Movie Reviews
Movie Reviews

Netflix’s The Decameron Sinks to New Lows | TV/Streaming

The cast, as is usually the case in mid-TV aiming for a prestige rep, is not without merit. As Sirisco, the steward of Villa Santa, the location of the nobles’ country getaway, Tony Hale (“Veep,” “Arrested Development”) does his damnedest with meager material, fighting to find shades of grey in a portrayal of a proud

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Movie Reviews

Fantasia 2024: Confession, Tatsumi, Vulcanizadora

The two-hander is an elegant structure for a lower-budget effort: Just plop two characters together, often in a single location, and let the actors’ performances and the innate tension of the scenario play itself out. It’s a very genre-flexible conceit, malleable enough to fit everything from murderous chamber piece to yakuza thriller to pitch-black tragicomedies starring

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Movie Reviews

The Way We Speak movie review (2024)

Maybe we’re not supposed to think that the verbal combatants standing at those lecterns are as profound as they think they are? That’s a more charitable reading. Another is that the main event onstage is a pretext to externalize what happens internally when accomplished, ego-driven people get stuck under a spotlight while coping with intensely

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Movie Reviews

Crossing movie review & film summary (2024)

The movie, written and directed by Levan Akin, begins in the messy, tumultuous house where Achi, a young man who’s for all intents and purposes still a boy, lives miserably under the thumb of his older brother. Lia happens by the house, is recognized by one of its residents, and on the spot Achi concocts

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Movie Reviews

Skywalkers: A Love Story movie review (2024)

Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus are Russians who were both captivated by the idea of “rooftoping,” an international fad along the lines of the 1920s flagpole sitters, only hundreds of feet higher, with an infinitely larger audience, and immeasurably more dangerous. Unlike the legendary comment made by George Leigh Mallory, when asked why he wanted to

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Movie Reviews

Customs Frontline movie review (2024)

In “Customs Frontline,” Tse plays Chow Ching-lai, a frustrated but loyal Customs Department officer on the trail of the mysterious Dr. Raw (Amanda Strang), a well-connected arms dealer smuggling guns and other weapons through Hong Kong. Chow wants to nab Dr. Raw for personal reasons that coincide with his professional responsibilities since Raw’s operation was

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Movie Reviews

Jan de Bont on Flying Cows, Philip Seymour Hoffman and the Enduring Appeal of ‘Twister’ | Interviews

When you made “Twister,” how concerned were you about the science being accurate? You didn’t stress out about that since you wanted to create a fun, escapist summer movie. It is supposed to be fun, absolutely. But viewers have seen tornadoes on TV, so I felt that I have to make them look real. Otherwise,

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Movie Reviews

Dandelion movie review & film summary (2024)

After the hotel’s bartender slides her a flyer for a South Dakota biker rally/music festival, Dandelion takes the leap. There, she meets Scottish musician Casey (Thomas Doherty), a quiet, brooding type, who introduces her to his group of friends. Now working “in sales” (infamously every creative person’s dreaded title), Casey feels that his best musical

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Movie Reviews

Sisi & I movie review & film summary (2024)

In that, this new Sisi film (co-written by Finsterwalder and Christian Kracht) shares a great deal with “Corsage.” For starters, it is also wall-to-wall anachronisms, from its intentionally feminine-forward contemporary soundtrack to Helga Lohninger’s gorgeous costuming—not always accurate to period, but with something purposeful to say about both the past and our present time like

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Movie Reviews

Sausage Party: Foodtopia Goes Bad Long Before It’s Over | TV/Streaming

Hot off the heels of the end of the preceding film, “Sausage Party: Foodtopia” sees the culinary residents of Shopwell’s Market waging a deliciously devastating war on mankind for the crime of masticating them and turning them into food. When the dust settles, the food is victorious; nearly all mankind has been eradicated, and the

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