High-Def Digest: The Bonus ViewMarion Cotillard Archives - High-Def Digest: The Bonus View

‘From the Land of the Moon’ Review: Cotillard Deserves Better

Philip Brown — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 15:00:23 +0000

After winning a surprising awards circuit sweep in 2007, Marion Cotillard found herself in a special position. Suddenly, she could command big Hollywood paychecks and also get European art house fare bankrolled just by signing on. Since then, she’s regularly leaped across oceans to do both. While there have been some brilliant movies made in...

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‘Assassin’s Creed’ Review: A Masterfully Murky Mess

Philip Brown — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:00:20 +0000

They say that if at first you don’t succeed, you should try, try again. That seems to be Hollywood’s motto for videogame movies. There’s yet to be a great one, or even a particularly good one. Now we have ‘Assassin’s Creed’. An annual gaming franchise that most players have gotten sick of has finally come...

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‘Allied’ Review: Old Fashioned, Not Nostalgic

Philip Brown — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 15:00:20 +0000

Robert Zemeckis is a talented filmmaker. The guy has an ability to tell a story in purely cinematic terms that comes close to his mentor, Steven Spielberg. Yet somewhere around the time he stopped writing his own movies to become a prestige filmmaker, he lost touch with how to craft characters who resemble humans. His...

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‘Macbeth’ (2015) Review: Game of Shakespeare

Philip Brown — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 20:00:38 +0000

Of all of William Shakespeare’s beloved works, few translate to the screen as well as ‘Macbeth’. It helps that the play was one the Bard’s shortest and it’s also the closest thing Shakespeare ever came to delivering an exploitation movie. The best cinematic adaptations of the tale have come from filmmakers working halfway between art...

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Weekend Roundtable: Worst Movies Starring 2015 Oscar Nominees

Josh Zyber — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 20:00:23 +0000

Oh sure, they may be basking in the acclaim of their latest hits now, but this year’s Oscar nominees haven’t always starred in such award-worthy movies. In fact, many of them have made a lot of crap. As we prepare to watch the Academy Awards ceremony this weekend, let’s remember how far some of these...

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‘Two Days, One Night’ Review: A Beautiful Souffle of Sadness

Philip Brown — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 15:00:57 +0000

The Belgian Dardenne brothers have at this point refined their style of filmmaking down to something instantly distinct and recognizable. Always playing small and always shooting with handheld cameras, their films almost surpass what we think of as cinematic realism and feel like they could be documentaries. It says a great deal about their considerable...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Two Days, One Night’

Philip Brown — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 19:00:05 +0000

The dependably depressing Dardenne Brothers have returned with another gut-wrenching, yet deeply moving slice of social realism carried off with such elegant simplicity that it’s easy to take them for granted. The concept of ‘Two Days, One Night’ is very straightforward, while the execution feels almost effortless. Marion Cotillard plays a blue collar worker who...

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‘The Immigrant’ Review: Turn of the Century Tragedy

Philip Brown — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:00:34 +0000

Like all movies by writer/director James Gray (‘The Yards’, ‘Two Lovers’), ‘The Immigrant’ is a melodrama that the filmmaker somehow mines for genuine human emotion. His great talent lies in finding the place where filmmaking clichés and real life meet, and delivering the type of old-fashioned, adult-driven entertainment that isn’t supposed to be made in...

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Weekend Movies: Better Alert the INS

Luke Hickman — Fri, 16 May 2014 17:00:38 +0000

The third weekend of summer brings us a trio of new movies about foreigners immigrating to America. One of them brings new meaning to the term “Green Card.” This biggest release, literally, is the new American reboot of the ‘Godzilla‘ franchise. Although full of highly contrived story points, this one is far better than Roland...

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Thanksgiving Weekend Movies: Something for Everyone

Luke Hickman — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:00:16 +0000

As it should be, this holiday week’s releases appeal to all audiences. We get a gorgeous thought-provoking drama, a mindless teen action remake, and a kids’ holiday tale. If you don’t fit into those three demographics, ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Twilight’ are still around too, of course. The widest release this weekend is DreamWorks Animation’s ‘Rise of...

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Now Playing: ‘Contagion’ Spreads Mediocrity

Luke Hickman — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:00:02 +0000

If you’ve seen ‘Outbreak‘, you’ve already seen the unpretentious, less cluttered, less manipulative version of ‘Contagion’. Considering that ‘Contagion’ is a star-studded affair directed by the noteworthy Steven Soderbergh, you might expect more than that. Unfortunately, ‘Contagion’ simply leaves you longing for something better. Less is more, but not according to the writing in ‘Contagion’....

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Now Playing: ‘Inception’ is Dreamy

Drew Taylor — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:00:58 +0000

For those who want to experience ‘Inception’ spoiler-free, you’re probably best advised to move on now. I’m going to try and tread lightly in my review, but I can’t promise that I’ll be completely pure. So come back after you’ve seen the movie. The review will still be here. I hope. You never know with...

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