Author Archive
Film Review – I Want You Back
Misery loves company, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. That is the predicament our two central characters face in I Want You Back (2022). Directed by Jason Orley (cowritten by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger) this is a throwback romantic comedy that isn’t afraid to embrace its tropes. Twenty…
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Film Review – Marry Me
The premise of Marry Me (2022) is utterly preposterous. Global music icon Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) and her fiancé Bastian (Maluma) plan to exchange vows during a lavish concert in front of their adoring fans. When Kat discovers Bastian has been unfaithful, she suffers what can only…
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Film Review – The Tinder Swindler
Within the log jam of Netflix true crime documentaries is The Tinder Swindler (2022). Directed by Felicity Morris, this is a fast-paced look at how a scam artist manipulated his way into the lives of countless European women, eventually conning them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although the…
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Film Review – The Long Night
Grace (Scout Taylor-Compton) and Jack (Nolan Gerard Funk) are a couple living in New York. The two head toward the southern end of the country in hopes of finding Grace’s missing parents. Their search leads them to an old plantation home settled in the middle…
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Film Review – Clean
The title of Clean (2021) operates on several different levels. Not only is it the name of our lead character (played by Adrien Brody), but it acts as the central metaphor of his entire existence. “Clean” has lived a life of violence and tragedy – spending his days…
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Film Review – The Fallout
The Fallout (2022) begins with a horrific event. School shootings have risen at an alarming rate in this country, to the point that districts must implement training programs to help kids in case an attack happens. This would have been unfathomable when I was in high…
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Film Review – A Hero
Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero (2021) is simply brilliant. It is an intricate examination of how decency, compassion, and honor can bend in the face of desperation. Just as he did in his Oscar-winning A Separation (2011), Farhadi paints his narrative so that there are no good guys or…
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Film Review – Shattered
Nothing good ever happens after midnight. At least that’s what the protagonist of the psychosexual thriller Shattered (2021) should have been thinking. You know you’re in trouble when you run into a beautiful woman at the grocery store soaked from rain asking – in too friendly a…
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