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Chris Cabin
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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(undefined) |
Campion's series has the unmistakable timbre of daring art made naturally. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Nov 16, 2021
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Trainspotting (1996) |
The film finds pitch-black humor, horror, tragedy, and violence in a series of asides and digressions. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jul 05, 2021
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7 Days in Hell (2015) |
The fact that the film is an unmitigated romp is not something that should be apologized for or excused away. Indeed, such gleeful and lively slices of conviviality that embrace frivolity should be celebrated. - Collider
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| Posted Aug 06, 2019
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Amy Schumer: Live From the Apollo (2015) |
If Live at the Apollo doesn't have quite the number of guffaws that Inside Amy Schumer so often produces, it nevertheless remains a deliriously enjoyable and refreshing take on a rite of passage for most major comedians. - Collider
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| Posted Jul 31, 2019
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Some Like It Hot (1959) |
The film is an outrageous, hilarious, and amazingly unpretentious trip through a funhouse of sexual identities. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Feb 23, 2019
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Grave of the Fireflies (1988) |
Isao Takahata makes survival the thematic core of the story, but he never degrades his characters or fetishizes their suffering. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Dec 30, 2018
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Last Flag Flying (2017) |
Much as he did with Bernie and Before Midnight, Linklater shows a rousing ability to find humor in dark subject matter, - Collider
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| Posted Sep 28, 2017
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017) |
The film awkwardly and cumbersomely arrives at its revelations. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Apr 21, 2017
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Dark Night (2017) |
Dark Night is as much about gloom as it is astonishment, to see the power of an act or an image to either turn someone into a killer or to inspire them toward empathy. - Collider
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| Posted Feb 03, 2017
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Bad Santa 2 (2016) |
The fact that these gags and one-liners are meant to offend isn't even half as criminal as the fact that the humor in 'Bad Santa 2' is repetitious, poorly timed, and devoid of any real feeling. - Collider
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| Posted Nov 16, 2016
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The Lost City of Z (2016) |
A masterpiece. Wholly contemplative, resonantly melancholic, wise-and for Gray-cuttingly personal. - Collider
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| Posted Oct 21, 2016
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The Alchemist Cookbook (2016) |
Though The Alchemist Cookbook could easily be labeled a work of psychological horror, it transcends the familiar trappings of that genre to evoke something more human and empathetic than simply conveying the terrors of the human mind. - Collider
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| Posted Oct 07, 2016
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Gimme Danger (2016) |
Of course, this is first and foremost a movie about Iggy Pop and The Stooges, and under that rubric, Gimme Danger cannot be considered anything less than a heartfelt, viscerally entertaining, and entirely successful feat. - Collider
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| Posted Oct 04, 2016
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13TH (2016) |
A damning, nuanced case against mass incarceration. Ava DuVernay has gone beyond crafting a call for a rebellion. With this masterpiece, she's calling for a revolution. - Collider
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| Posted Oct 03, 2016
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Microbe and Gasoline (2015) |
Microbe & Gasoline can be more seen as a reflection of Gondry's life as an artist that is often asked to engage separate parts of his personality, as well as work with people who are very different yet strangely like-minded. - Collider
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| Posted Jul 01, 2016
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Blood Simple (1984) |
There's a simple magnetism inherent in this kind of filmmaking, and the Coens know how to orchestrate it. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jun 27, 2016
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All the Way (2016) |
The writing only takes the time to make LBJ into a fully fleshed-out, complex creature, while everyone else is judged simply by Roach and Schenkken's bland conception of moral codes. - Collider
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| Posted Jun 01, 2016
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All the President's Men (1976) |
Pakula was clearly talented from the moment he lensed his first feature, but like so many other New Hollywood icons, nationwide recognition didn't come until he took on the story of one of the great con jobs on the American people, the Watergate scandal. - Collider
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| Posted Apr 13, 2016
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The Girlfriend Experience (2008) |
Despite the rampant symbolism that Soderbergh conjures and indulges, The Girlfriend Experience is not a cold or clinical film at all. - Collider
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| Posted Apr 08, 2016
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) |
The fight scenes are utterly sublime, often shot to make great use of the width of the screen, and speak to the tremendous wonder and visceral passions that these kinds of stories aroused in artistic souls like Ang Lee. - Collider
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| Posted Feb 24, 2016
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Rififi (1955) |
Jules Dassin doesn't waste much time in expressing exactly what he thinks of the criminals and gangster culture that rule his underworld. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Aug 28, 2015
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Mr. Holmes (2015) |
Bill Condon ignores the delights and hardships of becoming an artist in lieu of simply presenting the long-touted liberating effects of art. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jul 13, 2015
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What We Did on Our Holiday (2014) |
The underlying, redundant, and underwhelming theme of the film is the pursuit of family unity at all costs. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jun 27, 2015
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Amy (2015) |
For the most part, the documentary succeeds in conveying a galvanizing sense of what made Winehouse so immediately engaging. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jun 27, 2015
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Ted 2 (2015) |
The film is a redundant showcase for Seth MacFarlane's racy, ****-centric sense of humor. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jun 24, 2015
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The Brink (2006) |
The Brink will likely appeal to college and high school kids who just got their first taste of Chomsky and Zinn. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jun 21, 2015
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Aloha (2015) |
After a while, the film's sing-a-song-for-the-world vibe, so buoyantly optimistic at first, becomes grating and smug. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted May 28, 2015
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Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) |
The film struggles against the rigid formula that typifies the Marvel universe, but only does so up to a point. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Apr 28, 2015
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Wondrous Boccaccio (2015) |
This isn't the Taviani brothers' strongest film to date, but it's one that feels uniquely at peace with the limitations of art and depiction in the face of oblivion. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Apr 22, 2015
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Toto si surorile lui (Toto and His Sisters) (2014) |
It conjures up risky, relevant, and quite personal ideas about drug prohibition and conveys experiences in recovery that are rattling. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Apr 22, 2015
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The Wolfpack (2015) |
The Wolfpack is a great scoop, a high-caliber personal-interest story with designs on the humanistic power of mainstream cinema. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Apr 19, 2015
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True Story (2015) |
If the film's copycat visual artistry illuminates nothing, at least its script is sincerely devoted to probing Finkel and Longo's odd partnership. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Apr 14, 2015
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Goodnight Mommy (2014) |
Fialo and Franz only finally subvert the viewer's perspective at the very end of the film, which speaks to a goal of crafting a formidable, atmospheric, and surprising work of genre, rather than attempting to transcend such molds. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Mar 16, 2015
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The Gunman (2015) |
The lack of any visual ingenuity, reflexivity, or awareness of genre tropes diminishes the intermittent pleasures of the action's slightly involving kineticism. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Mar 15, 2015
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Entertainment (2015) |
It conjures a menacing perspective on how the titular occupation hulls out empathy and cultivates a particularly unsettling strain of cynicism. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Mar 15, 2015
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Three Hearts (2014) |
Throughout, Benot Jacquot never loses sight of the primordial compulsions that drive feelings and expressions of great love and beauty. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Mar 12, 2015
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Cinderella (2015) |
The filmmakers cut the film to emphasize the story's familiar plot points, rather than highlight any instances of personal visual artistry. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Mar 11, 2015
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Chappie (2015) |
The film's exasperating atonality washes out any legitimate idea about identity, education, nature versus nurture, or artificial intelligence that Neill Blomkamp hoped to evince. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Mar 05, 2015
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Focus (2015) |
Focus turns out to be a strained trumpeting of the return of the proverbial king of the box office. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Feb 26, 2015
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Kes (1969) |
The politics of the schoolyard are more important than the politics of London in Kes, and though he finds himself continuously ridiculed, Billy can always come back to his beloved kestrel. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Feb 21, 2015
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Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015) |
Josh Heald's script takes the easy way out, ending the film with a torrent of slapdash sentimentality. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Feb 19, 2015
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McFarland, USA (2015) |
If there's a general air of emotional authenticity woven throughout all this garden-variety, faith-in-family hokum, it's in the racing scenes. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Feb 18, 2015
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Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) |
It's structured in familiar, safe terms, plays for very low stakes, and appeals to no one so much as white, male teenagers with chips on their shoulders. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Feb 09, 2015
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Jupiter Ascending (2015) |
For a story that's made up almost entirely of hogwash, Jupiter Ascending never feels as fun as it should. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Feb 05, 2015
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Project Almanac (2015) |
The film delivers the same misogynistic, faux-modernistic jolts of trashy humor and labored plotting that typify the work of co-producer Michael Bay. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jan 29, 2015
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Mommy (2014) |
When Xavier Dolan's tremendous empathy for the abandoned, medicated, and economically stressed is given full visual flight, it's easy to get lost in the rush. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jan 21, 2015
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Black Sea (2014) |
As much as the film is primarily a genre workout for director Kevin Macdonald, the script makes room for a tough-minded, psychologically corrosive depiction of vengeance. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Jan 12, 2015
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The Interview (2014) |
It essentially uses a major global issue to cheaply dress up what is two hours of hit-and-miss erection jokes. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Dec 15, 2014
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Wild (2014) |
Director Jean-Marc Vallée has created a film out of Cheryl Strayed's beloved 2012 memoir that never quite matches the blunt audacity of its simple title. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Dec 02, 2014
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Penguins of Madagascar (2014) |
It does well to put more focus on delivering a plethora of jokes, imitations, zippy repartee, and sight gags than its plot's familiar machinations. - Slant Magazine
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| Posted Nov 24, 2014
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