Hollywood

Profoundly poetic. Director Francis Lee’s achingly pure love tale, starring Kate Winslet as paleontologist Mary Anning (1799-1847) and Saoirse Ronan as her lover, Charlotte Murchison is beautifully unsettling; the rawness of a landscape, accommodating to ancient fossils, unsympathetic to earthlings, intensifies the relationship between two outliers; misfits that bond over weeks spent probing for artifacts long dead, tainted only by ... Read More »

Universally panned, especially James Corden for his stereotypical portrayal of a gay Broadway performer, which I did not find offensive; the major criticism heralded from the LBGT community on his interpretation (Director Ryan Murphy applauded) of “Barry”, Corden is straight. Desperately seeking positivity in this pejorative, superfluous imitation of a Broadway musical, focusing on four (including the aforementioned “Barry”) “over- ... Read More »

My nascent exposure, in the mid 1980’s, to Orson Welles’ Homeric epic, “Citizen Kane” did not resonate as an iconic, monumental film destined, for archival prominence; almost forty years hence, with a matured aptitude, my sensitivities now grant it the lionization it has always deserved and for the most part received. Viewing “Mank” (previously reviewed) and knowing the war of ... Read More »

Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897-1953) won an Academy Award (along with Orson Welles) in 1942 for Best Original Screenplay, “Citizen Kane” (loosely based on iconic businessman, Howard Hughes); controversy has shadowed their victory for decades and director David Fincher with punctilious attention addresses the conundrum of authorship in “Mank”; a project fathered by his dad, Jack Fincher (1930-2003), is brought to ... Read More »

With skepticism, I ventured viewing “The Undoing”, thinking it was a glorified “soap” for the Covidly bored spectator; gleefully, my cynicism was vanquished at the conclusion of the first episode and kept me on tenterhooks for its entirety; primarily, because of the unprecedented performance by Hugh Grant as “Dr. Jonathan Sachs”, wallowing in the role of an accused murderer, he ... Read More »

There is nothing more disheartening, when a film initially exhibits gripping potential, only to lose its fizz at the midway point; Paul Bettany, Uncle Frank, is “intoxicating” as a gay Professor in New York’s avant garde milieu in the 1970’s; shunned by the mini-mentality of his family in South Carolina, his orientation found a harbor of acceptance, with the radical ... Read More »

Not to be confused with the best selling 2016 novel by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, the film is a tour de force for actor Jude Law (his investment in the project exceeds expectations); time-worn tale of ambitions gone awry, misshapen goals, individuals defining themselves by their purchasing power; superficiality slaying substantiality; “Rory” (Law) and “Allison” (perceptive performance by Carrie Coon) move ... Read More »

The “Crown” in its fourth season, vivisects the peccadillos, infidelities, pettiness of those ordained, despite their inadequacies, to reign in perpetuity, keeping the diadem “all in the family”; the impeccable cast: Olivia Coleman (Queen Elizabeth II), Tobias Menzies (Prince Philip), Helena Bonham Carter (Princess Margaret); Josh O’Connor, the consummate clone of the romantically doomed Prince Charles, are joined this season ... Read More »

Here is a series where the refined performances transcend the subject matter: Chris Evans is spectacular as assistant district attorney “Andy Barber” fighting to clear his fourteen-year-old son “Jacob” (prodigious Jaeden Martell) of murdering his classmate; Michelle Dockery as Jacob’s mother “Laurie” is categorically impressive as she analyzes her son’s behavior from infancy to the present; Cherry Jones, as Jacob’s ... Read More »

Karmically, randomly one stumbles, without intent or purpose, upon a series so deliciously, devastatingly dynamic, one questions how/why it escaped one’s filmic radar screen; writer/director Dana Fox’s ardent, innovative, interpretation of real life, nine-year-old journalist, crime solver, Hilde Lysiac is worthy binging for all ages.  “Home Before Dark” soars with the magical, mesmerizing, spellbinding Brooklynn Prince as “Hilde Lisko” solving ... Read More »