Director Guillermo del Toro’s negligibly flawed film is mesmerizing nonetheless; based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham, “Nightmare Alley” scores the unwholesomeness, uncleanliness of depression era carnivals, billets of misfits, freakish oddities, disenfranchised souls floating from one seedy backwater town to another; terrifying how comfortable the participants are, living on the edge, relishing their depravities; Willem Dafoe is devilishly ... Read More »
Regardless of its redundancy Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” is a foot-stomping, hip-swiveling, heart-throbbing stampede of choreography, cinematography, and electrifying energy; the legitimacy of the Spanish speaking cast (Sharks) versus the “gringos” (Jets) aka the “entrenched” threatened, rivaled by the “immigrant” is a resounding metaphor for today’s migratory issues. The anxiety percolating at the nucleus of two cultures is exacerbated ... Read More »
Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) a behemoth of stage and screen, an influencer, inspirer of countless, including Jonathan Larson (1960-1996) whose momentary existence gifts “Rent” a synopsis of his life; a forever legacy reminiscent of Puccini’s “La Boheme” is an absolute must: “a play about writing a play” with its intoxicating highs and calamitous lows, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s supreme direction, and by far ... Read More »
“A film is inert, blank, non-existent without people there to complete the film by engaging with it. It is a beautiful relational situation.” Mike Mills, Director “C’mon C’mon” creates a compassionate, confidential portrait of familial stress, struggling to survive, understanding, and vocalizing emotional complexities that plague each member. Joaquin Phoenix is at his comfortable best as “Johnny”, a radio journalist ... Read More »
What is it about fashion and its designers that compels us to gobble up the notoriety encircling them? Clothes, glamour, wealth, sinewy models, otherworldly lifestyles, unattainable for the common folk. But with scrutiny their lives are stricken with tragedy, oftentimes worse than the mundanity of us lesser beings. Certainly no one quests for the fate of Gianni Versace, Halston or ... Read More »
Appropriately titled, Will Smith, stars as Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena Williams, two of the greatest tennis players, athletes, of all time; his word is law, he is sovereign in his household. The film was graced with the winning trophy at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival and audiences’ glow and cheer with acceptance and admiration. “King Richard” ... Read More »
Actors attain peaks, and it is only hindsight that determines the summits: Tatum O’Neal was 10-years-old when she won the Academy Award for “Paper Moon” (1973) her father, Ryan was 29 when “Love Story: (1970) debuted; Tom Hulse, “Amadeus” (1984) at 31 disappeared; Tom Cruise, “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989) was 27 and has never reached that pinnacle ... Read More »
Recognizing a director’s difficulties in recreating one’s past for film: personal observations competing with historical accuracy, capturing the child’s eye with an adult perspective, unnecessary glorification of events and its participants; Kenneth Branagh (1960-) fares better than director Paolo Sorrentino’s “coming of age” tale in this year’s “Hand of God” but not as well as Alfonso Cuaron in 2018’s “Roma”; ... Read More »
Two well-to-do women connect after a chance meeting in a New York City hotel; educated, poised, living lives of affluence and grace in the 1920’s; they are black, but one has lived as a white woman. Director Rebecca Hall with an iron will in a gloved fist treats Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella, “Passing” with intuitive discernment, idiosyncratic style, intriguing complexity; ... Read More »
Undeniably, Kristen Stewart is talented, but talent never assures, likability; skipping her “Twilight” sagas, but seeing her in “Panic Room”, “Personal Shopper” “Seberg” I could not “erase” Stewart from her film’s persona; unfortunately, this proved true for “Spencer”. Not entirely her fault, admittedly I am “Diana Done”; documentaries, “The Crown”, tell-all exposés have slathered, even the most oblivious, with mammoth ... Read More »
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