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TIFF Journal: Everybody Knows

Philip Brown — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 16:00:31 +0000

Following up a pair of Best Foreign Language Film Oscars with a star-studded trip to Spain wasn’t exactly the path I imagined for Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman). For his first feature outside his native country, Farhadi takes a handful of his pet themes and two big movie stars, and plops them...

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Cannes Journal: ‘Everybody Knows’

Jason Gorber — Wed, 09 May 2018 16:00:14 +0000

Asghar Farhadi, the celebrated director behind award-winning films like ‘A Separation’ and ‘The Salesman’, has been a fixture on the festival circuit, for some the pinnacle of contemporary Iranian cinema. For this reason alone, many viewers and critics will forgive his Spanish-language debut ‘Everybody Knows’ its many trespasses and suggest that we’re meant to revel...

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‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (2017) Review: Murder Most Middlebrow

Philip Brown — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 20:00:41 +0000

In the grand scheme of movies that needed to exist in 2017, ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ ranks somewhere near the bottom of the list. There have been a variety of adaptations of this Agatha Christie whodunnit over the years and Kenneth Branagh’s new version doesn’t add much beyond modern movie spectacle. While it’s a...

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‘The Brothers Grimsby’ Review: Gleefully Offensive Fluff

Philip Brown — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 18:00:16 +0000

If nothing else, you’ve got to admire Sacha Baron Cohen’s balls. Beyond being a comedic genius, the guy is fearless. The way he risked his personal safety to create a new form of confrontational cinematic comedy in ‘Borat’ and ‘Bruno’ was insane and unprecedented. Generally, when comedies are as popular and culturally defining as ‘Borat’,...

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‘Zoolander 2’ Review: Acceptable, If Nothing Special

Philip Brown — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 14:00:50 +0000

Comedy sequels ain’t easy. Like hearing the same joke twice, it just won’t be quite as funny the second time, no matter how amusing the telling. Only a handful of examples manage to match or top their originals, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. That’s certainly true of ‘Zoolander 2’, a sequel that...

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Now Playing: Mixed ‘Counsel’

Luke Hickman — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:00:59 +0000

After blindly walking into ‘The Counselor’ with absolutely no knowledge of the story, aware only that it was written as Pulitzer Prize-winner Cormac McCarthy’s first original screenplay, I had to chew on it a long while before making up my mind. After several hours and much discussion with fellow critic friends, I’ve come to the...

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Weekend Roundtable: Who Should Host the Oscars Next Year?

Josh Zyber — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:00:49 +0000

After the complete disaster that was this past Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast, it’s clear that the Academy needs to take major steps to revamp the ceremony. It can no longer fall back on dragging Billy Crystal out of retirement when other plans fall through. His hosting this year was simply dreadful. With that in mind,...

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Weekend Movies: ‘Pirates’ Set to Plunder

Luke Hickman — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:00:05 +0000

Aside from one behemoth studio tentpole, this is a pretty light weekend, as far as every other movie studio is concerned. Not even the small indie films want to open against Disney’s swashbuckling cash cow. Who can blame them? Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and a few tiny characters return for ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On...

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Now Playing: Fourth ‘Pirates’ Sinks

Luke Hickman — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:00:16 +0000

Frankly, I’ve been fed up with the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series since the second movie. The first film, ‘The Curse of the Black Pearl‘, is a Disney classic. But as often happens, Disney proved with the two subsequent entries, ‘Dead Man’s Chest‘ and ‘At World’s End‘, that the studio is completely incapable of pumping...

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