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![]() A small movie – though not a short one – of deeply personal relationships, You Can Count on Me launched two Hollywood careers and elevated a third. Kenneth Lonergan’s debut marked him as an auteur of surpassing talent, while Mark Ruffalo’s first starring role marked him as an everyman actor of…
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Boy do these three need each other.
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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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![]() Goodbye Children – the final words of a heroic priest as he’s led away by a Jew-hunting Gestapo agent – forms a fitting title for this beautifully realized recounting of writer-director Louis Malle’s childhood experience during the Nazi occupation of France. Au Revoir les Enfants – _Goodbye …
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"Goodbye Father" "Goodbye Children"
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![]() Slumdog Millionaire couldn’t be more of the moment if it was named President-elect Barack Obama: a Mumbai movie that delivers world class entertainment about a Muslim media sensation. The three kids at its center aren’t religious or radical, though their profound victimization makes it easy to…
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Slumdog Millionaire: Trailer
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![]() This dazzling German movie shows the sociological antecedents of Nazism in ways both fresh and timeless. A penetrating societal examination unprecedented in its knowingness, it would be a landmark no matter which nation it examined. That it elucidates the generation of Germans who grew up to fo…
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Hand Kissing: Minimal Family Affection
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![]() The world’s greatest rock & roll band – at the peak of their powers – glimmers brightly in Hal Ashby’s awkwardly titled movie documenting their massive 1981 stadium tour. Promoting a just released Tattoo You, the 25 song set draws six tracks from that kickass album, along with three from the u…
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Start Me Up as virginal stadium anthem
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![]() Old media trumps new in The Social Network, in which dirty-sexy-money fuels a splendid drama about the elitists behind Facebook’s insanely great success. Boy billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, his erstwhile Harvard cronies and business Svengali come vividly to life under the direction of sordid mast…
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Nerdy business, sleek & salacious? Yep.
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![]() Who knew? The Brits no doubt, but we Yanks were unaware of the stammering tribulations that the current Queen Elizabeth’s father endured, let alone that England’s fortitude in World War II required him to overcome them. Most impressively, who would have guessed that this true story would make s…
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Brilliant and brilliantly entertaining.
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![]() 13 Assassins is a perfect samurai movie, complete with the gathering of a hit-squad, an assassination-worthy villain, operatic action sequences, frequent comic relief, beautifully bucolic staging, buckets of blood and yet not a lot of gore. Action fans in general and samurai fans in particular…
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2 assassins in "The Town of Death"
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![]() Makes you proud to be an American, a movie like Buck. A documentary about legendary horse trainer Buck Brannaman, the deep wisdom, transcendent techniques and honest humanity of its subject make Buck a profoundly rewarding cinematic experience, horses or no. Brannaman deserves more fame t…
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Redford got his horse sense from Buck.
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