Rewards full-fledged comic nerds without punishing the casual viewer who either didn’t see or doesn’t remember Avengers: Endgame (meekly raises hand).
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True Crime Doc Review: ‘Nail Bomber: Manhunt’ | 3 Stars
I recommend watching the film with as little advance knowledge as possible. Why? Because the doc plays as a murder mystery.
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Review ‘Open Your Eyes’| A Slow Start, A Satisfying Conclusion
What keeps us watching is wanting to know where this is going. And where is everyone?
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Horror Review: ‘Digging to Death’ | How Deep Is It?
Would’ve been an amazing 30 minute episode of an anthology series.
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Review: ‘Super Frenchie’| A Death Defying, Breathtaking Doc
These are the guys you knew in high school who would jump off of bridges and ride on the tops of cars down the highway. Only with incredible film footage.
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‘Cruella’ is Spot On! Spoiler-Free Review
This feels like the movie that will bring us back after our long time away from the cinema. For that reason, alone, I feel very affectionately toward Cruella.
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Horror Review: ‘100 Candles’ | Is it a Blow Out?
You like scary movies, but not too scary?
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Review: ‘The Dark Hobby’ | Are the Fish in Your Aquarium Victims of Animal Cruelty?
might just make you think twice before buying your next fish, or even getting an aquarium in the first place.
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Review: ‘Solos’ Engages Your Heart and Imagination for Seven Great Episodes
If you want to get into something bite-sized that you can either binge or watch when you don’t feel like getting into a long haul, Solos is a great choice
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TV Review ‘1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything’
through its sheer length, eight episodes worth, it also offers a deeper dive than what you may have seen before.
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Film Review: ‘Enfant Terrible’ Gives Art House Fans the Story of a Genius
There is no question that cinephiles and those more familiar with Fassbinder’s work than I, will find a lot to attract them.
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Series Review: ‘The Underground Railroad’ | Often Gripping, Sometimes Slow
He always ends each episode with something captivating that makes you forgive the slow-moving bits and press on to the next episode.
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‘The Crime of the Century’ | Infuriating, Fist-Shaking Facts About Big Pharma
Gibney has taken on Scientology, Silicon Valley and Wikileaks. Taking on Big Pharma ends up being another behemoth he goes after with fury and facts.
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Review: Knots: A Forced Marriage Story Shocks and Surprises
I had no idea that 46 states in America still allow some form of child marriage and that forced marriages are as common as they are.
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‘Undergods’ Review: You’ve Never Seen This Movie Before.
Where are we? When is this? What will happen next? The fact that those questions roll around in your head is one of the reasons to recommend Undergods.
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‘The Sons of Sam’ Docuseries Makes Case For Multiple Killers
I am so hooked on True Crime docs that it’s basically the main thing I use my streaming services for. The genre has just gotten so damn good.
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Review: ‘Tu Me Manques’ Offers Fresh Take In LGBTQ-Themed Film
Having this cast and setting gives it a fresh context and makes it a watchable experience for anyone.
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’22 vs Earth’ | A Short, Cute Companion to Disney’s ‘Soul’.
This 6 minute short is set before the events of “SOUL” and brings back Tina Fey
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‘Pink Skies Ahead’: Watch Anxiety and Attitude Come Together with the Best Results
It may be potentially heavy subject matter, but this is no boring classroom film – no, it’s a hip, culturally aware script, set in 1998. It’s also funny.
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Review: ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’ Gives Art Film Lovers Something Old, Something New
The less you know about the 1929 book, the more you’ll enjoy this new reimagining, with an African illegal immigrant as the lead character.
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‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ Hilarity with an Edge And A Heart
What is fresh and different is the degree of irreverence, the striking artwork, the snappy dialogue.
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Horror Film Review: ‘Separation’ | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars |
The whodunnit piece comes a bit too late in the slow build up to it, but I liked that bit of the story, as I am not usually a supernatural fan
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‘Lucy the Human Chimp’ Evokes Smiles, Tears | 3 ½ Stars
I still don’t think I’m a nature doc fan – I’m a great storytelling fan, and here we are.
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Review: The Secrets of the Whales | It’s A Lot of Fin
proves that a viewer can still say “wow” and “oh, my God!” while witnessing wondrous images, even on a screen as small as an iPhone
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Review: ‘Vanquish’ | Looks Like Miami Vice, Feels Like A DVD
Here, I should probably stop and say that Vanquish is not a great film.
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Review: ‘Dad Stop Embarrassing Me’: Throwback to 90s Sitcoms
I am not mad at ‘Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!’. In fact, I’m ok with the ‘comfy slipper’ aspects of those likeable but less than great sitcoms of the 80s and 90s.
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Review: ‘Our Towns’ Shows A Divided Country at Its Best
You could argue that their cinematography is so breathtaking, so complete, that you could have made this doc without narration or a host.
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Review: Excellent ‘Brewmance’ Not Just for Beer Bros
I will almost certainly never taste the beers mentioned in the story, but I feel like I have a stake in the brewers
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Review: Unflinching ‘Slalom’ Dramatizes Assault in the World of Skiing
shockingly sudden and predestined by all the other physically intimate stepping stones that have preceded it.
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‘Dolly Parton: A MusiCares Tribute’ Makes Your Ears Feel So Good.
this concert film is the kind of thing you can listen to without necessarily watching it. You can also enjoy it more than once.
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‘This is a Robbery’ | Crime Docuseries Digs Deep Into Mystery
The series becomes more than a whodunnit, it also serves as a “where are they now?” mystery.
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Review: ‘Worn Stories’ Weaves Tales and Spins Yarns That Are Fascinating
clothing is just a clever device to get us through the door and into the lives of a fascinating array of people.
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Groomed: The Movie | Important and Enlightening
For Gwen, a bit of undercover work is done, as she hires a detective to track down her abuser
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After the Death of Albert Lima – Riveting True Crime Doc That Also Makes You Snicker
Lima’s murder was solved rather quickly. The problem was getting the killer convicted and put in prison.
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Oscar Nominees: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Wins This One. Bet On It
If you are a betting person who plays the office Oscar pool, the surest bet of the night is that the late Chadwick Boseman will win
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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 2: A Rockstar and the Villain Get Into the Mix.
there’s also something kind of “I know I’m a Rockstar” vibe to him. Oh, and make no mistake, he is a rockstar.
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Review: ‘My Beautiful Stutter’ Says Important Things Beautifully
moving triumphs and stories that are heartbreaking, but an undercurrent of hope runs throughout
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Tom Petty: New Film, New Music Coming and New Signature Gibson Guitar
doesn’t include anything that wasn’t from that period in 94 when Petty felt he was making the best album of his career.
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Review: Allen v Farrow Docuseries | Who Do You Believe?
you can’t, as a viewer, feel anything but pity or anger or sadness for most of it.
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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Worth The Wait
After Covid delays and production shutdowns, this series comes to Disney+ looking like a million bucks, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was worth the wait. You expect the first episode of a 6-part series to have a lot of exposition, and of course, there’s some setting up to do,…
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Review: ‘Tina’ New Footage Revives Old Story
After the autobiography I, Tina and then the 1993 Oscar nominated film What’s Love Got to Do with It and,most recently, the Broadway Musical Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, is there anything left unsaid about Tina Turner’s life at this point? Not much, as it turns out, and yet the…
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Super Controversial Anti-Vietnam War Doc Re-Released
Jane Fonda presents as a benign 83 year old lady, beloved in certain circles and recently feted at the Golden Globes. But 50 years ago
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Review: ‘400 Bullets’ Brings One Helluva Knife to This Gunfight
I try to go into a movie knowing as little as possible, but I’m so glad that I decided to read a bit about 400 Bullets before watching – just a tiny bit of background about the film’s hero made it more enjoyable, put more at stake for the viewer.…
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Review: Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon. Gorgeous, But Too Complex?
Disney’s first Southeast Asian themed film is otherwise an amalgamation of their greatest hits: odd couple on the road, searching for a missing (fill in the blank) while learning life lessons along the way. Of course, the story is deeper than that, perhaps too deep, but you get the idea.…
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‘Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story’ – Chilly Thrills, High Adventures
Long before there was such a thing as ESPN – heck, long before cable TV or sports being branded as “eXtreme,” filmmaker Warren Miller was making sports documentaries from the ski slopes of this country and around the world. Even if you were a kid growing up in Texas, probably…
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Review: ‘Biggie: I Got A Story to Tell’ Has A Lot You Know, But Some You Don’t
Those most interested in the material will already know most of his story, but the new documentary ‘Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell’ dishes out numerous revelations for those who only know the hits and the fact that he was gunned down at the age of 24, about 6…
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Review: ‘The Sinner’ Season 3. Weird in a Good Way.
Originally planned as an 8 part mini-series on the USA Network, ‘The Sinner’ turned into something much more- a satisfying anthology mystery series with well-written, offbeat stories and Bill Pullman, playing Detective Harry Ambrose, always at the core. Pullam is what I call “Good Weird,” and the show, like the…
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Oscar Nominee Review: ‘The Father’ Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman Shine
You don’t expect a film about a character with dementia to be haunting, but there are moments in ‘The Father’ that literally gave me chills. It’s not because this is a horror film, it’s because the movie tells parts of its story through the point of view of the character,…
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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4. Watch the Full Official Trailer
I was very late to the game on Handmaid’s Tale, but it hooked me pretty quickly when I finally started. It just seemed like the perfect show for a country caught in the grasp of an Authoritarian. The things we as a country were going through, mothers and children separated,…
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Some Muslim Actors are Finally Playing Themselves Onscreen. Is There Room for More?
It wasn’t so long ago that Hollywood was painting Caucasian actors’ faces to play Native Americans. It wasn’t so long ago that Latino actors were cast to play Arabs and/or Mid-eastern nationalities. Things are definitely changing. Check out this release. At the bottom is the email address to contact them:…
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Movie Review: ‘I Care A Lot’ – How Dark is Too Dark?
At what point does “dark comedy” become so dark that it’s no longer funny? That’s a line that ‘I Care A Lot’ tiptoes on for two hours, occasionally flailing its arms and falling off to one side. It’s an interesting watch because the film skillfully plays with your expectations, but…
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Oscar Nominee Review: Is ‘Nomadland’ the Best Picture?
It’s so low-key and observational that you worry all the hype will work against people’s expectations. I hope not. Nomadland, officially a 2020 release for awards purposes, is, yes, I’ll say it, one of the year’s very best films. On my personal list, it’s moved just ahead of Promising Young…
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Movie Review: ‘Test Pattern’ 3 out of 4 Stars.
Self-branded as a “Psychological Thriller,” perhaps because this is a film not easily categorized, ‘Test Pattern’ is in no way a thriller. But is it interesting? Does it examine territory rarely represented in the movies? Yes and yes. Very much an art-house film, but gorgeously wrought and with an amazing…
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Oscar Nominee Review: ‘Minari’ – Heartwarming, Heartbreaking
Director Lee Isaac Chung is already racking up the accolades this awards season with his semi-autobiographical film, Minari. It’s true that there are certain touchstones present in every immigrant story – I was just thinking about Barry Levinson’s Avalon (already more than 30 years old) and how, even though his…
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Review: French Exit – Just A Oui Bit Weird, But Ooh La La
I like it when characters don’t give a shit whether you like them or not. It gives them the freedom to be their authentic (fictional) selves. French Exit is populated with such characters. They’re not super sweet – at times they’re not even polite or nice – but they’re good…
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Review: ‘America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill’ 3 out of 4 Stars
Don’t you just love it when you watch something that gives you lots of “gee, I didn’t know that” moments? Unless you’re from the area, you may have never heard of the place this documentary calls “America’s Last Little Italy.” Most of what we do know seems to be through…
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Documentary ‘Fake Famous’ Reveals the Secrets to Becoming A Social Media Influencer
And they’ve built you up till you fool yourselfThat you’re somethin’ else, and it’s like a curse‘Cause you can’t live up to what they made of youAnd they tell ya that you’re losin’ friends You don’t lose when you lose fake friends ‘Fake Friends’ by Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna…
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Review: ‘Two of Us’ 3 ½ out of 4 Stars
There’s a place for usSomewhere a place for usPeace and quiet and open airWait for us somewhere ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story by Sondheim and Bernstein If there’s one kind of story that has enthralled audiences for centuries, it’s that of star-crossed lovers. The new French film “Two of Us”…
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Review: ‘Malcolm & Marie’ Once is More Than Enough
I watched with interest, curiosity, and admiration. But when it ended, I knew that ‘Malcolm & Marie, now on Netflix, is a film that I will never see again. In the end, exasperation eclipsed all other emotions. Beautifully presented in high contrast black and white, the film is essentially a…
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Review: ‘The Night’ Interesting But Not Scary
I don’t know if they make bad movies in Iran, but I have yet to see one…and I’ve seen a lot. That said, the new film ‘The Night’ by noted director Kourosh Ahari isn’t wholly satisfying if one is expecting something super scary. If you go in with expectations more…
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Review: ‘The Little Things’ with Denzel, Rami and Jared. 2 out of 4 Stars.
Normally, this is the kind of movie I really like; the genre, the look, the cast. But somehow “The Little Things” goes down as a disappointment. Not for lack of talent. I mean three Oscar winners in the cast, all of whom deliver exactly the performances you expect from them.…
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Review: The Lady and the Dale – Take This Ride!!
If The Lady and the Dale were just about a talented con-man who learned the art of the hustle at an early age, it would be worth watching. If it were just about that same grifter and his wife and 5 kids constantly moving from one part of the country…
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Movie Review: ‘Snowpiercer’ Now on iTunes and Still In Some Theaters
By Kyle Osborne Don’t you sometimes get a little suspicious when every critic is raving about a film that hardly anyone you know has seen? Same here. Sometimes it means that the critics have glommed onto something that they dare not pan for fear of losing cool points with their…
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