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Film Reviews
Film Review – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Fame, desperation, the need for strangers to admire you, the search for artistic truth, commerce versus art, the ability for an actor to completely commit to their craft and yet wreak havoc with their personal life, aging, magical realism, being stuck in one’s own head,…
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Film Review – Ouija
Oujia (2014) is a horror movie that showcases the worst aspects of the genre. Like any other film, what makes a good scary movie is not the creepy images or the screams or the amount of blood splattered. It’s about interesting characters, a captivating story,…
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Film Review – The Good Lie
I was nervous before I saw The Good Lie (2014). Trailers and advertisements had me thinking this was yet another film where a group of helpless minorities/people of color are “saved” by a heroic protagonist – who also happens to be white. This has been…
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SIFF Film Review – Dear White People
Prestigious (and fictional) Winchester University has a race problem. It’s something the administration doesn’t want to admit, but is forced to deal with when a group of white students throw a Halloween party where they let loose their “inner negro.” Ripped from the headlines! (I…
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Film Review – The Blue Room
A mundane mystery, The Blue Room tries to be more exciting with quick edits and a long wait for the reveal. Julien (Mathieu Amalric), a successful agriculture businessman, is having an affair with the local pharmacist’s wife, Esther (Stéphanie Cléau). When we start, we see…
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Film Review – Men, Women & Children
It’s high time we stage an intervention for Jason Reitman, guys. It won’t be pleasant but he needs to hear the truth about how his actions of late have affected us. You go ahead and take Labor Day and I’ll cover Men, Women & Children.…
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Film Review – Rudderless
Director William H. Macy‘s Rudderless has a title that opens itself to a lot of bad jokes: “Never has a title and film’s plot been so in sync,” “This film just flows along’” etc. That aside, there are a lot of things that keep this film moving without…
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Film Review – The Judge
Watching The Judge proves to be a singularly frustrating experience. On the one hand, the film features an array of some of the finest film actors possible, who are all doing yeoman-like work and create genuine chemistry. Unfortunately, all of that great work is torpedoed…
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