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Widows Review: Good Mourning

Jason Gorber — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 16:00:36 +0000

Widows is a fascinating hybrid of the arty from writer/director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and the pulpy from author and co-writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl). It’s both a sharp, action-filled heist film and a rumination upon revenge. The film begins with Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) and his crew of professional thieves making a...

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TIFF Journal: Widows

Philip Brown — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 15:00:50 +0000

After specializing in a harrowing brand of art house misery in pictures like 12 Years a Slave, Hunger, and Shame, pretty much the last thing anyone expected out of Steve McQueen (no, not that one – the director) was a rollicking heist movie co-written by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl). It didn’t seem like the type...

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2017 SAG Award Winners

Josh Zyber — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 13:00:01 +0000

The great ship known as America may be sinking, but the band on deck continues to play. Hollywood’s award season must roll on. The latest excuse for movie stars to celebrate themselves came at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday. The results there may pose some surprises for the Oscars next month. The SAG...

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‘Fences’ Review: Stuck on the Stage

Philip Brown — Fri, 23 Dec 2016 13:00:46 +0000

‘Fences’ is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name by August Wilson. Even if you hadn’t heard of that before, you’d be instantly aware of the project’s stage-bound origins. Adapting theater for film is tricky because they’re such different art forms. What feels poetic on stage can seem stilted on film...

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‘Suicide Squad’ Review: A Mess, But Kinda Fun

Philip Brown — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 19:00:51 +0000

You can say this about ‘Suicide Squad’: For a mediocre comic book blockbuster, it at least has a good hook and a strong cast. That was clear when it was announced and that’s what the pop-music-backed trailers promised. Clearly, that’s what got this thing rushed into production as one of Warner Bros.’ DC pilot projects....

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2016 SAG Award Winners

Josh Zyber — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 14:00:56 +0000

In most years, the Screen Actors Guild Awards are considered a predictor for the Oscars. In light of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, however, voters for the Saggies (that’s not actually what the trophies are called, but it should be) made a point of distancing themselves from this year’s Oscar nominations. I don’t say that to diminish...

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‘Blackhat’ Review: ‘Hackers’ v2.0

Philip Brown — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 14:00:22 +0000

Back in the 1980s and ’90s, Michael Mann was one of the more interesting filmmakers kicking around Hollywood. His visual style was electric, transforming pulpy subject matter into art through visual sensation. Then he started making movies at a slow Kubrickian rate and his unique style got swallowed up by the studio standard. Now a...

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‘How to Get Away with Murder’ Pilot Recap: “It’s Nothing More Than Common Sense”

Josh Zyber — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 19:00:52 +0000

ABC might as well rebrand itself as SRC – the Shondra Rhimes Channel – this season, at least on Thursday nights. In addition to returning hits ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (medical soap) and ‘Scandal’ (political thriller), the powerhouse producer has also debuted the new legal drama ‘How to Get Away with Murder’, and the network is airing...

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‘Get On Up’ Review: Good God, Y’All

Philip Brown — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 15:00:50 +0000

James Brown’s insane and turmultuous life is just too grand and bizarre for a conventional bio-pic. Thankfully, the folks behind ‘Get On Up’ don’t even try to fit that square peg into a round hole, delivering a non-linear and deeply odd movie that suits the man and his music. Toss in a simply astounding central...

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Now Playing: ‘Ender’ Is No Game Changer, But It’ll Do

Luke Hickman — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 19:00:17 +0000

My old man is quite a fan of “hard” science fiction. The sci-fi that I read as a teenager – Heinlein, Asimov, Dick and so on – was due to his influence. I remember him praising ‘Ender’s Game’ from time to time, but I never got around to reading it. While in college, an astonished...

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Now Playing: ‘Prisoners’ Worth Taking

Bryan Kluger — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:00:46 +0000

Denis Villeneuve (director of the Oscar-nominated ‘Incendies‘) has given us one hell of a terrifying and highly suspenseful ride with his first major Hollywood film, ‘Prisoners’. The movie has an amazing cast and an excellent script. It seems like almost every week, we hear a news story about a child in our neighborhood, town or...

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Statuesque: 2012 Oscars Postmortem

Josh Zyber — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:00:11 +0000

I want to once again thank all of our great readers who joined us at last night’s Oscar Live-Blog for making the evening such a good time. If it weren’t for you, quite frankly, that trainwreck of an awards show wouldn’t have been watchable at all. I’m not talking about the winners when I say...

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