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The Birth of a ...
Very Good 83 Points 2016

Why don’t slaves revolt? In the South two centuries ago, in the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust or even in Asia now? The Birth of a Nation helps answer that complicated question. Unfortunately the movie itself is complicated. Its creators apparently raped a woman while college students in 19…

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WikChip Image Nate Parker's movie: engaging & affec...
The Burning Plain
Great 83 Points 2008

A woman on the edge propels the oh-so-smart drama in this almost too clever movie. The story turns back in on itself time and again, not fully revealing its convergence till the end. An ultimately satisfying twist does come, though not before we’re asked to hang in through lots of puzzlingly se…

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WikChip Image OK, not from the movie, but Jennifer!!
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The Death of St...
Good 66 Points 2018

Cults of personality hit peak absurdity when their object dies, as vividly satired in The Death of Stalin. Unfortunately, this political comedy is more smart than funny. Hence, its LOLs are few and far between.

Stalin funny? Yeah, even though he stands nearly alone in megalomaniacal evil, be…

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WikChip Video The Banality of Evil, Satired
The Eagle Huntress
Really Great 66 Points 2016

Mongolian men have hunted with eagles for a millennium, an amazing partnership of human and raptor. Now the eagle hunters have welcomed a female, and a mere girl of 13 at that. This crisp documentary about that eagle huntress awes and uplifts in equal measure, the latter from its cheerful female …

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WikChip Video Drones were key to making the film.
The Help
Very Good 66 Points 2011

Women rule The Help. They rule the Junior League, they rule their roosts and they rule each other. Some are white and privileged, most of whom behave in ugly ways. Others are black and disenfranchised. Their world seems far away, yet existed a mere 50 years ago in the Jim Crow South.

Vie…

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WikChip Image Someone get this woman an Oscar!
The Hunger Game...
Really Great 83 Points 2013

The silver screen has never seen a contemporary ideal the likes of Katniss Everdeen, male or female. Jennifer Lawrence’s rise to superstardom is wrapped up in her personification of this revolutionary hero, this secular Joan of Arc for our post-modern times. J.Law channels J.Arc to become K.E…

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WikChip Image They have relationship issues.
The Hunger Game...
Great 83 Points 2014

This time it’s war, talky-war but war indeed. The Games themselves are in the past when Part 1 of The Hunger Games finale opens. War aside, it’s as if this richly imagined and action-packed series pauses to catch its breath in its penultimate installment.

Mockingjay – Part 1 features the s…

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WikChip Image Good Guys Don't Always Wear White
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The Imitation Game
Very Good 83 Points 2014

A father of computer science and nerdy war hero makes a fine subject for a rather dreamy biopic. Oh yeah, Alan Turing was also a persecuted gay man, back when homosexuality was criminalized in Great Britain. The Imitation Game thus has several storylines running through it, perhaps explaining w…

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WikChip Image The real Alan Turing, with a rare smile
The Last Czars
Great 66 Points 2019

The Last Czars dramatizes the personal and political perils of Nicholas & Alexandra, the last Czar & Czarina of the Russian Empire. Nicholas the Bloody and his profoundly unhappy family were such wanton rulers they made the Bolsheviks look good, thereby triggering "the greatest catastrophe in h…

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WikChip Video Lovely Synopsis
The Last Emperor
Very Good 17 Points 1987

This history of Pu Yi – the last emperor of China is quite the epic. Chinese history is not well known to most, never mind the complicated transition from Empire, to Nationalism, to Japan domination, and finally to communism. Pu Yi was born in to emperor-hood, was ousted by chiang kai shek, cozie…

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