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![]() A richly stylized biopic of larger-than-life automotive entrepreneur Preston Tucker, this Francis Ford Coppola movie revels in 1940’s period trappings as much as in its story. Self-consciously retro, nearly surreal, its characters exist just this side of parody. Still, supercharged perkiness li…
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Tucker Combat Car with a Tucker Turret
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![]() 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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"It's the carrot that wags the dog." ...
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![]() Glamorous L.A. noir from back when real men wore fedoras makes Mulholland Falls a high calorie treat. A sultry Jennifer Connolly cavorting with John Malkovich and Nick Nolte makes it a guilty pleasure. Cheesy dialogue makes it a bit tough to swallow. Should this luxo crime thriller be bett…
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Malkovich & Connelly make the movie
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![]() Monumentally accomplished storytelling plus bravura cinema done in rich and deep 65mm images make The Master another Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece. Plus there’s the Best Acting trophies all around. Intoxication unites its leading men – hooch for one, power the other. Joaquin Phoenix’s h…
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Knave & Master - not a healthy bromance
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![]() A pre-sexual revolution Italian trifle, Matrimonio All’Italiana packs a considerevole punch 50 years on. Consider Sophia Loren – in her prime. Screen sirens come no hotter or more joyous. Marcel…
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Sophia Loren's Filumena, fully grown
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![]() A deserved classic, this aptly titled movie features giant stars, a ginormous mansion incongruously stuck in the heart of the giant state of Texas, a running time that exceeds three hours and giant story elements. It all works amazingly well, never seeming drawn-out or boring, notwithstanding a …
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Legendary stars in a provocative pose.
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![]() Judith features Gentile moviestars playing Jewish freedom fighters during Israel’s War of Independence. It’s amazing how glamorous a story centered on early kibbutz life at the end of the British Mandate can be. To that end, Judith is a fabulous Sophia Loren movie. The great Loren stars a…
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Kibbutznick Extraordinaire
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![]() Deeply, floridly Italian, Malèna is a sumptuous WWII find, a Sicilian movie extraordinaire and a devastating depiction of Italian machismo reacting to the hottest signorina since Sophia Loren. Monica Belluci plays the title character, a gorgeous war bride living in a small Sicilian town, bro…
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where Malèna went, the town followed
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![]() More a wartime romantic mystery than anything, A Secret is nonetheless as fine a Holocaust picture as you’ll find. Being French, it’s also a sensual love story, or two. Let’s start at the beginning even though the movie starts in the middle. A supremely athletic and thoroughly assimilated …
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Cécile De France: lithe object of desire
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![]() 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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Hand Check!
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