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![]() De Niro and Norton’s moviestar masterclass combined with austerely beautiful filmmaking elevates a formulaic story that trades heavily in caricature. Often darkly funny, occasionally LOL so, Stone surmounts its insufficient title by proving itself an involving experience.
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Moviestar Masterclass: De Niro & Norton
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![]() French musical sensation Serge Gainsbourg explains himself in this surreal biopic. Largely unknown here in America, Gainsbourg was a cross between Dylan, Sinatra and Leonard Cohen in France. The women he squired – including Brigitte Bardot during her superstar heyday – comprise a good part of h…
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Musician's Beauty: Gainsbourg & Bardot
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Visually scintillating, musically avant-garde, dramatically turgid: This biopic of two cultural giants goes down like Brussels sprouts instead of foie gras. IOW, it takes effort to work through the two hour running time, when it should feel like savoring a rich delicacy. Pity, since Coco & Igor…
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Great design barely trumps turgid drama.
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Everybody’s damaged in Please Give. Most are awful, some sweet, all adrift. Misanthropic, it generates frequent laughs at the expense of these modern Manhattanites. Think a more seriously inclined Seinfeld – from the feminine side. Not that …
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Big sis Amanda Peet: Skin deep beauty
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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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![]() MMA gets its 15 minutes of movie fame in Warrior, reason enough for mixed-martial arts fans to revere it. For the rest of us? Reason to avoid it. Most movie fans in Silicon Valley apparently fall in the latter camp, judging from the near empty Camera 7 theater on opening night. Pity, beca…
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Trailer featuring music by The National
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![]() Second-rate performances by first-rate stars in a second-rate thriller with a heavy-handed political agenda make Arbitrage a third-rate movie. Don’t believe the praise it’s received from the Mainstream Media. They’re in love with writer-director Nicholas Jarecki’s politics more than his movie…
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The movie's lone shining star: Tim Roth
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![]() Butter is rancid, a comedy devoid of laughs and full of bile. No LOLs, no guffaws, not even a single smile gets triggered by its steady stream of condescension. Mean spiritedness in a comedy can work, so long as the movie brings the laughs. If it’s unfunny, then it’s just smug, catty and mean…
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A figment of Hollywood imagination
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![]() Comedies get no respect, so perceptively intelligent movies like Wanderlust get discounted by the critics. Never mind that it’s continuously clever even if only sporadically LOL. The LOLs do come however, some hitting various parts of the audience and some slaying everyone. When a Big One …
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Justin Theroux's 2-faced manipulator
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![]() True stories bear a burden when they get turned into movies. Stay true to the story and the movie will be less than spectacular. Punch it up and get accused of selling out. Lay the Favorite falls prey to the former as it recounts a real young woman’s underground education. The indomitable…
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Formidable Wife: Catherine's Tulip
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