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Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans, Elizabeth Olson, and Sebastian Stan star in the Russo Brothers' Captain America: Civil War

Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans, Elizabeth Olson, and Sebastian Stan star in the Russo Brothers' Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War (2016) by Joe and Anthony Russo

May 10, 2016

Review by Zach Dennis

Marvel has spent years working to this point where their heroes will thread the line between good and evil — leading to a fissure in the group. Civll War does reach that breaking point, and does so rather quickly, but also shows the true flaws in Marvel’s grander system.

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Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, and THIS KITTEN star in director Peter Atencio's Keanu

Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, and THIS KITTEN star in director Peter Atencio's Keanu

Keanu (2016) by Peter Atencio

May 7, 2016

Review by Zach Dennis

Key and Peele show a great ability to deliver five-to-six minute segments that excel at being both poignant and funny, but they don’t seem to sustain longer than how long a typical sketch would.  At the very least, see it for the cute kitten though.

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Imogen Poots, Joe Cole, Callum Turner, Alia Shawkat, and Anton Yelchin star in director Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room

Imogen Poots, Joe Cole, Callum Turner, Alia Shawkat, and Anton Yelchin star in director Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room

Green Room (2016) by Jeremy Saulnier

May 2, 2016

Review by Nadine Smith

Green Room's antagonists flirt with cartoon and caricature. And cartoons and caricatures can be dismissed. I don’t doubt that people like this really do exist, and I don’t mean to minimize the threat they pose, but I think Green Room needs to take more responsibility for its treatment of a complicated subject.

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Glen Powell, Wyatt Russell, Blake Jenner, J. Quinton Johnson, and Temple Baker star in director Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!!

Glen Powell, Wyatt Russell, Blake Jenner, J. Quinton Johnson, and Temple Baker star in director Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!!

Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) by Richard Linklater

April 26, 2016

Review by Zach Dennis

This film, and Richard Linklater in general, forces us not only to reckon with the annals of life and time, but also the fact that that in the end, even if we don’t completely feel like we fit into the mold he has constructed, we, like everyone else, want some too.

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Neel Sethi stars in director John Favreau's The Jungle Book

Neel Sethi stars in director John Favreau's The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book (2016) by Jon Favreau

April 18, 2016

Review by Zach Dennis

Even with the weaker performance by its star, The Jungle Book swings to new heights and ones that I wouldn’t have expected a Disney retread to do. 

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Mike Brune stars in dirctor Adam Pinney's The Arbalest

Mike Brune stars in dirctor Adam Pinney's The Arbalest

The Arbalest (2016) by Adam Pinney

April 17, 2016

Review by Andrew Swafford

As one of only a handful of people who has seen this award-winning and headline-grabbing title, I have to live my truth here—The Arbalest is a load of hooey. 

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Helen Mirren stars in director Gavin Hood's Eye in the Sky

Helen Mirren stars in director Gavin Hood's Eye in the Sky

Eye in the Sky (2016) by Gavin Hood

April 16, 2016

Review by Zach Dennis

The fear in Eye in the Sky is less what the weapons attached to the buttons can do, but rather, the ease that the person pressing it has to make that decision.

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Logan Marshall Green stars in director Karyn Kusama's The Invitation

Logan Marshall Green stars in director Karyn Kusama's The Invitation

The Invitation (2016) by Karyn Kusama

April 14, 2016

Review by Andrew Swafford

I began watching The Invitation fully expecting to have my little mind blown by the hyped-up surprises it was sure to have in store--I have good news and bad news. 

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Laurie Anderson's Rat Terrier Lolabelle is the central focus of Anderson's documentary Heart of a Dog

Laurie Anderson's Rat Terrier Lolabelle is the central focus of Anderson's documentary Heart of a Dog

Heart of a Dog (2016) by Laurie Anderson

April 13, 2016

Review by Andrew Swafford

Heart of a Dog isn’t just a film by a musician for fans of that musician—it’s a proper film in every sense of the word, with breathtaking editing and camerawork, great poignancy and insight, and a unique approach to storytelling that radiates the brilliance of Laurie Anderson’s sensibilities as an artist in any medium.

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Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon, Jaeden Liegerher, and Kirsten Dunst star in Jeff Nichols's Midnight Special

Midnight Special (2016) by Jeff Nichols

April 10, 2016

Review by Zach Dennis

Midnight Special has moments of greatness, but forgets that its characters need fleshing out to be truly realized in this fantastical journey.

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman star in director Dan Trachtenberg's '10 Cloverfield Lane'

Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman star in director Dan Trachtenberg's '10 Cloverfield Lane'

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) by Dan Trachtenberg

April 10, 2016

Review by Andrew Swafford

10 Cloverfield Lane is a tightly written, performed, and contained monster movie that uses the modern phenomenon of doomsday prepping as its primary subject, but is really all about communicating the experience of living under the roof of an abusive parent.

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Anya Taylor-Joy stars in director Robert Eggers's The Witch

Anya Taylor-Joy stars in director Robert Eggers's The Witch

The Witch (2016) by Robert Eggers

April 10, 2016

Review by Andrew Swafford

The Witch is a movie that seems to be getting scoffed at a little bit by mainstream audiences due to not only the linguistic complexity, but also the expectations of it’s genre—it has almost no actual scares or explicitly gory moments.

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Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill star in director Zack Snyder's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) by Zack Snyder

April 10, 2016

Review by Zach Dennis

The spectacle of superhero movies is nice, but the most successful action movies show us that we need a story, set of characters, and drive to keep us engaged. Batman v Superman lacks all of that and should take a long look at what they really want to do with this perceived universe before progressing any further with their proposed future.

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