9 years ago
Theatrical (10 posts found)
Coming to a theater near you
“Canopy” A Minimalist, Tense Debut Feature
Aaron Wilson's debut feature film, Canopy, begins with a splendid but ominous shot of the lush forests of Singapore. From a place beyond several shades of densely packed greenery, thick clouds of smoke slowly rise to the sky. A caption informs us of the date: ...
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“A Letter to Momo” Aims Right For The Feels
Mom's out all day, and the house is haunted by goblins; guess that means we're learning valuable lessons about family and loss. That's A Letter to Momo in a nutshell, a bit of light lifting that wraps a morality tale up in all the ghostly accoutrements of supe...
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If Only The “Game” Was This Easy
What starts as an intriguing exploration of national disillusionment quickly turns simple and sappy.
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“Love is Strange” Review
Love is patient, love is kind, and in Love is Strange, it’s put through the test of distance, family, and bigotry. Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) are finally getting married after more than two decades of living together. But glad tidings are br...
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“If I Stay” An All-Too-Familiar Entry in the YA Genre
There must be a written rule somewhere that all film adaptations of YA novels have to start with voiceover with muttered wise musings on life by way of introducing the female protagonist to the audience. Wasn’t it just a couple of months ago that another YA no...
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“Jealousy” Starts Strong, But Never Delivers On Its Promise
Philippe Garrel’s Jealousy (La Jalousie) opens with a static medium shot of Clothilde (Rebecca Convenant). The young, blond woman’s lips begin to tremble and tears gradually stream down her face. It’s a stunning composition and one that instantly throws us in ...
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“14 Blades” Could Use Some Sharpening
Whether he's beating up bad guys with his fists, beating up bad guys with his feet, or beating up bad guys with an umbrella, Donnie Yen is one of the most endlessly watchable martial arts performers of his time. Throw him in any era and he fits right in; put a...
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“Coldwater”: Impressively Executed, Until It’s Not
In Coldwater, indie visual sensitivity and genre intuition unexpectedly meet. The effect is, surprisingly, a rather classic, but skillfully – and tastefully, despite the graphic content - executed drama that tracks the painful blossoming of maturity during a c...
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“Life After Beth”: Brains, Brains, & No Brains
Watching Life After Beth feels an awful lot like watching square pegs being jammed into round holes. On paper, all of the film's bits and pieces make sense: a dead girlfriend, her insufferably pining boyfriend, shady parents, a case of inexplicable resurrectio...
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“The Expendables 3” A Smooth, Predictable Remix of Past Action Films
"We're like children with arthritis,” Sylvester Stallone joked during a press conference in Cannes earlier this May. No offense to the youth, but not many of us “kids” would not be able to do half of what the kick-ass grandpas are doing in The Expendables 3, t...
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