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Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022
Review: Director Damien Chazelle's "Babylon"
"Perhaps the ballyhoo meant nothing," Kevin Brownlow wrote in his defining history of the silent film era, "The Parade's Gone By…" It's probably true that even avid moviegoers have increasingly drifted away from the films of what Brownlow called, with good reason, "the richest in cinema's history...
Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022
Review: "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" From DreamWorks Animation
Quick, without looking, guess how long it's been since there's been a Shrek movie or even a Shrek-adjacent one. Over a decade seems too long for such a popular franchise, right? And yet here we are, 11 years later, welcoming back Antonio Banderas's swashbuckling feline in " Puss in Boots: The Last...
Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022
Review: James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water"
It is impossible to talk about "Avatar: The Way of Water" without sounding hyperbolic. But James Cameron's sequel is a truly dazzling cinematic experience that will have you floating on a blockbuster high. No matter if you've spent a second of your life in the past 13 years thinking about what's...
Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022
Review: "Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio"
Let's face it, "Pinocchio" has always been an odd choice for a children's morality tale. Of course, lying is wrong. But that's not the only message the story sends. Even the classic 1940 Disney version — lighter and more kid-friendly than the 1883 Collodi tale — still sends the message that if you'...
Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022
Review: Director Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale"
The center of gravity of "The Whale" is obviously the 600-pound man at its center. Look closely, though, and he's the one with a soul as light as a feather. Charlie is a reclusive, morbidly obese English literature teacher unable and unwilling to stop eating himself to death. As his health woes...
Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022
Review: Director Michael Showalter's "Spoiler Alert"
In one of the more effective moments of "Spoiler Alert," the camera does something unexpected and wise: it leaves the room. At the very moment a dining-table conversation becomes unbearably painful, the viewer is moved outside, where we can only watch the characters in shadows through a window,...
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022
Review: Director Antoine Fuqua's "Emancipation" Starring Will Smith
It comes as some relief that Antoine Fuqua's "Emancipation," starring Will Smith as a runaway slave in Civil War-era Louisiana, is not, at least traditionally speaking, an Oscar movie. Despite the film's important historical backdrop, its awards-season timing and its inevitable connection to last...
Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022
Review: Director Elegance Bratton's "The Inspection"
Elegance Bratton is certainly not the first person to turn to the military to fill a hole in his life. But the filmmaker also knew he had a boot camp story that hadn't been told a dozen times before. His feature debut, " The Inspection," is an intensely personal and truthful, if not entirely fact-...
Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022
Review: "Lady Chatterley's Lover" From Director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
The lovely and magnetic young actor Emma Corrin certainly has a thing for characters who marry unwisely. We cringed when Corrin's winsome, affection-starved Diana married Charles in "The Crown," knowing the heartbreak that lay ahead. Heartbreak also loomed for Harry Styles' blushing bride in "My...
Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022
Review: Director Tommy Wirkola's "Violent Night"
The holiday season is upon us and how better to celebrate than watching Santa slip several pool balls into a Christmas stocking, swing them in the air menacingly and see him cave in someone's face? Such is "Violent Night," a film that clearly no one wanted but somehow nicely acts as a chaser to all...