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The Hunt
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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The film glosses over some of the drama of the story's resolution, but otherwise it maintains a steady terrible drumbeat of the horrifyingly credible wreck of the life of an innocent man.
Posted Aug 15, 2013
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The Wolf of Wall Street
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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The Wall wrestles with the kind of dystopian philosophical questions that keep the sophomore year of college in business.
Posted Aug 15, 2013
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Still
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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The fact that this is a "based on a true story" tale gives it a boost of legitimacy, and adds to our exasperation with a world in which common sense seems to have gone the way of the passenger pigeon.
Posted Aug 15, 2013
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Shouting Secrets
(2011)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Shouting Secrets is a good-hearted movie with plenty of flaws, but with enough strength and appeal that you're inclined to forgive it its trespasses.
Posted Aug 15, 2013
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The Act of Killing
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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It's surreal, phantasmagorical, and utterly devastating.
Posted Aug 15, 2013
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The Attack
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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In The Attack, the powerful and mostly-engrossing new film from Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri (West Bank), the terrible chasm of deep-rooted prejudice underlies a story of violence, fanaticism, deception, love, and heartbreak.
Posted Aug 15, 2013
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A Hijacking
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be captured by pirates and held for ransom, this movie is as close as you are likely to get, or care to.
Posted Aug 15, 2013
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Casting By
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Welcome to the world of the casting director, a world that flourished at its peak from the middle to the end of the last century. And meet its high priestess: Marion Dougherty.
Posted Aug 15, 2013
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Fill the Void
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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This is a movie with many strengths, from a subtly conceived lighting scheme to a complex understanding of its characters' conflicted emotions, and universally strong performances.
Posted Aug 15, 2013
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20 Feet From Stardom
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Morgan Neville's exhilarating documentary brings these backups singers front and center, and illuminates a dynamic of the 20th century rock music scene that too often got taken for granted.
Posted Jul 02, 2013
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Midnight's Children
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Midnight's Children manages to keep things pretty interesting, in a straightforward sort of way, with some good scenes and captivating imagery. But it never takes wing with the soaring possibilities of the novel's abracadabra magic.
Posted Jul 02, 2013
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Love Is All You Need
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Sometimes you just have to throw up your hands and say "This is wonderful," despite a storyline that telegraphs its scenes like a Western Union operator with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
Posted Jul 02, 2013
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Kon-Tiki
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Great adventures can make great movies, but it doesn't always work out that way.
Posted Jul 02, 2013
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In Bed with Ulysses
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Directors Alan Adelson and Kate Taverna have done a loving job of burrowing into the epic story of the circumstances and struggles involved in the writing and publishing of this seminal work of 20th century literature.
Posted Jul 02, 2013
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In the House
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Sex and menace hover perpetually around the edges of this superior psychological thriller from Francois Ozon (Potiche, Swimming Pool). Occasionally they even take center stage.
Posted Jul 02, 2013
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Hannah Arendt
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Hannah Arendt is a hymn to thinking.
Posted Jul 02, 2013
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Blancanieves
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Berger directs this retro tour-de-force with great gusto, and the performances are excellent.
Posted Jul 02, 2013
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Before Midnight
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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If you are not a fan of intelligent conversation in the movies, stop right here and go see Fast & Furious 6. Because talk is pretty much what you get. But it's fascinating talk.
Posted Jul 02, 2013
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Zero Dark Thirty
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Jessica Chastain delivers a powerful performance, and recent history teaches us that a glamorous woman agent is entirely possible in the agency, but sometimes you have to question Maya's outfits.
Posted May 21, 2013
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West of Memphis
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Director Amy Berg builds West of Memphis with the gripping suspense of a police thriller; but real life has not cooperated in providing an ending.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Stand Up Guys
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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What makes it work is the mastery of its three venerable lead actors, and the deep pockets of career history they bring along for this joy ride.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Side Effects
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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The movie revels in its twists and turns, and in the convoluted world of movie thriller logic most of them more or less work. Ask your doctor if Side Effects is right for you.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Promised Land
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Promised Land is a modern Frank Capra movie, and few in the audience will doubt where it, and Steve, are headed.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Precious Life
(2010)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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The terrible irony of this whole saga is the intense effort to save one tiny life while outside the hospital lives on both sides are being snuffed out wholesale.
Posted May 21, 2013
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On the Road
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Youth will be served, but in Walter Salles's rendering of On the Road, Jack Kerouac's seminal novel of a generational revolution at mid-century, it's served a little underdone.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Molly's Theory of Relativity
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Jeff Lipsky (Flannel Pajamas) steers his story through intriguing waves of philosophical clarity and doldrums of talky boredom.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Masquerade
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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It's a robust, colorful, masterfully-spun yarn. It calls to mind the great MGM technicolor swashbucklers of the forties and fifties, particularly The Prisoner of Zenda
Posted May 21, 2013
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Like Someone in Love
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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A quiet, conversational movie about love, deception, mistaken identity, seeming and being, and the vague ominous shadow of violence that drifts in the background like a cold mist coiling at the edge of a garden.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Les Misérables
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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The Hugo story is a cherished classic. But the execution here, in the hands of director Tom Hooper, who guided The King's Speech with such subtlety and grace, is garish, shrill, and breathtakingly over the top.
Posted May 21, 2013
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The Impossible
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Despite fine work by Ms Watts, Mr. MacGregor, and the oldest boy (Tom Holland), and a remarkable orchestration of digital effects, the movie treads water, and never catches the wave.
Posted May 21, 2013
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(undefined)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Director Andrew Adamson and 3D visionary James Cameron manage a beautiful, if boring, spectacle built around an Alice-in-Wonderland story
Posted May 21, 2013
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Caesar Must Die
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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It's not exactly Julius Caesar the Movie, although it contains some of the most gripping, persuasive Shakespearean acting you'll see in a long time.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Beyond the Hills
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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At two and a half somber hours, the movie sometimes requires the patience of holy vows to see it through.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Barrymore
(2011)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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The role is an actor's dream, a smorgasbord of everything from songs and dirty limericks to classical soliloquies, and Plummer plays it to the hilt.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Anna Karenina
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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A stunningly original vision that treads the border between triumph and disaster, and manages to keep miraculously to the side of the angels.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Star Trek Into Darkness
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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The truth that the movie invites us to take to heart is that a society that thinks a child is better off in an institution than in a loving parental environment is a society desperately in need of treatment.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Amour
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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This is a picture that deserves to be seen. All it needs is an audience steeled to watch it.
Posted May 21, 2013
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The Reluctant Fundamentalist
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Nair spins out a story that doubles as a psychological and a political thriller. The stakes rise, the tension mounts, the atmosphere grows incendiary, the air becomes hard to breathe.
Posted May 21, 2013
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No
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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It's Coke vs. Pepsi, with the fate and freedom of a nation to the winner.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Mud
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Mud is very cool, and McConaughey carves him with a sharp blade.
Posted May 21, 2013
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The Great Gatsby
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Baz Luhrmann's movie rendering of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel is The Great Gatsby the way Jay Gatsby might have directed it.
Posted May 21, 2013
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The Gatekeepers
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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To a man, they sound a common theme - that the policy of Israel toward the Palestinians simply doesn't work.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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If you find Andr Gregory a charming and fascinating figure, this is an easy movie to like.
Posted May 21, 2013
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At Any Price
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Dennis Quaid, in an inept, mugging performance, is Henry Whipple, a successful third generation Iowa farmer who works painfully hard at squeezing the charmin' as he glad-hands customers and closes deals at funerals with strangers.
Posted May 21, 2013
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Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's
(2013)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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A parade of fashion designers gushing about the store as the pinnacle of their dreams, and a chorus of recession-proof conspicuous consumers culled from the population most likely to be taken out and lined up against a wall come the revolution.
Posted May 21, 2013
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The Flat
(2011)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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"When Arnon Goldfinger's 98-year-old grandmother died she left behind a lifetime of possessions. But it was the secrets she took with her that supply the haunting narrative of this thought-provoking documentary."
Posted Dec 10, 2012
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Flatliners
(1990)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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The Flat can indulge itself in passages that are no more interesting than your neighbors' travel slides, but it opens can after can of ethical worms.
Posted Dec 10, 2012
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Hitchcock
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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There are lapses in judgment, lapses in timing, lapses in artistry that keep reminding us that great moviemaking isn't as simple as it looks. Alfred Hitchcock knew that.
Posted Dec 10, 2012
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3.5
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Any Day Now
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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A society that thinks a child is better off in an institution than in a caring, loving parental environment, whatever the sexes and sexual orientations of those parents, is a society desperately in need of treatment.
Posted Dec 10, 2012
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The Sessions
(2012)
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Jonathan F. Richards
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Hunt is superb, and fearless.Hawkes Is confined to the expression he can discover in his face, and in a voice thinned by the ravages of polio.
Posted Nov 20, 2012
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