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![]() Tragically hip alt-rock crosses over into madness in the under-titled Frank, about a charismatic band leader and his devoted bandmates. Here’s the thing: Frank wears a large fake head, all the time. Starting in Britain, Frank’s band brings on a guileless recruit before decamping for Ireland,…
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Frank plays guitar.
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![]() The biggest British movie of ‘98 was Guy Ritchie’s first ever, a very British one indeed. Much of the humor is how unintelligible most of the movie’s lowlifes are, Ritchie being a specialist in ultra vernacular comedy. Three million Brits bought tickets. Frankly, that’s too much British com…
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Barry the Baptist ain't happy.
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![]() Fascinating history lessons are rarely tremendously entertaining, yet The Madness of King George is both. Frequently funny, often charming, it’s nevertheless chockablock with important historical insights about the British government, crown and class system, and the ignorant barbarity of pre-mo…
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Dissolute Prince behind dignified King
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![]() The Who get deconstructed in the cheeky documentary Lambert & Stamp, about Kit Lambert & Chris Stamp, the fifth & sixth members of the band. Whimsy, rockstar excess, sex and drugs and money, lots of money, inform the stories that get exuberantly recounted by Pete Townshend, Roger Daltry, Chris …
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Kit accuses Pete of vanity.
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![]() The man who wrote Peter Pan meets the brothers who inspired the story in Finding Neverland. He also meets their mother, played by the fetching Kate Winslet. Julie Christie plays her mother and Radha Mitchell plays his wife, as terrific a trio of top actresses as you’re likely to find. Seve…
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Boy Who Never Grew Up
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![]() Burton and O’Toole grandly declaim in Becket, a big historical drama and big hit from 1964. Two leading-men of the old school variety, with big voices, they’re more than capable of extreme declamation in a love story between two men – unrequited. The bromance ended badly after Burton’s great ma…
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King & Wingman, before it all went bad
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![]() Extravagantly praised and extravagantly mounted, Love & Friendship proves a bit dull. OK, extravagantly dull. Jane Austen wrote about women whose fortune depended on marriage, comically albeit dully here. Kate Beckinsale & Chloë Savigny play mean girls who get over on husbands, children an…
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Georgian Wives on the Make
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![]() Their Finest is an exceptionally fine movie, a post-modern take on the decidedly earnest Greatest Generation, British variety. Unfortunately, it takes exceptional effort to find a theater where it’s playing. Speaking of exceptional, Gemma Arterton, Sam Clafin and Bill Nighy are exceptionally…
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Bill Nighy steals the show as a minor...
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![]() The Hitman’s Bodyguard doesn’t disappoint. Amoral shoot-em-ups are rarely so accomplished, or funny. Samuel L. Jackson – in his monthly movie – opens the second reel, finally putting the personality into overdrive. Yet even with that, the movie is 15 minutes, or roughly one car chase, too long….
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Perfect Love Match
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![]() All the Money in the World slays as a kidnapping thriller and as a biopic of the legendary J. Paul Getty, once the world’s richest man. The thriller jumps off to a startling beginning, takes a series of surprising turns, and remains thrilling right up to the well-known ending. That’s a solid sh… |