7 years ago
Theatrical (10 posts found)
Coming to a theater near you
“Shake the Dust”
We’ve come a long way from the b-boying, beatboxing, freestyle origins of hip hop in the South Bronx. Modern conceptions of hip hop favor 99 Problems over Fight(ing) the Power or Fuck(ing) tha Police. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with this evolution ...
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“I’ll See You in My Dreams”
It’s the same story at the top of every summer. Despite small but noticeable steps from Hollywood, summer screens from coast to coast still cater largely to the desires of the young male demographic, with superheroes, busy action vehicles (and maybe a couple o...
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“Pitch Perfect 2”
If comedy is hard, then comedy sequels face an even more difficult obstacle. Often hampered by the sense of regurgitation and superfluous additions used to heighten the stakes, second chapters within the genre tend to feel forced. And, unfortunately, Pitch Per...
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“Mad Max: Fury Road”
It begins with the sound of a machine and ends on the image of a revolution. Thirty years after his hero walked off into a nuclear sunset, George Miller returns for more than just a greatest-hits package, orchestrating a go-for-broke action symphony that’s als...
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“Our Man in Tehran”
“It's not a movie, people's lives were really in danger!” With those words, Our Man in Tehran tips its hand at the outset, firmly positioning itself as a rebuttal to the most recent Hollywood adaptation of the Iran Hostage Crisis incident known as the Canadian...
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“Absolution”
There’s an extraordinary moment at the very end of the new Steven Seagal picture, Absolution, that almost makes it worth watching. Since said moment is one of the very last shots, and sitting through this entire movie is not something I would wish upon an enem...
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“Every Secret Thing”
Sometimes there’s so much talent involved in a terrible movie that you find yourself staring at the screen, wondering what the hell happened. Such is the case with Every Secret Thing, a middling little number that feels like a rejected pilot for one of those s...
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“The Film Critic”
When Shia LaBeouf’s plagiarized short film Howard Cantour.com was released, I remember being a little disgusted. Its portrayal of what amounted to a petty, heartbroken, ax-wielding critic for whom junkets existed as a roundtable for silly gossips and inconsequ...
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“Good Kill”
Years go by, decades end, cultures change, and yet no matter the place and time, human beings constantly dream up new, horrible ways to kill one another. In the late 1600s, Sweden gave us the howitzer. In 1836, Samuel Colt invented the revolver and ushered in ...
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“The Connection”
The French Connection remains the most visceral and least urbane encapsulation of urban crime of the New Hollywood movement. William Friedkin's squalid depiction of cops and crooks revels in ambiguity, both moral and narrative. It's a work of technical virtuos...
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