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Almost halfway through Annihilation, writer/director Alex Garland’s latest, strangest film, Tessa Thompson’s Josie Radek is pulled into marshy waters by an alligator. Radek is part of a team of five scientists that has been sent to investigate a mysterious “Shimmer” that has appeared somewhere in the U.S. Eventually, that alligator comes to shore, and after […]
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Artists naturally want to create unique work, but that may not be possible. As Jim Jarmusch said, “Nothing is original…. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this your work (and theft) will be authentic.” One director who appears to be following this advice is Sean Baker. […]
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Welcome to the Friday Movie Pile, where we dump all the new movies into a pile on the floor and roll around in them. It makes a mess and accomplishes nothing, but it’s good, wholesome fun. Let’s get to pilin’! Annihilation (wide; R, 1:55) Plot: Natalie Portman leads a team on an expedition into a […]
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What we know at the beginning of Annihilation is that a lighthouse was struck by a projectile that fell from the sky (seldom a good omen) and that Natalie Portman, in hospital clothes, is being interviewed by three men in hazmat suits who want to know what happened “in there.” What follows is a gripping, uneasy […]
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Nothing sells me on a movie faster than a title song that just reiterates the plot in a catchy way, and they don’t come much catchier than the title song of the only movie the founder of Motown Records ever produced. Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985) opens like the attract mode of an arcade fighting […]
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The greatest Method actors create visceral moments through raw talent and polished techniques. Throughout his film career, Marlon Brando delivered numerous iconic lines, beginning with “Stella!” in Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Similarly, James Dean — a noted Brando admirer — wailed “You’re tearing me apart!” in Nicholas Ray’s A Rebel Without a […]
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I’m a simple man. I’ve been married for 26 years, I have two wonderful daughters, and I like to sit back at the end of the week and lose myself in a great film. And while that’s gotten even easier with MoviePass, some people on the internet are saying that the subscription service can’t last, […]
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The first handful of family films released in 2018 reflect a turbulent genre full of oddities and extremities, whimsy and disturbance. These movies — Paddington 2, Peter Rabbit, and the straight-to-DVD Woody Woodpecker — got varying critical responses and have different audiences. Paddington 2 is a British movie based on a British property made predominantly […]
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Black Panther is a bold entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not (just) because there are hardly any white people in it but because there’s almost nothing connecting it to the other films. Apart from the obligatory Stan Lee cameo and references to the events of Captain America: Civil War, you’d hardly know this was […]
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Academy Award ballots are secret, of course, closely monitored by an accounting firm that hardly ever accidentally names the wrong movie Best Picture. But the average Oscar voter is an elderly white man, so it’s pretty easy to get them to talk. Here’s our no-holds-barred chat with one Academy member who will remain anonymous to […]
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