Peculiar Reviewer

The next big Netflix Original Series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt comes from creative kingpins Tina Fey and Robert Carlock ( SNL , 30 Rock ), who bring us a new protagonist - one that is beaming with positivity: the stupendously awkward Kimmy Schmidt. She's a small town sweetheart who's rescued from a cult ran by a manipulative preacher, where she was kept for some 15 years along with other "mole women." The preacher told the then-young teens there had been an apocalypse that wiped out every living thing... even... the... rats! Unbreakable , Kimmy Schmidt starts anew and adjusts to life in New York City, leaving her past behind and freeing herself from the "victim image" that's accompanied with a media frenzy, leachers, and Kimmy's archenemy: sympathy. If you aren't immediately sold by the opening theme song, a "mole women" interview remixed à la Charles Ramsey's "Dead Giveaway," you will be for countless other reas...

There is a lot of crap out there. So when something like A Most Violent Year comes along, it is my pleasure to bring that cinematic option to you. Director J.C. Chandor 's follow-up to his engaging lost-at-sea picture All Is Lost , is the gritty crime drama A Most Violent Year . Now, I am not one to seek out crime dramas past the mid '90s, but it was clear to me watching his previous feature that Chandor is a talented new director. The film unites Jessica Chastain ( Interstellar , Zero Dark Thirty ) with her former Juilliard classmate Oscar Isaac ( Inside Llewyn Davis , W.E. ), whom she suggested for the lead after Javier Bardem dropped out.  A Most Violent Year is set in New York City during a cold winter of 1981, statistically the highest crime year the city had seen. Amidst this chilling backdrop, the ambitious owner of a growing heating-oil delivery company, Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac), is being investigated under suspicion of corruption, by the District Attorney. Abel ...

After premiering at Sundance Film Festival in January to critical praise, Camp X-Ray , the directorial debut from writer/director Peter Sattler which stars Kristen Stewart and Peyman Moaadi was picked up by IFC Films and released OnDemand, on iTunes, and Amazon Oct. 17. Sattler opens the film with a shot of the Twin Towers up in smoke, which is then revealed to be current news on the television at Ali Amir's residence, played by Peyman Maadi ( A Separation ). Privately praying in his humble apartment, Ali suddenly has his head enveloped by a black bag and is whisked off on a boat, along with other visibly-and-audibly shielded men across the ocean. Sattler cuts to eight years later, where we follow Kristen Stewart 's Army private first class Amy Cole who has just arrived to Camp Delta located at Guantanamo Bay, and stationed to guard the detainees. Informed by her superior that this is a war zone, the guards are put on suicide watch every 3 minutes. While she's just be...

The best show on TV is not on TV - it's on Amazon. In fact, the place you can find groundbreaking shows now are on streaming giants like Amazon and Netflix. Working outside of the confines of censorship provides a sense of flexibility without a network. If creators are freer to express their vision - they don't need a television. They can bring us characters who need to be seen, because those characters represent real people who should be acknowledged in creative media, and often aren't. The actors who are given these career-defining roles can educate the masses through their major screen presence, thus cutting through stereotypes with each episode that passes.  When the pilot for the new dark comedy-drama Transparent was released on Amazon this past August in hopes of being picked up for a full first season, after watching it, I knew it had nothing to worry about - because a show that good will find its audience. I "signed on" to Transparent initially beca...

The Skeleton Twins is a small movie with a big heart. Estranged twins Maggie ( Kristen Wiig ) and Milo ( Bill Hader ) both attempt suicide on the same day, unaware that the other has done so, but to no avail. Maggie and Milo are a pair of broken skeletons who had parted ways 10 years ago because of a dark past that the twins haven't seemed to shake. A cheated death brings them together again.  Hader and Wiig play their dark, conflicted characters as if they'd never been a comedy duo before - as if Saturday Night Live , Adventureland (2009), and Paul (2011) had never happened. It is really something to watch these actors at the top of their game, moving in unison. Bill Hader's Milo is a struggling actor, and Maggie's gay brother from Hollywood who is now staying with her and her husband ( Luke Wilson ) at their home in New Hampshire. Milo is completely comfortable with his sexuality and in his own skin, unlike the people he encounters away from home. Milo uses c...