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Saltburn
(2023)
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Chris Barsanti
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A great time produced by a great director without being a great movie.
Posted Jan 23, 2024
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The Banshees of Inisherin
(2022)
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Chris Barsanti
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Pairs a crisp dramatic clarity and whistling-past-the-graveyard comedic tone with an underlying melancholy, the latter being a somewhat newer development in McDonagh’s work.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
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The Janes
(2022)
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Chris Barsanti
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A disarmingly cool and matter-of-fact yet utterly crucial documentary about some of the most daring, radical, and largely unsung heroes ever put onscreen.
Posted Jun 06, 2022
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The Batman
(2022)
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Chris Barsanti
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Yes, self-parodic travesties like 'The Batman' could be more original. But even a creative Batman story is still just another Batman story. Isn't it time to give the man a rest?
Posted Mar 13, 2022
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Zola
(2020)
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Chris Barsanti
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Janicza Bravo's direction is fiery, confident, and funny, pushing her actors into places that verge on comedic parody but retain their humanity; never an easy trick.
Posted Jan 11, 2022
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Licorice Pizza
(2021)
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Chris Barsanti
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The whole thing clings together on a wing and a prayer but it succeeds in large part through sheer enthusiasm for the joy of storytelling.
Posted Jan 11, 2022
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Quo Vadis, Aida?
(2020)
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Chris Barsanti
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Harrowing not just for the banality of evil on display but how it shows the horrors clicking into place.
Posted Jan 11, 2022
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Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
(2021)
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Chris Barsanti
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... raw, hilarious, sneakily intelligent comedy.
Posted Jan 11, 2022
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Red Rocket
(2021)
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Chris Barsanti
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The movie's magic comes not just from Baker's ability to thread comedy into down-and-out margin-dwelling drama but showing how dependent people's survival is on each other.
Posted Jan 11, 2022
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Dune
(2021)
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Chris Barsanti
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Has all it needs, except for a hero.
Posted Oct 20, 2021
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In the Heights
(2021)
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Chris Barsanti
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The mostly mediocre movie musical we need right now.
Posted Jun 11, 2021
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Miller's Crossing
(1990)
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Chris Barsanti
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'Miller's Crossing' might start in knowing satire and a winking brand of precise mimicry but it ends in a haunting existential trap.
Posted Feb 12, 2021
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Mosul
(2019)
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Chris Barsanti
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An Iraq War movie that's actually about Iraqis.
Posted Jan 05, 2021
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Dear Comrades!
(2020)
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Chris Barsanti
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...shows how even the most rigid autocracies are still composed of humans who occasionally push back against their propaganda-soaked environments.
Posted Jan 04, 2021
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A Rainy Day in New York
(2019)
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Chris Barsanti
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The story feels like a faded Xerox of an idea somebody once scribbled down on a napkin for an Allen-like comedy.
Posted Oct 09, 2020
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The Wages of Fear
(1953)
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Chris Barsanti
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...the greatest thriller to ever turn a moviegoer's knuckles white.
Posted Aug 10, 2020
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Kiss Me Deadly
(1955)
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Chris Barsanti
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By the time the movie comes to its gonzo Pandora's box conclusion on the beach, neither script nor screen have been able to keep up with reason, preferring instead to simply stay out of Hammer's way.
Posted Jul 22, 2020
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The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
(2011)
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Chris Barsanti
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Freidrichs breaks down the legacy of this infamous public housing complex.
Posted Jul 04, 2020
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Empire of the Sun
(1987)
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Chris Barsanti
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...the story is a chilly one, particularly for a filmmaker who had so shamelessly (and skillfully) plucked heartstrings.
Posted May 02, 2020
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What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire?
(2018)
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Chris Barsanti
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...weaves together a quartet of narratives about resilience in the face of mounting pressures.
Posted Apr 17, 2020
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The Hottest August
(2019)
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Chris Barsanti
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A free-flowing and discursive essay about the future which already feels like a postcard from the past.
Posted Apr 17, 2020
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Joker
(2019)
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Chris Barsanti
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...A lethally dull and spiritually deadening exercise whose strained black humor and self-importance makes even the profundities of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy feel meaningful by comparison.
Posted Jan 21, 2020
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Just Mercy
(2019)
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Chris Barsanti
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...uncomplicated does not equal simplistic or lacking in drama.
Posted Jan 10, 2020
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The Irishman
(2019)
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Chris Barsanti
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...a cool, elegiac, and somewhat detached epic whose three and a half hours float by with a disconcerting calmness.
Posted Nov 28, 2019
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Avengers: Endgame
(2019)
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Chris Barsanti
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It's official. We've been had.
Posted May 29, 2019
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Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
(2019)
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Chris Barsanti
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...competently made but fairly infuriating
Posted May 06, 2019
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High Flying Bird
(2019)
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Chris Barsanti
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The start of a great movie.
Posted Feb 09, 2019
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Monsters
(2010)
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Chris Barsanti
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What kind of movie will best describe the Trump presidency for future generations?...
Posted Jan 23, 2019
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The American Meme
(2018)
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Chris Barsanti
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...conversation-sparking but tinsel-deep
Posted Dec 05, 2018
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Widows
(2018)
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Chris Barsanti
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The undercurrent of McQueen's focus is not who gets what bag of money but the grander thievery of gangsters aspiring to be politicians who themselves act like gangsters...
Posted Nov 13, 2018
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Suspiria
(2018)
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Chris Barsanti
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Lush, ghastly, and unnecessary.
Posted Nov 02, 2018
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Monrovia, Indiana
(2018)
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Chris Barsanti
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Wiseman's working method doesn't allow much prying.
Posted Nov 01, 2018
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A Star Is Born
(2018)
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Chris Barsanti
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Every man here with a story is cloaked in some kind of misery.
Posted Oct 26, 2018
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Isle of Dogs
(2018)
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Chris Barsanti
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...a trippy and densely-layered but somewhat stillborn quasi-apocalyptic canine adventure fantasy.
Posted Mar 23, 2018
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Phantom Thread
(2017)
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Chris Barsanti
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Wrapped around the cool and dark character study at the heart of 'Phantom Thread' is some impressively picturesque packaging.
Posted Dec 17, 2017
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Columbus
(2017)
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Chris Barsanti
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...crisp and subversively emotional
Posted Oct 09, 2017
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Solaris
(1972)
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Chris Barsanti
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... as a haunted ode to lost love, 'Solaris' has few equals in all of cinema.
Posted Jul 03, 2017
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The Fate of the Furious
(2017)
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Chris Barsanti
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...the series is vaulting from glorified drag-race soap opera into the kind of supercharged summer action franchise whose elastic take on the laws of physics and eager one-upmanship are indistinguishable from those of the DC or Marvel comic-book universe.
Posted May 08, 2017
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Beware the Slenderman
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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One of the latest great true-crime works out of the HBO Documentary lab...
Posted Feb 16, 2017
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Dark Night
(2017)
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Chris Barsanti
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...haunting and - sometimes seemingly unintentionally - disturbing
Posted Feb 16, 2017
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Jackie
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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...wrenching and unforgettable
Posted Dec 11, 2016
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13TH
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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...spring-coiled and crucial.
Posted Dec 04, 2016
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Kubo and the Two Strings
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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...a quasi-animist saga where spirits infuse almost every object and being, while the characters remain deeply and at times overpoweringly human.
Posted Nov 06, 2016
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The Accountant
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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Best remembered for all the popcorn it unintentionally caused audience members to spit out in baffled laughter.
Posted Oct 12, 2016
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Florence Foster Jenkins
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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...at a time of near-record income inequality ... is there anything to celebrate in this kind of fantasy-making?
Posted Aug 28, 2016
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Zero Days
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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...a prescient warning for the new world of conflict we are blundering into without so much as a flashlight.
Posted Jul 27, 2016
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Ghostbusters
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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...strains to connect the lo-fi improv style of its leads with the big plot points and special-effects scenes needed to justify the eight- and nine-figure budgets.
Posted Jul 20, 2016
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O.J.: Made in America
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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...one of the great documentary epics of our time.
Posted Jul 11, 2016
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Do Not Resist
(2016)
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Chris Barsanti
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...equal parts black comedy and dystopian nightmare.
Posted Jun 09, 2016
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Pan's Labyrinth
(2006)
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Chris Barsanti
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...all the shivering intensity and satisfying denouement of the darkest Grimm's fairy tale.
Posted Apr 15, 2016
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