Hollywood

There is a compelling, electric magnetism, an aura emanating from Idris Elba, an uncontainable masculinity, captivating, informing his filmic presence; more mesmerizing because he is totally unaffected by its force. An English actor, unknown to me, until  my recent exposure to “Luther”, an enthralling BBC crime series, starring Mr. Elba as a damaged but brilliant detective.  In “The Mountain Between ... Read More »

Since 1983’s “Risky Business” I have been a major admirer of Tom Cruise; his fearlessness in role selection, never giving a half-hearted performance: “Rain Man”, “Top Gun”, “Jerry Maguire”, but one of the greatest filmic portrayals of all time is his depiction of Ron Kovic in 1989’s “Born on the Fourth of July”, gut-wrenching, metamorphic display of a paralyzed, crazed ... Read More »

This film could not have been made in 1973; 44 years hence directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris gift movie-goers, more than a historical, ground-breaking tennis match but a compelling, introspective study in self-discovery. Emma Stone and Steve Carell soar as the legendary Billy Jean King (1943-) and Bobby Riggs (1918-95), making it difficult to differentiate between the real and ... Read More »

Jake Gyllenhaal, whose star-power has been ignored by the Academy (“Jarhead”, “Southpaw”, “Nightcrawler”, “Nocturnal Animals”) gives a dazzling, perceptive performance as Jeff Bauman, whose legs were severed on April 15th, 2013, as he waited for his girlfriend, Erin Hurley, at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. His is the story of a young, happy man, living mundanely in the ... Read More »

Wordlessly, empathetically filmed, is this documentary based on Loung Ung’s memoir of her torturous four years under the inhuman, communist regime of the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979); over two million Cambodian citizens lost their lives; Loung, raised in an educated,  accomplished milieu in Phnom Penh, was five-years-old when she and her entire family were systematically stripped of their dignity. “First They ... Read More »

Writer/director Darren Aronofsky pushes the “envelope” into oblivion with this blistering, harrowing film, focusing on Christian/Biblical iconography, philosophy; a massive, bloody metaphor for inventiveness, inspiration, and “if at first you don’t succeed”, give it another go! From its commencement there is something awry in this May/December pairing, a chasm between the perpetually cooking, cleaning, painting housewife and her mate’s frenetic ... Read More »

Writer/Director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, daughter of Nancy Myers (“It’s Complicated”) tries, unsuccessfully to clone themes from past Myers films; which might have worked if the characters had not been shallow, paper mache replicas, ubiquitous in a myriad of B-movies: separated, forty-year-old mother, “Alice” (Reese Witherspoon’s effervescence fizzled at the halfway point) with two synthetically, precocious daughters “Isabel” and “Rosie” (Lola Flannery, ... Read More »

This was the summer of discontent in filmic mediocrity; “The Beguiled”,”A Ghost Story”, “Landline”, a few fabulous flops, earning top grades for ennui, enervation and exhaustion. The anemic, paltry product led me to visit Patrick Hughes’s “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”, expecting explosive vapidity I was gleefully surprised to find myself laughing out loud, enjoying predictability, but primarily the comedic charms of ... Read More »

The tulip is my most favorite flower; I love its capricious personality, its up and down mood swings; I love its heartiness, its whimsy, its myriad of colors; tulips shed happiness, satisfaction, warmth. Unfortunately Director Justin Chadwick’s adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s seventeenth novel lacks the pungency, redolence, joy, blooming potency of the magical tulip. Actors Alicia Vikander, Christoph Waltz, Dane ... Read More »

Director Eliza Hittman, tackles with unbiased honesty, the grey befuddled, muddled area between boyhood and manhood; painful indecisiveness of one’s sexuality, conforming or railing against society’s code of acceptance; nineteen-year-old “Frankie” (British actor Harris Dickinson, overwhelms in this poignant, heartbreaking role,  coming to terms with burgeoning homosexuality, a looming frightening future; beyond handsome, he is a magnet for women and ... Read More »