Category: 3/4
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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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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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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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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 Hateful Eight [2015] ★★★
Only Quentin Tarantino can make a Western film that feels and looks like a stage play and get away with it. I’m talking about “The Hateful Eight”, Tarantino’s 8th feature film and second consecutive Western. If you’re down with that, you’ll have to endure a surprisingly slow first act as we meet the story’s weird but…
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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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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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The Peanuts Movie [2015] ★★★
After years of waiting, it’s a pleasure to finally sink into “The peanuts Movie”, the latest animated movie from Blue Sky Studios that radiates charm like no other film of its genre. The classic characters that Charles M. Shulz created for his series of “Charlie Brown” stories have an irresitible appeal that carries over beautifully to the movie.…
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The Little Prince [2015] ★★★
A book that many people considered unfilmable has inspired one of the year’s most riveting and rewarding movies. I don’t like using hype words, but I found “The Little Prince” truly magical and completely immersive. Rather than observing the story from a distance we’re made to feel part of its leading character’s remarkable journey. As the movie…
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In The Heart Of The Sea [2015] ★★★
“In The Heart of the Sea” is a good old fashioned sea story from a master director, Ron Howard. In adapting Nathaniel Philbrick’s Book about the story that inspired “Moby Dick”, Howard recounts the journey of Essex, a Nantucket whaleship that sank after being attacked by a giant sperm whale. Ancient territory? Perhaps. But in the hands…
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Creed [2015] ★★★
I expected to hate on Sylvester Stallone’s seventh round as Rocky Balboa, the Italian Stallion who boxed his way into popular and Oscar glory with the first and best Rocky film back in 1976. I was wrong. Stallone, now 69, and in fine, feisty form, has a ball mixing it up with Michael B. Jordan, who…
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Secret In Their Eyes [2015] ★★★
“Secret in their Eyes” is powerful and extremely well acted, even if you’ve seen the 2009 Argentinian movie of the same name. Here’s the deal: Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a powerhouse performance as Ray, an investigator who is tormented by the unsolved rape and murder of his partner’s daughter. He is matched by Julia Roberts, who is exceptional,…
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Mr. Holmes [2015] ★★★
Prepare yourself to see Sherlock Holmes like you’ve never seen him before: old, tired and regretful. This is Holmes at 93 (impeccably portrayed by Ian McKellen), dealing with a failing memory and living on a farm, where he relies on a widowed cook (Laura Linney) and her son, Roger (Milo Parker) to take care of…
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Spectre [2015] ★★★
It’s quite difficult to top “Skyfall”, one of the best Bond movies ever made, but as a long time fan of the series, I thought “Spectre” was highly entertaining. Its canny blend of ingredients is sure to entertain any audience but I think Bond enthusiasts will relish it most, as it draws on our familiarity…
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Crimson Peak [2015] ★★★
It’s not director Guillermo’s Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” or the superior “The Devil’s Backbone”, but this stylishly made Gothic tale has enough mystery and suspense to haunt your dreams. The title refers to a haunted house on top of a mountain of blood-red clay. But before that, we meet Edith (Mia Wasikowska), a young woman who falls…
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The Martian [2015] ★★★
“The Martian” stars Matt Damon, whose name cannot be uttered without thinking of “Saving Private Ryan” and “Good Will Hunting”. Now he’s teaming with Ridley Scott, who’s been desperate for a hit after recent misfires such as”Exodus” and the God-awful “The Counselor”. Damon plays astronaut Mark Watney, a NASA botanist who has been left for dead…
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Legend [2015] ★★★
A fact based story about the Kray brothers, two of the most notorious criminals in British history, starring Tom Hardy in a double performance sounds like Oscar bait. It isn’t. Yet “Legend” pulls the magician’s trick of distraction, offering enough solid entertainment value—with good use of locations, charismatic actors, and moments of shocking violence—to divert attention from its faults. For some…
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The Walk [2015] ★★★
“The Walk” is a spectacularly entertaining movie, even if you’ve seen the Oscar winning documentary “Man On Wire”, which in turn was based on Philippe Petit’s book “To Reach The Clouds”. If you did catch that terrific documentary a few years ago, you should be familiar with Petit’s story by now, the man who walked between the…
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Hotel Transylvania 2 [2015] ★★★
This sequel to the 2012 surprise hit put a smile on my face from start to finish. So what if it comes up short in originality and surprise? It’s still hard to resist. Adam Sandler reprises his role as Count Dracula, who is worried that his half-human, half-vampire grandson, Dennis, isn’t showing signs of being a…
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