Korean filmmakers are “kings of creep” and the horror genre topples the titillation scale with their imaginative creativity; a genre that seems to have exponentially grown with the pandemic; things can degenerate and viewing these films confirms the worst case scenario. Director Yeon Sang-ho scores with an allegorical tale of zombies versus humans, on a train to “Busan”; a “virus” ... Read More »
Stunningly edifying is director Thor Freudenthal’s “Words on Bathroom Walls” based on the book by Julia Walton; brilliantly depicts the horrifying challenges of living, adapting, coping in a “normal” world, with schizophrenia; this film, which should be universally viewed, will strip any preconceived ideas about the affliction, clarify the exacting demands visited upon its victim: we see the “unseen people” ... Read More »
Russell Crowe performs well as evil incarnate in director Derrick Borte’s “Unhinged”, tale of road rage on steroids. The opening scene is a commentary on today’s destructive chaos: rioters, looters, volatile, palatable hatred between strangers as they navigate highways, intersections, congested avenues. Mimicking the carnage exhibited in Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, exhibiting a reality that should only be fiction. We ... Read More »
After a five-month drought it was déjà vu and weirdly comforting returning (masked) to the same theatre I frequented on Friday March 13, 2020: the historical shut down; strangely, familiarity did not breed contempt: unchanged, were the identical theatres, alphabetized rows, even the bathroom graffiti and malfunctioning toilets seemed welcoming in their constancy; time, frozen in its evasion of a venue that celebratespast, present and future. Director ... Read More »
Periodically one experiences a film, a television series so remarkably outstanding, that words to describe its potency have yet to be conjured; director Lee Eung-bok’s “Mr. Sunshine” is one of a few to populate this category; it seizes the celestial in every domain: commencing in 1871 a nine-year-old boy “Eugene Choi” flees Joseon after his parents are slain, they are ... Read More »
I live in a magnificent, powerful, strong metropolis; a lake enhances its beauty, even its pandemic infections did not cauterize its optimism. Now “is the summer of our discontent” egregious factions are cannibalizing our streets, bulldozing commercial property, destroying at whim our civility, our neighborhoods; orchestrated destruction erasing confidence, hope, faith in a future of cohesiveness, tranquility, where factions are ... Read More »
Based upon J.M. Coetzee’s 1980 novel of the same title is a giant metaphor for imperialism in any form and the country it infects; Great Britain, the crowning imperialist, gobbled chunks of: 13 American colonies, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand and Africa; we do not have to wait for the “barbarians”, they arrive instantaneously in the guise of “Colonel Joll” ... Read More »
2020, destined to be immortalized as the era of Covid-19; traumatic, terrorizing, a year of cauterization, of vulnerability, unlike anything visited upon mankind since 1918, when fifty million people worldwide perished as the influenza pandemic spread its toxic tentacles. Searching for an antibiotic, a tonic to relieve the frustrations, the monotony of confinement in a structured, known environment; television is ... Read More »
The Franco brothers (James, Tom and Dave) continue to impress with their prodigious capabilities; conquering a myriad of disciplines: acting, painting, art collectors, screenwriters, producers, directors; intelligence informs their ambitions and they are unafraid of unchartered frontiers. Dave Franco’s directorial debut, “The Rental”, had promise, commencing with brothers “Charlie” (Dan Stevens, “The Guest”) and “Josh” (Jeremy Allen White), renting with ... Read More »
Jerzy Kosinski’s 1965 novel of the same name, translates into a horrific, bestial, brilliant visual experience; not for the squeamish or feint sensitivities; there are scenes seared permanently in my memory; moral turpitude on an unimaginable scale; cruelty practiced by a religious populace. Crimes perpetrated upon a young boy seeking safety, sanity in Eastern Europe, during WWII. He is Jewish, ... Read More »
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