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4/4
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National Anthem
(2023)
|
David Lewis
|
“National Anthem” seems impossibly idyllic yet palpably authentic at the same time
Posted Jul 10, 2024
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3/4
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Green Border
(2023)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
“Green Border” has the directness and truth of a documentary and the emotional immediacy of a narrative feature.
Posted Jul 10, 2024
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3/4
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Sorry/Not Sorry
(2023)
|
Chris Vognar
|
Sorry/Not Sorry resonates by telling the story behind the story, about how the victims of sexual harassment and misconduct are often blamed, especially when their harasser is famous, popular and very funny.
Posted Jul 10, 2024
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1/4
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Fly Me to the Moon
(2024)
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Mick LaSalle
|
“Fly Me to the Moon” is absolutely awful. The only interesting thing about it is how long it takes for a viewer to figure out how bad it really is.
Posted Jul 10, 2024
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3/4
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Touch
(2024)
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G. Allen Johnson
|
Although it is astonishingly predictable, “Touch” is absorbing thanks to Kormákur’s commitment to authenticity.
Posted Jul 10, 2024
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4/4
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Longlegs
(2024)
|
Bob Strauss
|
Monroe has a way of doubling the project’s redolent suspense in the same hushed, bad-dream manner that Perkins applies to the whole film.
Posted Jul 09, 2024
|
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3/4
|
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
(2024)
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Mick LaSalle
|
[Murphy's] comic timing remains impeccable, and laughing with him here is both fresh and familiar, an ideal combination.
Posted Jul 03, 2024
|
|
3/4
|
June Zero
(2022)
|
Bob Strauss
|
Though each of the plotlines in “June Zero” stir up ethical questions, its primary approach is to look at people living their lives while an extraordinary event comes to its climax. That leaves the movie open to multiple, marvelous interpretations...
Posted Jul 03, 2024
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3/4
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MaXXXine
(2024)
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G. Allen Johnson
|
“MaXXXine,” clearly boasting a higher budget, stands as a bloody valentine to Hollywood. It’s a cesspool, all right, but it’s our cesspool, he seems to say, and guess what? Every once in a while true art comes out of it.
Posted Jul 03, 2024
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1/4
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A Family Affair
(2024)
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Mick LaSalle
|
“A Family Affair” never even makes the case as to why these people should be together.
Posted Jul 01, 2024
|
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3/4
|
Fancy Dance
(2023)
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G. Allen Johnson
|
A finely crafted drama about a woman and her niece who are unwilling to let the hopelessness of her situation define her.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
|
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4/4
|
Daddio
(2023)
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Mick LaSalle
|
Hall, Penn and Johnson have made more than a good movie with “Daddio.” They may have made a classic.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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|
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A Quiet Place: Day One
(2024)
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G. Allen Johnson
|
“A Quiet Place: Day One,” which has very little story, the film actually operates as a character study as well, but with barely any dialogue, it makes Sarnoski’s approach harder to pull off.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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1/4
|
Kinds of Kindness
(2024)
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Mick LaSalle
|
Lanthimos is essentially offering us his worldview, which amounts to an emptiness contemplating an emptiness — stylish narcissism posing as wisdom, sprinkled with misogyny posing as a post-misogynistic commentary on misogyny.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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2/4
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Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
(2024)
|
Bob Strauss
|
It’s a semi-profound if not exactly original concept, sometimes articulated in that hamfisted-yet-poetic way Costner’s worked since his still-greatest directorial statement, “Dances with Wolves.” It’s delivered best visually...
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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3/4
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Longing
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
Still, this is a welcome and unusual movie, and Gere gives a compelling performance.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
|
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1/4
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The Exorcism
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
Gradually, “The Exorcism” goes to hell in all senses of the phrase.
Posted Jun 18, 2024
|
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3/4
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The Bikeriders
(2023)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
Ultimately, “The Bikeriders” becomes a movie about the corruptive influence of power, but it’s also about the difficulty of creating and maintaining something beautiful.
Posted Jun 18, 2024
|
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3/4
|
Thelma
(2024)
|
Carla Meyer
|
“Thelma” always emphasizes seniors’ capabilities, not their limits.
Posted Jun 18, 2024
|
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3/4
|
Ultraman: Rising
(2024)
|
Zaki Hasan
|
“Ultraman: Rising” is a bit longer than it needs to be, but buoyed by a strong voice cast and a unique point of view that blends elements of superhero action with heartfelt family drama, it’s an effective reinvention of a franchise...
Posted Jun 14, 2024
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3/4
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Brats
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
The strength of “Brats,” a new documentary debuting on Hulu, derives from its weirdness.
Posted Jun 14, 2024
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2/4
|
The Grab
(2022)
|
Bob Strauss
|
A lot of the film’s dot-connecting is illuminating, but some of it fails to convince.
Posted Jun 11, 2024
|
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3/4
|
Tuesday
(2023)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
It’s the highest praise simply to note that Petticrew is a match for Louis-Dreyfus and that she makes Tuesday into a complete person, so substantial that we share some of her mother’s sense of loss.
Posted Jun 11, 2024
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1/4
|
The Watchers
(2024)
|
Bob Strauss
|
There’s an inelegant blend of Celtic folklore thriller... [and] contemporary horror movie tropes that renders the result unsatisfying for fans of either genre. And yet, Shyamalan proves herself a proficient director throughout most of this slog.
Posted Jun 06, 2024
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|
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My Own Normal
(2024)
|
Pam Grady
|
Filmmaker Alexander Freeman turns his camera on himself and his family in this film that challenges ableist assumptions about people with disabilities.
Posted Jun 03, 2024
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|
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Art for Everybody
(2023)
|
Pam Grady
|
With observations from collectors, friends, art critics, his family, and Kinkade himself in archival footage, this documentary reveals what all those pictures of cozy cottages hid: a complicated life as tragic as it was triumphant.
Posted Jun 03, 2024
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|
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Film Is Dead. Long Live Film!
(2024)
|
Pam Grady
|
It becomes apparent how much film and television history would have simply disappeared without the passion of the collectors to which this documentary pays homage.
Posted Jun 03, 2024
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|
|
Who is Michael Jang?
(2024)
|
Pam Grady
|
Filmmaker Michael Jacobs captures the many facets of this San Francisco artist's surprising career.
Posted Jun 03, 2024
|
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3/4
|
Young Woman and the Sea
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
The movie reminds us that 100 years ago — a period beautifully recreated in the sets and dress of the characters — a woman didn’t have much choice in her destiny, unless she was absolutely extraordinary.
Posted May 31, 2024
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2/4
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Ezra
(2023)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
It’s a terrible thing to realize, as a viewer, that you’re expected to be rooting for an imbecile. But it’s even more terrible to realize that the filmmakers don’t think that he’s an imbecile.
Posted May 29, 2024
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4/4
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Songs of Earth
(2023)
|
G. Allen Johnson
|
Some may be put off by the slow pace of “Songs of Earth,” but think of it as a feature, not a bug. It is meditative, contemplative and transportive.
Posted May 29, 2024
|
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2.5/4
|
The Beach Boys
(2024)
|
G. Allen Johnson
|
“The Beach Boys” is a breezy CliffsNotes version of the band’s ups and downs and cultural relevance and should interest established fans — even if they know it all already — and younger music enthusiasts who are looking for a window in.
Posted May 29, 2024
|
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1/4
|
Atlas
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
Imagine two hours of Lopez trying to deadlift 1,000 pounds, and you’d have an idea of what “Atlas” is like.
Posted May 29, 2024
|
|
0/4
|
The Garfield Movie
(2024)
|
Zaki Hasan
|
“The Garfield Movie” is a reheated tray of stale lasagna.
Posted May 24, 2024
|
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3/4
|
Hit Man
(2023)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
It may take another generation for it to sink in that with his interest in youth and love and how people really talk and think, [Linklater] is America’s François Truffaut.
Posted May 22, 2024
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2/4
|
The Strangers: Chapter 1
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
For what it is, “The Strangers: Chapter 1” isn’t bad. What’s bad is what it is.
Posted May 16, 2024
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2.5/4
|
Babes
(2024)
|
Carla Meyer
|
“Babes” offers keen insights into pregnancy, parenting and longtime friendships, although many get lost in the movie’s bodily function-joke jamboree.
Posted May 16, 2024
|
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1/4
|
IF
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
The movie is a disordered wreck that confuses impulse for inspiration and dissipates any impossibility of impact by constantly switching focus.
Posted May 15, 2024
|
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3/4
|
Back to Black
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
Within its limits, “Back to Black” is a satisfying biopic. It’s lifted by Winehouse’s music and by the staggering performance of Marisa Abela, who plays Winehouse and does all her own singing in this movie.
Posted May 14, 2024
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0/4
|
Poolman
(2023)
|
Bob Strauss
|
Like “Chinatown” with no stakes or “The Big Lebowski” minus the laughs, “Poolman” is a neo-noir comedy that shares just one quality with its superior influences: a palpable love for Los Angeles in all its corrupt, cruddy glory.
Posted May 09, 2024
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2/4
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Mother of the Bride
(2024)
|
Carla Meyer
|
The whole cast is likable and the scenery lovely, making this only the second-worst Shields beach movie, after “The Blue Lagoon.”
Posted May 09, 2024
|
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1/4
|
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
Until this franchise stops mistaking its stone-cold misanthropy for political virtue, this franchise is going nowhere.
Posted May 08, 2024
|
|
1/4
|
Evil Does Not Exist
(2023)
|
G. Allen Johnson
|
For all the beautiful scenery and Thoreau-like contemplation, “Evil Does Not Exist” stalls, then implodes.
Posted May 08, 2024
|
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4/4
|
I Saw the TV Glow
(2024)
|
Bob Strauss
|
It’s imaginative media criticism, but there’s more going on in this never-quite-coming-of-age tale: Questions about gender, memory and time lurk behind the film’s alluring shimmer.
Posted May 07, 2024
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3/4
|
Let It Be
(1970)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
To watch “Let It Be” after having seen “Get Back” is to realize how selective editing can completely alter our perception of an event.
Posted May 07, 2024
|
|
2.5/4
|
Unfrosted
(2024)
|
G. Allen Johnson
|
Seinfeld’s over-the-top, throw-in-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach makes for an uneven film, with some gags inspired, others groan-inducing. But its 1960s period detail and constant parade of familiar faces keeps things rolling.
Posted May 03, 2024
|
|
2.5/4
|
East Bay
(2022)
|
Bob Strauss
|
While “East Bay” has its imperfections, it also offers a good deal to savor and ponder.
Posted May 02, 2024
|
|
|
Jeanne du Barry
(2023)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
French filmmaker Maiwenn stars in her latest creation, “Jeanne du Barry,” a watchable and entertaining costume film where she plays the famous 18th century mistress of King Louis XV.
Posted May 01, 2024
|
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3/4
|
The Idea of You
(2024)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
The key to the success of “The Idea of You” is that it subtly but unmistakably shows what these people need and how the other person is the unexpected perfect fit.
Posted Apr 30, 2024
|
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0/4
|
Boy Kills World
(2023)
|
Mick LaSalle
|
With each twist and turn of the story, “Boy Kills World” becomes less involving, though it’s never involving to begin with. Basically, the movie starts at zero and works its way into negative numbers.
Posted Apr 24, 2024
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