Some stars are born despite black holes. Last week, I watched the Malayalam blockbuster film RDX on Netflix. It lives up to the hype of a kickass out-and-out action movie. Even the film’s villains are receiving public adulation, a rare occurrence among a lead-obsessed audience, and this film has three of them. The film works […]
A LITTLE STAR IS BORN Read More »
One-line review: Mobsters with hats and hearts. Miller’s Crossing sank at the box office despite being the opening film at the New York Film Festival and was panned by critics. One of the film’s vehement critics, Roger Ebert, did not even mention the lead character, Tom Reagan (Gabriel Bryne), in his review. Of course, it
MILLER’S CROSSING (1990) Read More »
One-line review: This Christopher Nolan’s bomb of a movie restores humanity. I saw Oppenheimer thrice, once in a regular IMAX and then twice in the IMAX 70 mm on consecutive days. I had second thoughts the third time about spending three hours again so soon, but I wanted to experience this rare phenomenon of human
OPPENHEIMER (2023) Read More »
In an early writing exercise in her book, “The Way of a Fearless Writer,” Beth Kempton asks you to empty your bag and write about its contents. I decided to write about the “god pouch” I have carried in my bag for over a decade, although its contents have doubled. My god pouch is my
One-line review: A man on the run for “a” life. This film is the Safdie Brothers’ first outing with a big star and paved the way for convincing Adam Sandler to do their dream project. But interestingly, in this case, the global sensation Robert Pattinson sought them out after seeing their previous movie’s trailer. Pattinson
One-line review: Eternal friendships bloom in the Wild West. When the Coens announced they were remaking True Grit, many fans of the 1969 classic that won John Wayne his only Oscar raised their eyebrows. But the Coens were interested in the original source, the late and reclusive author Charles Portis’ best-selling and much-loved novel. The
Time just gets away from us with True Grit. Last week was magical. I stumbled upon the 2010 Coen Brothers’ film, True Grit, and was so besotted with it that I went down the True Grit rabbit hole: the 1969 classic starring John Wayne, Charles Portis’s book, and the audiobook read by the delightful Donna
The guilt-free True Grit binge Read More »
One-line review: Finnish True Grit. Sisu has the advantage (at least when I saw it) of being seen by an audience with no expectations, but then it delivers and delivers. It tries to get some credibility by informing us in the credits that it was edited in the same studio that made John Wick. But
Life is more than cause and effect. I decided to write this piece after reading the article about the murder of David Breaux (pictured above), also known as the “compassion guy,” a regular fixture in the UC Davis park. Breaux, a Jamaican immigrant, and Stanford graduate, shunned the typical path of finding a cushy job
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Jane Eyre is the original feminist. I recently revisited my favorite book, Jane Eyre, after watching the superb film, Emily, about Emily Brontë. Although I’ve often re-read my favorite sections of the book, I was rereading it from cover to cover after more than a decade. Some of its chinks, like its black-and-white portrayal of
JANE EYRE’S TIMELESS APPEAL Read More »