns, muting infants; girls are the ultimate prey, transformed into cannibals, they mutilate with impunity, slaughtering for revenge, power; anthropophagites devouring each other, only to become the devoured; savagery stars in this baseless thriller; identity wallows ... Read More »

RUMINATIONS ON THE 94th ACADEMY AWARDS

Brash, bold, colorful couture bombarded the red carpet; I never realized that would be the highlight of the evening; an evening that suffered a low never experienced in Academy Award history; dignity destroyed on an altar of self-righteousness; no rebound, no “win” can ever erase or reward egregious behavior, witnessed worldwide. The actor should pray for paltry ratings.  As in ... Read More »

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