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A Brighter Tomorrow
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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A rare film that will make you think and feel good, at the same time.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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The Mountain
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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Pierre’s story might be worth an hour, but that isn’t ordinarily considered long enough for a movie. Perhaps that is why the science-fiction elements were added in.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
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You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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Hats off to the writers, Alison Peck and Fiona Rosenbloom (on whose book the movie is based), for writing funny, often surprisingly touching, dialogue and creating a heroine and her friends who seem like real tween girls.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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Golda
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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Helen Mirren gives an extraordinary performance as the late Israeli prime minister, in a story that focuses on her handling of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the most challenging crisis of her political career.
Posted Aug 24, 2023
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Past Lives
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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It’s fine for a movie not to spell everything out, in fact, it’s preferable. But in Past Lives, Nora’s opacity left me uninvolved at times.
Posted Aug 10, 2023
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Barbie
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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I couldn’t help thinking about how Barbie has already been a big-screen character in Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, where the filmmakers used her more cleverly than anything that is done here.
Posted Jul 26, 2023
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The City
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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There have been Israeli movie musicals before, but there hasn’t been one that was so successfully filmed, in a long time, nor can I remember anything this original.
Posted Jul 07, 2023
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Broker
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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If you don’t know Kore-eda’s movies, such as the wonderful films After Life, Our Little Sister, After the Storm and Still Walking, Broker would be a good introduction to his work.
Posted Jul 06, 2023
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Asteroid City
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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Watching [it] feels more like taking a test than seeing a film: a test of your appreciation and knowledge of pop-culture artifacts and your willingness to follow dozens of characters down a rabbit-hole of retro cinematic and literary symbols and images.
Posted Jun 29, 2023
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Maggie Moore(s)
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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It gives me no joy to report that the movie is a disappointment, a leaden pastiche of Coen brothers’ films that I would have walked out of halfway had I not been reviewing it.
Posted Jun 15, 2023
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The Eight Mountains
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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All of the actors are good and the standouts are the two boys and Alessandro Borghi as the adult Bruno.
Posted Jun 07, 2023
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My Happy Ending
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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The movie is far more entertaining than the premise would suggest, and it movingly represents Gov’s plea for us to speak more openly and realistically about death.
Posted Jun 01, 2023
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Cairo Conspiracy
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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Saleh is a born storyteller and the cinematography and soundtrack combine with the screenplay and formidable acting to make Boy from Heaven into a fascinating drama.
Posted May 26, 2023
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You Hurt My Feelings
(2023)
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Hannah Brown
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While it’s enjoyable to watch much of this play out, I kept waiting for a big comic or dramatic payoff that never came. The on-the-nose title is a hint about the lack of subtext in the film.
Posted May 26, 2023
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Tori and Lokita
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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The Dardenne brothers have succeeded, with Tori and Lokita, in putting human faces on those who are usually nameless and anonymous.
Posted May 12, 2023
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Return to Dust
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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It's a slow-paced movie, which demands patience from viewers, and will be too austere for the vast majority of moviegoers.
Posted Apr 27, 2023
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Beautiful Minds
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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Usually, I either like or dislike a movie, but with Beautiful Minds, I kept going back and forth, finding it alternately charming and cloying.
Posted Apr 14, 2023
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The Good Boss
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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Bardem is in virtually every scene and obviously the movie revolves around him, but the supporting cast is completely convincing as well. Manolo Solo is particularly good as the constantly frazzled production manager.
Posted Apr 07, 2023
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Metronom
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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Belc gracefully blends Ana’s coming-of-age story with her political awakening and these twin threads are what give the film its power.
Posted Mar 29, 2023
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Valeria Is Getting Married
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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There’s a built-in suspense to this story and Vinik allows it to unfold gracefully. The actors are a great ensemble and work well together but it was Fraifeld’s portrayal of Christina that drew me into the movie from its opening moments
Posted Mar 23, 2023
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Tel Aviv Stories
(1992)
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Hannah Brown
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It’s a tour de force performance by Waxman...
Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Rosa's Wedding
(2020)
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Hannah Brown
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While the movie is often predictable, it is nevertheless enjoyable, and belongs squarely in the ever-growing genre of movies about middle-aged women making a major life transformation.
Posted Mar 09, 2023
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More Than I Deserve
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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The characters, who live in the shadow of mainstream Israeli society, feel real, in a drama where everyone is flawed and searching for redemption.
Posted Feb 08, 2023
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The Man in the Basement
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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All the actors are good here, among them Renier, who starred in a number of films by the Dardenne brothers... But the movie really belongs to Cluzet and the vile character he portrays.
Posted Feb 03, 2023
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America
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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It’s not a movie that is easy to categorize and just when you think you have figured out where it’s going, Graizer steers his characters in a different direction.
Posted Jan 12, 2023
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My Neighbor Adolf
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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Hayman, a Scottish actor, is unexpectedly touching as the lonely survivor. Udo Kier, who has played his fair share of Nazis, underplays to the point where it skews the movie a bit towards the theory that Polsky is just nuts.
Posted Jan 12, 2023
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Best Sellers
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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In spite of Caine’s charm and Plaza’s pluckiness, nothing in the movie feels genuine, and that’s a shame, because the conceit of having a politically incorrect dinosaur of a writer working with a young publisher could have been funny.
Posted Dec 28, 2022
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Concerned Citizen
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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Concerned Citizen is a carefully told, well-acted slice of life, but it could have been much more than that.
Posted Dec 02, 2022
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The Fabelmans
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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The Fabelmans is both fun and moving, two qualities we always associate with Spielberg’s movies.
Posted Nov 30, 2022
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Tokyo Shaking
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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While this setup might seem to promise a harrowing drama about how to navigate a disaster in an unfamiliar setting, it steps back whenever it seems about to become compelling.
Posted Nov 11, 2022
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A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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What you will remember most from the film is the dignity of the survivors and victims’ families in the face of heartbreaking loss.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
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Triangle of Sadness
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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It’s a wild ride that takes aim at some pretty easy targets, but makes a few good points and, more importantly, is funny much of the time.
Posted Oct 10, 2022
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Blonde
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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One thing you can say for sure about Marilyn Monroe’s life: It wasn’t boring. But that can’t be said of the much-hyped Netflix movie Blonde, a pretentious look at the tragic star...
Posted Oct 07, 2022
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Compartment No. 6
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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If you enjoy character-driven road movies, you will want to see the offbeat Compartment No. 6,
Posted Sep 08, 2022
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Haute couture
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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While much of this film is quite predictable, it is so beautifully done that you will forgive its more obvious moments and embrace its characters.
Posted Aug 25, 2022
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Born in Jerusalem and Still Alive
(2019)
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Hannah Brown
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Born In Jerusalem and Still Alive is best at the kind of gallows humor and bizarre calculations that terrorism forces us into.
Posted Aug 23, 2022
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A Hero
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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Amir Jadidi gives an outstanding performance in the lead role and you root for him, even as you get frustrated over everything he does that makes his situation worse. He is in nearly every scene and holds the screen brilliantly.
Posted Jul 28, 2022
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Persuasion
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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You feel the false notes from the very first minutes.
Posted Jul 22, 2022
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Thor: Love and Thunder
(2022)
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Hannah Brown
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[Portman] is engaging and credible in her action scenes. She seems to be having fun and it is fun to watch her.
Posted Jul 14, 2022
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Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
(2019)
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Hannah Brown
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Absorbing and magical, it’s a movie that some viewers will find too slow but which will reward those who have patience with a near-total immersion in a parallel universe.
Posted Jul 08, 2022
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The Worst Person in the World
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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An enjoyable portrait of a woman who becomes more interesting as her story progresses.
Posted Jun 09, 2022
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Golden Voices
(2019)
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Hannah Brown
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All the elements come together beautifully for a bittersweet comedy-drama that looks at a very particular immigrant experience.
Posted May 04, 2022
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A Radiant Girl
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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Much in this movie is well done...but parts of the story of her family are ill-conceived and at times she starts to seem goofy or dumb as she ignores reality.
Posted May 02, 2022
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Plan A
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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This film is particularly effective in its depiction of the horror of this kind of captivity.
Posted May 02, 2022
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To Be or Not to Be
(1942)
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Hannah Brown
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It stars Jack Benny, one of the great Jewish-American comedians of the 20th century, and Carole Lombard, a wonderful screwball comedian, as well as Robert Stack and Sig Ruman.
Posted May 02, 2022
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Where Is Anne Frank
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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Folman is nothing if not a good storyteller. All the visuals and flourishes come together to bring the story off the page and onto the screen.
Posted May 02, 2022
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The Survivor
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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Much of the story is moving and there are some emotionally wrenching scenes. The acting, particularly by Ben Foster as Haft, is wonderful, but the movie is told in a literal way that is not as imaginative as many of Levinson’s other movies.
Posted Apr 27, 2022
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Persian Lessons
(2020)
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Hannah Brown
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As incredible as the plot of Persian Stories may sound, Biscayart makes it so much more watchable than it would have been with virtually anyone else in the role. He makes Gilles into a completely credible character.
Posted Apr 27, 2022
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Charlotte
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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The movie will make you long to see an exhibition of her creations, some of which survived the war.
Posted Apr 27, 2022
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Three Floors
(2021)
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Hannah Brown
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Unfortunately Three Floors is a rare misfire for Moretti.
Posted Apr 14, 2022
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