Netflix and Beyond

Alzheimer’s disease does not discriminate when it waves its lethal wand and strikes the gifted, challenged, dedicated, irresponsible; two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women. Julianne Moore as Professor “Alice Howland” is luminous, shining as a woman of magnificent formidability in her career, as a wife and  mother; she is fifty years old, diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s; devastating, debilitating; ... Read More »

1981: Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States; 69 days into his Presidency John Hinckley failed in his attempt to assassinate him; Pope John Paul II, also wounded by a crazed assassin; Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, was not given a stay of grace,  was murdered;  Iran Hostage Crisis, concluded; the Aids Virus diagnosed. Violence ... Read More »

Director Amit Sharma’s “Tevar”, loosely translated “attitude/anger” is monotonous, predictable, cacophonous, intolerably boring; a major conundrum is why this formula is perpetually pervasive in the Bollywood genre; hundreds of films, sundry actors, ubiquitous scenario.  Arjun Kapoor a porky, athletic, rebel -rouser, “Pintu”, comes to the aid of a “damsel in distress’ (myriads of them pulsate on the India screen, waiting ... Read More »

A gloomy, sordid tale based on the 2009 Thomas Pynchon novel. The action takes place in California, 1970; black times warped by the Vietnam War, rampant drug use, pervasive, cynical disillusionment of the young; freedom, release found in evading the draft, sleeping on beaches; life anesthetized; reality frozen by illegal substances; era of “hippies”, Charles Manson, Richard Nixon and “Larry ... Read More »

Mark Walberg gives a stultifying, robotic performance as “Jim Bennett” a gambler with a mythic quest to self-destruct. Unlike James Caan in director Karel Reisz’s 1974, poignant and beautiful portrait of a man incapable of controlling his demonic urges, Walberg’s character, directed by Rupert Wyatt, is always in control; crassly, cavalierly dispensing his mother’s “grace” money; flaunts, and taunts his ... Read More »

Despite some historical inaccuracies “Selma” is surpassingly worthy of audiences from the age of ten and beyond. Insightful, instinctive redolent performances, especially by David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin  Luther King, Jr.; a half century has passed, today’s society is informed by incidents revolving around the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown; sorrowful examples of history repeating itself. Director Ava ... Read More »

British director, Gabriel Range’s  award-winning 2006 “Death of a President” depicts the fictional assassination of George W. Bush, the forty-third President of the United States, on October 19, 2007 in Chicago; there was some intellectual umbrage; but nothing like the draconian outrage, internet-sabotage, ruckus of what we have witnessed over the past month revolving  around Seth Rogen’s “The Interview” focusing ... Read More »

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolorist and printmaker; revolutionary in melding luscious chiaroscuro; miraculously blending the hues of dazzling day and nascent night; with German contemporary, Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) stun in glorifying nature’s tempestuous transcendence over man. Both men were monumentally inspirational and forerunners of impressionism; they awe to this day. Director Mike ... Read More »

If you are a fan of Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine’s 1987 musical; it is more than likely you’ll enjoy the film. To be fair,  I was never a fairy -tale devotee, especially the scary, creepy stories of the Grimm Brothers; “Into the Woods” is a compilation of “Cinderella”, “Jack and the Beanstalk”, “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Rapunzel”. A hefty, singing ... Read More »

Never had a “keen” interest in the eerie, grotesque, haunting paintings of Walter Keane; children reminiscent of a Stephen King novel, aliens; instead of being “windows to the soul” their eyes were vacant, soulless, dead. Also, astounded at their magnetic appeal, commoditization; like the invasion of the body snatchers, escaping their pervasiveness was hopeless, they championed the art market in ... Read More »