Bollywood by “Peneflix” has been shamefully neglected since the commencement of the pandemic; if you suffer to the conclusion of this most recent selection, there are more than worthy, India productions, to sink one’s temporal lobes into. The sport of cricket has been featured in a myriad of Bollywood films, my favorites include: “Lagaan” (2001), “Iqual” (2005), “Patiala House” (2011), ... Read More »
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 »
If you watch one documentary in the 2020 field of reality, where truth is key and despite the license of the filmmakers, stuns to the core, “Collective” dominates the genre. On October 30th, 2015 a catastrophic fire in the nightclub “Collectiv” in Bucharest, Romania claims the lives of twenty-seven and alters forever the one hundred and eighty who escaped; the ... 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 »
A stellar, refreshing, compelling series made for contemporary Turkish television; commanding performances in tandem with a notable, intelligent script and scenario; Western viewers are challenged to grasp the dichotomies between the secular and ever encroaching religious conservatism in a Muslim world; hijabs versus free flowing manes; women therapists justifying their scholarship in a closeted milieu, where naked honesty, self-doubt, insecurities ... Read More »
Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
