Throughout life, Anthony Newley’s 1961 musical, in times of stress, has profoundly resonated; now, ironically the world has been halted by Corvid-19, and universally we are on “pause”; rarely, if ever, have the continents been so in sync; mankind is in this together, in a vacuum, hibernating as a whole. It is catastrophic but also reflective; a time to survey ... Read More »
An unlikely partnership, is rarely found or experienced as in writer/director Kelly Reichardt’s quirky, strangely hypnotic, story of two disparate “outliers” joining forces in the Oregon Territory, 1820’s; “Cookie” Figowitz (John Magaro) a displaced baker, joins an outlaw “King Lu” (Orion Lee) in a money-making scheme, revolving around the milking theft of “Chief Factor’s” (Toby Jones) cow, the first and ... Read More »
Poetic evaluation of a “hopeless” partnership, commencing with one dissatisfied member, the other oblivious to, what viewers recognize, the obvious: twenty-nine years of marriage, cauterized, well before we meet “Grace” (inimitable Annette Bening) and “Edward” (dour Bill Nighy); she exudes bliss, in tandem with his robotic gloom; their only child “Jamie” (sensitive, Josh O’Connor) is conscripted as referee; his keen, ... Read More »
In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, New York, caught fire, 138 female workers were incinerated; 2016, the Rana factory, Bangladesh, collapsed, killing 1,138, primarily women workers; high-end fashion and its quest for inexpensive labor, hovers at the heart of these egregious wrongs; little has changed, unprotected by labor laws, these outrageous abuses are being catalogued by pivotal documentaries, YouTube videos ... Read More »
Prayerfully, there will not be a 4th; director Ahmed Khan’s latest action-saturated, thrill-seeker, is just that, all action and zero substance; Tiger Shroff (Jackie’s son) splendidly buffed, monopolizes every aerial, aerobic moment, ad nauseam; a handsomer model of his father, at thirty, he has time to cultivate his acting acuity, instead of spending countless days and hours in the gym. ... Read More »
“Of all the Emmas’, in all the films, in all the miniseries,” here treads the feistiest. Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) “Emma” published in 1815, England: George III was king; Lord Byron and Walter Scott were in full throttle; Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. Women invisible, an accessory in a patriarchal society; their fortunes, gifted to their husband’s after marriage. Stifled, stymied, ... Read More »
Slick, scary and reverential tribute to H.G. Wells 1897’s “The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance”; creepy scientist conjures, with the illusion of light, his transformative power of invisibility; Oliver Jackson-Cohen, “Adrian Griffin”, scores as a mad genius who controls his lover by exercising his mind over her matter; Elizabeth Moss, “Cecilia Kass”, dynamites her every moment of misery; a role ... Read More »
India is a study of contrasts, contradictions, consolidating archival directives and contemporary norms; it is a patriarchal society where women perpetually soar, bamboozle gender expectations; warriors, doctors, scientists, judges even a Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi), they dominate in any field they tackle. But lurking, tainting myriads of marriages, whether “arranged” or “love” is the subservient, submissive role a woman is ... Read More »
Kristin Stewart has the mettle that gives this “fair to middlin” biopic of Jean Seberg (1938-1979) a backbone of anemic strength; surrounded by platitudinous performances: Jack O’Connell, Vince Vaughn, Colm Meaney; half-baked-writing, diaphanous dialogue, divulging the appalling tactics of the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover, its autocrat. As “Saint Joan” (1957) Seberg was an instant teenage supernova; 1960’s “Breathless” sealed her ... Read More »
Loosely based reality series focusing on the United States involvement in the recruitment of Nazi scientists after the second world war and their elimination by Nazi hunters, in 1977, New York; disturbingly flawed, transitionally defective, but keenly acted by a number of the protagonists: Al Pacino is dynamic as “Meyer Offerman”, a Holocaust survivor, meting vigilante justice to the profoundly ... Read More »
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