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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1
(2014)
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Keith Uhlich
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The converted will be satisfied, or at least show up to the theater in obeisant force. Money will be made and anticipation stoked for next year's blowout finale. It's a circle-vicious to some, a religion to others-with no end in sight.
Posted Nov 25, 2014
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.5/5
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Disaster Movie
(2008)
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Serena Donadoni
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Deflating these images only works when they've overstayed their welcome in the cultural landscape, and making fun of the rejects doesn't have the same punch.
Posted Jun 28, 2014
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1.5/5
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College
(2008)
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Serena Donadoni
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Deb Hagan takes an adolescent rite of passage and turns it into a primer on collegiate sadism, pushing the R rating to new raunchy lows in the process.
Posted Jun 28, 2014
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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
(2009)
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Bret McCabe
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It doesn't aspire to reinvent the crime flick, it merely delivers the genre. But, goddamn, does it deliver.
Posted Apr 01, 2010
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The Illusionist
(2006)
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Gary Dowell
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Unabashedly old-fashioned and fantastically pulpy.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
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See No Evil
(2006)
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Gary Dowell
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The dull and tedious splatter-fest See No Evil is, sadly, not even half as intriguing as its skuzzy pedigree.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
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Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
(2003)
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Blake DePastino
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It's all a confection, but the plot is tight, Jolie is hot, and I'll probably see the next one, too.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
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Invincible
(2006)
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Gary Dowell
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It may seem that Invincible takes too long to get to the football. But by the time it does get down to it, we've invested enough in Wahlberg and Kinnear to give a damn about the outcome of the all-important Big Game.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
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Undiscovered
(2005)
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Gary Dowell
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Undiscovered is a lifeless affair, as disinterested in its own characters as moviegoers are likely to be.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
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Silent Hill
(2006)
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Gary Dowell
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Visually arresting but only sporadically enthralling.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
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4/4
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Séraphine
(2008)
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Bret McCabe
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It ... works as an intimate story of one woman's mental instability; the film commendably does not demur from recognizing that whatever powered Séraphine's art was also responsible for her social awkwardness and institutionalization.
Posted Oct 08, 2009
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The Dark Knight
(2008)
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Cole Haddon
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In a medium where CGI has become synonymous with superheroes, the limited presence of it adds a degree of startling reality to The Dark Knight that makes a person believe a billionaire could dress up as a bat and kick ass on a city's streets.
Posted Jul 16, 2008
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Falling
(2005)
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Bret McCabe
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Falling is a finely observed, idiosyncratic slice-of-life piece set to slow boil and captured in deadpan details.
Posted Apr 03, 2008
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The Saragossa Manuscript
(1965)
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Jack Purdy
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Yes, The Saragossa Manuscript is trippy as all get out, but that shorthand description falls woefully short of doing justice to an intensely hypnotic piece of work.
Posted Jan 08, 2008
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Night Watch
(2004)
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Gary Dowell
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If it all sounds silly, convoluted, and confusing, that's because it is silly, convoluted, and confusing. It's also a hell of a lot of fun.
Posted Jan 08, 2008
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4.5/5
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Juno
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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This poignant comedy, which tackles the touchy subject of teen pregnancy with a frankness that startles, owes the bulk of its triumph to the screenplay by Diablo Cody.
Posted Dec 20, 2007
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1.5/5
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Fred Claus
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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Fred Claus is the perfect example of how a great idea can be ruined by the most competent filmmakers.
Posted Nov 08, 2007
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.5/5
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Sleuth
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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Succeeds only as another example of why Law should never star in a remake of a Caine movie again.
Posted Nov 08, 2007
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Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
(2004)
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Lee Gardner
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Filmmakers Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer plunged into their subject for this documentary, detailing with care and wit the history of the area, its peculiar ecology and sociology, and the scientific and legislative efforts to save it.
Posted Nov 05, 2007
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3.5/5
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30 Days of Night
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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A gore-filled, cheer-inciting B-movie that re-imagines the vampire as something to be feared, not to sleep with.
Posted Oct 18, 2007
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2/5
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The Darjeeling Limited
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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The pacing is gruelingly slow, with too much attention paid to needless cinematic flourishes.
Posted Oct 18, 2007
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4/5
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Lars and the Real Girl
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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Director Craig Gillespie deserves praise for making such a silly premise so endearing, but Gosling, as always, is the real champ here.
Posted Oct 11, 2007
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3/5
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Shoot 'Em Up
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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Never once does it take itself seriously, nor does it attempt to convince you that this cartoon world populated by unstoppable gunmen, FBI-profilers-turned-hitmen and lactating hookers should be taken seriously, either.
Posted Sep 06, 2007
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1.5/5
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3:10 to Yuma
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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A preposterous piece of soulless thievery that the understandably ignorant will enjoy.
Posted Sep 06, 2007
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Rocket Science
(2007)
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Violet Glaze
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While Hal's journey to maturation is torturous, lacerating, and endlessly unfruitful, hunkering down in the trenches of self-discovery with him is a joy.
Posted Aug 24, 2007
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2/5
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The Nanny Diaries
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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The Nanny Diaries is ultimately undone by an undeveloped lead character played by an equally underwhelming Scarlett Johansson.
Posted Aug 23, 2007
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3.5/5
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Sunshine
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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Director Danny Boyle avoids the clichés and instead embraces the sort of psychological drama and suspense that would've pleased Stanley Kubrick.
Posted Jul 26, 2007
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3/5
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Rescue Dawn
(2006)
|
Ian Grey
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So here we are, mired in a stupid, loathsome war, and what does Werner Herzog do? He creates an absolutely riveting sort-of love letter to America that takes place during that last stupid, loathsome U.S. war, Vietnam.
Posted Jul 26, 2007
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3/5
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Shrek the Third
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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The most boring Shrek yet. That doesn't mean it's not entertaining; it's just disappointing when compared to its predecessors. Maybe in the next sequel, Shrek'll buy a minivan.
Posted May 17, 2007
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2.5/5
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28 Weeks Later
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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The sequel is divorced from its source material and instead focuses on bigger scares, louder music and two kids (who are almost as annoying as the Jurassic Park duo).
Posted May 10, 2007
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3/5
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Spider-Man 3
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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When compared to just about every other Marvel comic-book movie released in the past couple of years, it's a goddamn cinematic masterpiece.
Posted May 03, 2007
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4/5
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Grindhouse
(2007)
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Cole Haddon
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Once you get past the absurdity of it all, what you get is a one-two punch of fun the likes of which rarely come out of Hollywood.
Posted Apr 05, 2007
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4/5
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The Host
(2006)
|
Ian Grey
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Alternately scary, funny and inspiring, Bong Joon-ho's first-class monster mash is also a scalding rebuke to U.S. interventionism, profiteering and general developing-world opportunism, and a lovely story of familial bonding. In a word, amazing.
Posted Mar 24, 2007
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4/5
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300
(2006)
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Cole Haddon
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The exaggerated, stylized carnage takes on an almost Homeric beauty while still remaining in the historical ballpark.
Posted Mar 08, 2007
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2/5
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Catch and Release
(2006)
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Cole Haddon
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Catch and Release opens with a funeral, which is a not-so-funny way for a romantic comedy trying to pass itself off as a drama to begin.
Posted Jan 25, 2007
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2.5/5
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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
(2006)
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Violet Glaze
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As the body count of sexualized corpses increases Perfume starts to resemble an olfactory Peeping Tom minus the intellectual chops necessary to back up its atrocities.
Posted Jan 04, 2007
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3/5
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We Are Marshall
(2006)
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Cole Haddon
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It doesn't really matter that you've seen variations of the story time and time again. What matters is, you're not going to have a terrible time.
Posted Dec 22, 2006
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The History Boys
(2006)
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Cole Haddon
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Unfortunately, the staid production never manages to justify the leap from stage to screen.
Posted Dec 21, 2006
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2.5/4
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Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
(2006)
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Cole Haddon
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Whereas Secretary didn't have to worry about truth, Fur never quite escapes it, nor embraces it.
Posted Dec 01, 2006
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Stranger Than Fiction
(2006)
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Cole Haddon
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[Screenwriter Zach Helm is] called by those in the know "the next Charlie Kaufman..."
Posted Nov 11, 2006
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2/5
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The Science of Sleep
(2006)
|
Ian Grey
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A cloying confection of candied whimsy and exclusive self-referentiality.
Posted Sep 28, 2006
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Accepted
(2006)
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Gary Dowell
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Congenial, mildly anarchic, and generally inoffensive, Accepted feels like it's holding itself back, which also keeps it from being thoroughly engaging.
Posted Aug 17, 2006
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The Descent
(2005)
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Gary Dowell
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A number of narrative twists keep you guessing and, while the pace stays strong and steady, building the gory mayhem to a bloody crescendo.
Posted Aug 03, 2006
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Why We Fight
(2005)
|
Ian Grey
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If the inducement of despair and disgust is an indicator of artistic achievement, Why We Fight is incredibly successful.
Posted Jul 20, 2006
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Freedomland
(2006)
|
Gary Dowell
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Freedomland is a drama that plays like an episode of a TV cop show stretched beyond its limits.
Posted May 25, 2006
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Seabiscuit
(2003)
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Blake DePastino
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So predictable that even this true story--the one so few people today know anything about -- seems like an accomplished fact before the opening credits are through.
Posted May 20, 2006
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Sin City
(2005)
|
Joe Macleod
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Quite possibly the grittiest, muskiest, most blood-soaked, mind-roasting ball-busting thighmaster of a comic book you don't ever have to read.
Posted May 20, 2006
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L'Enfant
(2005)
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Ian Grey
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If it's possible for cinema to be so invisible as to allow us to actually see inside characters -- to be, in short, literary -- this is it.
Posted May 18, 2006
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Breakfast on Pluto
(2005)
|
Ian Grey
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In short, the director has finally found material - - Patrick McCabe's novel, which Jordan adapted - - that unifies his obsessions with politics, the Troubles and the dangerous fragility of machismo.
Posted Jan 06, 2006
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North Country
(2005)
|
Ian Grey
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As hokey and unrealistically optimistic as Josey's victories may play out, we buy them, because the director has made us want to.
Posted Oct 20, 2005
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