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Lucky
(2011)
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Marshall Fine
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It's meant to be deadpan but Lucky is just dead, period. Only Graynor manages to inject any life into it. But she might as well be shooting electricity through a corpse
Posted Aug 09, 2021
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Pete's Dragon
(2016)
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Marshall Fine
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Just because you CAN remake a piece of crap like this does not mean that it's a good idea.
Posted Aug 09, 2016
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Don't Think Twice
(2016)
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Marshall Fine
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One of the summer's small treasures, in the flood of big-budget dross.
Posted Jul 23, 2016
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Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
(2016)
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Marshall Fine
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This film assumes that an idea for a joke is the same thing as an actual joke...so shoddily written that the clothes are meant to stand in for real punchlines.
Posted Jul 19, 2016
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Ghostbusters
(2016)
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Marshall Fine
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Like so many film comedies these days, it assumed that casting funny people was the same thing as writing a funny script; it's not.
Posted Jul 13, 2016
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Café Society
(2016)
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Marshall Fine
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If it doesn't rank as top-shelf Woody Allen (a crowded shelf indeed), it's still one of his better ones.
Posted Jul 13, 2016
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Applause
(2009)
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Marshall Fine
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In a more just universe, the film and Paprika Steen's performance would be part of the Oscar discussion, instead of an imported curiosity.
Posted Apr 07, 2016
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
(2016)
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Marshall Fine
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Fey finds a depth in this character that her comedy roles seldom offer... I have a hunch it's a better and different movie than you probably expect.
Posted Mar 03, 2016
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Knight of Cups
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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It wants us to enter some sort of dreamscape...but it's a little like listening to someone talking in their sleep.
Posted Mar 03, 2016
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Zoolander
(2001)
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Marshall Fine
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So lazy a comedy that I kept looking for Adam Sandler's name in the credits...essentially a funny 3-minute short with a bloated, unfunny full-length feature grafted on to it.
Posted Feb 10, 2016
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Hail, Caesar!
(2016)
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Marshall Fine
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Like a long, entertaining shaggy dog story without a punchline...just sit back and let it wash over you in all its witty, if insubstantial goodness.
Posted Feb 04, 2016
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The Intervention
(2016)
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Marshall Fine
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Engaging and emotionally intelligent.
Posted Feb 02, 2016
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Rams
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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A melancholy charmer that will make you laugh and bring you to tears.
Posted Feb 02, 2016
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Dirty Grandpa
(2016)
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Marshall Fine
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Simply being dirty and gross is not the same as being funny, something the makers of this film apparently didn't understand.
Posted Jan 23, 2016
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The Hateful Eight
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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It kept me fully engaged for its entire running time and had me thinking about it long afterward.
Posted Jan 09, 2016
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Personally enjoyed the hell out of it; critically, I felt, OK, this is a really good start and a step in the right direction with room for improvement.
Posted Dec 16, 2015
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The Walk
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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A film whose final half-hour has you soaring so high that you almost forget how lame the rest of the film is.
Posted Oct 01, 2015
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The Martian
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Despite all that computer wizardry at work, the green-screen seams show and the herky-jerky pace mitigates against the kind of creeping tension that should inform this film.
Posted Oct 01, 2015
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Labyrinth of Lies
(2014)
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Marshall Fine
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A serious film that is never solemn, bristling with energy while reminding us that there is no statute of limitations on one's conscience.
Posted Sep 23, 2015
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Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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The funniest documentary since The Aristocrats.
Posted Sep 23, 2015
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Ashby
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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The bubbly Wolff and laconic Rourke have a nice comic give-and-take, but Rourke's face, in the right light, looks like a bad pottery experiment.
Posted Sep 23, 2015
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The Keeping Room
(2014)
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Marshall Fine
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Barber keeps the atmospherics at full pitch, which tends to draw out the action but undermine the tension. The violence can be brutal at times, but it's seldom dramatic.
Posted Sep 23, 2015
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Mississippi Grind
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Mendelsohn gives Gerry more soul than simply a degenerate gambler. Reynolds imbues Curtis with an empathy that grounds his easy-quipping persona.
Posted Sep 23, 2015
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99 Homes
(2014)
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Marshall Fine
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A bravura performance by Shannon, who can use calm as a weapon in the same way he uses volume.
Posted Sep 23, 2015
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A Walk in the Woods
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Despite its flaws, it's a film with a point to make and laughs to be had. There are many worse films you could see.
Posted Sep 02, 2015
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Learning to Drive
(2014)
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Marshall Fine
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It creeps up on you, eliciting laughs even as touches the heart. That makes it unique in the current cinematic landscape.
Posted Aug 20, 2015
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People, Places, Things
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Clement may be one of the slyest actors working, blending great comic timing with a thoughtful, almost melancholy quality.
Posted Aug 13, 2015
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The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Alicia Vikander, a Swedish actress who plays a German, is more convincing speaking English than Armie Hammer ... a heavy-footed film that barely gets by on one actor's charm.
Posted Aug 12, 2015
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Mistress America
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Gerwig may be the most overrated (or at least most overemployed) actor of her generation.
Posted Aug 11, 2015
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Ricki and the Flash
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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One of those near-misses that feels as though a lot of discussion went into the rationale behind every wrong-headed decision.
Posted Aug 06, 2015
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Listen to Me Marlon
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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If you're already steeped in Brando history, then the recordings will seem like a fresh page.
Posted Jul 27, 2015
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Best of Enemies
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Builds to a stunning final confrontation that changed the lives of both men.
Posted Jul 27, 2015
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Samba
(2014)
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Marshall Fine
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Satisfying in a way that too few American films remember how to be...a movie that stays with you, something not many films manage to do any more.
Posted Jul 23, 2015
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Ant-Man
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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One of the summer's most entertaining... one of only a handful of comic-book movies to transcend the limits of that increasingly cookie-cutter genre.
Posted Jul 16, 2015
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Trainwreck
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Could easily be 20 minutes shorter...If Apatow had made a movie with the young Henny Youngman, he'd have turned him into the king of the two-liners.
Posted Jul 15, 2015
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Self/less
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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It would be a brain-teaser, if it only had a brain.
Posted Jul 09, 2015
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Minions
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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The equivalent of a meal made entirely of french fries - by the end, you're stuffed, but you're hardly satisfied.
Posted Jul 08, 2015
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Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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The year's most joyous and surprising movie
Posted Jun 23, 2015
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The Overnight
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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You're not going to find another film this summer that keeps surprising you the way this one does.
Posted Jun 18, 2015
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Dope
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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A coming-of-age tale with bite, introducing a talented new cast to the world in what may be the summer's freshest film.
Posted Jun 16, 2015
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Entourage
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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There are barely as many laughs in its slack 104 minutes as in the average 30-minute episode.
Posted Jun 04, 2015
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Results
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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A sly little wonder of a film that may end up flying under the radar.
Posted May 27, 2015
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San Andreas
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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This film doesn't need a director, which is fortunate because it has Brad Peyton..disaster porn..a listless, heaving mess of a film.
Posted May 27, 2015
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1001 Grams
(2014)
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Marshall Fine
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A miniaturist dealing in microcosms that reveal the world...one of the most human films I've seen in recent years, full of insight, sadness and unexpected laughs.
Posted May 13, 2015
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Mad Max: Fury Road
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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If there was a rating between Fresh and Rotten, I'd have given it to a movie that aroused extreme ambivalence: an hour of intense pleasure followed by a lot of wheel-spinning.
Posted May 12, 2015
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Slow West
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Maclean takes more interest in the journey than the destination. The stops along the way are alternately life-threatening, illuminating and abruptly, wildly funny.
Posted May 11, 2015
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The D Train
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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Marsden is rapidly positioning himself as a worthy comic successor to Christopher MacDonald: that good-looking actor who is potentially any movie's comedy secret weapon.
Posted May 08, 2015
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Ex Machina
(2014)
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Marshall Fine
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After tantalizing us with increasingly imaginative developments and the promise of catharsis, Garland lets it all dribble away at the end.
Posted Apr 23, 2015
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Child 44
(2015)
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Marshall Fine
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The plotting gets a little sludgy...it runs out of ideas long before it plods to the final credits
Posted Apr 18, 2015
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Alex of Venice
(2014)
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Marshall Fine
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Pleasant and occasionally touching, without ever being really compelling.
Posted Apr 18, 2015
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