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Fallen Leaves
(2023)
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John Powers
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A sentimental tale saved from soppiness by its rigorously dry style.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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Maestro
(2023)
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Anastasia Tsioulcas
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The film brims with energy from Bernstein's early years, cast in black and white, to the super color-saturated, drug-fueled 1980s. Its dazzling visuals match the music — and yes, somewhere in there, Maestro is also a movie about making music.
Posted Nov 22, 2023
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Stamped From the Beginning
(2023)
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Eric Deggans
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Won't necessarily surprise those who already know this history, but may still be tough to watch for those sensitive to stories about the exploitation of marginalized people.
Posted Nov 20, 2023
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May December
(2023)
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Justin Chang
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Haynes, working from a smart, layered script by Samy Burch, comes at this material from a fascinating angle.
Posted Nov 16, 2023
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The Killer
(2023)
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Justin Chang
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I'm not suggesting his story cries out for a sequel, but by the time this very dark comedy reaches its strangely sunny ending, you're curious to see what job this killer — and Fincher himself — might take on next.
Posted Nov 09, 2023
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TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR
(2023)
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Bilal Qureshi
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It is wildly entertaining but it is also a curious product that speaks to the larger themes of our IP-based age of content – recycled, reused and repackaged spin-offs that find new, often exciting ways to extract consumers.
Posted Nov 08, 2023
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Priscilla
(2023)
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Aisha Harris
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Coppola's glistening and brooding dissection of Priscilla's life with Elvis reveals a clear-eyed vision for depicting the intoxication of fame and how easily it's wielded upon the young and impressionable.
Posted Nov 02, 2023
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Jules
(2023)
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Bob Mondello
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Director Marc Turtletaub keeps the mood light, though there's a poignant undertow to a story that's as much about being allowed to grow old with dignity as it is about an extraterrestrial.
Posted Oct 25, 2023
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Killers of the Flower Moon
(2023)
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Bob Mondello
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Along with sweeping vistas, rampant criminality and gaslit marital melodrama, the film is a gangster tale of greed, racism, lies and violence. It is, in short, American history.
Posted Oct 20, 2023
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Anatomy of a Fall
(2023)
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Justin Chang
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Anatomy of a Fall persuasively suggests that every marriage is ultimately something of a mystery.
Posted Oct 13, 2023
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Dicks: The Musical
(2023)
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Glen Weldon
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While Dicks: The Musical is a lot of dumb fun and the songs mostly work, the film is locked in a struggle with itself that's the inevitable result of its origins as a theatrical revue.
Posted Oct 13, 2023
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The Creator
(2023)
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Justin Chang
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Even the most strikingly beautiful images — like the one of high-tech laser beams shimmering over a beach at sunset — are tethered to a story and characters that never take on a life of their own.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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Bottoms
(2023)
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Aisha Harris
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In the realm of black comedies unabashedly embracing teen nastiness, Heathers walked so Jawbreaker could run, Mean Girls could fly, and so Bottoms can now proudly land in outer space.
Posted Aug 22, 2023
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
(2023)
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Stephen Thompson
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If you've stayed away from TMNT over the years — whether because of "Cowabunga!" or "Ninja Rap" or Michael Bay or whatever — don't be afraid to break out your swords, shout something that sounds cool and leap back into the fray.
Posted Aug 04, 2023
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Barbie
(2023)
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Aisha Harris
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It's a Barbie world you'll be more than happy to have visited, even as it confounds.
Posted Jul 19, 2023
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Theater Camp
(2023)
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Bob Mondello
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"Theater Camp" kind of has my name on it.
Posted Jul 17, 2023
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
(2023)
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Bob Mondello
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Mangold's action sequences may not have the lightness Steven Spielberg gave the ones in Indy's four previous adventures, but they're still madcap and decently exciting.
Posted Jul 01, 2023
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The Flash
(2023)
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Glen Weldon
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Like its main hero, The Flash doesn't hide how hungry it is to be seen as worthy, even though it spends much of its time running on empty.
Posted Jun 15, 2023
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The Blackening
(2022)
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Aisha Harris
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Many Black viewers have yelled at the screen for the preposterous decisions made in countless movies like this one. The Blackening will be a different experience.
Posted Jun 14, 2023
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Being Mary Tyler Moore
(2023)
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David Bianculli
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Being Mary Tyler Moore helps you appreciate the show, and the actor, even more.
Posted May 22, 2023
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The Little Mermaid
(2023)
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Aisha Harris
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My nostalgia for the 1989 Little Mermaid, a movie I can quote by heart, has probably never been stronger than it is now. Neither has my wearied sense of déjà vu.
Posted May 22, 2023
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Love to Love You, Donna Summer
(2023)
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Eric Deggans
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Offers important context about her talent and lots of great performance footage. But like the artist herself, the film can also be maddeningly enigmatic, just when you want to know more.
Posted May 18, 2023
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The Night of the 12th
(2022)
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John Powers
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Focusing on a single, real-life murder investigation she covers, Moll has created a film that keeps looking like the conventional police procedural that it actually isn't.
Posted May 17, 2023
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
(2023)
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Glen Weldon
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To watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is to watch a filmmaker under the wildly mistaken belief that the best way to get you to absorb what he's saying is by screaming it directly into your ear.
Posted May 03, 2023
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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
(2023)
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Linda Holmes
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The movie goes easy on a lot of the elements Fremon Craig could have dialed up, and it's to the story's benefit.
Posted Apr 29, 2023
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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
(2023)
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Justin Chang
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More than 50 years later, it's been terrifically adapted to the big screen by the writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig, with nearly all its warmth, humor and wry wisdom intact.
Posted Apr 26, 2023
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John Mulaney: Baby J
(2023)
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Linda Holmes
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What works so well in Baby J is what works in a lot of good comedy: that combination of recognition and bafflement when you look at something that's true but seems impossible.
Posted Apr 25, 2023
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How to Blow Up a Pipeline
(2022)
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John Powers
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The abiding flaw of political movies is that the filmmakers are so busy promoting their beliefs they forget to make a good movie. How to Blow Up a Pipeline doesn't fall into that trap.
Posted Apr 12, 2023
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Air
(2023)
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Bob Mondello
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"Air" is effortlessly entertaining, but it wants to be about more than just the marketing triumph of an underdog shoe company.
Posted Apr 09, 2023
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A Thousand and One
(2023)
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Bob Mondello
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Character portraits just don't come sharper than "A Thousand And One."
Posted Apr 06, 2023
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Air
(2023)
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Aisha Harris
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A soulless dramatization of how a giant corporation convinced a promising NBA rookie to make its already wealthy and well-off board members, CEOs, and salespeople even wealthier and set for life.
Posted Apr 05, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
(2023)
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Glen Weldon
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Given how gleefully Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves embraces and exults in its genre elements, it's interesting to note that it's all the stuff geared to making the film accessible to the mainstream that is the most dully generic thing about it.
Posted Mar 31, 2023
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Rye Lane
(2023)
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Aisha Harris
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The material strikes a balance between specificity and broad humor that fosters confidence and playfulness that's impossible to resist.
Posted Mar 30, 2023
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A Thousand and One
(2023)
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Justin Chang
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None of this comes off as didactic; Rockwell deftly weaves her commentary into a story that turns out to be less conventional and more surprising than it looks.
Posted Mar 29, 2023
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods
(2023)
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Glen Weldon
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It's apparent quite early that the narrative fuel mixture of Shazam: Fury of the Gods is off.
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Return to Seoul
(2022)
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John Powers
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A funny, melancholy, music-laced film that surprised me from start to finish.
Posted Mar 08, 2023
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Chris Rock: Selective Outrage
(2023)
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Eric Deggans
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Because Rock is a comedy pro, a lot of the special was entertaining and some of it was poignant...
Posted Mar 05, 2023
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Return to Seoul
(2022)
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Teresa Xie
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Return to Seoul is a film that's easy to love: it has a killer soundtrack, a magnetic protagonist, and a gorgeous cinematic backdrop filled with rich colors and empty bottles of Soju.
Posted Feb 18, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
(2023)
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Glen Weldon
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As depicted here, Scott's entire personality, the whole of his character, is defined thus: "I love my daughter Cassie. Where is Cassie? What have you done with Cassie?"
Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Magic Mike's Last Dance
(2023)
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Bob Mondello
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As charming and gallant and appealing as Channing Tatum still is... there's a bit less magic this time from "Magic Mike."
Posted Feb 12, 2023
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All That Breathes
(2022)
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John Powers
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In an age when we're constantly reminded of all that's bad, All That Breathes celebrates good things it's easy to forget: the wonder of life, the virtues of compassion and the human capacity to make the world better.
Posted Feb 09, 2023
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Saint Omer
(2022)
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John Powers
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What makes the movie unforgettable are the scenes in the courtroom, every moment of them gripping.
Posted Jan 18, 2023
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White Noise
(2022)
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John Powers
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White Noise is bursting with fun things to watch. And though the story takes place in the 1980s, it tackles present day preoccupations: human-caused disaster, media saturation, drug addiction and consumerism.
Posted Jan 06, 2023
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Living
(2022)
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John Powers
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Rather than shake us to our core like Ikiru, Living teaches us a life lesson we can all agree on. It's like an Afterschool Special for grownups — a very good one, mind you.
Posted Jan 03, 2023
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Women Talking
(2022)
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Bob Mondello
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Anyone clear-eyed about the world today will recognize the truths that these women are talking.
Posted Dec 26, 2022
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Babylon
(2022)
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Bob Mondello
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It is too much and often, especially in call-outs to "Singin' In The Rain," a little on the nose. It is also clearly heartfelt and that counts.
Posted Dec 26, 2022
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No Bears
(2022)
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Justin Chang
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It's a fierce critique of small-town traditionalism and religious dogma. But while this is an angry and ultimately devastating movie, it's also a surprisingly playful and inventive one.
Posted Dec 20, 2022
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Nanny
(2022)
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Pilar Galvan
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The film is an experience for the senses; you'll hold your breath as you're consumed.
Posted Nov 23, 2022
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EO
(2022)
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John Powers
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EO is a thrillingly imaginative piece of filmmaking: a strange, haunting epic about a donkey that couldn't feel more of our moment.
Posted Nov 23, 2022
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She Said
(2022)
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Justin Chang
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As a lover of movies about journalism, I ate up every detail of the drama inside the Times building, even while knowing that I was watching a more polished and streamlined version of events.
Posted Nov 18, 2022
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