Pino's Pizza

Like many
my childhood was not idyllic
not to say it was traumatic
although there is always
a degree of trauma
for any child as they move
from adolescences to adulthood
But like many
there were also small excitements
and simple joys
not least among them
the weekly visits to the vaulted
Pino's Pizza
where my father would schmooze
with the Perrecone paterfamilias
and matriarch as I basked in their
warm wood paneled store front
and maybe fed a quarter
to the aging Mrs. Pac-Man
and returning home with bounty
we would feast
on BBQ chicken or Canadian bacon
Hawaiian or taco pizzas
with my mother periodically having her own
small anchovie concoction
and although Pino's has since closed
it's memory of hospitable comfort
and peerless deliciousness
will never fade
it remains my Platonic ideal
my ur-pizza
a greatness I may search for
but never again attain.

Top 51 Movies Of The Decade

Comedy:
Always Be My Maybe
Bernie
Cedar Rapids
Game Night
Girls Trip
Goon
Top Five
Wild Nights With Emily

Comedy/Drama:
The Big Sick
Eighth Grade
The Farewell
Hunt For The Wilderpeople
Listen Up Philip
Paddleton
Support The Girls

Drama:
Cold War
Creed
Columbus
The Florida Project
Ida
The Last Black Man In San Francisco
The Lost City of Z
Moonlight
Paterson
Roma
Tangerine
Tully

Crime/Thriller:
BlacKkKlansman
Blue Ruin
Christine
The Guard
Thoroughbreds
Winter's Bone
You Were Never Really Here

Horror:
The Babadook
Get Out

Science Fiction/Fantasy:
Arrival
Blade Runner 2049
Dredd
Edge Of Tomorrow
Holy Motors
The Lobster
Mad Max: Fury Road
What We Do In The Shadows

Documentary:
The Act of Killing
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
The Flat
Into The Abyss
Minding The Gap
Stories We Tell
The Wolfpack

'Cunningham' A Review

Cunningham is a documentary about the life and career of dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham. Through archival rehearsal and interview footage as well as some archival and contemporary interviews used as defacto voice over narration cut with notable Cunningham pieces restaged by modern dancers we get a sense of the electric artists oeuvre if not the man himself.

The film consists of some beautiful, thoughtful montage-style composition of mostly black-and-white footage taken by Cunningham and his company of their rehearsals and various performances from 1950-1980 along with provocatively staged(almost exclusively in non-traditional performance spaces) and costumed dance pieces choreographed by Cunningham and contemporarily done. It's an interesting, almost abstract, impressionistic way to approach the now pretty tired bio-doc relying most heavily on the subject's artistic discipline to convey who he is.

We get to know Cunningham as an artist but we know virtually nothing about him as a person. Which isn't necessary however there are implications and hints of him being a narcissistic guru-like control freak that that period in NYC seemed to cultivate in spades for all the various arts which somewhat shadow what a singular creative he clearly was.

A beautiful bold piece of filmmaking fluidly translating one of the most inaccessible artforms, dance, through the screen, although it's examination of it's central subject is somewhat perfunctory.

See It.

Rehearsal

Working on a new play
after some years away
I am reminded
of the comfort I found
in the theater
from the beginning-
the familiarity
of blocking short-hand,
the feeling of belonging
cultivated by a cast,
the small and secret world
carved out by a production,
the satisfying impermanence
of a show's inevitable end-
and I feel a soothing fidelity
for the stage
as it affords
the fluid practice of imagination
a solitary space for exploration
and an innate abiding camaraderie.

Top 5 Movies Of 2019

Top 5:
Always Be My Maybe
The Farewell
The Last Black Man In San Francisco
Paddleton
Wild Nights With Emily

Honorable Mentions:
Ask Dr. Ruth
Booksmart
Brittany Runs A Marathon
JoJo Rabbit
Knives Out
Long Shot
Meeting Gorbachev
The Peanut Butter Falcon
Sword Of Trust
Waves

Disappointments:
Doctor Sleep
Late Night
Motherless Brooklyn
Pet Sematary
Terminator: Dark Fate

Most Overrated:
Joker
Marriage Story

Most Underrated:
Honey Boy

Worst of the Year:
The Beach Bum

Performances of the Year:
Jennifer Lopez - Hustlers
Jillian Bell and Utkarsh Ambudkar – Brittany Runs A Marathon
Joe Pesci – The Irishman
Jonathan Majors - The Last Black Man In San Francisco
Lupita Nyong'o - Us
Ray Romano – Paddleton
Willem Dafoe – The Lighthouse
Zhao Shuzhen and Awkwafina – The Farewell

Scenes of the Year:
Baboon Attack – Ad Astra
Box Truck Monologue – Sword Of Trust
Criminal Dance – Hustlers
Keanu Dinner - Always Be My Maybe
The Play – Last Black Man In San Francisco
Shooting Lancer – Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

'Uncut Gems' A Review

Uncut Gems is crime drama about Howard Ratner(Adam Sandler) a NYC jeweler with a gambling problem and outstanding debts who attempts to turn his life around with the sale of a rare black opal.

Unquestionably Sandler is better than he has been since Punch Drunk Love conveying humor and pathos along with his innate likability which brings this complicated morally precarious character into a compelling emphatic(if not necessarily sympathetic) focus. The cast is absolutely stacked with incredible talent from well known New Yorkers like Eric Bogosian and Idina Menzel, a surprisingly assured Kevin Garnet, Lakeith Stanfield, and a host of normal-looking intriguing characters that look like actual NYC residents. Not only are the performances across the board great but they look and feel authentic, conveying a New York City that actually exists and has some depth and character rather than the sanitized, wealthy, blandly attractive version we so often get in film(Marriage Story).

The film has the Safdie brothers signature neon and gloom color pallet and thrumming, hypnotic electronic score. The technical elements elevate and complement the journey and mindset of the lead evoking this frenetic, frantic, hubristic feeling the Sandler character kind of surfs throughout.

A gritty, honest, at times funny look at a flawed man trying to succeed.

See It.

'1917' A Reveiw

1917 is a war epic set in WWI which takes place over the course of a day in one (mostly) continuous shot. In Northern France two British soldiers Schofield(George MacKay) and Blake(Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a mission to deliver a message to stop a British assault by a different Battalion of which Blake's brother is a part.

Chapman and MacKay have good chemistry and give good physical performances as the story is essentially an actual race, and there are moments the two hit some real emotion but because of the ceaseless narrative momentum no time is particularly taken to really flesh out either character, which isn't necessarily a criticism especially given their youth. There is a parade of cameos from British stars, who all exciting to see but none who really distinguish themselves primarily because no one outside the two leads has anything greater than around 60 seconds of screen time.

Visually the film is superb, majestic landscapes both picturesque and ghastly. The fluid continuous camera movement provides a propulsive and thrilling pace and the story itself, set within one of histories great wars that has not been immortalized countless times on celluloid it is not only an animated dynamic war story but one that sheds light on a conflict we know little about.

An exciting, effective, if not altogether singular war movie.

See It.