From the very first opening shot, one knew immediately that RESIDUE* was going to be a brilliant, cinematic work of art.  Graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts, first-time film director Merawi Gerima took his time in shooting the establishing shots – a series of slightly veiled, sometimes muffled sounds ranging from a protest evolving in slow motion and a police presence, to a street performer entertaining a crowd of spectators.

With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jamie Foxx in lead roles, how could anything go wrong in this action, sci-fi thriller written by first-time screenwriter Mattson Tomlin and directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost? In a word – plenty.

The storyline in “The Fundamentals of Caring” is not original.  Written and directed by Rob Burnett, it is based on the novel “The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving” by Jonathan Evison.  We saw a similar treatment of the subject of a severely handicapped person, whose caretaker changes his life, as well as his own, in  “The Intouchables,” a French film dealing with that theme.

It’s not necessary for me to say that we are living in difficult times – times that tax our ability to adjust to a life heretofore unknown to us. Like many of you, watching movies has been a way to escape from this dreadful reality into another world – one devoid of the challenges we are currently facing.

“One of Us,” is a no holds barred documentary feature illuminating the intricate, almost police state of the Hasidic Jews living in Brooklyn. Originally released in 2017, the film was produced and directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, former members of that biotic community, and illuminates the severe consequences to anyone wishing to leave the safety of that non-secular “state.”

The bidding was proceeding furiously and strong at the auction house when the Head Auctioneer suddenly announced: “A gentleman in this room has lost a wallet containing ten thousand pounds. If returned, he will pay a reward of two thousand pounds.”