The Killing of Two Lovers

What happens in a marital separation when one person moves on and the other is still committed? The power of the superb heartland drama The Killing of Two Lovers comes from its point of view on a failing marriage, told from the perspective of…

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Shiva Baby

A farce borne of humiliation that achieves the tension of a tautly constructed horror film, Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby is a smart comedy of errors about a young collegiate returning home for a pressure cooker Jewish funeral only to contend with a cavalcade of…

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The Father

The masterstroke of the dementia drama The Father, co-adapted by director and playwright Florian Zeller and the great Christopher Hampton, is one of perspective. A byzantine puzzle about an octogenarian in mental decline, it puts us directly in senility’s way courtesy of a sterling…

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The Mauritanian

According to a recent New York Times calculation, the per prisoner cost of Guantanamo Bay detention is approximately $13 million—a hefty sum for the thirty-nine existing detainees from more than fifty nationalities, the majority from the Middle East. And while the debate over closing…

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French Exit

The primary reason (perhaps the only one) to see French Exit is a glorious Michelle Pfeiffer, one of the few remaining great American movie stars, in an ace performance that sustains a sometimes too precious picture that is an altogether mixed bag. Picture opens…

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Land

A portrait of grief rendered in a minor key, Robin Wright’s directorial debut Land, in which the actress turned director also stars, is a spare picture that works on the basis of two strong performances and beautiful cinematography in the wilds of Wyoming. It…

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One Night in Miami

One of the season’s most pleasant surprises, Regina King’s One Night in Miami, based on the play by Kemp Powers suggesting a 1964 meeting of minds between titans Jim Brown, Malcom X, Cassius Clay and Sam Cooke, Jr., is a superbly acted and thought-provoking movie,…

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News of the World

In News of the World, based on the 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles about a Civil War vet roaming the Old West performing the news of the day to paying crowds in tiny towns across Texas, there is something almost comforting in the simple…

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Wrong Turn

Has enough time truly passed to reboot 2003’s backwoods horror hit Wrong Turn (which itself aped scores of earlier films with the same general story)?  Modest points in this version go to screenwriter Alan McElroy and director Mike P. Nelson who competently mount a…

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Promising Young Woman

As a targeted piece of provocation, Emerald Fennel’s Promising Young Woman is a zeitgeist bullseye. A scathing condemnation of rape culture pitched as a darkly comic thriller for the #MeToo era, it features a never better Carey Mulligan as an avenging angel on a…

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