A quintessential American, a great actor, major playwright and poet, Sam Shepard is one of those human beings whose very presence uplifts and makes the world a better place. Shepard was a playwright, actor, author, screenwriter, and director. He wrote no fewer than forty-four plays and various books (short stories, novels and memoirs). In 1979 he received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He was ... more >
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“Dunkirk”
A unique movie experience
Fionn Whitehead, Harry Styles and Tom Hardy
Directed by Christopher Nolan
I know, I know, you’re jaded. You’ve seen it all in hundreds, nay, thousands of movies. War movies, survival movies, hanging-on-by-the skin-of-your-teeth movies, abandon-hope movies, never-lose-hope movies. You’ve also seen admirable or despicable actions from soldiers, officers, and ordinary civilians. But trust me, you have never seen all of that brought together in a package such as Christopher ... more >
OKJA, a Netflix premiere, delivers a bleak message couched in entertaining fiction
From the director of 2013's "Snowpiercer"
Seo-Hyun Ahn, Tilda Swinton and Steven Yeun
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
Can we fight evil? Save our lovely planet from ghouls such as Monsanto and other purveyors of various poisons into GMO plants and animals? Can the good people win? Can we save the human race while preventing our animals from being seen only in terms of sirloin or chops? Such is the theme of “Okja,” a Netlix film streaming on the video channel (and causing much distress at the recent Cannes film ... more >
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: “A quiet passion”
"Terence Davies tackles the Amherst recluse with sympathy and an understanding of the limitations thrust upon her"
Cynthia Nixon, Emma Bell, Sara Vertongen & Rose Williams
Directed by Terence Davies
Some one hundred thirty years after her death in the house in Amherst, Pennsylvania where she lived as a recluse dressed in white and scribbling poetry in the middle of the night, do we know more about Emily Dickinson than her ever-puzzled circle did? Books about her would make a hefty library, scholars who have spent a lifetime researching her would fill a mid-size conference room, her own ... more >
Roger Moore, the actor who played James Bond, dead at 89
Roger Moore, third actor in the James Bond franchise, died at age 89. Considered the most suave personification of the legendary secret agent, the actor thought there were worse labels to wear the rest of one’s life. As a matter of fact, he considered himself incredibly lucky to have been selected to step into the uninimitable Sean Connery's shoes whom he wisely didn’t try to copy, becoming his ... more >
“Hidden figures” is a keeper (here’s why)
"A jewel of a film"
Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson and Janelle Monae
Directed by Theodore Melfi
Several viewings of the trailer for “Hidden Figures” before my usual cinema-going routine failed to convince me that it was a film worth seeing. On the strength of those two minutes, I quickly pegged it as yet another moral, inspirational tale about disadvantaged people overcoming great odds. Talk about disadvantage. The three main characters in question are women--not easy today and even less ... more >
20th century women, it’s primo turns and great American cinema!
New from Annapurna Pictures and Archer Gray
Elle Fanning, Annette Bening and Greta Gerwig
Directed by Mike Mills
The mood is melancholy, the road ahead unclear. Which may explain the slew of biographical, autobiographical novels and films in a meandering Proustian fashion that go for the past. And, just like Proust’s oeuvre, never boring but intriguing and beguiling at the same time. After the Norwegian Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six-volume memoir, “My Struggle,” the gorgeous Mike Mills film, “20th Century ... more >
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