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![]() The Chinese vs. the Japanese in the 16th century makes for a great martial-arts war movie, full of Shaolin vs. samurai, kung fu vs. karate. This Chinese production tells the tale from the Chinese POV, with Japanese pirates raiding peaceful Han Chinese villages and engaging in war crimes as part o…
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Serious Business
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![]() The three men who led the Russian Revolution – Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin – come alive in Trotsky, a 2017 Russian miniseries. Caveat emptor, Trotsky is a Putin-era Russian production that takes some dramatic and therefore historical license, plus features at least one R-rated sex scene per e…
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Global tragedy made sleek and sexy
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![]() The Stasi employed 100,000 East Germans, who maintained a network of 200,000 informants, in a country of 16 million people. So roughly 1% of the population controlled the other 99%. Ring any bells America? 1 The Lives of Others, a Stasi romantic drama, was the first perfect movie about t…
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"Do you think we imprison people on a...
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![]() Reverential movie, thy name is The Bicycle Thief. Long considered one of the greatest movies of all time, it still qualifies. Real people play the parts, none more affecting than seven year-old Enzo Staiola’s Bruno. The kid’s now my favorite boy in all of movie history. Bruno’s Dad hock…
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"They don't pay for repairs!" Love t...
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![]() Turns out the French Resistance wasn’t entirely French, with the Nazis dubbing one largely foreign group The Army of Crime. More legitimately known as the Manouchian Group, they were spectacularly effective in metro Paris during 1943, a feat inadvertently highlighted by the Nazi propaganda pos…
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"Liberators?" Yes, as a matter of fact.
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![]() Lust, Caution is well titled. If you go for the NC-17 lust, make yourself comfortable because the build-up outweighs the slow-to-arrive albeit hot climax. Whatever, this superbly accomplished film immerses us in a foreign and bygone world, one timeless in its passions (yes, its lust), jealousi… |
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![]() The slang for corporate recruiter once connoted a frisson of danger. Then “Headhunter” lost its edge. Headhunters returns it and then some. An insanely funny thriller, it rivals fellow Scandinavian noir classic Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…
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This doesn't end well.
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![]() A Royal Affair is truly regal, with a King, his Queen, their courtiers, grand councils and balls in castles.
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Mads Mikkelsen Moviestar
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![]() The heart of a battle-tank turns into a heart of darkness for four soldiers – softies – thrust into the horror of war. The obvious comparison to Das Boot captures Lebanon’s ironclad claustrophobia and blinkered view. Yet, Apocalypse Now seems more fitting an antecedent given how these unw…
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Caught in the crosshairs: Major Hardb...
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![]() This great martial arts movie follows the beats and tropes of fictional king fu movies while burnishing the legend of Ip Man, a real life Grandmaster of Wing Chun kung fu and Bruce Lee’s teacher. The scene of an unarmed Master Ip facing down an armed Police Captain is a classic of the form. *I…
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Ip Man amid the Japanese occupation
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