Rita Moreno. What spirit! What soul!

Such a long and successful career in a Hollywood that did not want her to be herself nor celebrate her Puerto Rican heritage.

The new documentary “Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided to Go For It” is an uplifting look at the EGOT [EGOT is what you call individuals who have won all four Emmy

I can't remember the last time the jury's president at the Cannes Festival got his mug on the official poster (don't go getting a big head now, Spike, you hear?). The Cannes Festival official poster was just released moments ago, and it features the director of "Do The Right Thing"  as the character Mars Blackmon in a still from his first film, "She's gotta have it" (1986), a first film that got him noticed. Lee will be this year's jury president, an invitation

Mariem Pérez Riera was able to bring her subject to Tribeca this past weekend for in-person screenings of the documentary “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It.” It had been a challenging year for Pérez Riera, who had to finish editing the film during covid-imposed lockdowns.

“I remember on Friday the 13th of March [2020] I finished locking the film,” Pérez Riera

Ellen Burstyn and James Caan are two of our finest actors and it is always nice to see them on screen. While their combined resumes contain some of the best films of the seventies (and a few of the eighties), today’s films are losing their adventurous spirit and, as the years go on, modern Hollywood gives actors of their caliber and age less and less to do.  These days when we see a cast that combines Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin

PARIS--The upsetting of our way of life, having a drink at the terrasse of a café with someone you love, reading, or watching people go by, to say nothing of taking in a movie at the theater (in a country where Netflix is thriving, theater attendance here remains strong), by the coronavirus pandemic, has been felt painfully. It was only this week when things began looking normal again, with throngs eagerly taking over watering holes and restaurants.

"The mysteries of life. The mystery of everyone who passes us on the street. What is happening in the lives of these people? Sometimes nothing. Perhaps something.”

Strangers walk by one another and might say “hello.” Other times, we glide by, silent and unaware, not knowing what plight others are experiencing. An acknowledgment, a smile, it has importance. It could save a life, even.

Over a long career Rita Moreno defied both her humble upbringing and relentless racism to become a celebrated and beloved actor, one of the rare EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) Award Winners of our time. Born into poverty on a Puerto Rican farm, Moreno and her seamstress mother immigrated to New York City when Moreno was five years old. After studying dance and performing on Broadway, Moreno was cast as any ethnic minority

For some, redemption lies at the end of a long and difficult path. For many, that road is without a bend, to others a winding and treacherous journey of doubt awaits. To those who have done jail time all this can seem impossible.

Writer/director E.B. Hughes’’s New York City-set “The Long Way Back” follows one Max Lyons, a man who’s  just been released from prison after doing a year and a half stretch for theft.

I've never really cared for the films of Zack Snyder. They may look great as the director gives each one his unique visual style but the films feel empty and badly scripted.

Apart from his debut feature as director, the surprisingly respectful remake of George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead,” every Snyder film became more and more insufferable. (It should be noted that, as of this writing

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” - John Lennon

Season Three of Aziz Ansari’s excellent Netflix series “Master of None” is quite the departure.

Season One was a lite and funny take on the New York dating lives of Ansari’s Dev and his close friends Denise and Arnold.