“THE HOLDOVERS” IN THEATRES Poignantly predictable, two contradictory characters (“Professor Paul Hunham”, Paul Giamatti, and student “Angus”, Dominick Sessa), lock horns over a Christmas holiday at a boy’s boarding school; it is 1970 and director Alexander Payne remains true to the era; Giamatti’s curmudgeonly, warm and wonderful performance as a brilliant, flawed ancient civilizations teacher, ... Read More »
Taylor Swift, 33 years old, 5’11, more than a Brand, Meme, is a contemporary, effulgent, Megastar; her palpable, preeminent genius in composing, singing, dancing, instrumentalist, transcends the anticipated, soaring into a “Swift” realm, unimaginable, indescribable to a seasoned adult who, apart from her name, was startlingly innocent of her heuristic acuity. More than a film, concert, the Eras (an epoch) ... Read More »
“In the early 1920s, Osage Indians where the richest people, per capita, on the planet.” Director Martin Scorsese’s ambitious, masterfully pointed epic brings to the fore the egregious, manipulative murders perpetrated (for profit) on a tribe that inhabited oil rich land; calculated killings of those Indians, whose marriages to white spouses, gifted the survivors of the deceased, a preordained inheritance. ... Read More »
Director Jonathan Glazer has accomplished the remarkable in his adaptation of Martin Amis’s novel of the same title (which bears little resemblance to Amis’s script). The film resonates, pierces the psyche, transcends the scenario, adept performances, it sears redolently with the SOUND of the unimaginable; eyes shut, the soundtrack bleats with symphonic chords of horror, annihilation, ethnic elimination; Mica Levi’s ... Read More »
Director Kitty Green gifts viewers one of the most innovative, surprising films of the year. Two young Canadians “Hannah” (Julia Garner) and “Liv” (Jessica Henwick) find themselves running out of funds while experiencing the sights, seductiveness of the only country in the world that covers an entire continent, Australia; the daunting vastness minimizes its inhabitants especially in the parched outback ... Read More »
“THE ORIGIN OF EVIL” FRENCH: ENGLISH SUBTITLES (IN THEATRES & SOON NETFLIX) There is nothing as satisfying as a supreme whodunit, and the French excel at titillation and obfuscation. Actor Laure Calamy, “Stephanie”, in a transformative performance seeks to reunite with her estranged, wealthy father “Serge” (virtuoso role by Jacques Weber); from the onset surprises await at every turn; director ... Read More »
Again, Agatha Christie (1890-1976) commands center stage in theatres capturing the enigmatic, floating, watery wonderland of Venice in 1947; atmospherically lyrical, raucous rain clutches archival architecture on ghostly Halloween. An eerie, spooky soundtrack with dashing drawings, resembling works of Edvard Munch, Wiliam Kentridge, and Kara Walker prance across the screen while children render excitement and terror to the decaying mansion ... Read More »
Seen in succession, a feminine gender bender; three disparate women, fictional and factual begged comparison in this critic’s estimation; similarities required major excavation but rewarded with extensive digging: inordinate security in who they are, their sense of self, lacking hyperbole, flawed but poised in personal conviction, earning our admiration regardless of their physicality; intelligence and dignity transcend their imperfections. Margot ... Read More »
OPPENHEIMER: unequivocally one of the preeminent and possibly the greatest film ever created; a sensational marvel, from commencement to conclusion; director Christopher Nolan secure in his innovative, proven genius captures awe-inspiring heights, sights and sounds beyond comprehension, actors at their pinnacle: Cillian Murphy is today’s epochal method actor, donning the anatomical, psychological, intellectual might of atomic designer J. Robert Oppenheimer ... Read More »
On a recent trip to Dubai, scaling the myriad of internal levels of the Burj Khalifa, (the tallest building in the world) enthralled by the videos of Tom Cruise and the film crew hanging precipitously from cables, on the exterior, from floors 123-130 (there are 163); “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” (2011) was the reason I went to Dubai; Tom ... Read More »
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