Category: drama
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American Pastoral [2016] ★★
Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut is a disappointing take on Phillip Roth’s Pulitzer-winning 1997 novel about a family man (McGregor) who finds his life spiralling out of control when his 16 year old daughter (Dakota Fanning) rebels by committing a terrorist act during the Vietnam War. On paper, you can’t go wrong with a family drama…
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Hacksaw Ridge [2016] ★★★½
Mel Gibson’s tribute to Private Desmond T. Doss, the man who single-handedly saved 75 wounded soldiers during the battle of Hacksaw Ridge in 1945 Japan, is nothing short of a triumph. Gibson also stages some of the best action scenes I’ve seen in a war movie, but that’s not the only reason why “Hacksaw Ridge” works…
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The Accountant [2016] ★★★
It could have been a straightforward action movie with nothing new to offer, but “The Accountant” has a lot to offer, including a memorable performance from its leading man: Ben Affleck. He plays an accountant, but not your average accountant. Away from his boring job at a CPA office, he freelances as an accountant for some…
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The Girl On The Train [2016] ★½
From the trailer and synopsis you would think this is a solid thriller, much like David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” in which Ben Affleck’s wife disappears without a trace. But from the opening scene, something was off. “The Girl On The Train” is a tedious film; badly scripted, awkwardly acted, and just downright ridiculous at times.…
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Deepwater Horizon [2016] ★★
It’s the worst oil spill in American history. April 20, 2010, 35 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico, a deepwater drilling rig explodes, killing 11 people and injuring many others. Director Peter Berg depicts the events leading up to the explosion, and I gotta tell you folks, I couldn’t care less for…
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Hell Or High Water [2016] ★★★½
The movie with the worst trailer also turned out to be one of the year’s finest crime dramas. Working from a fierce script by Taylor Sheridan (“Sicario”. Need I say more?), director David Mackenzie sucks us in with incredible skill. The movie opens with Chris Pine and Ben Foster (both absolutely sensational by the way)…
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Café Society [2016] ★★½
Woody Allen’s love letter to Hollywood and New York in the 1930’s is everything you would expect from the man himself: beautiful cinematography, endless movie references and an elegant production design. And yet, “Café Society” is nowhere near his best work. It’s far from being a disaster; in fact I had a good time watching…
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Snowden [2016] ★★
Movies derived from recent events are always intriguing to watch because they tend to reveal background stories we don’t know about real-life figures like Edward Snowden, the man who leaked classified NSA documents that show how America is monitoring us 24/7. Reading about this in the news a few years ago made me curious to know…
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The Light Between Oceans [2016] ★★★
Filmmaker Derek Cianfrance has already proven himself so many times with movies like “Blue Valentine” and “The Place Beyond The Pines”. Here’s a director who knows exactly how to tell a story, and his latest effort, “The Light Between Oceans”, is completely immersive. It charts the destiny of a couple, played by Michael Fassbender and…
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Swiss Army Man [2016] ★★½
“Swiss Army Man” is unlike any other movie you will see this year. It is, at once, grandiose and gimmicky. While I was less taken with the film at its purposeless conclusion than I was midway through, it still offered me a unique moviegoing experience. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who refer to themselves…
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The Manchurian Candidate [1962] ★★★★
Regarded as the quintessential political satire of the 1960’s, “The Manchurian Candidate” is also meant to provoke paranoia and fear as an American patrol is captured and brainwashed by Chinese communists during the Koran war. One soldier, Raymond Shaw (a terrific Laurence Harvey), has been programmed for a top secret mission: to murder a presidential…
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Ben-Hur [2016] ★½
Somebody owes me a goddamn explanation: how do you remake William Wyler’s 1959 epic “Ben-Hur” starring Charlton Heston in his Oscar winning performance without screwing it all up? The answer is: you don’t. This new version, directed by Timur Bekmanbetov and starring Jack Huston (Heston, Huston. Get it?) in the title character feels rushed, truncated…
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Sully [2016] ★★★
“Sully” marks the first time director Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks have ever worked together on a film, so naturally, expectations were more or less high. The result is superior moviemaking, and a powerfully emotional experience from start to finish. Based on a true story that happened on January 15 2009, the movie focuses on Captain…
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Hands Of Stone [2016] ★★½
Another boxing movie is probably the last thing you needed right now, and understandably so. “Creed” and “Southpaw” last year and now “Hands of Stone”, the true story of 1970’s lightweight champ Roberto Duran (a solid Edgar Ramirez), a Panama based boxer who trained hard to get a shot at the world title. His trainer? The…
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Kubo And The Two Strings [2016] ★★★★
Part lyricism, part entertainment, “Kubo and the Two Strings” is living proof that animated movies cannot only equal live-action storytelling, but they can surpass it in every way possible. Leave it to Travis Knight, who was the lead animator on the amazing “Coraline”, to make his directing debut with a ground breaker. Part of Kubo’s…
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Genius [2016] ★★★
Genius doesn’t even begin to describe Jude Law’s performance as Thomas Wolfe, the American writer whose manuscripts were rejected by many publishers in New York in the 1920’s, before his unlikely partnership with editor Maxwell Perkins (Colin Firth, in fine form) led to critically acclaimed books. Law’s performance is all the more impressive because of…
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Remember [2016] ★★½
I can’t imagine anyone other than Christopher Plummer in the role of Zev Guttman, a man who is determined to find the Gestapo survivor who murdered his family over 70 years ago in Auschwitz. Problem is: Zev suffers from the early stages of dementia and all he’s got in his hands is a gun…
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War Dogs [2016] ★★★
A cross between “Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Hangover”, “War Dogs” arrives to theaters with no particular expectations, and that’s probably a good thing. Good, because, despite its familiar premise, the movie is highly entertaining. Director Todd Phillips has been itching for a comeback after a series of disappointing films, and “War Dogs”…
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Captain Fantastic [2016] ★★★
In a summer filled with lousy remakes and crappy aliens (I’m looking at you, “Independence Day”), it’s refreshing to encounter a movie as original as “Captain Fantastic”. It’s one of my favorite movies of the season. Viggo Mortensen is a standout, playing a devoted father who lives with his six young children deep in the…
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Welcome To Me [2015] ★★
“Welcome to Me” offers Kristen Wiig a juicy role (think less “Bridesmaids” and more “The Skeleton Twins”) and she delivers. What’s more, she is surrounded by a talented cast that brings out the colors in Eliot Laurence’s funny, often dramatic screenplay. With all these good ingredients involved, it’s a shame that the movie left me…
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