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3/4
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The Alternate
(2021)
|
Tim Cogshell
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"It's wicked good and smart and in the current milieu of multi-meta-verse fever feels ever so slightly - possible."
Posted Sep 13, 2022
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|
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Sylvie of the Sunshine State
(2022)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
In all, Sylvie of the Sunshine State is a wonderful film – a meditation conveyed through a child’s unique perspective.
Posted Jun 10, 2022
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3.5/4.0
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The Forty-Year-Old Version
(2020)
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Tim Cogshell
|
Screenwriter, director, co-producer, and star, Radha Blank has come up with an "astute" feature film debut reminiscent of the works of Woody Allen, Noah Baumbach, and Paul Mazursky. Only Blacker, and more girly.
Posted Nov 06, 2020
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2.5/5
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Solo: A Star Wars Story
(2018)
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Mark Keizer
|
One senses that completing production was the primary accomplishment to the exclusion of those virtues that made Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back so transporting.
Posted May 24, 2018
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3.0/4
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Trouble Is My Business
(2017)
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Tim Cogshell
|
A crunchy, witty, and often just plain funny mash-up of classic noir tropes ... in addition to dialogue worthy of Dashiell Hammett and, occasionally, Mel Brooks...
Posted Oct 21, 2017
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**
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Detroit
(2017)
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Tim Cogshell
|
For Black Americans, the events of Detroit '67 are not the events of a 'dramatic thriller.' They are the events of a tragedy and still-living history we know very well.
Posted Aug 07, 2017
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4
|
Get Out
(2017)
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Tim Cogshell
|
Writer/director Jordan Peele's Get Out has a deep lineage that includes films like Night of the Living Dead, The Spook Who Sat by the Door and Bamboozled - it's that good. And... funnier.
Posted Mar 08, 2017
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3.0
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Kong: Skull Island
(2017)
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Tim Cogshell
|
Kong: Skull Island is pretty good popcorn cinema, but it's more of a business plan - than a movie - which involves a lot of movies of which this is only one. As for what it's about - the big pissed off monkey - is what it's about.
Posted Mar 08, 2017
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3.0
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Barry
(2016)
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Tim Cogshell
|
...thinking about Barry, the 1981-set film about a young Barack Obama as he arrived in New York City to attend Columbia University, I found myself thinking about a young Me in 1981, as I arrived in New York City to attend Columbia University...
Posted Mar 08, 2017
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3
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Don't Breathe
(2016)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Horror filmmaker Fede Alvarez avoids the fate of the sophomore curse with his second feature film, Don't Breathe, which establishes the director as the real deal when it comes to horror and thrills... and horror.
Posted Aug 26, 2016
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2.5/5
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It's So Easy and Other Lies
(2016)
|
Mark Keizer
|
Lacks a style that would help a conventional story of rock and roll excess achieve a broader emotional or historical significance.
Posted Jun 01, 2016
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3.5
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Captain America: Civil War
(2016)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
"...for me to consider Captain America: Civil War a good movie - good enough to make me forget Prince had just died - it must be pretty good indeed.
Posted May 06, 2016
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2/5
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The Boss
(2016)
|
Mark Keizer
|
A weak-sauce collection of predictable story beats, au courant vulgarity, and unearned sentiment that is not a sturdy enough foundation atop which McCarthy can shine.
Posted Apr 08, 2016
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***
|
Chi-Raq
(2015)
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Tim Cogshell
|
Chi-Raq is a plea for us to Wake Up. It's a tearful plea proffered by a broken mother over a murdered child. Dead for no good reason, as if a good reason might be found.
Posted Dec 05, 2015
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3.5
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Trumbo
(2015)
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Tim Cogshell
|
Trumbo stars Bryan Cranston giving a great performance in a movie that is highly entertaining while managing to shovel the history of the blacklist at the audience in every scene.
Posted Nov 07, 2015
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3.0
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Room
(2015)
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Tim Cogshell
|
Couched in reality and replete with great performances Room is a well done, topical film that succeeds by all measures and I do appreciate it greatly. But I still don't like it.
Posted Oct 17, 2015
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2.5/5
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Truth
(2015)
|
Mark Keizer
|
The primary objective of Truth is to rehabilitate the reputation of Mary Mapes.
Posted Sep 18, 2015
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3.0
|
Bread and Butter
(2014)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Bread and Butter is a nice debut that refreshes the genre with an interesting point of view, professional execution, and a girly sensibility that most women and brighter boys will appreciate.
Posted Sep 01, 2015
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3.0/5
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Lord Montagu
(2013)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
The 1954 Montagu trials were on the order of the 1895 prosecutions of Oscar Wilde... In 1950s England, homosexuality was as illegal as it ever was.
Posted Aug 05, 2015
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3/5
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In Stereo
(2015)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
In Stereo... is a funky New York-set romp... The film's writing is sharp, its performances are very good, and it has a boss-ass soundtrack. It ain't When Harry Met Sally..., but who gives a f%#k?
Posted Jul 12, 2015
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3/5
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Spy
(2015)
|
Mark Keizer
|
There is currently no more exciting and rewarding moment in filmed comedy than watching Melissa McCarthy ad-lib.
Posted Jun 03, 2015
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3/5
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Teacher of the Year
(2014)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Teacher of the Year is a smart and funny movie that manages to pull off one of the more difficult balancing acts in filmmaking; it actually is smart while still being funny.>
Posted Jun 01, 2015
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3.5
|
Mad Max: Fury Road
(2015)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
In Fury Road there is nothing pacifist or even docile in Miller's conception of the nature of the feminine, no matter what they look like or what they are wearing.
Posted May 15, 2015
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4
|
Selma
(2014)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Still, what is most startling about Selma isn't its painstaking presentation of this painful history, but how salient that history remains nearly 50 years on.
Posted Jan 04, 2015
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4/5
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Whiplash
(2014)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Whiplash flows freely; it's literally full of improvisations in at least two art forms, but like all good jazz, it always knows where it is, and where it's going.
Posted Oct 12, 2014
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****
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Love Is Strange
(2014)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Love Is Strange is beautiful in every way that a film can be beautiful, and unabashedly so.
Posted Aug 24, 2014
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3.5
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Boyhood
(2014)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
This 12-year undertaking is one of the most intriguing narrative film projects ever conceived. Richard Linklater has quietly become part of the foundation of American cinema.
Posted Jul 12, 2014
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**
|
Jersey Boys
(2014)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Clint Eastwood's Jersey Boys is based on the hit Broadway musical and is a crushing bore. But the music and the performances of the music, are great.
Posted Jun 21, 2014
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3.5
|
Edge of Tomorrow
(2014)
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Tim Cogshell
|
Tom Cruise is the last movie star, fortunately, he's in Edge of Tomorrow, making it better despite itself.
Posted Jun 06, 2014
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4/5
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X-Men: Days of Future Past
(2014)
|
Mark Keizer
|
A rollicking, if sometimes convoluted, good time, featuring a high-toned cast and a seriousness of purpose that sets it apart from the candy-colored Marvel-produced films and Sony's underwhelming Amazing Spider-Man series.
Posted May 25, 2014
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2/5
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2
(2014)
|
Mark Keizer
|
If it wasn't for the appealing chemistry between Garfield and Stone, both of Sony's shareholder-approved slabs of Spider-Product would feel more disposable than they already do.
Posted Apr 30, 2014
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4/5
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Nymphomaniac: Volume II
(2013)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
It's who "we" are individually and as a society that Lars von Trier is questioning - a few personal issues involving his own family revelations referred to in our review of Nymphomaniac: Vol. I notwithstanding.
Posted Apr 07, 2014
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3.5/5
|
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
(2014)
|
Mark Keizer
|
The movie's feel for urban warfare takes its cue, though not its severe, disturbing edge, from street-level spectacles like Heat and Ronin.
Posted Apr 03, 2014
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4/5
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Nymphomaniac: Volume I
(2014)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Lars von Trier is an actual genius, as opposed to the myriad filmmakers called genius who are actually just clever.
Posted Mar 22, 2014
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4/5
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The Lunchbox
(2013)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
The Lunchbox, sweet and bitter, full of heartache and hope, asks its audience to accept the possibility that something "new" can happen, and then revel in the possibilities.
Posted Mar 07, 2014
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3/5
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RoboCop
(2014)
|
Mark Keizer
|
To grieve for what director José Padilha failed to port over from Verhoeven's version is unfair to the remake, which has a right, if not a responsibility, to be different than the original.
Posted Feb 14, 2014
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|
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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
(2014)
|
Mark Keizer
|
This iteration of Jack Ryan may be new, but the whole idea of Jack Ryan has never felt so old.
Posted Jan 18, 2014
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4/5
|
Inside Llewyn Davis
(2013)
|
Mark Keizer
|
A minor key ode to a talented singer whose flaws forever keep him one step behind musical and personal success.
Posted Dec 05, 2013
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|
2.5/5
|
Ender's Game
(2013)
|
Mark Keizer
|
About as good a film as you can squeeze out of a morally complex source work given today's studio environment.
Posted Nov 02, 2013
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|
2.5
|
Captain Phillips
(2013)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Mostly adapted from the Captain's memoir Captain Phillips is conversely taut and slack; culturally savvy and naive; politically astute and manipulative; emotionally sincere and embarrassingly overwrought.
Posted Oct 16, 2013
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2.5/5
|
The Fifth Estate
(2013)
|
Mark Keizer
|
The only true take-away from the frantic, two-dimensional The Fifth Estate is that Julian Assange isn't championing moral justice as much as brand building and the inconvenience of accountability in the internet age.
Posted Oct 04, 2013
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3/5
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Una noche
(2012)
|
Mark Keizer
|
(Mulloy shows) a genuine sense of empathy for her yearning, troubled characters and an artist's eye for the beauty of decay.
Posted Sep 05, 2013
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3/5
|
Elysium
(2013)
|
Mark Keizer
|
Elysium is more ideologically aware than it is ideologically astute, yet Neill Blomkamp is still being much more politically daring here than in District 9.
Posted Aug 07, 2013
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4
|
Blue Jasmine
(2013)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
In Blue Jasmine, with the help of several perfectly pitched performances, Woody Allen once again reminds us that if there is an Us and a Them, he's one of Us.
Posted Jul 26, 2013
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3.5
|
Only God Forgives
(2013)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Only God Forgives is a controversial film and not Nicolas Winding Refn's first. It's also a remarkably good thriller. But I don't believe in god, so that's easy for me to say.
Posted Jul 20, 2013
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3/5
|
Pacific Rim
(2013)
|
Mark Keizer
|
So audaciously, shamelessly, and hypnotically cacophonous that you have no choice but to give yourself over to it.
Posted Jul 12, 2013
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2/5
|
The Lone Ranger
(2013)
|
Mark Keizer
|
Disney spent over $200 million to prove The Lone Ranger is too old-fashioned for such a newfangled, smart-aleck world.
Posted Jul 12, 2013
|
|
4/5
|
Dirty Money
(1972)
|
Tim Cogshell
|
Jean-Pierre Melville's last film, Un Flic / A Cop (1972), is a late noir classic...
Posted Jun 29, 2013
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|
2.5/5
|
World War Z
(2013)
|
Mark Keizer
|
One senses a disconnect between the more serious-minded disaster epic Brad Pitt and Marc Forster wanted to make and the movie they actually wound up with.
Posted Jun 21, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
Man of Steel
(2013)
|
Mark Keizer
|
Man of Steel (has) a cold heart that no amount of spectacle can compensate for.
Posted Jun 14, 2013
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