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Random Factoid #120
Before the factoid, an off-topic tangent: It’s funny how inspiration comes from the strangest sources. I was struggling for today’s factoid. While thinking, I started listening to some songs from the...
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Random Factoid #415
Really, Casey Affleck? Way to ruin my fun. I was so excited to see “I’m Still Here,” the documentary on Joaquin Phoenix’s strange year of isolation, because I wanted to decide for myself if it was...
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REVIEW: I’m Still Here
If Joaquin Phoenix managed to have me pretty fully convinced that he was serious when he did the “Hasidic meth dealer” act for over a year, does that make him a good actor … or me a gullible onlooker?...
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Oscar Moment: First 2012 Predictions
It’s never too early to start guessing, right? With Cannes yielding little to start Oscar conversation, the pressure is on for the fall to deliver in a big way. Film festivals in Venice, Toronto, and...
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REVIEW: The Master
It has been a very long time since cinema has been graced with anything quite like “The Master.” Everyone must concede that whether or not Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film works for them on a...
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Oscar Moment: Final 2012 Pre-Season Predictions, Part 2
Best Actor Hugh Jackman, “Les Miserables” Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln” Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master“ Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook“ Denzel Washington, “Flight“ The past two years have seen...
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LISTFUL THINKING: 2012 Superlatives
New Year’s Day always marks a very interesting balancing act, reflecting on the old while also ringing in the new. So while people are still thinking about 2012, let me offer up the first annual...
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Oscar Moment: Final 2012 Predictions, Part 3 (Leading)
Only three days until Oscar nominations are announced! It’s so weird to have them this early … I feel like I barely predicted at all this year. Nonetheless, it’s time to lock in my final picks!...
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Oscar Moment: 2013 Pre-Fall Festival Predictions
Well, folks, the time is here to talk about Oscar season. The Venice Film Festival kicks off tomorrow, and suddenly it won’t be taboo to talk about what might be competing for the Academy Awards. Just...
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REVIEW: The Immigrant
Cannes Film Festival – Official Competition, 2013 Over a year ago, I had the distinct honor to attend a panel in memory of my hero in the realm of film criticism, the late Roger Ebert, in Cannes. His...
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REVIEW: Her
Writer/director Spike Jonze’s “Her” is an uncommonly thoughtful film, one that is lightyears ahead of what we can really even fathom. Most works tackling the topics of technology and humanity are set...
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REVIEW: Inherent Vice
New York Film Festival Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Inherent Vice” ends with his chief character, Doc Sportello, attempting to discern shapes within a haze that has formed outside his car window. Not to...
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REVIEW: Irrational Man
The summer of 2015 will likely go down in the record books as one that saw long overdue leaps and bounds for women in cinema. They fought back against the patriarchy in “Mad Max: Fury Road,” ruled the...
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F.I.L.M. of the Week (April 27, 2017)
For whatever reason, I found James Gray’s “Two Lovers” cold, remote and distant on first watch. Perhaps it was just too close to the release of the director’s film “The Immigrant,” my favorite film of...
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