9 years ago
Reviews (10 posts found)
Somber “Heli” Trafficks In Misery
Around Heli's halfway mark, you may begin to feel alienated by its frank depictions of violence. The film slow-burns its way through the mundane comings and goings of an ordinary life that's primarily defined by economic struggle (with a side of marital strife...
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“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” An Uninspired Revival of the Iconic ’80s Heroes
“Litter Stops Here” reads the sign that’s prominently displayed in front of April O’Neil (Megan Fox) at the beginning of an early setpiece in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the reboot of the Gen-Y-favorite franchise that spans films, video games, TV shows, and ...
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“The Maid’s Room” A Portentous, Plodding Mystery With One Good Twist
The music begins before the story does in The Maid's Room, and is consistently overwhelming until the end credits. That may sound like a minor issue, but there are various parts of this mostly single-set psychological thriller where the music ends up being so ...
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“The Hundred-Foot Journey” A Conventional And Benign Food-Centric Crowd-Pleaser
If we learned anything from food-centric crowd-pleasers like Ratatouille or Chocolat, it's that unexpected challengers will eventually bend uncompromising traditions and satisfy their opponents’ deepest indulgences. In Lasse Hallström’s latest, the characteris...
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“Fifi Howls From Happiness” A Rich, Vivid, And Unpredictable Iranian Documentary
The history of 20th-century Iran is brimming with fascinating, complex tales of personal and social travails and triumph. The country went through name changes, revolutions, several dynasties, countless heads of state, and the Islamicization of the government ...
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Remember the Fallen, and Forget “After”
How often does a film come along that truly, deeply pisses you off? More than that: how often does a film come along that completely offends your sensibilities and repulses you to your very core? Perhaps no more frequently than masterpieces, movies that remind...
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“What If” A Perfectly Fine, But Instantly Forgettable Romantic Comedy
Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl has a boyfriend. Womp woooomp. Boy spends the rest of a 100-minute movie in a weird relationship limbo with girl, something more than a friend, but of course, never a romantic partner. The premise is repeated for the benefi...
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“About Alex” and the Way We Live Now
It sounds familiar: a group of upwardly mobile, mostly white friends reconvene a few years after college and wind up bringing old loves and regrets to light. There are quite a few movies like this, but they all huddle together in the shadow of the 1983's The B...
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“Calvary” A Grim, Existential Take on Catholic Guilt Bolstered by Brendan Gleeson
Sean Burns: Well, Jake, who better, I guess, than two red-faced Irish pricks from Boston to sit down over a couple of pints and jaw on about Calvary, writer-director John Michael McDonagh’s mordantly funny and deeply sad meditation on a higher calling in a fal...
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“Behaving Badly” Is Head-Shakingly Awful
Sometimes, you watch a movie that's so instantly and painfully bad that you imagine it cannot top itself in terms of sheer, head-shaking awfulness. And then Gary Busey shows up as a local sheriff, so that he can spew his patented brand of craziness on screen f...
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