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The Point
(1971)
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Kathy Fennessy
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There may be better family films, but few that are more personal and less condescending to young people.
Posted Apr 03, 2020
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Rocketman
(2019)
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Kathy Fennessy
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It's better than most music biopics, and not so much for what it has to say -- it's a fully authorized motion picture, after all -- but for the visual flair Fletcher brings to it.
Posted Jun 07, 2019
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2.5/4
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Maria by Callas: In Her Own Words
(2017)
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Ed Gonzalez
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The film is less hagiographic than most documentaries of its kind, which isn't to say that Tom Volf's adoration of his subject is ever in doubt.
Posted Oct 28, 2018
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
(2016)
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Michael Nordine
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While Rogue One isn't as grand or consequential as The Force Awakens, it finds space in the margins to leave a mark all its own.
Posted Dec 19, 2016
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Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
(2016)
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Michael Nordine
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Rarely has an argument for the interconnectedness of all things been so fleet of foot and ambitious all at once.
Posted Oct 06, 2016
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The Seventh Fire
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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There are no teary-eyed breakdowns or moments of grand revelation in The Seventh Fire, just an utter lack of hope for a better future.
Posted Aug 18, 2016
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De Palma
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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Doesn't hold us to the same exacting standards De Palma would.
Posted Jul 06, 2016
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The Shallows
(2016)
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Michael Nordine
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The shark movie we never knew we needed.
Posted Jul 06, 2016
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The Neon Demon
(2016)
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Michael Nordine
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The Neon Demon is about as deep as a puddle, but the image it reflects back is so mesmeric you may stare so long you fall in.
Posted Jul 06, 2016
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X-Men: Apocalypse
(2016)
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Michael Nordine
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The rare comic-book film that, like its antagonist, absorbs the knowledge of its lesser peers and inspires a few moments of genuine awe.
Posted May 25, 2016
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Knight of Cups
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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Malick releases his movies into the world like a falconer: Once let loose, they have minds of their own.
Posted Mar 09, 2016
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A War
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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So comprehensive in its approach, deconstructing the pivotal moment from every possible perspective, as to instill in viewers the impression of being among the jurors presiding over this case.
Posted Mar 09, 2016
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Chimes at Midnight
(1965)
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Michael Nordine
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A best-of approach that cuts to the soul of a figure whom Welles considered Shakespeare's greatest creation.
Posted Mar 09, 2016
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The Witch
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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We fear such things because they're unnatural, a perversion of everything we know to be true about the world. The Witch renders them even more horrifying by suggesting that they are natural - that witches and spirits have been here all along.
Posted Feb 20, 2016
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Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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Bjrkman's best quality as a documentarian is ultimately a double-edged sword: He's too content to let his subject do all the talking.
Posted Feb 19, 2016
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Hail, Caesar!
(2016)
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Michael Nordine
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They may not make them like they used to, but at least they still make them like this.
Posted Feb 03, 2016
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The Lady in the Van
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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As with the lady's neighbors, this movie doesn't know what to do with her.
Posted Jan 27, 2016
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Spotlight
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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A risk-averse account of a group of people who were anything but.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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Brooklyn
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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Just because you can never go home again doesn't mean you can't make a new one.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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Heart of a Dog
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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This is cinematic free association, with one tangent leading to another and another until you've forgotten the original thread.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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The Wonders
(2014)
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Michael Nordine
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Not honey-sweet, perhaps, but only bitter enough to make you appreciate its richness all the more.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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Macbeth
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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Striking visuals guide the way more breathlessly than any footnote could.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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The Danish Girl
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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The problem with The Danish Girl is the same problem with most movies directed by Tom Hooper: It's directed by Tom Hooper.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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Joy
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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It's all over the place in the worst way, stacking the deck against its heroine so high that everyone besides her comes across as a one-dimensional cartoon character.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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The Big Short
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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McKay's comic sensibilities are suited to highlighting the many absurdities of this situation, but they don't gel with the film's eventual call for viewers to get outraged at how little has been done to fix the quagmire.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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Trumbo
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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Hardly free of the bluster that is the hallmark of prestige pictures about 'serious' subjects, but there's a certain breeziness to Trumbo that keeps it from delighting in its own importance.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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Carol
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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Though some may be left cold by the remove at which Haynes keeps us from his superlative leads, others will be putty in his gifted hands.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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45 Years
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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Understated to the point of being underwhelming.
Posted Jan 22, 2016
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Anomalisa
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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These are the most tired-looking puppets you've ever seen, their sagging bodies and droopy eyes betraying two lifetimes of disappointment and lowered expectations.
Posted Jan 06, 2016
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The Revenant
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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The Revenant isn't beautiful to look at because Iñárritu wants you take in the sights; it's beautiful because he wants you to know that there's nothing man can't ruin - or be ruined by.
Posted Jan 06, 2016
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The Hateful Eight
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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These are wolves, and most of them don't even bother disguising themselves in sheep's clothing.
Posted Dec 23, 2015
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens
(2015)
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Michael Nordine
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There are echoes of the past in each of these characters, but they resonate in new ways.
Posted Dec 17, 2015
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3/4
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Sunshine Superman
(2014)
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Ed Gonzalez
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The film's images, so continually heartrending so as to never become redundant, effectively function as visual proselytizing.
Posted May 17, 2015
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Dogtooth
(2009)
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Karina Longworth
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This pastel-colored portrait of disaster capitalism was made long before the Greek economic crisis, and that's something of a relief: Straight parable could never feel as urgent and unexpectedly moving.
Posted Jun 22, 2010
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Knight and Day
(2010)
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Dan Kois
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He's just so irritating, Roy Miller, each subpar quip delivered with a cocksure grin that makes you wish the bad guys were better at hitting back.
Posted Jun 22, 2010
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I Am Love
(2009)
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Melissa Anderson
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Luca Guadagnino's visually ravishing third feature suggests an epic that Visconti and Sirk might have made after they finished watching Vertigo and reading Madame Bovary while gorging themselves on aphrodisiacs.
Posted Jun 15, 2010
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Toy Story 3
(2010)
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Eric Hynes
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Its irresistible conceit and snappy good humor remain largely intact, though now it also hauls a saltier and more anxious sensibility.
Posted Jun 15, 2010
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The Karate Kid
(2010)
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Nick Pinkerton
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There is the impression, deadly to the sense of fun, that the talent here actually thought they were remaking a classic.
Posted Jun 08, 2010
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Iron Man 2
(2010)
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Nick Pinkerton
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The idea is that we learn to trust that any extraneous-seeming thread will connect to something in another couple of summers and pay off, assuming the movie does.
Posted May 04, 2010
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OSS 117: Lost in Rio
(2009)
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Michelle Orange
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It is Dujardin who wins the day -- and eventually, of course, the gimlet-eyed girl -- as the perfect, preening fool.
Posted May 04, 2010
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Date Night
(2010)
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Karina Longworth
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Director Shawn Levy glosses over the seeds of social satire inherent in the premise, and instead tries to make his movie all things to all quadrants.
Posted Apr 06, 2010
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Birdemic: Shock and Terror
(2010)
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Aaron Hillis
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The rowdy New York midnight premiere of writer-director James Nguyen's self-proclaimed "romantic thriller" Birdemic: Shock and Terror proves that there's room-alongside Ed Wood's entire oeuvre--for one more in the pantheon of beloved trash-terpieces.
Posted Mar 31, 2010
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The Last Song
(2010)
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Melissa Anderson
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The Cyrus machinery repels any believable human connection onscreen, though she's not helped much by Sparks and Van Wie's script.
Posted Mar 31, 2010
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The Runaways
(2010)
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Karina Longworth
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It's sexy, but, in the end, skin-deep.
Posted Mar 16, 2010
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Neil Young Trunk Show
(2009)
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Nick Pinkerton
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A slapdash job -- endearingly so.
Posted Mar 16, 2010
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The Secret of Kells
(2009)
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Ella Taylor
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Flowery meadows, wafting dandelion clocks, packs of baying wolves -- all are grist for the film's palette of beauty.
Posted Mar 02, 2010
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Valentine's Day
(2010)
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Karina Longworth
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So many stars, so many storylines, looking for love in all the wrong places
Posted Feb 09, 2010
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Edge of Darkness
(2010)
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Nick Pinkerton
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Gibson still knows what he does best, as a star should, and creates tension just from never letting the tears poised in his eyes fall.
Posted Jan 26, 2010
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2/4
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Youth in Revolt
(2009)
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Rob Nelson
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This tale of a sex-crazed teen who invents a nasty alter-ego in a perverse bid to seduce his dream girl has too many unfunny moments to justify more than a rental...
Posted Jan 07, 2010
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That Evening Sun
(2009)
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Chuck Wilson
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Holbrook is as unsentimental as Abner himself, and the beauty of his work here lies in his refusal to soften the character's hard edges. Regrettably, Teems's editorial choices in the film's homestretch waste that discipline.
Posted Nov 03, 2009
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