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The Skeleton Twins
Great 66 Points 2014

Modern Family-style gender and role confusion provides ample grist for 90 minutes of scintillating cinematic fare in The Skeleton Twins. More sisters than brother & sister, said twins are played by Bill Hader & Kristen Wiig, confirming they’re the most talented SNL alumni on the scene today.

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WikChip Image More Sisters than Brother & Sister
Gone Girl
Great 66 Points 2014

Gone Girl stirs the pot, no doubt about that. Premiering amidst the NFL-stoked domestic violence uproar, this sordid thriller about a wife’s murder is akin to throwing gas on a fire. But never mind all that societal stuff, is it a good movie? Yes, a great one, albeit far from perfect.

The es…

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WikChip Image Smile! Oops, maybe not.
Kill Me Three T...
Great 83 Points 2014

Kill Me Three Times is a terrifically entertaining piece of pulp fiction. Three deadly sins – wrath, greed, lust – play out in darkly comic circumstances. Set in a sunny beach town, it’s a ripper from Down Under.

The mere seven person cast seems larger. Simon Pegg ably anchors it as a hitman…

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WikChip Video Wrath, Greed & Lust = Great Movie
What Happened, ...
Great 66 Points 2015

Nina Simone’s name and presence had occasionally penetrated my consciousness and always piqued my interest. Happily, this well done documentary finally brought her consequential music and politics alive.

Dubbed the High Priestess of Soul, she was a unique and uniquely transfixing artist, fusin…

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WikChip Video Liz Garbus on her Nina Simone doc
The Legend of T...
Great 83 Points 2016

The Legend of Tarzan is a ton of fun, notwithstanding being leavened by some seriously nasty business. How much fun? Most everyone around me were laughing and cheering by the third reel. One girl took to throwing her arms in the air at each thrilling turn. In the end, the entire theater applaud…

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WikChip Video Dishing about Jane's sex with Tarzan
Hacksaw Ridge
Great 83 Points 2016

Okinawa was once a byword for the savagery of war. Hacksaw Ridge plumbs the depths of that savagery and the grace that also attended it in the form of Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Doss. A conscientious objector, Doss was unsurpassed in bravery, personally rescuing 75 wounded men from the "t…

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WikChip Video Vince Vaughn talks war movie
Allied
Great 83 Points 2016

Casablanca it’s not, but Allied is a damn good romantic thriller set in WWII Casablanca, or at least initially set there. Most of the movie then takes place in London during the blitz, with Brad Pitt’s proto-007 thrust into domestic espionage against his wife, played by Marion Cotillard. It’s…

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WikChip Video Brad, Marion & Zemeckis talk Allied
Manchester by t...
Great 83 Points 2016

Deaths in the family surround Casey Affleck’s New Englander, dragging him down and knocking him around in Manchester by the Sea. Kenneth Lonergan’s latest fractured-family film has been highly praised at film festivals and has Oscar buzz around it, especially for Affleck’s tortured performance….

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WikChip Video Before it all went to hell
The Salesman
Great 66 Points 2016

The Salesman validates my love of movies by bringing to the screen a slice-of-life at once prosaic and yet theatrical, and insanely thrilling. It’s also familiar to a Western audience, though set in Iran. Yeah, it’s an Iranian movie, making it utterly fascinating to Westerners like me who are i…

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WikChip Video Asghar Farhadi describes his film
God of War
Great 66 Points 2017

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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WikChip Video Serious Business