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NYFF Journal: The Irishman

Jason Gorber — Sat, 28 Sep 2019 00:00:22 +0000

With a running time of just under 3 ½ hours, I’m less time away from The Irishman writing this review than it took to watch the film, yet even in these moments following the first screening, it feels like if I’ve witnessed something truly special. In a year where numerous movies feel like the culmination...

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Cannes Journal: Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood

Jason Gorber — Wed, 22 May 2019 16:00:35 +0000

The fable-like title (an obvious allusion to Leone) and Quentin Tarantino’s track record of toying with history should give you a pretty good hint about what’s in store with his latest film. Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood is set in 1969, and broadly speaking the film covers the era of the Manson murders, where...

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Weekend Roundtable: Actors Who’ve Worn Out Their Welcome

Josh Zyber — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 20:00:15 +0000

Within the entertainment industry is a sad and regrettable tendency for actors who may have started their careers as exciting talents to eventually burn out and lose their audience’s good will. Sometimes this is due to a simple decline in the quality of their work, and other times due to personal scandal poisoning their public...

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Weekend Roundtable: Have You Ever Met a Celebrity?

Josh Zyber — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 20:00:44 +0000

Celebrities may seem so unapproachable when you see them all glammed up in their fancy dresses and tuxedos on the Oscar red carpet, but they’re ultimately real people and have lives to live like any of us. You may have even run into one in person, whether at a public publicity event or by strange...

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Weekend Roundtable: Actors Who’ve Lost Their Edge

Josh Zyber — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 19:00:11 +0000

Robert De Niro, once one of the most vital actors of his generation if not all time, has yet another bland, forgettable comedy coming out this week. He’s made a lot of those in the last decade and a half. In this week’s Roundtable, we look at some other sad cases of actors who’ve simply...

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‘Manglehorn’ Review: Pacino Actually Tries

Philip Brown — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 17:00:41 +0000

If nothing else, David Gordon Green deserves credit for having the most eccentric career of any director of his generation. After kicking down the door with his award-winning art house debut ‘George Washington‘, he somehow also ended up making ‘Pineapple Express‘. Now Green’s primary interest seems to be taking once beloved actors who have devolved...

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The Trailer Park: Full of Laughter and Tears

M. Enois Duarte — Wed, 20 May 2015 19:00:37 +0000

A trio of legendary performers demonstrate they still have what it takes to make moviegoers laugh and cry. Now in their golden years, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro promise to make this a heartfelt summer to remember. ‘Manglehorn’ Even in his worst films, Al Pacino has always been a powerhouse actor, a...

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‘Danny Collins’ Review: Placid Pacino Tomfoolery

Philip Brown — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 19:00:01 +0000

For years, we’ve suffered the indignity of watching Robert De Niro attempt to redefine his career by committing to comedy rather than that “acting” thing he helped revolutionize. His forever linked contemporary Al Pacino, meanwhile, decided to give up subtle acting in favor of screaming all his dialogue, convinced that the best performances are the...

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Weekend Movies: You Wouldn’t Believe It If I Told You

Luke Hickman — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 17:00:01 +0000

Almost everyone is aware of that big ‘Hunger Games’ knockoff in theaters, but did you know that Sean Penn has an action movie opening and that the ‘God’s Not Dead’ folks are back? The ‘Divergent’ series continues with ‘Insurgent‘, this time in 3D. The studio dropped ‘Limitless’ filmmaker Neil Burger for the sequel and replaced...

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‘The Humbling’ Review: A Very Pacino Meltdown

Philip Brown — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 18:00:38 +0000

In some ways, ‘The Humbling’ plays like a darker sibling to recent Oscar nominee ‘Birdman’. Both films deal with over-the-hill actors experiencing mental breakdowns mid-production on a play, both favor an elastic sense of reality and delusion, and both feature strikingly similar sequences. Those resemblances likely explain why ‘The Humbling’ was essentially shelved and ignored...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Manglehorn’

Philip Brown — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:00:03 +0000

The second small Al Pacino film at this year’s Toronto Film Festival comes from director David Gordon Green, which means that it could either be a thoughtful and gently surreal art house yarn like ‘George Washington’, or a raunchy R-rated comedy like ‘Pineapple Express’. Thankfully for everyone involved, it’s the former (though the latter probably...

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TIFF Journal: ‘The Humbling’

Philip Brown — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:00:55 +0000

‘The Humbling’ serves up yet another film about the pains of being an aging white man delivered by a collection of famous aging white men. Generally speaking, that’s bad news. (See ‘Last Vegas’ for more.) However, this film manages to make a compelling case for the genre actually being worthwhile. It probably helps that two...

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