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Big Sur
OK 66 Points 2013

Big Sur destroys Jack Kerouac’s legend, revealing the beatnik icon to be a self-pitying, self-absorbed alky. Generations of young romantics were awestruck by the celebrated author, pining for his life On The Road. I’ve long been one of those romantics, so was eager for a peek. But, as it’s sa…

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WikChip Image Cassady & Kerouac - fake & real
Shakespeare in ...
Really Great 66 Points 1998

Delicious fun this Elizabethan confection, a Shakespearean extravaganza just this side of full Disnefication.

Superior cast, especially Joseph Fiennes & Gwyneth Paltrow as Romeo & Juliet, er, Will & Viola.
Which Will? Will Shakespeare, sometime actor, full-time rake and pageman for hire.

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WikChip Image The Bard – As You Like It, er, Him
On The Road
Very Good 66 Points 2013

I read On The Road by 21 because it was necessary. I saw On The Road this weekend to be entertained.

Entertaining it is, though cultural legacy aside, mad words about mad living don’t make a great movie, not without great acting and a cinematic story, neither of which On The Road has….

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WikChip Image Hand Check!
Doctor Zhivago
Great 66 Points 1965

A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. The sugar: a terrific love story. The medicine: the wanton cruelty and dehumanization endemic to the nascent Soviet Union. Director David Lean – King of the Epics – reunited with Omar Sharif and several essential crew members from "Lawrence of Ar…

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WikChip Video They don't make 'em like they used to.
The English Tea...
Good 66 Points 2013

An Instagram moment propels this fitfully funny comedy about a High School lit teacher who gets aroused by a former student, after which video evidence gets socially shared around school. It’s all very au courant.

The English Teacher keeps its sex comedy in bounds by steering clear of curre…

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WikChip Image Ingénue & Author: Same Old Story
Barton Fink
Great 66 Points 1991

The Coen Brothers are writers as much as directors, making Barton Fink – a satiric tribute to tortured writers and the demonic pull of Hollywood – more than a little self-reverential. Oops, did I say reverential? Referential, self-referential.

Either way, it’s one of their best movies, not…

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WikChip Video "It's the carrot that wags the dog." ...
Seven Psychopaths
Great 66 Points 2012

Seven psychopaths, a Shih Tzu and an alcoholic screenwriter add up to a damn funny movie. Each psycho gets featured in a short within the larger movie, then gets additional screen-time based on how immediately expendable they are. As with horror-comedies, most are introduced just to get enterta…

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WikChip Image Walken's zenfully weird psycho
Sunset Blvd.
Perfect 66 Points 1950

Hollywood’s greatest confection is and has always been Hollywood, a reality that the fabulous imagery of Sunset Blvd. celebrates better than any movie before or since. Oh yeah, it’s also a hell of a lot of fun, a black & white cauldron of irony, ambition and beauty, full of devilish turns and …

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WikChip Video A Hyperbolic Trailer That Doesn't Ove...
Hail, Caesar!
Really Great 66 Points 2016

Seriously funny and savagely smart, Hail, Caesar! represents another triumph for the Coen Brothers and their company of retro thespians. A satire of golden age Hollywood, it uses the Studio System as a canvas to mock targets across the political spectrum. Amazingly the Lefties take the worst o…

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WikChip Image Moviestar Cleans Up Well
Their Finest
Great 66 Points 2016

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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WikChip Video Bill Nighy steals the show as a minor...