Michelle Prather

About the Young Idea DVD Cover With Characters

About the Young Idea DVD Review: A Revealing, Reminiscent Look Back at the Jam’s Rise

The late John Weller, Paul Weller's father and perhaps the Jam's biggest fan, would ring in shows by shouting, “Put ...
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Ballet Boys DVD Review: Transitioning Into Early Manhood—In Tights

Yet another wonderful dance documentary from First Run Features, Ballet Boys (2014) takes balletomanes to Norway, where we meet young ...
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PS Dance! DVD Review: Public Schools Going One Step Beyond for Education

Now that stringent Common Core standards, piles of homework, and hyper-competitive college admission have become the academic norm in the ...
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 ’71 DVD Review: A Winning Depiction of a Losing Battle

On Monday, rioting broke out amid a Protestant Orange Order parade in Belfast after it reached a stretch of road ...
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Always Woodstock DVD Review: Predictability, Love, and Music

If you've seen last year's Song One or Begin Again, then you're well acquainted with the notion that sometimes music ...
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The Snow Queen (2005) DVD Review: Make Believe Gets an Enchanting Makeover

The Snow Queen, BBC's brief but visually and sonically hypnotic TV-movie adaptation of the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale of ...
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I Give It a Year (2013) Movie Review: In Which Funny People Save a So-So Story

There are romantic comedies with premises so trite they morph into tragedies, others so saccharin you leave the theater with ...
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Girl Model DVD Review: New Faces Faced with Unglamorous Realities

Every now and again the fashion world allows the mainstream to glimpse its process, get to know its people, and ...
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The Hour 2 Blu-ray Review: Six Gripping Hours of Corruption, Blackmail, and Love Triangles

After having viewed the second six-episode installment of one of the BBC's most little-known and underrated shows in the United ...
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Wagner & Me Movie Review: Stephen Fry Gets Real About His Favorite Composer

If you're a devoted Fryphile, you'll gladly park yourself on the couch to take in anything Britain's most beloved gentleman ...
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Sunday Bloody Sunday Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: You Can’t Always Get What You Want

John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), the highly anticipated follow-up to Midnight Cowboy (1969) is an honest, often somber, account of what lovers will ...
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Magical Mystery Tour Blu-ray Review: There’s a Fog Upon My Brain

While viewing the remastered version of Magical Mystery Tour, I unintentionally began scrawling the odd observation from the end of a notebook, ...
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Beatles Stories DVD Review: Tales Even Hardcore Beatles Fans May Not Know

It's difficult not to be wary of new Beatles-related documentaries, especially considering some of the Netflix titles that appear alluring ...
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Book Review: Classic Hollywood Style by Caroline Young

Hardcover books selling Hollywood style are notorious for ending up in the bargain section of Barnes and Noble following a ...
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Produced by George Martin Blu-ray Review: A Stroll Down Melody Lane with Britain’s Most Lauded Music Maker

This January, Sir George Martin CBE turns 87. The reserved, seemingly guarded young man with movie-star looks and ears that ...
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Weekend (2011) Criterion Collection DVD Review: An Intimate Portrait of New Love

Weekend is a quiet, but candid, glimpse of how a seemingly fleeting attraction between two people with distinct identities can ...
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Misfits: Season One DVD Review: Anti-Superheroes Who Would Make Superman Weep

Oh, Misfits, so much to answer for. And “Buffy-esque snark,” as New York Magazine calls it, is a monumentally misleading ...
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My Wife’s Best Friend DVD Review: A Mid-Century Marriage Put to the Test

After George and Virginia Mason bid adieu to their deliciously cheeky friend Jane before boarding their flight, it looks as ...
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Michael Wood’s Story of England DVD Review: 2,000 Years of Tales from Kibworth

Michael Wood’s Story of England, a six-part documentary originally aired on BBC Four in the fall of 2010, may lead ...
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Claudia DVD Review: She’ll Steal Your Heart and Mock You For It

Twentieth Century Fox’s 1943 cinematic release of Claudia, directed by Edmund Goulding (The Grand Hotel, The Razor’s Edge, and dozens ...
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Elmo’s Magic Numbers DVD Review: 1-2-3 with Elmo, Max, Zoe, and Will Arnett

If you’re familiar with the Sesame Street franchise, you already know that the brand is fairly consistent in delivering content ...
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Duran Duran: A Diamond in the Mind: Live 2011 Blu-ray Review: A Virtually Flawless Live Performance

As the instrumental “Return to Now” plays over the black-and-white opening sequence to Duran Duran’s first live release in nearly ...
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Kasabian Live!: Live at the O2 Blu-ray Review: Proof the Accolades Are Deserved

If you’ve not seen Kasabian live for several years, prepare yourself for a show with a lot more flash, loads ...
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Never Stand Still Movie Review: A Love Letter to Dance, Dancers, and the Legendary Jacob’s Pillow

Director Ron Honsa, whose television and film credits range from nightly news specials to Saturday Night Live to America’s Most ...
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Tonight You’re Mine Movie Review: A Totally ’80s Idea in Modern-Day Indie Garb

Filmed on site at the T in the Park music festival in Kinross-shire, Scotland, in July 2010, Tonight You’re Mine ...
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Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance Movie Review: The Politics of Dance from the Ground Up

Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance does what ballet so often fails to do: it draws laymen into a world perceived ...
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Cinema Sentries

Book Review: Dressing Marilyn: How a Hollywood Icon Was Styled by William Travilla by Andrew Hansford with Karen Homer

Andrew Hansford's Dressing Marilyn: How a Hollywood Icon Was Styled by William Travilla comes to sartorial aficionados, film fans, and ...
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