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California's Forgotten Children
(2018)
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Shikhar Verma
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Melody C. Miller’s ‘California’s Forgotten Children,’ which is about the horrors of child sex trafficking, digs into important questions with fact-based precision.
Posted Mar 29, 2023
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Late Night With the Devil
(2023)
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Shikhar Verma
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This mock-doc-styled narrative is designed in a way where it takes subtle digs into corporate culture and the obsession with fame while giving us a reason why horror can be just as fun as anything else.
Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Chris Rock: Selective Outrage
(2023)
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Shikhar Verma
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Some of the jokes come straight from the boomer persona that Rock inhabits in the internet-frenzied world that he is trying to satirize, and for better or for worse, the comedian wouldn’t care, or will he?
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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You Resemble Me
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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You Resemble Me eventually becomes a sort of patchy exercise that remains effective due to Mouna Soualem’s exceptional performance and dedication to telling an honest story.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Palm Trees and Power Lines
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Palm Trees and Power Lines becomes a powerful, clear-eyed, and distinctively disturbing look at systematic grooming and predatory behavior.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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God's Time
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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To make things interesting and always lively, Antebi, who is making his debut here, populates his movie with stylistic flourishes that both feel kinda cool and peppy but also excessive and frustrating.
Posted Feb 26, 2023
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Attachment
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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The regressive nature of Leah’s relationship with her mother and the dynamic nature of her relationship with Maja leads ‘Attachment’ into a study of the dreadful repercussions of co-dependency.
Posted Feb 09, 2023
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1.5/5
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Poor Agnes
(2017)
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Shikhar Verma
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Navin Ramaswarna’s film only goes downhill until it just becomes a sappy film with good ideas waiting for the right execution.
Posted Feb 06, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin
(2023)
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Shikhar Verma
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It is a bonus that this lean thriller also doubles down as a cautionary climate change allegory, making all of Shyamalan’s flaws (including the unnecessary use of flashbacks) feel like distant callbacks.
Posted Feb 06, 2023
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Unconformity
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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It assuredly becomes a film about how uncertain we are of our choices and how carefully our life paths merge and diverge from the pre-decided notions we have in our heads.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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3/5
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Raymond Lewis: L.A. Legend
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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There’s a touch of manipulation towards the end, but this is a well-rounded and researched tale about a legend that never was.
Posted Jan 19, 2023
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2.5/5
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The Seasons: Four Love Stories
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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There’s a gentle, familiar taste that “The Seasons – Four Love Stories” offers, and I’d recommend it for that feeling alone.
Posted Dec 31, 2022
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3/5
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One Fine Morning
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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In spite of visiting familiar themes of personal crisis, desire, and existentialism, Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning doesn't feel as emotionally involving as it's supposed to be
Posted Dec 20, 2022
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4/5
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The Whale
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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The Whale feels like an end-of-the-world yarn that makes you want to smile and embrace those close to you with all their imperfections and shortcomings.
Posted Dec 12, 2022
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3/5
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Huesera: The Bone Woman
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Huesera is a bone-crunching folktale that distills the anxieties of modern-day motherhood through the lens of self-deception.
Posted Dec 04, 2022
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5/5
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Return to Seoul
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Return to Seoul is a masterful character study of a life stuck in the in-betweens.
Posted Dec 04, 2022
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Ukrainians in Exile
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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The images that we see in the short are not exactly distressing, but the anxiety that these people, who have to flee their own country in order to be in a safer space is visible, and the film manages to make it feel palpable.
Posted Nov 15, 2022
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2/5
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Monica, O My Darling
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Monica, O Darling doesn’t manage to use the sum of its parts to become a true blue noir like it claims to be.
Posted Nov 11, 2022
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3.5/5
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Causeway
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Some of the sequences are really moving, making Causeway more than just a benign PTSD drama that feels overly exploitative. It becomes a movie about two lonely people trying to find a sense of place in the world and in each other.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
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3/5
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8:37 Rebirth
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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‘8:37 Rebirth’ is a sagacious look at trauma and the ramifications of a single moment of violence.
Posted Oct 18, 2022
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2/5
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Stars at Noon
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Qualley is literally the beating heart of this hot and bothered drama that occasionally becomes so meandering and clueless of its existence that it feels like the actress is doing a whole lot of heavy lifting for no reason whatsoever.
Posted Oct 14, 2022
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2.5/5
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Don't Worry Darling
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Sans a few explosive sequences, this plays like a pretty straight-forward old-school, psychological thriller that is more interested in finding a way out of the mystery than establishing a more pertinent theme out of the premise it creates
Posted Oct 01, 2022
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2/5
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The Greatest Beer Run Ever
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Director Peter Farrelly returns after his surprising Oscar-winning Green Book, with a movie that is equally unsure of what tone it needs to focus on, or how to let its important message not get diluted by the absence of nuance.
Posted Sep 27, 2022
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2.5/5
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Do Revenge
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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While it sort of overdoes its own subversion. there’s no way you wouldn’t enjoy its twisted nature, especially when you realize how cleverly Robinson adapts Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train by setting it in a teenage wasteland populated by ‘staying fake.’
Posted Sep 16, 2022
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2.5/5
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Lost Inside
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Flaws and all aside, Lost Inside works because of its inclination towards being extremely sensitive with the subject it is dealing with. And that’s a step I’d like more indie romances to take.
Posted Sep 13, 2022
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2.5/5
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Eradication
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Eradication is a pretty decent and watchable pandemic thriller that uses its slow burn to insinuate that people are only as good as the circumstance they are put into.
Posted Sep 10, 2022
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2/5
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Darlings
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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The delicious and biting progression of Darlings is wasted on badly edited sequences that fail to capitalize on its extremely pulpy dark comedic aspects.
Posted Aug 05, 2022
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3/5
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Syl Johnson: Any Way the Wind Blows
(2015)
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Shikhar Verma
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It didn’t just make me look back at Syl’s incredible body of work, but also made me understand the value of a music scene that remains hidden away from plain sight, but almost always possesses a heart that beats the same way.
Posted Jul 13, 2022
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2/5
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Thor: Love and Thunder
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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After doing the tough task of redeeming and frankly diverting the MCU into more fun, frolic end with Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi is back with a tonally inconsistent and empty spectacle that doesn’t just lack laughs, but also lacks levity.
Posted Jul 08, 2022
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3/5
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Both Sides of the Blade
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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A true blue melodrama with hints of eroticism, the film is about tragic ends and hopeful beginnings.
Posted Jul 05, 2022
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3/5
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Sex, Love, Misery: New New York
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Structured as a funny, sexy, and unfiltered look at the new dating scene in pandemic-era New York, this documentary tries to investigate and look into what’s really going on in people’s heads or behind their social media emojis when they meet someone.
Posted Jun 13, 2022
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4.5/5
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The Souvenir Part II
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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The Souvenir: Part II becomes a masterful investigation of art’s ability to heal and make us understand ourselves a little better.
Posted Jun 10, 2022
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4.5/5
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The Power of the Dog
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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From Johnny Greenwood’s magnificent score to Ari Wegner’s haunting frames, The Power of the Dog barks its supremacy through and through.
Posted May 28, 2022
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4.5/5
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Petite Maman
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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Petite Maman is a total u-turn from the path that Céline Sciamma traveled in Portrait of Lady on Fire. And yet, this story about our female counterparts feels like it could exist on the other side of the beach.
Posted May 24, 2022
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5/5
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Memoria
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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Memoria’s most outstanding achievement is a Thai director talking about Spanish national atrocities with a British actor at its center. Thereby showing how political consequences on people feel surprisingly opaque for everyone in the world.
Posted May 24, 2022
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2/5
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Fading Petals
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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There are two things the chaos does to the film. Firstly, it unnecessarily drags on into paranoia mode; secondly, it further convolutes the already confusing narrative.
Posted May 23, 2022
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0.5/5
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365 Days: This Day
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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365 Days: This Day is not only dumber, more problematic, and downright un-sexy, it is also incredibly lazy, bland and so supremely unengaging that you wonder if it will even make sense to the returning audiences.
Posted May 01, 2022
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2/5
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The Tale of King Crab
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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The Tale of King Crab never actually reaches its primal aim of telling us how stories twist within themselves, and through time they change and become more and more personal
Posted Apr 20, 2022
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3/5
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The Outfit
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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The Outfit matches the charisma of its well-cast stars with a low-key gangster tale about people trying to outwit each other.
Posted Apr 15, 2022
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1/5
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The Lost City
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Brad Pitt, who shows up in an extended 10-odd minute cameo is the only saving grace of this dumpster fire of a film.
Posted Apr 09, 2022
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3/5
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The Feast
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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The Feast is a film that enjoys drenching the viewer in buckets of blood by taking the capitalist pigs to the slaughter.
Posted Apr 01, 2022
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3.5/5
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Belle Vie
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Belle Vie is a documentary about a man who never lost his sense of humor in spite of getting loaded with adversities.
Posted Mar 15, 2022
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3/5
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To Leslie
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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To Leslie is a film that isnt steered across to the finish by the director or the technical aspects, but through Riseboroughs incredible central performance.
Posted Mar 13, 2022
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4.5/5
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Drive My Car
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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Drive My Car shows a tender and melancholic way in which grief follows us around. Leading us to a wholly intimate and cathartic moment of acceptance where the reel and real dwell together and form newer meanings for those who can look through.
Posted Mar 07, 2022
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1.5/5
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The Sky is Everywhere
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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In spite of an experimental visual approach and a potent ensemble, the only thing that this trite representation of grief does is punch a hole in Deckers astounding body of work.
Posted Feb 17, 2022
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2.5/5
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Lotawana
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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I just wish there was more to its critic of the traditional way of living vs the characters choice. That would have made the tragic climax more palpable.
Posted Feb 08, 2022
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4/5
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Cha Cha Real Smooth
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Cha Cha Real Smooth is an absolute charmer that is smart and moves you in unexpected ways.
Posted Feb 07, 2022
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2/5
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Looop Lapeta
(2022)
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Shikhar Verma
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Looop Lapeta doesnt have a dull moment, but it is a lowbrow time-loop comedy that has no method to its chaos.
Posted Feb 04, 2022
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4/5
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Happening
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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The director presents a sensitive, almost urgent look at the realities of a world that gets aggressively unfair when a person isn't allowed to take control over their own bodies.
Posted Feb 02, 2022
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4/5
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After Yang
(2021)
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Shikhar Verma
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At once about grief and memories, this is a truly meditative and intimate look at the human condition and what really makes a family.
Posted Feb 02, 2022
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