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The Cemetery of Cinema
(2023)
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Glenn Dunks
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...does a better job of capturing “the magic of the movies” better than most filmmaker biopics or golden age follies.
Posted May 16, 2023
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Blueback
(2022)
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Glenn Dunks
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Connolly... has crafted a beautiful film about loss and change, and that period in a young adult’s life where they are on the precipice of their future and it doesn’t have to entirely revolve around sex or popularity.
Posted Jan 10, 2023
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Halloween Ends
(2022)
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Glenn Dunks
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David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends is a bad movie. Nothing controversial about that statement, I feel. What’s interesting to me is that it is bad in a way that is entirely new. I’ve never seen anything quite so bad that fails in such a unique way.
Posted Oct 14, 2022
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Elvis
(2022)
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Glenn Dunks
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[A] ravishing big screen experience.
Posted Jun 25, 2022
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Mayor Pete
(2021)
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Glenn Dunks
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There is no grit on display here or even drama. It's been buffed and glossed to a neatly perfected shine-and the result is transparent as a tool of political propoganda for Buttigieg's inevitable next run as President.
Posted Dec 08, 2021
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Titane
(2021)
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Glenn Dunks
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On one hand, Titane feels too mature (as if it can't acknowledge the inherent silliness of its concept) and yet not mature enough (like a rebellious teen daring you to react to its antics).
Posted Nov 25, 2021
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13 Minutes
(2021)
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Glenn Dunks
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If Gossling was trying to say something about diversity in the mid-west as I suspect she was, the cringey dialogue needed to be far less on the nose and her characters not as frustratingly silly.
Posted Nov 21, 2021
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A-
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Tanna
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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...a truly one-of-a-kind cinematic experience that thrills both as a marvel of filmmaking, and as a document of a world that, to many of us, would appear to be a land before time, safeguarded from the destructive arrival of the white man.
Posted Jul 19, 2021
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A
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Ghostwatch
(1992)
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Glenn Dunks
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Perhaps it was ahead of its time, but one of the most successfully convincing hoaxes since Orson Welles's War of the Worlds should probably boast a greater legacy.
Posted Jul 19, 2021
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B+
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WNUF Halloween Special
(2013)
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Glenn Dunks
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I suspect those whose childhoods are marked by rabbit eared television sets-screening snow-covered local broadcasts and do-it-yourself commercials for local pizza joints or small-town psychics-will find much to enjoy...
Posted Jul 19, 2021
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A-
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New Order
(2020)
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Glenn Dunks
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...a frenetic portal into a (fictional) civil war. Edited with a strong, propulsive energy, it's a film that traverses political and social themes, focusing on race and class in ways that are hardly subtle, yet thoroughly engaging.
Posted Jun 02, 2021
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Jungle
(2017)
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Glenn Dunks
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The changing dynamics of their friendship - especially Jackson's impressive portrayal of a physically depleted adventurer whose polished demeanour gradually unravels - give Jungle's second act a particularly vibrant hum of tension...
Posted May 02, 2021
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Ecco Homo
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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Lowenstein and Milburn's film does a great job of revealing not only the depth of this attitude, but also the increasingly labyrinthine lair of lies that Davies had created to mask it. He could barely tell the same lie twice...
Posted May 02, 2021
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B+
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A River Changes Course
(2013)
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Glenn Dunks
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Rather than discussing the Khmer Rouge, Mam's film instead focuses on the little-seen world of the country's provincial population...
Posted May 02, 2021
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A+
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The Missing Picture
(2013)
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Glenn Dunks
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...somehow turns clay into an emotionally captivating storytelling device that, when combined with the emotive French-language narration of Randal Douc and hypnotic musical score of Marc Marder, makes for a truly astounding work of cinema.
Posted May 02, 2021
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Exil
(2016)
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Glenn Dunks
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Cambodian expat director Rithy Panh's latest work is a haunting, dreamlike piece of cinema that masterfully dislodges the audience from any clear sense of time or space.
Posted May 02, 2021
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B-
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You Cannot Kill David Arquette
(2020)
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Glenn Dunks
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Real, completely fiction, or some sort of elaborate half-breed hoax like Joaquin Phoenix in I'm Not There, the experience of watching You Cannot Kill David Arquette is an entirely perplexing one.
Posted Sep 13, 2020
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A
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State Funeral
(2019)
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Glenn Dunks
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Sergei Loznitsa's 135-minute triumph is a beast of a film and one with its roots firmly in Soviet documentary... a herculean effort of archival dumpster diving
Posted Aug 24, 2020
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B
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Girls Lost
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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The use of the fantastical could have easily verged on twee, but instead offers its characters and the audience the sort of movie magic that can open minds.
Posted Aug 09, 2020
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B
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Theo & Hugo
(2016)
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Glenn Dunks
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Already notorious for a lengthy gay sex club orgy sequence that opens the film, Paris 05:59 proves to be much more than just a titillating night out for the boys (the characters and the audience)...
Posted Jul 26, 2020
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B+
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Kiki
(2016)
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Glenn Dunks
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Kiki is a film that celebrates some of the bravest members of the LGTBQ universe and in many ways the film demands that we absolutely must continue to be as bold and brave as them.
Posted Jul 26, 2020
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B+
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Berlin Syndrome
(2017)
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Glenn Dunks
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Berlin Syndrome posits actual answers for the terrible questions people ask of sexual-violence survivors. And, significantly, it addresses them through a riveting piece of art cinema made not-so-coincidentally with women in key production roles.
Posted Jul 19, 2020
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C+
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Adore
(2013)
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Glenn Dunks
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Its Australian title, 'Adoration', sounds as flat on the tongue and unsure of itself as the actual film. Anne Fontaine never finds the right voice for her film's message and ends up with this disappointing, albeit handsomely made, effort.
Posted Jul 19, 2020
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A
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The Assistant
(2019)
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Glenn Dunks
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But in [Kitty Green's] treatment of Garner's Jane, a woman who is told to not worry about being sexually confronted by her boss because she's "not his type", she has clearly tapped into a well of stark reality that is rarely portrayed on screen.
Posted Jul 03, 2020
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B-
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The Eulogy
(2018)
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Glenn Dunks
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As a film that shines a spotlight on a curious moment of Australian cultural history, it is certainly an interesting story and one that Hosking was wise to let unfold in as unfussy of a way as possible.
Posted Oct 16, 2019
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B+
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The Nightingale
(2018)
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Glenn Dunks
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But the blood and the trauma is just one part of The Nightingale. It is an amazingly rendered work of cinema
Posted Aug 28, 2019
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A-
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Support the Girls
(2018)
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Glenn Dunks
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It's sweet, but not syrupy; it's truthful, but not cynical. It's a breath of fresh air, accessible, and a real gem of American independent filmmaking...
Posted Aug 28, 2018
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C+
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BlacKkKlansman
(2018)
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Glenn Dunks
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The savagery that Lee is capable of shaved down for a demographic that aren't accustomed to the evolving, bold electricity of Do the Right Thing or Bamboozled and instead in many ways resembles something closer to a Saturday Night Live sketch.
Posted Aug 12, 2018
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B
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You're Killing Me
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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What results is a vibrant and fresh film, a unique entry into any queer film festival that at often times can take itself too seriously. It's a perfect Friday night movie with even more laughs than bloody corpses.
Posted Mar 30, 2016
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A-
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Nasty Baby
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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It adds further shading to this already multi-dimensional world and should hopefully make audiences question their own reactions as well as their thoughts on class, privilege and ultimately their own personal morality.
Posted Sep 29, 2015
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B
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Tab Hunter Confidential
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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[It's] a celebration of one actor who somehow made it out alive and whose story is still, sadly, a powerful one to tell.
Posted Sep 29, 2015
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B+
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Cut Snake
(2014)
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Glenn Dunks
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In Tony Ayres' Cut Snake, the true blue Aussie crime flick gets a queer coat of paint. It masks itself as a standard crime flick, but subverts what we have come to expect from these films...
Posted Sep 29, 2015
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B+
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A Poem Is a Naked Person
(1974)
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Glenn Dunks
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Blank isn't afraid of the artistic wrath that he may incur and rather than making a Leon Russell film, has made what is defiantly a Les Blank film full of all of the idiosyncrasies that one would expect.
Posted Aug 12, 2015
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B+
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Magic Mike XXL
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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[If] what you want is playfulness, energy, goofy glee, and a complete and utter lack of pretentiousness then Magic Mike is a Trojan (Horse) full of fun.
Posted Jul 10, 2015
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B
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Amy
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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Watch alongside Montage of Heck and just feel miserable about what the world missed out on but be thankful of what they left behind.
Posted Jul 02, 2015
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B-
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Jurassic World
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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When the script isn't simply recreating famous scenes from the original with less engaging characters who speak a lot and yet say so very little, it's blindly ignoring plot holes and conjuring up half-baked ideas...
Posted Jul 02, 2015
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B+
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Terminator Genisys
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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What's different [to Jurassic World] is that this entry into the series has a desire to build its own future, its own timeline of events from amongst all the references and mythos and sly nods to the previous films.
Posted Jul 02, 2015
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B+
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Strangerland
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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I was deeply impressed by Strangerland and likely for many of the reasons that others have not.
Posted Jun 15, 2015
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B+
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54
(1998)
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Glenn Dunks
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[The Director's Cut] is out and proud, not at all shying away from the sexual aggression of Phillippe's character as he calmly removes his clothes for any gender.
Posted Jun 15, 2015
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C+
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Poltergeist
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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Instead of a reboot that takes advances in technology, the ever-expanding suburban sprawl or a clear audience desire for haunted houses, we're left with little more than a faded photocopy.
Posted Jun 07, 2015
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B+
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Partisan
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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This is a film of great restraint, one that chooses to take its time observing through the eyes of its young protagonist...
Posted May 28, 2015
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A
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Mad Max: Fury Road
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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It turns out we do need another hero, and it comes in the guise of George Miller.
Posted May 15, 2015
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B+
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Shaun the Sheep Movie
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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A fitting tribute to the zany worlds of Jacques Tati and his unspoken, bumbling Monsieur Hulot as well as the silent movie stars and comedies that came from the silent era onwards.
Posted May 06, 2015
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B+
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The Tribe
(2014)
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Glenn Dunks
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It's a tough film ... and one that makes its audience feel as lost in its characters' world as its characters might well be in ours.
Posted May 06, 2015
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A-
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Hungry Hearts
(2014)
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Glenn Dunks
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It took ahold of my mind in such a way that I found myself constantly thinking about it long after the screening. I couldn't get its images out of my head, its twisted tale of unconventional horror making me feel uncomfortable long after the credits.
Posted Apr 21, 2015
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B-
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Avengers: Age of Ultron
(2015)
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Glenn Dunks
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Despite the overall enjoyment factor of the film, with this, its eleventh film, writer-director Joss Whedon seems intent on pushing some of Marvel Films' more tiresome elements to the extreme.
Posted Apr 21, 2015
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B
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The Water Diviner
(2014)
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Glenn Dunks
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If [Crowe's] performance wasn't as strong as it is then The Water Diviner simply wouldn't work at all and it would be harder to forgive some of his less impressive directorial judgements.
Posted Apr 17, 2015
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C-
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Unbroken
(2014)
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Glenn Dunks
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At least one can give the film points for consistency as this humdrum sentimentality certainly extends to the music with an appalling, pandering original credits song by Coldplay.
Posted Dec 23, 2014
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B
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Before I Go to Sleep
(2014)
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Glenn Dunks
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It's a figure-eight effect where the shifting sands of the story make our loyalties and our readings of the central mystery ebb and flow. It's a work of wonderful manipulation...
Posted Oct 30, 2014
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B+
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The Town That Dreaded Sundown
(2014)
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Glenn Dunks
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The Town that Dreaded Sundown is perhaps the first of its kind: it is both a sequel and a remake, and in both cases it improves upon its original.
Posted Oct 20, 2014
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