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L'immensità
(2022)
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David Bax
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Melodrama is not a pejorative but dishonest movies like L’immensità add to its bad reputation.
Posted Sep 22, 2023
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The Origin of Evil
(2022)
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Scott Nye
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As the plot turns pile up, some may prove more obvious than others, but the delight in seeing them play out is never withheld, as Marnier is always sure to end such scenes with a bit of flourish to let you delight in the storytelling.
Posted Sep 22, 2023
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Other People's Children
(2022)
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David Bax
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This is a good old-fashioned movie made with such intelligence, humanity and know-how that it’s better than most of the new-fashioned movies made in recent years.
Posted Sep 15, 2023
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Close
(2022)
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David Bax
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...Dhont insists so deeply on the import of it all as to condemn anyone not willing to be led along.
Posted Sep 11, 2023
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The Eight Mountains
(2022)
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David Bax
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It’s a film that says that alone or together, at home or abroad, everyone has to find themselves at their own pace. It’s your best friends who will wait for you to catch up if they have to.
Posted Sep 10, 2023
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Kim's Video
(2023)
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David Bax
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Unlike some lesser documentarians, Redmon never appears on screen (well, not really) in his and Sabin’s documentary.
Posted Sep 10, 2023
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Adalen 31
(1969)
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Scott Nye
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The class divisions are established well in a brief romantic fling between a laborer’s son and the sawmill manager’s daughter, which sounds like an old folk song, but hey, some things ring true for a reason.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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Raven's End
(1964)
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Scott Nye
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The film is striking foremost for its starkness; any sort of sentimental yearning trickles through the cracks like the puddles on the town’s unpaved road, cool and placid until splashed upon.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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The Baby Carriage
(1963)
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Scott Nye
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In Baby Carriage, which was shot by future Swedish legendary director Jan Troell, Britt is contending with two volatile men who want everything from her but what she ultimately has to give them – a life more ordinary.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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Elvira Madigan
(1967)
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Scott Nye
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With his first color film, Widerberg and cinematographer Jörgen Persson embrace the aesthetics of impressionist painters, creating a look much like that which Agnes Varda employed two years prior in La bonheur.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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Bottoms
(2023)
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Scott Nye
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The jokes are often incisive and dark, undercutting their protagonists’ authority as much as anyone else’s, going for the jugular of teen culture without making a big show of how edgy they’re being.
Posted Aug 25, 2023
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Is Paris Burning?
(1966)
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Rudie Obias
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With so many plotlines and characters, it’s almost a marvel that the result is a well-paced and engaging epic that’s surprisingly raw and funny at the same time.
Posted Aug 15, 2023
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The Longest Goodbye
(2023)
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David Bax
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It feels like it was made more for the Science Channel than the movie theater.
Posted Aug 11, 2023
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Corsage
(2022)
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David Bax
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Corsage is unflinching in its depiction of depression but–like most of us, I would venture–it’s fascinated by the shape it can take in a person whose life offers them so much indulgence.
Posted Aug 11, 2023
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Passages
(2023)
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Scott Nye
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Without overly lusting for his cast, Sachs and cinematographer Josée Deshaies collaborate closely with production designer Pascale Consigny and costume designer Khadija Zeggaï to create a tapestry of appeal.
Posted Aug 03, 2023
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The Pale Blue Eye
(2022)
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David Bax
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Here and there, the inherent silliness of it all manages to overpower Cooper’s quest for bleakness.
Posted Aug 03, 2023
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Avatar: The Way of Water
(2022)
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David Bax
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The Way of Water is somehow even better than its already masterful antecedent.
Posted Aug 02, 2023
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Empire of Light
(2022)
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David Bax
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As far as 2022 movies in which a Black character exists mainly to reflect the journey of the white protagonist go, it’s not as bad as Armageddon Time. But it’s close.
Posted Aug 02, 2023
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Tantura
(2022)
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David Bax
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Over and over again, Tantura underlines, highlights and italicizes the saying, usually attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, that history is a lie agreed upon.
Posted Aug 01, 2023
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"Sr."
(2022)
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David Bax
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ven in his 80s and deeply afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, the now-late elder Downey appears still funny, cool as hell and actively directing and editing from his bed.
Posted Jul 28, 2023
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There There
(2022)
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David Bax
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There There seems like Bujalski’s answer to a film like Dustin Guy Defa’s Person to Person. But where that film was beautifully organic, this one is purely schematic.
Posted Jul 27, 2023
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One False Move
(1991)
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Rudie Obias
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If you’re a fan of neo-noir crime genre films or hard-boiled detective thrillers, then One False Move is a must.
Posted Jul 24, 2023
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Afire
(2023)
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Scott Nye
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...it’s an impressive, beguiling, and somewhat confounding film that draws out a lot about people’s tendency to become self-involved even in the case of catastrophe.
Posted Jul 14, 2023
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The Passengers of the Night
(2022)
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Scott Nye
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The Passengers of the Night exists pointedly where movies must reflexively, somewhere between real life and a dream.
Posted Jul 07, 2023
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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One
(2023)
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Scott Nye
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Here, the background proves as vital to the developments as the foreground, leading the film’s best surprises; how rare that a film of this scale would even place action in the background, let alone make it a vital part of the enterprise?
Posted Jul 06, 2023
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The Inspection
(2022)
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David Bax
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The Inspection is confidently told, economical and completely free of bullshit.
Posted Jun 30, 2023
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Pacifiction
(2022)
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David Bax
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In a darkly humorous and stunningly gorgeous way, Pacifiction is about a man gradually becoming obsolete.
Posted Jun 30, 2023
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Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
(2022)
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David Bax
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Weird has plenty to offer longtime acolytes of Yankovic’s music but it’s far from a collection of in-jokes, references and fan service.
Posted Jun 30, 2023
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Medea
(1970)
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Scott Nye
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Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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Pigpen
(1969)
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Scott Nye
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Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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Teorema
(1968)
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Scott Nye
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Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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Oedipus Rex
(1967)
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Scott Nye
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Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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The Hawks and the Sparrows
(1966)
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Scott Nye
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Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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The Gospel According to St. Matthew
(1964)
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Scott Nye
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Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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Love Meetings
(1964)
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Scott Nye
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Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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Mamma Roma
(1962)
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Scott Nye
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Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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Accattone
(1961)
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Scott Nye
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Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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Something In The Dirt
(2022)
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David Bax
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Something in the Dirt is a sometimes scary, sometimes funny horror/comedy that’s really about the ways we lie to ourselves and others to avoid responsibility for our bad decisions.
Posted Jun 27, 2023
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Medicine for Melancholy
(2008)
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Rudie Obias
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Medicine for Melancholy also shows how foreign films from Jean-Luc Godard and Wong Kar-Wai and indie movies from Richard Linklater have really influenced Jenkins’ style in later films.
Posted Jun 20, 2023
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Nefarious
(2023)
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Tyler Smith
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After kicking things off with a pretty solid fake out, the film settles into a repetitive rhythm that quickly becomes tiresome.
Posted Jun 19, 2023
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Asteroid City
(2023)
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Scott Nye
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The film is always engaging, often laugh-out-loud funny (particularly in a new song that forms the film’s sudden musical sequence), and beautiful to look at.
Posted Jun 15, 2023
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The Blackening
(2022)
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Scott Nye
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Boasting a really sharp cast (Perkins and Robertson being the key standouts) and a premise it more than delivers on, The Blackening arrives at a great commercial moment for horror films and an uncertain one for comedies.
Posted Jun 15, 2023
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La vie rêvée
(1972)
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David Bax
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Taken as a whole, the film feels lovingly crafted, artisanal and unbeholden to the expectations of the art form or the industry around it.
Posted Jun 15, 2023
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Please Baby Please
(2022)
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David Bax
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Riseborough remains unparalleled as a performer, easily in competition for the title of best of her generation.
Posted Jun 15, 2023
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Armageddon Time
(2022)
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David Bax
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Gray appears to be making a big show of how bad he feels only so he can make a similarly big spectacle out of forgiving himself.
Posted Jun 14, 2023
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Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
(2022)
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David Bax
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Concluding with opposing examples, films where the images pass Menkes’ muster, the film’s lasting impression is one of condescension and distrust toward its audience.
Posted Jun 14, 2023
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Old Man
(2022)
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David Bax
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If you’re looking for a traditional horror movie with reliable frights doled out in a recognizable pattern, well, McKee’s name alone should have been warning enough that you’re in the wrong place.
Posted Jun 13, 2023
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Blue Jean
(2022)
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Scott Nye
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In an artistic period given to investing everything in the idea of victimhood, Oakley’s stellar debut film cuts a level deeper – that an oppressive culture turns us into people we do not want to be.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
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The Attachment Diaries
(2021)
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Scott Nye
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The film’s formal approach is just as dynamic as its storytelling in piquing a sort of curiosity and exploding it in unexpected ways.
Posted May 25, 2023
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Peter Pan & Wendy
(2023)
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Tyler Smith
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In the end, Peter Pan & Wendy is a fantasy film that undercuts its own sense of wonder.
Posted May 03, 2023
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