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Lara Zarum
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Downhill (2020) |
Allow me to save you some time and money: Force Majeure is streaming on Amazon Prime. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Feb 24, 2020
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Dolittle (2020) |
If the muddled plot and aesthetic chaos of Dolittle leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, seek the antidote - an episode of Planet Earth. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jan 17, 2020
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The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) |
The film takes a grown-up approach to its young-adult material; this is a somewhat somber YA adaptation, with teenage subjects who are fully formed and all too human. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 31, 2018
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Set It Up (2018) |
Really, though, the movie is cinematic Soylent: flavorless, joyless, and devoid of any surprises. It's a testament to the film industry's years of neglect that we leave feeling full. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 12, 2018
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Whitney (2018) |
It's a well-worn tale, but that doesn't diminish the scale of its tragedy. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 05, 2018
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Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (2018) |
In Nanette, Gadsby strains against the impulse to end every joke with a punchline. To diffuse the tension as such would be a cop-out. She wants the audience to sit with it...powerful, uncomfortable, and searingly angry. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jun 28, 2018
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Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) |
The documentary is ultimately bittersweet, because it highlights just how alien Fred Rogers' philosophy of television has become today. But the film also functions as a gentle rallying cry. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jun 04, 2018
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The Tale (2018) |
Survivors of childhood sexual abuse will likely find The Tale a difficult watch. But it's damn near necessary viewing in this age of collective trauma unveiled. - Village Voice
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| Posted May 23, 2018
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Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie (2018) |
By two-thirds in, Tiny Shoulders starts to feel like a publicity exercise for the brand - an attempt to humanize the company by showing us the real women behind all that plastic. - Village Voice
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| Posted Apr 26, 2018
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Mudbound (2017) |
Despite its often brutal realism, Mudbound isn't masochistic; it leaves room for hope, and argues fiercely for love. - Village Voice
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| Posted Nov 14, 2017
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Too Funny To Fail (2017) |
Too Funny to Fail, which is now streaming on Hulu, is a sprightly and hilarious look at what a title card calls "arguably one of the most spectacular failures in television history." - Village Voice
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| Posted Nov 08, 2017
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Lady Bird (2017) |
Gerwig's directorial debut is a joy from start to finish, a warm, generous snapshot of teenage vulnerability and exuberance. - Village Voice
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| Posted Oct 26, 2017
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One of Us (2017) |
The film is a nuanced and moving illustration of the dilemma facing doubting members of the growing Hasidic community in New York City, home to the world's largest population of Jews outside of Israel. - Village Voice
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| Posted Oct 17, 2017
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Beauty and the Beast (2017) |
The film doesn't need to be given a dark twist like 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman; as with every fairytale, there's enough darkness in this story to begin with. - Flavorwire
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| Posted Apr 28, 2017
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Beaches (2017) |
A freeze-dried remake that'll leave you wistful for the fresh taste of the original. - Flavorwire
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| Posted Feb 01, 2017
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Passengers (2016) |
It's a tidy message, if not exactly the one 'Passengers' intends to send home: Man is bored, so man ruins woman's life. - Flavorwire
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| Posted Dec 20, 2016
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again (2016) |
The result feels less like a creative reimagining of a classic for a new generation and more like your mom threw you a Rocky-themed birthday party. - Flavorwire
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| Posted Oct 19, 2016
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Sausage Party (2016) |
By the time it reaches its, heh, climax with a storewide food fuck fest, any attempt at a serious critique of its interpretation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict feels a little ridiculous. - Flavorwire
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| Posted Aug 11, 2016
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O.J.: Made in America (2016) |
A penetrating look at a fallen hero in the context of race and police brutality in Los Angeles and the country as a whole. - Flavorwire
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| Posted Jun 08, 2016
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Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016) |
'Sorority Rising' is a broad summer comedy that has an unapologetically feminist message and is also hilarious. See? That wasn't so hard. - Flavorwire
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| Posted May 19, 2016
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Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016) |
'Norman Lear' paints a picture of a long-lost time when a sitcom could start a national debate - because the entire nation was watching. - Flavorwire
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| Posted May 17, 2016
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Spring Broke (2016) |
Despite the film's promisingly cheeky beginning, it quickly settles into a fairly conventional documentary, and bypasses the opportunity to tell a more interesting and culturally relevant story about spring break. - Flavorwire
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| Posted May 05, 2016
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Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) |
The "some" that everybody wants here is plainly sex, but the gang engages in enough undergraduate philosophizing to suggest that they're hoping to get more than just laid. - Flavorwire
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| Posted May 05, 2016
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Confirmation (2016) |
HBO's original film about the 1991 Clarence Thomas hearings is a quietly powerful portrait of institutional dysfunction in the face of an uncomfortable truth. - Flavorwire
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| Posted May 05, 2016
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Me Him Her (2015) |
Me Him Her has an admirably buoyant energy but a murky message and shortage of laughs. - Village Voice
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| Posted Mar 08, 2016
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Bleak Street (2015) |
Ripstein finds dark humor in his characters' diminished expectations, which sag so low they're subterranean. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jan 19, 2016
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Body (2015) |
On the surface a typical exercise in horror-film clich, Body turns out to be a far more thought-provoking creature, a parable of adulthood and a stinging indictment of white-girl privilege. - Village Voice
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| Posted Dec 10, 2015
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Christmas, Again (2014) |
Christmas, Again is a low hum of a downer, but maybe that's appropriate. As one customer crisply tells Noel, "Christmas sucks." - Village Voice
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| Posted Dec 01, 2015
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Entourage (2015) |
It's a shame none of the women develop past sketches of angry girlfriends and no-name one-night-stands. Sexist, sure, but also a failure of imagination. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jun 02, 2015
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