Sterling Jerins (as well as Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) stars in director James Wan's The Conjuring 2
Review by Andrew Swafford
There’s very little consistency or logic to how the monsters in this world operate, and that’s because they don’t have a greater motivation or reason for existence outside of giving the characters (and therefore the audience) a big scare.
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Colin Farrell stars in director Yorgos Lanthimos's film The Lobster
Review by Andrew Swafford
The Lobster’s universe never feels like a riff on something else. While sitting in the theater and figuring out how all the pieces fit together in this monogamy-obsessed society, the thought that crossed my mind most often was: This is unique. There is nothing like this.
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Andy Samberg stars in Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone's Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Review by Zach Dennis
For the most part, Popstar succeeds as both a comedy and satire, but it also leaves a hollow and disappointed feeling because it never seemed to hit the high aspirations it had for itself.
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Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult star in X-Men: Apocalypse
Review by Nadine Smith
Unlike Batman v. Superman and its blundering nihilism or Civil War and its cynical sense of social consciousness, Apocalypse seems more interested in mysticism. It sheds politicking for emotion; its mythology is rooted in spirituality, not history.
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Takeru Satoh and Aoi Miyazaki star in director Akira Nagai's If Cat's Disappeared From the World
Review by Andrew Swafford
If Cats Disappeared From the World is ridiculous and amusing enough, but it’s also surprisingly powerful, and is able to communicate its ideas and emotions solely through cinematic style.
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Chloe Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale in director Whit Sillman's Love & Friendship
Review by Zach Dennis
Love & Friendship is an invigorating flower that blooms into yet an even more pronounced and remarkable work of cinema. The technical and creative craft involved seem something foreign yet utterly comfortable and the acting is both dignified and dirty at the same times.
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San Claflin and Emilia Clarke star in director Thea Sharrock's Me Before You
Review by Jessica Carr
Me Before You transcends most of the recent romance films in that it allows the human element to shine through rather than just focusing on two attractive people supposedly falling in love.
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Paprika dreams of flying. Paprika is written and directed by Satoshi Kon.
Retro Review by Lydia Creech
More than anything else, Paprika is an assault on the senses. It is colorful, frenetic, and weird in the best way.
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Anne Hathaway, Johnny Depp, and Mia Wasikowska star in dirctor James Bobin's Alice Through the Looking Glass
Review by Zach Dennis
Alice Through the Looking Glass is a half-baked, snoozer of a movie that asks you why you hate yourself rather than anything constructive over the course of its two hour runtime.
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Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton star in director Luca Guardagnino's A Bigger Splash
Review by Zach Dennis
A Bigger Splash is fun for the first two acts, but as the storm comes and the limits are pushed over the edge, we are left with a conclusion that feels more finite and unearned rather than something truly realized.
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Zac Efron and Chloë Grace Moretz star in director Nicholas Stoller's Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Alternate take by Andrew Swafford
(Read original review by Zach Dennis here)
Not only does Neighbors 2 not develop or connect any of its ideas about gender in the Greek system, but it unfortunately takes many ugly and unwarranted passes at other sensitive social issues as well, lacking any of the tact or nuance needed to make insightful humor out of some of our world's most depressing realities.
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Cara Gallo, Ike Barinholtz, Zac Efron, Seth Rogen, and Rose Byrne star in writer/director Nicholas Stoller's 'Neighbors 2'
Review by Zach Dennis
Neighbors 2 has its silly studio comedy tendencies, but it also is a comedy that is interested in much more than just making you laugh at a dick joke. It is a small examination at the growth in life and the in between nature that comes from growing out of the comfortable roles of college or no children or easy job and challenges both the characters and you to examine yourself and whether this is space you are supposed to be in.
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Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe star in writer/director Shane Black’s ‘The Nice Guys’
Review by Zach Dennis
The Nice Guys is a movie we need more of — pure, unadulterated fun that plays within its lines with expertise and precision.
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Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Lucy Boynton lead the cast of writer/director John Carney’s ‘Sing Street’
Review by Zach Dennis
Again aided by a stellar soundtrack, Sing Street still wears some of the beats you’ve seen in most coming-of-age or Carney films before, but the storytelling by the director provides the film with a freshness that is joyously unexplainable. It is the definition of a feel-good movie, one that you’ll be smiling about outside of the theater upon exit.
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Tracy Camilla Johns stars in director Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It
Retro Review by Andrew Swafford
She’s Gotta Have It is a raw and messy masterpiece that features a non-conventional storytelling structure, sensual cinematography, and an overall perspective on sexual politics that still feels like a shock to the system thirty years later.
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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
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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Sheila Vand stars in director Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Retro Review by Jessica Carr
The black and white film follows an isolated vampire (the girl) as she stalks and preys on male victims in an imaginary Iranian town called Bad City. Things look gloom and doom in Bad City until the girl meets the dreamy and very James Dean-esque Arash. Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour places an emphasis on a combination of music, images, and body language to set the tone for this atmospheric film.
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Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, and THIS KITTEN star in director Peter Atencio's Keanu
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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Maya Deren writes, directs, edits, and stars in the short film At Land
Retro Review by Dylan Moore
Deren’s techniques remain interesting and impacting when most of the movies and television we all probably watch is set in a capital-R Real world that uses match on action and eyeline match to build a straightforward geography and narrative.
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Imogen Poots, Joe Cole, Callum Turner, Alia Shawkat, and Anton Yelchin star in director Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room
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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