Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in Allied
Review by Nadine Smith
What makes Allied so fascinating is not just its deliberate and obvious employment of artifice in form, but its engagement with constructed surfaces as its very subject. Allied is all about the artifice not just of espionage, but of acting (and filmmaking) itself: the film is stuffed with numerous rehearsals, auditions, and bad accents that draw attention to its own exterior. Only the love is real.
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This list features writing by Zach Dennis, Andrew Swafford, Jessica Carr, Nathan Smith, Malcolm Baum, and Ben Shull
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Emily Watson and Adam Sandler star in director Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love
Personal Essay / Retro Review by Andrew Swafford
Last month, I got engaged--and it has got me thinking about one of my personal favorite love stories.
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Katherine Waterston and Eddie Redmayne star in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
Review by Zach Dennis
Fantastic Beasts succeeds in its base goals, but never transfixes us like its predecessors did. It seems to suffer from a similar issue as superhero movies in that it forgets to construct an engaging story amidst the wonder happening around it.
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Auli’i Cravalho stars as Moana in the newest Disney animated feature
Review by John McAmis
Themes of family, independence, friendship, and self-discovery are ripe in Moana. These are Disney themes, but again, they seem new this time around. Fresh. Exciting. Surprising.
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Hailee Steinfeld stars in director Kelly Fremon's Edge of Seventeen
Review by Andrew Swafford
On screen, clever teenage banter is funny; in real life, it’s equal parts awkward and annoying. Edge of Seventeen plays it both ways, smartly understanding the fact that the dialogue its genre has become known for contains a stilted sadness; it is symptomatic of the largest teenage ailment: egocentrism.
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Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner star in director Denis Villeneuve's Arrival
Review by Andrew Swafford
Arrival fulfills one of our most fundamental desires as moviegoers: the desire to be amazed.
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Benedict Cumberbatch stars in Doctor Strange
Review by Zach Dennis
Doctor Strange treats many of the previously seen symptoms of the studio’s movies with an unmatched energy, but it also comes up just as hollow. The visuals are enticing, the characters are entertaining, but in the end, it never adds up to much and my experience flat-lined on the operating table.
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Min-hee Kim and Kim Tae-ri play a Japanese heiress and a pickpocket hired as her handmaiden in Director Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden
Review / Personal Essay by Paige Taylor
Warning: Review contains spoilers
This was the sapphic delight I've wished for for so long.
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Kirsten Johnson makes her own role as cinematographer the focus of her new documentary Cameraperson
Review by John McAmis
As a budding filmmaker who’s dealt with making documentaries around personal events and familial relations, I was immediately captivated by Kirsten Johnson’s approach to her cinematic memoir.
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This list features writing by Zach Dennis, Andrew Swafford, Lydia Creech, John McAmis and Ben Shull.
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Hwang Jung-min plays a suave shaman in director Na Hon-jin's The Wailing
Review by Andrew Swafford
The Wailing is a demonic epic that is equal parts Zen and Brimstone. It grabbed me and has not let go.
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O-Ei and her father in Miss Hokusai
Review by Zach Dennis
Miss Hokusai has beautiful elements, and a lead character that is engaging and interesting, but I’m not sure it painted a full picture.
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Shia LeBeouf and Sasha Lane star in director Andrea Arnold's American Honey
Review by Jessica Carr
For Star (Sasha Lane), the dream is to live in a trailer somewhere with lots of trees and room for lots of kids, and I’m so thankful to see a film that shows me what her life is like.
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Isabelle Huppert stars in director Paul Verhoeven's Elle
Review by Lydia Creech
It’s… complicated, which sounds reductive. It’s off-putting, which sounds reactionary. It’s “also a comedy,” according to star Isebelle Huppert. Thank God for Huppert. Her performance as Michèle is truly incredible (one of the best of the year) and gives the audience something to hold on to.
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Narges Rashidi stars in director Babak Avari's Under the Shadow
Review by Andrew Swafford
Flannery O’Connor once said that “while the [American] South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.” The same, I imagine, could be said about Iran and Islamic Fundamentalism, and visualizing that haunting is where Under the Shadow movie really succeeds as a piece of art, if not a perfect genre picture.
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Makis Papdimitriou, Panos Koronis, and many other middle-aged Greek men star in director Athina Rachel Tsangari's Chevalier
Review by John McAmis
Themes and stigmas of masculinity run rampant in Chevalier, and for good reason. With outstanding direction by Tsangari, the film exists to call attention to the toxic ways in which men determine the “manliness” of other men. The contest itself has its roots in this question, though by the end of the film, the activities on the yacht run amok and the question is no longer Who will win? but What will be the breaking point for each contestant?
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Madina Nalwanga and Lupita Nyong'o star in Queen of Katwe
Review by Zach Dennis
Queen of Katwe recognizes where it comes from, but I would be ashamed and disgusted to hear someone say they didn’t at least remotely enjoy this sweet film. Nair doesn’t craft the film with the multi-layers that something like Monsoon Wedding had, but she allows it to become a story that includes its own levels of satisfying richness.
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in Snowden
Review by Zach Dennis
Snowden is a deeply flawed film. The movie runs long and falls into cliches in order to evoke the emotions of the audience, but it succeeds in at least posing the question of whether or not Snowden is a true patriot for what he did.
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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is one of the many high-profile interviewees in director Ava DuVernay's documentary 13th
Review by Andrew Swafford
Ava DuVernay’s documentary about mass incarceration is a voice singing out clear, loud, and true. 13th presents the facts, unembellished by drama or sensationalist pathos, and the truth alone is enough to ring in the ears of the American consciousness unbearably until meaningful change provides us with a different world.
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