kalaann amilindah jammea
Matilda Equiluz
Other than this, the glimpses of family life are no doubt accurate. Cooper consulted with the Bernstein siblings, and they gave him permission to shoot at the family house in Connecticut. Makeup makes Cooper look like a close facsimile of the old Bernstein and a sort-of facsimile of the dashing younger one. Likewise, Cooper convincingly mimics the voice of the elder Lenny. He sounds unpleasantly shrill as the hyperactive young conductor and composer taking classical music, Broadway and ballet by storm.
He was highly literate, and delved deeply and tirelessly into philosophy, psychology and religion. He had an intense relationship with Judaism, questioning everything. He was gregarious and needed people. He was strikingly handsome and exuded sex appeal. He was a chain smoker to the end and drank way too much, put on weight in his 60s and had insomnia. He died in 1990 at 72 of emphysema. He was, above all, a conductor. Call him Lenny but do what he tells you, whether you like it or not.
He was on the road a lot of the time, and it is hardly surprising that Bernstein would have a varied, hyperactive sex life. But, by all accounts, he was a loving father and profoundly devoted, in his own way, to Felicia. There is enough interest in this for a pretty good Hollywood movie.
"Black Panther" is a movie you hoped would pump you up with an adrenaline rush. Instead, it's a slow, steady trickle of excitement. As far as Marvel movies go, that puts it firmly in the lower ranks, among the likes of "Thor: The Dark World" and "The Incredible Hulk."
Chadwick Boseman has already energetically established the character in his "Captain America: Civil War" cameo, and this is his opportunity to flex his muscles and show what makes the mysterious Wakandian monarch tick. Boseman's smoldering performance holds up the character with aplomb, especially when he's out of the mask and manipulating friends and foes with a steely glare and seething rhetoric.
Black Panther at his best is a silk-smooth bolt of controlled rage, taking down marks with ninja speed, his bulletproof, energy-refracting suit rendering him an all but invulnerable angel of vengeance. Bolstered with top-tier CGI effects, "Black Panther" is best when it dispenses with the storytelling and steeps in action.
Director Ryan Coogler ("Fruitvale Station," "Creed") has proven adept at ironing out complicated narratives and sprawling casts of characters into tight, relatable packages. He strains here, though, struggling to condense the sprawling, globe-hopping espionage saga into a 135-minute running time that somehow feels too short and rushed, as though it were a "The Godfather"-sized novel shrunken down to movie size, or more worthy of a 10-episode Netflix series.
As far as characterizations and storytelling goes, the film has more in common with the second-tier Marvel tales on Netflix, including "Daredevil," "Luke Cage" and "The Punisher." The overall Marvel universe scope shrinks away from view due to the tight focus on T'Challa and his personal issues of heritage and country.
The saga zips among various time frames and global settings, pitting T'Challa against archrival Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), who vies for control of the Wakandian crown and the mantle of its magic and technology-infused costumed hero. The African equivalent to Atlantis or El Dorado, Wakanda is bolstered with advancements that are light years beyond western society, and its leaders have protected its society by hiding it and disguising its public face as that of a poverty-plagued, agrarian culture.
Arms dealers and greed, however, have pushed Wakanda into the spotlight with a precious metal found only in the country, as well as artifacts crafted from the material, making their rounds on the black market, threatening to expose Wakanda and tip the balance toward adversaries. Stuck in this convoluted story, T'Challa is forced into James Bond-style espionage and diplomatic housekeeping rather than typical superhero train-stopping, child-rescuing and building-tops posing.
The film strains to grind against formulaic expectations, but probably leaned too hard in that direction. "Black Panther" is so intent on standing out from the Marvel pack that it falls behind its best and brightest.
90f70e40cf