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Memories of Murder Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: The South Korean Zodiac

A woman has been brutally raped and murdered. Her body was shoved into a drain ditch. Detective Park Doo-man (Song ...
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History Is Made at Night (1937) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Love Crosses the Atlantic

Director Frank Borzage, who grew up with Hollywood, making (and acting in) silents from 1916 and remaining active up to ...
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Annie Get Your Gun Blu-ray Review: Shoots a Few Blanks but Hits the Overall Target

Prior to its release this week, this classic MGM movie adaptation of an American musical theatre staple has never been ...
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Nobody (2021) Movie Review: Bob Odenkirk Is a Somebody in the Action Genre

As the movie opens, Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) looks like he's been though something. Handcuffed by police, his face is ...
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Clapboard Jungle Movie Review: A Brutally Involving Document

I don't have personal experience, but I've seen and heard enough to know that the film business can be a ...
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Perdita Durango 4K Ultra HD Review: An Evil, Evil Love Story

An important key to understanding Perdita Durango, the character: her boyfriend is a bank-robbing Santeria priest who, in front of ...
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Death Has Blue Eyes Blu-ray Review: It’s a Mastorakis Mess

Greek writer, producer, director Nico Mastorakis has had a long, strange career. He started out as a reporter, becoming the ...
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Broadway Melody of 1940 Blu-ray Review: De-Lovely

The obvious draws for this classic MGM musical are the star turn by Fred Astaire and the songs written by ...
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SXSW 2021 Movie Review: The Spine of Night

The Spine of Night by co-writers/co-directors Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King is a fantastic fantasy film featuring animated imagery ...
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Moffie Movie Review: A Dive into the Underworld of Chauvinism

Moffie, the latest effort from South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus, isn’t a horror movie. However, it almost feels like one. ...
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The Invisible Man Appears Blu-ray Review: It Can Finally Be Seen

Why is it that in seemingly every depiction of an invisible man in the movies, the ability to turn invisible ...
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Lynyrd Skynyrd: Live at Knebworth ’76 DVD Review: A Day the Giants of Southern Rock Held Their Own Against the Stones

On August 21, 1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd were part of a star-studded lineup at the third annual Knebworth Festival in England. ...
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SXSW 2021 Movie Review: The Sparks Brothers

Edgar Wright's The Sparks Brothers is a loving biography that tells a story of persistence and resistance as Ron and ...
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2021 Oscar-nominated Live Action Short Films Review

On April 2, 2021, THE 2021 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS will be available in over 200 screens across 50+ theatrical ...
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2021 Oscar-nominated Documentary Short Films Review

On April 2, 2021, THE 2021 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS will be available in over 200 screens across 50+ theatrical ...
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2021 Oscar-nominated Animated Short Films Review

On April 2, 2021, THE 2021 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS will be available in over 200 screens across 50+ theatrical ...
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The Greatest Show on Earth Blu-ray Review: The Show Must Go On… and On… and On

Epic corn was director Cecil B. DeMille’s metier, and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952; 152 minutes), his circus opus ...
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Earwig and the Witch Blu-ray Review: A Lesser Effort from Studio Ghibli

Famed Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement in August of 2014. As he was the co-founder and main creative ...
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Secrets & Lies Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Cinema at Its Best

Legendary British director Mike Leigh is one of cinema's greatest and most profound humanists. He crafts beautifully painful portraits of ...
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SXSW 2021 Movie Review: Udo Kier is Flawless in ‘Swan Song’

Over the course of his career that spans almost six decades, German actor Udo Kier has been one of those ...
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Céline and Julie Go Boating Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Long, Strange, Riveting Film

Julie (Dominique Labourier), a young woman with big, curly red hair, sits on a park bench distractedly reading a book ...
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The Yellow Wallpaper (2021) Movie Review: Beautiful but Lacks the Horror

In 1890, Charlotte Perkins Gilman penned her story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This feminist tale documents a woman named Jane’s battle ...
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Damn Yankees Blu-ray Review: Lola Wants (and Gets) 4K

How much do you love your favorite baseball team? Or, more accurately, how much do you hate the New York ...
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SXSW 2021 Movie Review: Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free

Mary Wharton's Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free opens with title cards revealing in 2020 a collection of 16 mm ...
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Born to Lead: Jim Calhoun Movie Review

As we head into the 2021 NCAA Men’s basketball tournament, it seems like a perfect time for the documentary, Born ...
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SXSW 2021 Movie Review: Alien On Stage: Unlikely Heroes Played by Even Unlikelier Heroes

The movie Alien is defined by a number of characteristics -- high tension, elaborate special effects, a grim tone, and ...
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SXSW 2021 Movie Review: ‘Language Lessons’ Reminds Us of the Value of Connection

Given how it’s been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic happened, the thought of watching an entire film involving people ...
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Baby Doll Blu-ray Review: Let’s Play House, Baby

Scripted by playwright Tennessee Williams, who got sole credit for this adaptation of two of his shorter plays, “Twenty-Seven Wagons ...
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SXSW 2021 Movie Review: ‘See You Then’ Is a Vital and Intimate Telling of Womanhood

For a short, 74-minute movie about two old flames reuniting over the course of one night, See You Then manages ...
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SXSW 2021 Movie Review: ‘Potato Dreams of America’ Is Imaginatively Profound

Queer youth goes on a journey of self-discovery while concealing their identity out of fear. A simple story that we’ve ...
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Southland Tales Blu-ray Review: Strange but Strangely Compelling

Stepping in through the door right when the millennium was opening up and carrying with it a sense of doom ...
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Touki bouki Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Deserves to be Seen and Discovered

I must admit that African cinema usually goes way over my head. I mostly gloss over it in favor of ...
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Crossfire (1947) Blu-ray Review: Film Noir with a Message

Crossfire, Edward Dmytryk's 1947 film which crosses classic noir tropes with an anti-racist message, is now getting a nice-looking Blu-ray ...
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The Parallax View Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: The Second Entry in Pakula’s Political Paranoia Trilogy

Based on Loren Singer's 1970 novel of the same name, Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View is the second entry ...
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On-Gaku: Our Sound Movie Review: A Lo-fi Delight

On-Gaku: Our Sound is a lo-fi animated treat from director Kenji Iwaisawa about a trio of high school delinquents who ...
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Smooth Talk Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Teen’s Roller Coaster Ride from Innocence to Harsh Reality

1985's Smooth Talk, directed by Joyce Chopra (Murder in a Small Town, The Lemon Sisters, Blonde), follows restless teenager Connie ...
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Laurel or Hardy: Early Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy Blu-ray Review

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are a legendary comedy duo that had international success with both their silent and sound ...
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The Vigil Movie Review: A Minimalist Exercise in Paralyzing Grief

A limited setting, an ominous score, and a “things go bump in the night” storyline. All are three simple yet ...
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Poster of the movie Crisis depicts an action scene

Crisis (2021) Movie Review: Surprisingly Disappointing

With heavy inspiration drawn from movies like Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, Nicholas Jarecki’s Crisis takes a look at America’s addiction to ...
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On Moonlight Bay Blu-ray Review: Day and MacRae Play on the Bay

Booth Tarkington is most famously remembered as the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice ...
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Lady Sings the Blues Blu-ray Review: Good Morning Heartache

Allow me to state this upfront: In Lady Sings the Blues (1972; dir. Sidney J. Furie), Diana Ross gives a ...
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Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob DVD Review

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided the writer with a free copy of the DVD reviewed in this Blog Post.  The ...
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Chop Shop Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Miracle of Independent Cinema

With his wonderful 2005 Man Push Cart, filmmaker Ramin Bahrani beautifully captured the grim circumstances of being an immigrant in ...
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Man Push Cart Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Essential Cinema

Foreigners in a foreign land express the often grim, depressing, but sometimes hopeful studies of immigrants desperate to survive a ...
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JSA: Joint Security Area Blu-ray Review: Death on the DMZ

There's only one place along the Korean DMZ that soldiers from the North and South stand across from one another, ...
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Pretty in Pink (35th Anniversary) Movie Review: Still Pretty, Still (Very) Pink

Pretty in Pink turns 35 this year. It was a peak '80s film - featuring teen romance, members of the ...
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Poster of the movie Mandabi by Ousmane Sembene

Mandabi Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Unexpected Money Leads to Lots of Problems

One of the things that Ousmane Sembène’s second feature film does that so few films do is, take lesser-known actors ...
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San Francisco Blu-ray Review: The King of the Barbary Coast Finds His Queen

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 is the backdrop for this handsomely mounted 1936 MGM production, which spends far too ...
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The Last Starfighter Blu-ray Review: Tailor Made for 1980s Gamers

As a kid growing up in the 1980s, I loved video games. In the summer, my cousins and I would ...
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Malcolm & Marie Movie Review: A Frustratingly Distressing Acting Showcase

Malcolm & Marie, the new Netflix drama starring John David Washington and Zendaya as our titular couple whose relationship is ...
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