Category: drama
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![Me Before You [2016] ★★★](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/me-before-you-movie-poster.jpg?w=1024)
Me Before You [2016] ★★★
Formulaic as though it may be, “Me Before You” is filled with a sweet spirit and engagingly likable characters, which makes it almost hard to resist. Game of Thrones’s Emilia Clarke transforms herself completely, playing a small town Englishwoman who gets hired to take care of a wealthy, paralyzed man, played by Sam Claflin. A cheesy love story…
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X-Men: Apocalypse [2016] ★★½
People who follow my blog probably know how much I loved Bryan Singer’s previous outing “Days of Future Past”. That movie was smart, exciting and a pure joy to watch. That being said, I left “Apocalypse” feeling disappointed. Was I expecting something better? Perhaps. Instead, this new installment, once again lead by Bryan Singer, tries…
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The Lobster [2015] ★★★
If there ever was a movie that defines modern day relationships, “The Lobster” would be it. And yet the movie, directed by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos with an incredible eye for detail, is set in a Dystopian future, where people must pick their partners within 45 days or they’re turned into an animal of their…
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Demolition [2016] ★★
There are some good moments in Jean-Marc Vallée’s movie about a man trying to deal with the loss of his wife in the most unusual ways. Jake Gyllenhaal plays that man, an investment banker who randomly starts sending complaint letters to a vending machine company. These letters soon turn into a series of confessions about his…
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45 Years [2015] ★★★
Charlotte Rampling received a well deserved Oscar Nomination for her quietly devastating performance in “45 Years”, a well made drama about a couple getting ready for their 45th wedding anniversary. A few days before the party, the husband (Tom Courtenay) receives shattering news from Switzerland about a former girlfriend who went missing some 50 years…
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Risen [2016] ★★½
Biblical movies range from epic (“Ben-Hur”) to just plain terrible (“Son of God”). “Risen”, the latest from director Kevin Reynolds (“Waterworld”), falls somewhere in between. It’s a well made film starring Joseph Fiennes as Clavius, the fierce Roman militarist who had a mission to prove that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead and that he…
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Trumbo [2015] ★★★
Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) is terrific and worthy of his Oscar nomination, playing Dalton Trumbo, the famous screenwriter who joined the Communist party in the 1940’s and was blacklisted in Hollywood. As a result, he lost his job and fortune, forcing him to use a pseudonym to write Oscar winning movies like “Roman Holiday” and “The…
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![The Choice [2016] ★½](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/the_choice_1sht_f.jpg?w=1024)
The Choice [2016] ★½
This terrible tearjerker from the king of cheese himself Nicholas Sparks could well be his worst ever. You know who Sparks is, the guy who writes bestselling romance that become awful movies, such as “Dear John”, “The Last Song” and “Safe Haven”. The newest Sparks is “The Choice”, about two neighbors who meet and fall in love.…
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The Finest Hours [2016] ★★½
As far as sea disaster movies go, this one isn’t bad. But if there’s anything I learned from Hollywood it’s that a true story doesn’t always guarantee a great movie, and “The Finest Hours” is proof of that. But at least I can begin on a positive note: Chris Pine is a very likable actor…
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Youth [2015] ★★★½
“Youth” is a beautiful, must see movie starring one of my all time favorite actors: Michael Caine. Caine is an actor of stature who is also a movie star with genuine glamour. In Paolo Sorentino’s masterful film, he plays a retired orchestra conductor who is spending his summer in a luxury spa in beautiful Switzerland…
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Concussion [2015] ★★½
“Concussion” is far from being a perfect movie, but it has an intriguing story to tell and just the right actor to bring it to life: Will Smith. Smith, like you’ve never seen him before, plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic neuropathologist who uncovers the shocking truth about brain damage in American football. While the story…
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Truffaut: the adventures of Antoine Doinel
Way before “ Boyhood ”, François Roland Truffaut, French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic, as well as one of the founders of the French New Wave, directed “ Les 400 coups ” (“ The 400 blows ”), a childhood movie featuring his own alter ego: Antoine Doinel. Years later, Doinel appears in four subsequent films (including one short: “ Antoine…
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Our Brand Is Crisis [2015] ★★½
A flop in the United States back in October, the underrated “Our Brand Is Crisis” may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for a political satire set in the 21st Century, I thought it was entertaining and fiercely honest. Sandra Bullock is well cast as an American campaign strategist called “Calamity” Jane Bodine ,who…
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Spotlight [2015] ★★★½
No other 2015 movie will shock you more than “Spotlight”, a powerful take on what went down in 2001, when The Globe’s investigative team followed every lead to expose the story of sexual abuse within the Boston Catholic church. Director Tom McCarthy, who was clearly inspired by the 1970’s classic “All The President’s Men”, couldn’t…
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The Danish Girl [2015] ★★★
Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”) transforms himself yet again in the superior drama “The Danish Girl”, playing Danish painter Einar Wegener, who became an icon in gender-reassignment surgery back in the 1920’s. Everything adds up perfectly well in Tom Hooper’s dazzling film, which profiles not only Lili Elbe, the woman who emerges from…
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The Revenant [2015] ★★★½
Prepare yourself for the most tension-filled Western film you’ve seen in a very long time. Writer director Alejandro González Iñárritu follows up last year’s Oscar winner “Birdman” with another spectacular film. “The Revenant” is an epic 156 minutes survival story set in the cold West, circa 1823. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a brutal, Oscar worthy performance as Hugh…
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The Big Short [2015] ★★★
Want to see how a bunch of guys predicted that the economic bubble was about to burst before it even happened? Step up for “The Big Short”, a thrillingly intense look at what went down before the financial world collapsed in 2008. Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt play these men, a bunch of…
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Brooklyn [2015] ★★★
“Brooklyn” is a low key, likable film with all the right ingredients to call it a “crowd pleaser”. I’ve been a fan of Saoirse Ronan ever since she played Briony Tallis in 2007’s “Atonement”, and in “Brooklyn” she finally gets the chance to shine in her own love story. She plays an Irish girl who leaves her…
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Joy [2015] ★★½
Critics and audiences were raving about director David O. Russell’s previous movies when they opened a few years ago. But it seems that things aren’t exactly going his way this time around. That’s not to say that “Joy” is a bad movie. Far from it. For one, O. Russell has as good an eye for…
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Carol [2015] ★★★
“Carol” has all the classic ingredients of an Oscar contender: it’s extremely well directed by Todd Haynes (“Far From Heaven”) with a keen eye for detail, it features Cate Blanchett like you’ve never seen her before (and you’ve seen her in many different roles throughout her colorful career), and more importantly it has an emotional story…
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