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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(1989)
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Owen Gleiberman
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Playing off Connery, Ford finds a new urgency in the character. There hasn't been an action hero this soulful since... well, since Sean Connery handed the role of James Bond over to lesser mortals.
Posted Mar 28, 2023
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Godzilla
(1998)
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David Bianculli
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The new Godzilla in this movie is sleek and fast, but the storyline is bloated and slow.
Posted Feb 15, 2023
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The Big Lebowski
(1998)
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John Powers
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The movie itself seems stoned... The Coens have always had a weakness for making us laugh at everything in the name of nothing. When you try to pin down what The Big Lebowski is actually saying, you're told that you're actually missing the point.
Posted Jan 19, 2023
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Gladiator
(2000)
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John Powers
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Although Gladiator is enjoyable enough, it lacks the pop of great pop culture. Roman movies usually have preposterous scripts, but this one is preposterous and doleful.
Posted Nov 01, 2022
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The Easy Life
(1962)
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John Powers
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When I first saw it 25 years ago, I couldn't wait to see it again right away. I've been waiting ever since.
Posted Sep 28, 2022
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Beloved
(1998)
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John Powers
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Here is serious filmmaking with a vengeance.
Posted Feb 02, 2022
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High Tide
(1987)
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Michael Sragow
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It depicts the ties that bind -- and strangle -- with humor and compassion.
Posted Feb 03, 2021
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Tough Guys Don't Dance
(1987)
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Michael Sragow
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Turgidly awful.
Posted Feb 03, 2021
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Colors
(1988)
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Michael Sragow
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The depiction of gangs in Colors doesn't go deep enough to arouse any passions. The movie makers are more interested in the cops, and they seem to think that we are too.
Posted Feb 03, 2021
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The Pick-Up Artist
(1987)
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Michael Sragow
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The Pick-Up Artist has wit, sweetness, and exuberance.
Posted Feb 03, 2021
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Willow
(1988)
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Michael Sragow
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Willow mostly calls to mind dozens of other, better movies, ranging from Lucas's own Star wars to the Ten Commandments and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It's a malformed Tolkien-type fantasy.
Posted Dec 21, 2020
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Black Girl
(1966)
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John Powers
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Sembene's debut feels as timely today as it did half a century ago... As Westerners, we begin the movie thinking we're watching Africans, but we realize that Africans like Sembene have been watching us, too, and know us far better than we know them.
Posted Jun 05, 2020
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Hustlers
(2019)
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John Powers
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Lopez's Ramona exudes power. She's the sun around which Destiny and the whole movie orbits.
Posted Jan 10, 2020
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Portrait of a Lady on Fire
(2019)
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John Powers
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Portrait Of A Lady On Fire is erotic, but not in the male-gazy (ph) way of movies...
Posted Jan 10, 2020
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Cold War
(2018)
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John Powers
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Cold War is an immaculately crafted film shot in exquisite black and white and marvelously acted - especially by its incandescent lead actress Joanna Kulig, whose mercurial performance recalls Jeanne Moreau.
Posted Feb 08, 2019
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Destroyer
(2018)
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John Powers
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If "Destroyer" sounds like some girl-power version of a cop movie, I can assure you that it's darker and more interesting than that.
Posted Jan 07, 2019
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Vox Lux
(2018)
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John Powers
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I disagree with this puritanism about pop culture, but I respect that "Vox Lux" actually has ideas on the subject. And I'm happy that such moralism doesn't prevent Corbet from filling his own movie with style, humor and pleasure.
Posted Dec 10, 2018
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22 July
(2018)
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John Powers
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If Anders Behring Breivik represents today's West at its self-devouring worst, the movie wants us to see that Viljar's endurance offers a reason for hope.
Posted Oct 10, 2018
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Jane Fonda in Five Acts
(2018)
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John Powers
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Although this doc is as conventional as Fonda herself has never been, Lacy tells a terrific story. The film reminds us why Fonda is the only actress of the '60s generation whose name still resonates.
Posted Sep 24, 2018
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Won't You Be My Neighbor?
(2018)
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John Powers
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Tacitly championing tolerance every single day, Rogers used his authority to make everyone feel appreciated for being who they actually are.
Posted Jul 27, 2018
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Hannah Gadsby: Nanette
(2018)
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John Powers
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Righteously angry, she shows us the real woman behind the amused persona we first met.
Posted Jul 27, 2018
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Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
(2018)
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David Bianculli
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What's even more interesting are the comments from other very funny comics who drop their guard here and speak very seriously about both the comedy and personality of Robin Williams.
Posted Jul 19, 2018
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Fahrenheit 451
(2018)
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David Bianculli
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This adaptation hits every point and every scene with the subtlety of a firehose.
Posted May 21, 2018
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Jack Irish: Bad Debts
(2012)
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John Powers
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Irish's blend of old and new masculinity is perfectly conveyed by Pearce, who's not merely the best reason to watch these movies, but one of the best reasons to watch anything.
Posted May 18, 2018
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Crossfire Hurricane
(2012)
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John Powers
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As Crossfire Hurricane reminds us, the Stones were consciously designed to occupy a less reputable place in the pop zeitgeist... They embodied psychic danger, a Dionysian force flirting with all manner of uncontrollable sensuality and violence.
Posted May 18, 2018
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Skyfall
(2012)
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John Powers
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Bond can be forever reinvented, reinterpreted, updated. And as Skyfall is showing, he's more popular than ever.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Ajami
(2009)
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John Powers
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It's a dark, unsparing vision, yet what makes watching bearable, even pleasurable, is Copti and Shani's humane intelligence.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Battle of the Sexes
(2017)
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John Powers
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Serves as a useful reminder of the crazy-huge role that pop culture plays in our national life, where the border between entertainment and real life is more porous than anywhere else.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
(2016)
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John Powers
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Builds to a dazzlingly regulatory ending, one that's as elegantly constructed as its hero's life is messy.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Kedi
(2016)
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John Powers
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A loving, gorgeously shot ode to the hundreds of thousands of cats living on the streets of Istanbul.
Posted May 17, 2018
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A Bigger Splash
(2015)
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John Powers
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If you want to enjoy a location being used properly - and alluringly - let me suggest A Bigger Splash... this remake of a 1969 French thriller offers the brand of grown-up entertainment that has all but vanished from our theaters.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Zero Days
(2016)
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John Powers
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Filled with juicy historical tidbits, it keeps expanding its frame of reference to reveal one of the looming, but invisible threats of the digital age.
Posted May 17, 2018
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War Dogs
(2016)
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John Powers
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Although this is easily [Todd] Phillips' most ambitious film... he remains a specialist in lavishness.
Posted May 17, 2018
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My Golden Days
(2015)
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John Powers
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Although it has the offkilter rhythm of actual memories and employs stylistic flourishes like 80s-era split-screens, My Golden Day" is never hard to follow.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Certain Women
(2016)
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John Powers
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Reichardt is tuned to precisely the thing that most movies cut out, the largely undramatic texture of daily life.
Posted May 17, 2018
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13TH
(2016)
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John Powers
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Even as I find large parts of 13th convincing, I also find myself resisting its sleekly-packaged presentation of the jagged, messy, exhaustingly convoluted complexities of race in America.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
(2008)
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John Powers
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[Director Kevin] Rafferty skillfully uses this collection of characters to offer a fascinating piece of social history.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Terror's Advocate
(2007)
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John Powers
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Makes every lawyer joke you've ever heard seem eminently fair.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Still Life
(2006)
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John Powers
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Jia is a great director, and much of Still Life's power comes from the way he depicts his characters moving through the landscape... Jia's eye for composition recalls Antonioni in its rigor and poetry, but he isn't after mere pictorial splendor.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Gomorra
(2008)
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John Powers
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Highly conscious of how it portrays the mafia, Garone's film serves as a useful antidote for those of us who watch and love movies that transform murderers into mythic figures.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Let the Right One In
(2008)
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John Powers
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I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's probably the best vampire movie in the last 75 years... Let the Right One In takes its sting from the fact that the one you let in your door may, in the long run, not be so right after all.
Posted May 17, 2018
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The Beaches of Agnès
(2008)
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John Powers
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A wonderful portrait of a full life - smart, touching, sometimes unabashedly silly...
Posted May 17, 2018
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American Casino
(2009)
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John Powers
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This smart, touching documentary traces the connections between Wall Street's high-flying practices and the countless citizens on Main Street who now face bankruptcy and eviction.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Rags to Riches
(1941)
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John Powers
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An engrossing, elegiac history of the New York garment industry, largely seen through the eyes of those who've worked there.
Posted May 17, 2018
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The Trip
(2010)
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John Powers
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Now, in a way, The Trip is terribly up to date. Now, in a way, The Trip is terribly up to date. The Trip harks back to when movies, still not far removed from vaudeville, showcased stars who were able to do acts...
Posted May 17, 2018
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A Separation
(2011)
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John Powers
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A Separation is a movie that keeps expanding, like one of those paper pellets that, when you drop it in water, blossoms into a flower.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Cold Weather
(2010)
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John Powers
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[Director] Aaron Katz... may not have much money to work with but has everything else - a sly sense of humor, a light touch with relationships, and a keen sense of visual beauty. These virtues are all on display in this dreamy shape-shifter of a picture.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Nostalgia for the Light
(2010)
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John Powers
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An exquisitely shot essay on ultimate things - time, space, memory and how creatures so small and frail as human beings find meaning in a gigantic cosmos.
Posted May 17, 2018
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Poetry
(2010)
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John Powers
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Here [Lee Chang-dong] takes a premise that sounds almost laughably boring - an old woman takes a poetry class - and elevates it into a work as constantly surprising as it is enigmatic and moving.
Posted May 17, 2018
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The Mechanic
(2011)
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John Powers
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Statham belongs to the tradition of heroes, from John Wayne through Harrison Ford, who are laconic to the point of grumpiness. Yet it's not his terse toughness that makes him special. Oddly enough it's his fastidiousness...
Posted May 17, 2018
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