Netflix and Beyond

THE FATHER OF MY CHILDREN Regardless of your opinions about the French you must recognize their legacy of accomplishments in the laurels of filmmaking. “The Father of My Children” is written and directed by Mia Hansen –Love (a prodigy, at twenty-nine this is her third film) based loosely on the life of Humbert Balsan a French film producer; the title ... Read More »

KITES The latest Bollywood film directed by the voluminously talented Rakesh Roshan (actor, producer, director, writer) starring his Adonis son, Hrithik Roshan ( Jodhaa Akbar, Karrish, Kolya); is an interesting but flawed endeavor. After five years of Bollywood indulgence and witnessing the slow erasure of the distinct boundaries existing between the Bollywood and Hollywood aesthetics; I have concluded that the ... Read More »

Signing up for Peneflix Reviews: 1.) Visit http://peneflix.blogspot.com/ 2.) On the top of the GREEN bar on the right, click the white Follow button. 3.) Either sign in using your Google, Yahoo or AOL accounts by clicking the corresponding icon, or scroll down and click Create a new Google account if you need to make a new account. 4.) Click ... Read More »

Fellow Movie Lovers LETTERS TO JULIET Oh, I can hear the groans of disbelief; why bother with this romantic drivel? Is the city bereft of more worthy fare? Yes it is trivial romantic fluff. Even the story revolving around distraught, devastated young women searching for solutions to their disastrous love affairs, doomed or abandoned relationships from Juliet Capulet, the Juliet ... Read More »

Fellow Movie Lovers THE SQUARE “Ah, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”, Sir Walter Scott. These words galloped through my mind for the entirety of this tightly wrought and brilliantly conceived Australian film. This is entanglement at its summit; breathtaking, frightening and shocking to the core. I have not seen that many Australian films ... Read More »

Fellow Movie Lovers ROBIN HOOD If you worship at the alter of The Spectacle your prayers have been heard and answered in spades. For those who relish the spectacular, sensational epic: “ The Ten Commandments”, “Spartacus” , “ Ben Hur”, “ Cleopatra”, whose thirst for blood and gore is insatiable, Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” delivers on all levels: gorgeously filmed, ... Read More »

Fellow Movie Lovers CITY ISLAND I like Andy Garcia, I have always liked him; whether a good or bad guy; whether a good or bad movie I am always on his side. It is not just his staggering physiognomy or the timber of his voice but the depth of his characterizations; he climbs into the minds of his protagonists, inhabits ... Read More »

A “BRIEF ENCOUNTER”, WITH “WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE” The English poet William Wordsworth wrote “the world is too much with us; late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; little we see in Nature that is ours.” Having just returned from an excursion to Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa where Wordsworth’s powerful poetry written in 1807 ... Read More »

Fellow Movie Lovers IRON MAN 2 Sequels or seconds rarely surpass or measure up to the original; not just in movies but in life. We have all revisited a place where the memories are so vibrant and sacred, chiseled, like granite, in the temple of our consciousness that revisiting those sites rarely ignites the same passion. Thomas Wolfe says we ... Read More »

Fellow Movie Lovers PLEASE GIVE A vastly anticipated film by the talented Nicole Holofcener fell far short of expectations for this film devotee; even the title lacked credibility. There are solid but predictable performances by Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet. But two characters played by Rebecca Hall (“Vicky Christina Barcelona”) and Sarah Steele were worth focusing on and salvaged ... Read More »