Tag Archives: movies

Netflixable? A Life Lived with Loss and a Search for meaning — “Train Dreams”

“Train Dreams” is a forlorn folk ballad with pretensions of being a tone poem. This downboat but picturesque saga of one man’s life during the lumbering-mad early years of the 20th century is both intimate and remote. We see a … Continue reading

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Movie Review — “Wicked: For Good” does Dorothy Wrong

I said at the start that turning “Wicked” the musical into a two-part big screen epic was a mistake. Just how big a mistake is obvious as this bloated beast staggers to the end of the Yellow Brick Road in … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Sisu: Road to Revenge” takes a Wrong Turn or Three

I am an audience of one at a late afternoon “preview” matinee of “Sisu 2,” aka “Sisu: Road to Revenge,” the sequel to the savage sleeper hit by Finnish carnage Jalmari Helander. Do the locals know something I don’t? Or … Continue reading

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Movie Review: A New Yorker widowed by a Police Shooting seeks Justice in “Aftershock: The Nicole P. Bell Story”

An infamous police shooting leads to trials and a search for justice that doesn’t end in a courtroom in “Aftershock” The Nicole P. Bell Story.” It’s a sturdy, often moving fil built aroud Rayven Symone Ferrell’s affecting performance in the … Continue reading

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Movie Review: Of Course Kevin James stars in the “Playdate” from Hell

The most violent children’s entertainment since “The Silence of the Lambs” stars Kevin James, features Isla Fisher as leader of a hard-drinking “gang” of soccer moms and gives the inventive character player Alan Tudyck his best shot at impersonating and … Continue reading

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Documentary Review: Australia’s Oscar hopes rely on Mongolians who know “The Wolves Always Come at Night”

“The Wolves Always Come at Night” is an evocative immersion in a dying way of life, that of nomadic Mongolian goat, horse and cattle herders. Gabrielle Brady’s documentary captures the stark beauty of the treeless brownscape of the Mongolian steppes, … Continue reading

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Movie Review: A Mother’s Past and Present Blur “When Fall is Coming”

François Ozon has to be the French cinema’s premier poker player. With his genre-bending/expectations-upending dramas (“Everything Went Fine”), dramedies (“In the House”), feminist comedies (“Potiche”) and musical drama mysteries (“8 Women”), you’d hate to be seated at the same table … Continue reading

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Classic Film Review: A Reporter digs into government scandals real and staged — “Defence of the Realm” (1985)

It’s odd to think of the ’80s as a movie decade in which we can bandy the phrase “They don’t make’em like that any more” about. Hollywood’s blockbuster obsession almost wholly took over, and the roman numeralization of cinema “franchises” … Continue reading

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Netflixable? Legendary Thai Gangster “Tee Yai” earns a Weak Tea Action Bio-pic, “Born to be Bad”

For a trigger-happy bank robber, convincing the public and cops that your exploits are “magical,” that you have supernatural protections, would seem like the ultimate edge. Convince law enforcement that bullets pass right through you, that arresting and handcuffing is … Continue reading

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Netflixable? “Being Eddie” is how Murphy wants you to See Him

Eddie Murphy has a lot to be satisfied with. A gifted mimic turned overnight stand-up star, famous since his teen years on “Saturday Night Live,” a ground-breaking African American superstar of the screen, for decades one of the biggest box … Continue reading

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