Turner Classic Movies hosted a fiftieth anniversary showing of the semi-classic western True Grit in May (yes, that’s how far behind I am in writing my reviews; I’m striving to catch up this month), and I was happy to view […]

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Opposites attracting has been a romantic staple forever. This movie posits that female presidential candidate Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) gradually falls for journalist / speechwriter Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) whom she knew when they were young. It’s a nicely developed, […]

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Based on actual events, this drama recreates the scene in 1971 North Carolina, when a school integration plan was opposed by local bigots, led quite openly by the Ku Klux Klan. It recreates, in remarkable detail, how an unlikely mediation, […]

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Besides Wonder Woman and Black Widow, Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) has emerged to be the newest female cinematic superhero. Her story is a convoluted one, and it seems to me that her appearance at this time was primarily intended to […]

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When a filmmaker revisits his or her own material for a remake, there ought to be a really strong reason for doing so. Sebastian Lelio has remade his acclaimed 2013 Chilean movie Gloria in America as Gloria Bell, a vehicle […]

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Some films are confounding just because. The confounding elements are purposeful, of course, yet viewers cannot help but wonder why they are seeing what they are seeing. The setting of Transit is one such example of “what-the-hell?” filmmaking. Christian Petzold’s […]

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I was pleasantly surprised by the first Lego Movie a few years ago, and then by the Lego Batman Movie soon after. They are inventive, fun, films that demonstrate what can be created with these building blocks, and show how […]

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While I am not a big fan of fantasy, or animated fantasy, I readily admit that I have thoroughly enjoyed these How to Train Your Dragon films a great deal. The third one is no exception. I am a sucker […]

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Yet another of 2018’s most acclaimed films comes from Lebanon. Capernaum, which translates as Chaos, chronicles difficult conditions for people living in Lebanon, especially refugees. Few of the performers are professionals; most are novices on screen for the first time, […]

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The winner of 2018’s Best Documentary Feature Oscar is an odd glimpse at the man who free-climbed the 3000-foot high El Capitan mountain wall in Yosemite National Park on June 3, 2017, in just under four hours. It is an […]

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