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MacGuffin Spotlight
Top 15 Films of 2024 – Allen’s Picks
Normally, when I sit down to write these end of year lists, I have a fairly good understanding of where certain films will land. The top five to seven entries are usually locked into place, and it’s just a matter of sorting out the remaining…
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Top 15 Films of 2023 – Allen’s Picks
2023 was marked by two historic labor strikes from the writers (WGA) and actors guilds (SAG-AFTRA). The strikes put a halt on American film and television work for months, as the two unions battled with studios over wages, streaming compensation, health benefits, likeness rights, artificial…
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Top 15 Films of 2022 – Allen’s Picks
2022 proved to be a transition year for the movies. As Covid restrictions lifted and audiences returned to theaters, studios faced the challenge of deciding what films get wide releases while reserving others for streaming platforms. The result was confusion – should a person make…
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Film Review – The Gray Man
Anthony and Joe Russo’s post-MCU career has been fascinating. They clearly have a taste for throwback action thrillers, as their producing credits include the likes of 21 Bridges (2019) and Extraction (2020) – both starring MCU alums Chadwick Boseman and Chris Hemsworth, respectively. The Marvel connections don’t stop there, as the Russo Brothers’ previous…
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Film Review – Hustle
Now here is a situation where a movie follows a well-worn blueprint but is executed with such flourish that it transcends its cliches. Hustle (2022) has all the ingredients of an underdog sports story: characters coming from nowhere, overcoming impossible odds both external and internal. It’s a…
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Film Review – Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood 
Writer/director Richard Linklater’s entire career has been marked by his obsession with the passing of time and how it feeds into our nostalgia. Whether it be nostalgia for high school (Dazed and Confused, 1993), college (Everybody Wants Some!!, 2016), romance (The Before Trilogy) or childhood itself…
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An Appreciation – Cléo from 5 to 7
Of the French New Wave filmmakers, Agnès Varda stands on a pillar of her own. Although her name may not be the first mentioned – shamefully – along the likes of Jean-Luc Godard or François Truffaut, Varda’s contributions to the movement are just as important, if not more so. Her…
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An Appreciation – Five Easy Pieces
Whenever we talk about Five Easy Pieces (1970), the conversation almost always comes back to the infamous diner scene. Oil rigger Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) tries to get a specific food order, to which the waitress sternly declines. After a heated back and forth, Bobby coolly stands…
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