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Past Lives
(2023)
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Tanner Gordon
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For some, the film could lack incident, but that’s what makes it so special. By declining to move her story into the realm of melodrama, Song creates a truly immersive emotional experience.
Posted Jun 05, 2023
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
(2023)
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Peter Tabakis
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Here is a sequel that deserves a miles-long freight train filled with box-office receipts, because films this exciting warrant mountains of cash in our sad cinematic landscape of muddy-looking reboots and cynical franchise entries.
Posted Jun 02, 2023
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Enter the Slipstream
(2023)
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Joel Copling
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Enter the Slipstream is simply unengaging as a delivery device of this story.
Posted Jun 01, 2023
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White Balls on Walls
(2022)
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Miyako Pleines
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One place where it’s easy to physically see whiteness dominating a space is within art museums, and director Vos’ documentary White Balls on Walls captures one museum’s process of trying to achieve inclusivity in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Posted Jun 01, 2023
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Stay Awake
(2022)
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Anthony Greene
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This earnest, sweet and introspective small-town drama moves the opioid spotlight onto the caretakers of those who suffer from addiction.
Posted May 31, 2023
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Kandahar
(2023)
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Anthony Greene
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A paint by numbers action film that struggles to find its heart.
Posted May 31, 2023
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Will-o'-the-Wisp
(2022)
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Anthony Greene
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A surreal poetic manifesto to love and the environment.
Posted May 31, 2023
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78/100
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Close to Vermeer
(2023)
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Pat Padua
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This gripping film lives up to its title, immersing you in art without resorting to kitschy spectacle.
Posted May 31, 2023
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70/100
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White Building
(2021)
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Pat Padua
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In the affluent West, such aspirations might manifest in a Step Up movie, but Neang’s characters are heartbreaking; you really feel for their plight, and marvel at how lucky you are.
Posted May 30, 2023
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The Wrath of Becky
(2023)
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Christian Valentin
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Come for the satisfaction of alt-right assholes dying spectacularly; cringe at the rest.
Posted May 30, 2023
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You Hurt My Feelings
(2023)
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Charles Lyons-Burt
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A diagrammatic look at very minor-level tragedies and grievances, but that’s also part of the film’s charm, presenting a universe where small semantic discrepancies in a person’s word choice are matters of life or death.
Posted May 30, 2023
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About My Father
(2023)
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Tanner Gordon
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Formidable dramatic stakes are probably not what audiences will expect from About My Father, and what it does offer is occasionally enjoyable.
Posted May 26, 2023
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Mercy
(2023)
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Joel Copling
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There is little genuine danger in Mercy.
Posted May 25, 2023
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The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future
(2022)
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A.C. Koch
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Whether this is a ghost story, a zombie story or something more abstract is beside the point.
Posted May 24, 2023
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Moon Garden
(2022)
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Miyako Pleines
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Some may find Harris’ visual flair alone worthy of high praise, but the director fails to let the story blossom into something more substantial. Full moons sure are pretty to look at, but it’s the sun that actually makes things grow.
Posted May 23, 2023
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Master Gardener
(2022)
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Derek Smith
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In the writer-director’s latest film, Schrader employs the most logical and orderly of spaces, a garden, to serve as the ripe, knotty metaphorical battleground for another tortured loner.
Posted May 23, 2023
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4.25/5
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Sanctuary
(2022)
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Josh Goller
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The film takes its simple premise and imbues it with such emotional complexity that it becomes a titillating psychological thriller with a surprising amount of heart.
Posted May 22, 2023
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Monica
(2022)
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Ryne Clos
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It is impossible to separate Monica from the transness of its lead actor and protagonist. It is very much — and is trying very much to be — a film arguing that trans people deserve basic human rights and deserve to not be persecuted.
Posted May 22, 2023
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Fast X
(2023)
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Tanner Gordon
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Vin Diesel clearly still takes his most successful franchise seriously, but does anyone else?
Posted May 19, 2023
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3/5
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It Ain't Over
(2022)
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Josh Goller
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This glowing tribute highlights a storied career and then goes to great lengths to reinforce the public perception of the malapropism-prone Yogi Berra as a relatable everyman, and how that’s what made him so remarkable.
Posted May 19, 2023
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The Starling Girl
(2023)
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Alex Nguyen
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While it may be a familiar tale, The Starling Girl is an assured debut from writer-director Laurel Parmet that captures how shame is used as a tool to maintain power over young women.
Posted May 16, 2023
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4/5
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BlackBerry
(2023)
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Alan Zilberman
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What buoys the film is its nerd-centric sense of humor, and performances that are more complex than they initially seem.
Posted May 12, 2023
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Queens of the Qing Dynasty
(2022)
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Paddy Mulholland
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Ashley McKenzie’s second feature has style and compassion in droves but suffers from narrative inertia and dwindling energy.
Posted May 11, 2023
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Anxious Nation
(2022)
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Miyako Pleines
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An in-depth documentary about the devastating effects of anxiety on children today presents a measured account of a very nerve-wracking problem.
Posted May 10, 2023
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2.5/5
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Chile '76
(2022)
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Alan Zilberman
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Opaque and respectable to a fault, this is the kind of film that confuses obscurity with significance. It is one thing to keep the audience at a distance, while it is quite another to avoid any possibility of engagement.
Posted May 09, 2023
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What's Love Got to Do with It?
(2022)
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A.C. Koch
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The lead roles are filled by charismatic actors whose chemistry is palpable, and there's enough broad comedy and glittering set pieces to make for a comfy viewing experience even if you can clearly see where the story is going from the very first scene.
Posted May 08, 2023
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
(2023)
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Tanner Gordon
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There will probably never be another Marvel film like this again, a film so expressly about empathy, pushing forward against the odds in the messy, unpredictable path towards renewal.
Posted May 05, 2023
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3.75/5
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Nuclear Now
(2022)
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Josh Goller
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With a climate on the brink, and almost insurmountable odds to achieve what’s necessary to ensure long-term sustainability, Stone compellingly and passionately argues that there’s always the nuclear option.
Posted May 04, 2023
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59/100
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The Black Demon
(2023)
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Pat Padua
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Despite offering predictable plot points and easy environmental messaging, director Adrian Grunberg (Rambo: Last Blood) delivers enough B-movie energy to make you forget how forgettable the actual demon is.
Posted May 03, 2023
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Born to Fly
(2023)
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Tanner Gordon
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In spite of decent performances, it becomes depressingly obvious that Xiaoshi’s film is barely interested in crafting a story as much as it is advertising one specific model of plane.
Posted May 03, 2023
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The Axe
(1977)
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Pat Padua
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"The efficiency of Friedel’s imagery...suggest a talented storyteller who made the most out of limited resources, and created a surprisingly moving 72-minute piece of art."
Posted May 02, 2023
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3/5
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32 Sounds
(2022)
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Alan Zilberman
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A little too disjointed for its own good, Green’s film nonetheless creates a kind of meditative space that is more than unusual. It is unique.
Posted May 02, 2023
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R.M.N.
(2022)
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Joel Copling
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R.M.N. is an incredibly discomforting movie, confronting baked-in racial and regional prejudice head-on.
Posted May 02, 2023
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86/100
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Trenque Lauquen: Part I
(2022)
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Pat Padua
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a quiet, effortless enchantment that finds the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Posted May 01, 2023
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Sisu
(2022)
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David Harris
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Let’s face it, we love to see Nazis killed and that is why Sisu is such a blast.
Posted May 01, 2023
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4/5
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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
(2023)
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Alan Zilberman
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Fortson steals the film. She does not just depict a likable heroine, but one who consistently operates with recognizable confines of girlhood. It is a common pathway that countless millions experience, and yet rarely see reflected with such care.
Posted Apr 28, 2023
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Dry Ground Burning
(2022)
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Paddy Mulholland
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Fueled by a simmering undercurrent of existential threat, this is a sharp, compelling, intelligent lo-fi crime thriller. A must-see for art-house genre fans.
Posted Apr 27, 2023
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2.25/5
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The Tank
(2023)
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Josh Goller
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By largely just mimicking better horror movies, The Tank feels hopelessly watered-down.
Posted Apr 26, 2023
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Exotica
(1994)
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David Harris
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As an exploration of trauma and heartbreak, Exotica plumbs the depths of the human heart in ways most films have never dared.
Posted Apr 25, 2023
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Somewhere in Queens
(2022)
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Joel Copling
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The protagonist in Ray Romano’s Somewhere in Queens is a true original.
Posted Apr 25, 2023
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4.5/5
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Beau Is Afraid
(2023)
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Alan Zilberman
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What elevates the film is its sense of style and comedy, coupled with a single-minded desire to depict anxiety-tinged madness.
Posted Apr 24, 2023
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Chevalier
(2022)
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Tanner Gordon
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With its unabashed sincerity and cranked-up clash of historical and contemporary sensibilities, Chevalier feels refreshingly like a film of a different era, even if its best qualities diminish drastically as the film goes on.
Posted Apr 21, 2023
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1.25/5
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Nefarious
(2023)
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Josh Goller
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If you like your demons on the preachy side, then you may enjoy [this movie]. The rest of us will find [it]...tedious, heavy-handed and indoctrinating.
Posted Apr 20, 2023
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Timecrimes
(2007)
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Josh Goller
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A film that doesn’t hinge on its sci-fi elements so much as it sets a flawed man loose in an intensely challenging situation and leaves us captivated in the time we spend watching him find his way out of it.
Posted Apr 20, 2023
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De Humani Corporis Fabrica
(2022)
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Charles Lyons-Burt
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With their sixth film, Castaing-Taylor and Paravel have managed to excavate and explore the impulse of excavation itself, and of mending and healing.
Posted Apr 20, 2023
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Hilma
(2022)
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Miyako Pleines
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A biographical account of the life of Swedish abstract painter Hilma af Klint that ultimately fails to elevate itself beyond the repetitive and uninteresting traps and pitfalls of the artist biopic.
Posted Apr 19, 2023
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Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
(2022)
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A.C. Koch
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The film reveals what it means to be in Murakami's world, and we're all living in it, whether we know it or not.
Posted Apr 19, 2023
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4/5
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Everything Went Fine
(2021)
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Alan Zilberman
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By accepting the macabre premise on the same terms as the characters, Ozon finds something universal – even mordantly funny – on the other side.
Posted Apr 18, 2023
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Sweetwater
(2023)
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Joel Copling
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It seems tailor-made for an audience that may not want to see whatever the confrontational or provocative version of this story might look like.
Posted Apr 18, 2023
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Mafia Mamma
(2023)
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Tanner Gordon
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There’s an inherent shallowness that permeates nearly every frame of Mafia Mamma like a pungent salami.
Posted Apr 17, 2023
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