Whiteley

The most fundamental reason one paints is in order to see. –Brett Whiteley I had never heard of the painter Bret Whiteley. A new documentary is a fantastic portrait of a superb talent who was born in 1939 and died much too young at the age of 53 in a motel room. Once [Read More]

Beauty and the Beast

As an adult you walk into Beauty and the Beast not expecting suspense how the story will end. Of course the beast will get the beauty in the end! The open questions are about their journey. What challenges will the couple face before their happy ending? For me the best part of the [Read More]

Keeping up with the Joneses

A middle-age couple drops of their two boys for summer camp. For the first time since the kids were born, the husband and wife are alone. Time for some wild sex and parties? Not really. The two find it difficult to let lose until a new couple moves into the neighborhood. They seem to [Read More]

Moonlight

The moment when Faye Dunaway pronounced erroneously La La Land as the winner of the 2017 Oscar for Best Picture was one of the most dramatic moment in all of Oscar history. A few winners’ speeches later, the director of La La Land graciously told the stunned audience there has been a mistake! 
“Moonlight is [Read More]

Definitely, Maybe

Definitely, Maybe offers some new ideas for how to create tension in the romantic comedy genre. As always boy and girl cannot make up their mind who they want to be with. But the story is told in a different way. Our boy just received his divorce papers and is about to sign them. His [Read More]

Manchester by the Sea

This wonderful film deals with an intriguing question: how do you deal with something that one can never truly recover from? Casey Affleck gives a stunning performance. If I were a voting member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, I would vote to give him the Oscar for best male performer in a leading role. Do [Read More]

Red Dog – True Blue

This prequel of the funny Red Dog disappoints. It has a very weak story. The original Red Dog was based on an amazing true story written up in a book that even the best fiction would have difficulty matching. So the screenplay writer, Daniel Taplitz, had a relatively easy time. But in this prequel [Read More]

LaLa Land

Unlike in the case of Sully, I knew very little about Lala Land except that it is a musical. Lala Land feels very fresh. It resurrects the musical genre but does it in a way that our current sensibilities are not offended. The most interesting part of the film is how it vi- sually told [Read More]

Sully

Sully has been nominated by many critics as a top film of the year. I knew why many critics loved the film. Sully rejects landing a plane that lost both engines safely on the Hudson River and saving the lives of all 155 passengers makes him a hero. He insists that he was [Read More]

Departures

Christmas 2016. This wonderful film from Japan landed in my house during the holidays. It has been circling the airwaves since 2008. I am glad it finally reached me. The film won an Oscar for best foreign film and it is a treat fitting the holiday spirit. At the center of Depatures [Read More]