MovieSorter

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13 Hours: The S...
Great 83 Points 2016

The 2012 Islamist militia attack on the two U.S. outposts in Benghazi Libya comes alive as a colossal and utterly predictable central-government failure in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. Truth!

The amazing thing is that only four men died, even if one was Ambassador Chris Stevens…

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WikChip Video Gold Star Parents react to 13 Hours
Allied
Great 83 Points 2016

Casablanca it’s not, but Allied is a damn good romantic thriller set in WWII Casablanca, or at least initially set there. Most of the movie then takes place in London during the blitz, with Brad Pitt’s proto-007 thrust into domestic espionage against his wife, played by Marion Cotillard. It’s…

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WikChip Video Brad, Marion & Zemeckis talk Allied
American Sniper
Perfect 66 Points 2014

Saving Private Ryan has a new neighbor atop the pantheon of Great American War movies. Chris Kyle, Bradley Cooper and Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper illuminates the reality of America’s 21st century war as never before, just as Steven Spielberg’s classic did about the Greatest Generation’s …

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WikChip Video 10 Questions with the real Chief Kyle
And So It Goes
Very Good 66 Points 2014

And So It Goes goes very well as a date night destination, especially for those of us who have received AARP junk mail. It’s a RomCom for the ages, the golden ages, which start pretty early these days.

Diane Keaton & Michael Douglas are perfectly cast in this classic Rob Reiner RomCom. It’s …

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WikChip Image Modern Fam: Grandpa, Granddaughter, G...
Arrival
OK 83 Points 2016

Plodding, pretentious and predictable aren’t the attributes of high quality SciFi. Yet Arrival has been bathed in positive reviews. Amy Adams’ laudable performance notwithstanding, this praise is seriously mistaken. OK, perhaps I’d be less strident about this if the high marks hadn’t led me to …

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WikChip Image Weak Visuals
August: Osage C...
Good 66 Points 2013

Unhappy families are each unhappy in their own way, wrote Tolstoy. The Oklahoma family in August: Osage County is unhappy because their matriarch is a pill popping shrew. This monstrous maternal presence is masterfully played by the incomparable Meryl Streep. She’s vividly entertaining, albe…

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WikChip Image Mother-Daughter embrace. Isn't that n...
Chappaquiddick
Really Great 83 Points 2018

Being a Kennedy came with compulsions, including sailing, drinking, womanizing and the presidency, those last with fatal effect. Ted Kennedy’s date with death didn’t lead to another dead Kennedy, but to the manslaughter of a loyal supporter: Mary Jo Kopechne, a name familiar to baby-boomers acros…

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WikChip Video She didn't drown. She suffocated, slo...
Darkest Hour
Great 83 Points 2017

Instead of The King’s Speech, Darkest Hour is The Prime Minister’s Speeches, Churchill’s speeches at the outset of WWII. It fixates on Sir Winston’s galvanizing addresses to Parliament and the British people during the darkest hour for the UK, and for all of civilization. His words ignited …

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WikChip Video Even the trailer is stirring!
Good Kill
Really Great 83 Points 2015

Obama’s War on Terror comes alive in Good Kill. Set in 2010, after the second POTUS to prosecute the Islamist War dramatically escalated drone warfare, it unflinchingly portrays the toll on airmen and their families from a new kind of combat in an incompetently defined war. Albeit fictional, it…

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WikChip Video Trailer for a thrilling & important m...
Harry and Tonto
Great 66 Points 1974

Art Carney reached late career nirvana as Harry the cat lover in Harry and Tonto. Tonto? His ginger tabby. I prefer gray tabbies, so kinda understand his ardor. Carney won his sole Oscar as a gray-haired Best Actor.

Paul Mazursky’s second big directorial hit after “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”…

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WikChip Video Art Carney peaks as Harry the cat lover.