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![]() The Band was a throwback during their Sixties heyday. Half a century later, they seem doubly backdated. Thus this documentary about their best album is worth seeking out only for true fans. For a onetime casual fan like me, it was mildly interesting and minimally affecting. Still, _The Nigh…
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The Band do The Weight at Woodstock
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![]() There are classic albums. Then there’s the original classic album – Elvis Presley – the first Rock-and-Roll album to top the charts and the one that introduced its King to mainstream America. Thus this 49 minute documentary tells much more than the story of an album. It documents a seminal m…
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Classic Album Covers Start Here
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![]() Youth is wasted on the young – the saying goes. The same can be said about Chimpanzee. Not that children won’t appreciate it. They’ll love it. It’s just that grownups will appreciate it more, though how many adults without kids in tow deign to see “family” nature documentaries? Dramatic …
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A Sweet Taste from the Trailer
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![]() Live Like Jay or even Of Men and Mavericks would have been a better title than Chasing Mavericks. Plain old Mavericks would have been the most pure. Whatever the title, this soulful and occasionally thrilling movie isn’t for everyone, but it’s for lots more than just surfers. Lovers of…
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The famous cover shot of Jay Moriarity
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![]() Charlie Wilson’s War is great American comedy, successful on many levels: belly-laugh funny, serious as a crutch, magnificently produced, charismatically performed. How could it not be? A feel good story about an oh-so-likable Texas Congressman taking it to the Evil Empire when no one else wo…
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The Real Socialite behind Charlie Wilson
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![]() Being a Kennedy came with compulsions, including sailing, drinking, womanizing and the presidency, those last with fatal effect. Ted Kennedy’s date with death didn’t lead to another dead Kennedy, but to the manslaughter of a loyal supporter: Mary Jo Kopechne, a name familiar to baby-boomers acros…
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She didn't drown. She suffocated, slo...
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![]() Polish up the acceptance speeches. Changeling deserves a passel of trophies, though Best Picture isn’t one of them. The difficult story – while expertly told – ends up a mildly exhausting slog, one not worth enduring for anyone not wanting to visualize the most elemental of maternal nightmare… |
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![]() Spielberg deploys DiCaprio, Walken & Hanks to great effect in the true-crime whopper Catch Me If You Can, the biopic of wunderkind conman Frank Abagnale. Spielberg’s film was a period-piece hoot when it premiered in 2002, depicting a 60s & 70s America that felt distant even then and is downrigh…
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Frank Abagnale does Google
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![]() Tom Hanks has his best role in years as Captain Rich Phillips, yet ends up second banana to the U.S. Navy in general and the SEALs in particular. The combined effect elevates Captain Phillips to true greatness. That it is also the rare history lesson delivered while still current elevates it …
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The real Captain Phillips in the inset
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![]() Can You Ever Forgive Me? is not unforgivably bad, but is hardly a good movie either. The small stakes crimes of a literary criminal and her wages of sin trigger our morbid fascination with human train wrecks. Is that so bad? No, but it ain’t enough to be fulfilling. Ultimately just OK, Melis… |