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Million Dollar Baby
(2004)
|
Brian Miller
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A one-man shop who even composed the muted score for his movie, Eastwood reminds us how films are best created, like Maggie's destiny in the ring, with one's own hands.
Posted Feb 19, 2019
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Head-On
(2004)
|
Brian Miller
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The storytelling rhythms can be a little jarring, almost like early Spike Lee, but this seems true to the disconnect of Cahit's and Sibel's lives.
Posted Feb 19, 2019
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American Beauty
(1999)
|
Jackie McCarthy
|
The point of American Beauty isn't just watching the perfect suburban shell crack, but seeing the characters glue their own version of it back together.
Posted Feb 19, 2019
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Twin Sisters
(2002)
|
Brian Miller
|
Stamp collectors, this is the movie for you. For the rest of us, Lotte and Anna are nice but not very interesting characters,
Posted Feb 19, 2019
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Gladiator
(2000)
|
Brian Miller
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Gladiator certainly feels like it was written by committee and template.
Posted Feb 19, 2019
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Shakespeare in Love
(1998)
|
John Longenbaugh
|
You have to know a fair amount about the life and work of William Shakespeare to truly appreciate how deeply stupid this script is.
Posted Feb 19, 2019
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Chicago
(2002)
|
Tim Appelo
|
It's a high-wire act energized by its stars' amazement at their own reckless effrontery, a brash blast, and an original sight in a cinema cancerous with cautious recyclings.
Posted Feb 19, 2019
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A Beautiful Mind
(2001)
|
Brian Miller
|
As competent, affecting biopics go, Mind won't win any prizes, but you've earned yourself the right for more awards consideration, mate.
Posted Feb 19, 2019
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3.5/4
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Arctic
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
The simplicity of writer/director Joe Penna's approach and the magnificence of Mads Mikkelsen's acting is more than enough to make this survival tale a gripping experience.
Posted Feb 15, 2019
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3/4
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The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
(2019)
|
Robert Horton
|
If the sequel doesn't have the nonstop zing of the first movie, it's still the kind of thing that makes you grin from beginning to end.
Posted Feb 08, 2019
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3/4
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Stan & Ollie
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
They re-create some classic routines, with obvious affection; these are performers who understand comedy in their bones.
Posted Jan 25, 2019
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4/4
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Cold War
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Along with the off-center black-and-white cinematography, Pawlikoski's most effective tool here is the way music provides the pulse of the story.
Posted Jan 18, 2019
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2.5/4
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Aquaman
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
There aren't enough drumming octopi to make this movie memorable, an observation I thought I'd never have to make.
Posted Dec 21, 2018
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3/4
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Mary Poppins Returns
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
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Crisply executed and refreshingly old-fashioned.
Posted Dec 21, 2018
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2.5/4
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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
If somehow those jokes could have been squeezed into a 90-minute package instead of a 117-minute feature, maybe Spider-Verse would have more zip.
Posted Dec 14, 2018
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3.5/4
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The Favourite
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Serves as a corrective to all those fluffy period movies where pretty costumes and set design function as the cinematic equivalent of a bubble bath.
Posted Dec 07, 2018
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4/4
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Roma
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
The way Cuarón accumulates details-the jumble of clothes drying on a roof, a broken jug after a New Year's toast, the ubiquity of the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack in 1971-builds an elemental power.
Posted Dec 07, 2018
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3/4
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Green Book
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
However much I rolled my eyes at its cornball touches, I have to admit that the film generates a great deal of goodwill, due to its smart pace, bright colors, and the Mortensen/Ali double act.
Posted Nov 29, 2018
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2.5/4
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Widows
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
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Tries to be a lot of different things: heist thriller, feminist statement, social-issue diagnosis. That's a lot to bite off, and 129 minutes isn't enough time for proper chewing.
Posted Nov 16, 2018
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4/4
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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
It's like a beautifully embroidered needlework laid across a gravesite.
Posted Nov 16, 2018
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|
2.5/4
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Outlaw King
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Operates in a glum, skeptical key.
Posted Nov 09, 2018
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1.5/4
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Bohemian Rhapsody
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Has a dutiful, respectable air about it.
Posted Nov 02, 2018
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3/4
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Halloween
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
The fellow who put the mask in toxic masculinity is loose again.
Posted Oct 19, 2018
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3/4
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Sadie
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
"Plays as a kind of dark, slightly unreal fairy tale-like a Roald Dahl yarn where the kids take things just a little too far for comfort."
Posted Oct 19, 2018
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3/4
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First Man
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Even if First Man doesn't fire on all cylinders, its unusual protagonist is fascinating in his blankness; here, the right stuff is downright cold-blooded.
Posted Oct 12, 2018
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2/4
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A Star Is Born
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Cooper's leisurely approach builds no momentum, and the non-musical scenes meander as the actors (apparently) improvise in close-up. This isn't storytelling as much as it is a work-shopped series of behaviors.
Posted Oct 04, 2018
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3/4
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Blaze
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
"Blaze looks and sounds great; some of its images have a sensitively chosen-yet-offhand texture that seems to spring straight out of a vintage country song."
Posted Sep 28, 2018
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2/4
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The House With a Clock in Its Walls
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
The story carries less urgency as it ticks along, frittering away its energy amid all the special effects and sight gags.
Posted Sep 21, 2018
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3/4
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Mandy
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Walks a fine line between the cool and the ridiculous, and then finally erases the line.
Posted Sep 14, 2018
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2/4
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Searching
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
It's possible this movie might work better streamed on your own laptop, as the windows-within-windows effect gets multiplied.
Posted Aug 31, 2018
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3.5/4
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Support the Girls
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Hall assumes full ownership of this warm and funny film.
Posted Aug 24, 2018
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3/4
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Puzzle
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
With her pinched face and tiny stature (she regularly vanishes within Agnes' sweaters and jackets), Macdonald conveys a lifetime's experience of fitting into other people's plans.
Posted Aug 17, 2018
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3.5/4
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The Miseducation of Cameron Post
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
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Akhavan has executed a quietly complete takedown of an ignorant practice.
Posted Aug 10, 2018
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2.5/4
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Generation Wealth
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Greenfield's argument widens so far she loses focus.
Posted Aug 03, 2018
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3.5/4
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Mission: Impossible - Fallout
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
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If a scene calls for people to parachute onto a building from 30,000 feet, why not throw in a lightning storm?
Posted Jul 27, 2018
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3/4
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Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Ultimately, it works in large part because of a fine cast, and Van Sant's sensitive work with them.
Posted Jul 21, 2018
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4/4
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On the Seventh Day
(2017)
|
Robert Horton
|
Writer/director Jim McKay is clearly gifted at capturing authentic places and faces, and that's what gives On the Seventh Day its everyday enchantment.
Posted Jul 13, 2018
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2/4
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The King
(2017)
|
Robert Horton
|
Jarecki's after the big picture, and that's part of the problem.
Posted Jul 06, 2018
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4/4
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Leave No Trace
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
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The beautifully observed details of this heroine's journey are heartbreaking.
Posted Jun 29, 2018
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|
1.5/4
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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
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If it all sounds calculated, that's how it plays, although the film is peppier than the first Jurassic World.
Posted Jun 22, 2018
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3/4
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American Animals
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
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Instead of thinking what a lark this all is, we realize somebody is going to get hurt because of these jackasses.
Posted Jun 08, 2018
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3/4
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Beast
(2017)
|
Robert Horton
|
A little like Nicholas Ray's great film noir In a Lonely Place (1950), where we watch Humphrey Bogart begin a romance with Gloria Grahame while he's under suspicion for murder-except that Beast shows us the dynamic from the female perspective.
Posted May 25, 2018
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3/4
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Deadpool 2
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
At one point, Deadpool compares the domestic grosses of the first Deadpool movie with The Passion of the Christ, which is surely what our culture's over-analysis of movie box office deserves.
Posted May 16, 2018
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|
3.5/4
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Tully
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Conceals a tender heart within an outer skin of sandpaper.
Posted May 04, 2018
|
|
4/4
|
Zama
(2017)
|
Robert Horton
|
Gorgeous, sneakily funny, and amazing to hear, with its soundtrack of buzzing insects and screeching birds.
Posted Apr 27, 2018
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|
2.5/4
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Avengers: Infinity War
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Infinity War gets by with a witty first hour and the starry appeal of the cast, but the gears really grind near the finish.
Posted Apr 27, 2018
|
|
2.5/4
|
Submergence
(2017)
|
Robert Horton
|
I did like the Germanic sobriety Wenders applies to the material-you never doubt something is at stake, even if the storytelling pieces don't always pay off.
Posted Apr 13, 2018
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|
3/4
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Isle of Dogs
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
Anderson's style becomes overbearing when deployed in a precious world populated by animated talking animals.
Posted Mar 29, 2018
|
|
3/4
|
Love, Simon
(2018)
|
Robert Horton
|
As bland as vanilla pudding. But unless you're completely vanilla-phobic, the movie's unforced good feelings are easy to enjoy.
Posted Mar 23, 2018
|
|
3.5/4
|
The Death of Stalin
(2017)
|
Robert Horton
|
Comes close to perfectly balancing comedy and savagery.
Posted Mar 16, 2018
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>
