The idea of human transformation often feels remote, especially when we think about the incarcerated. We tend to see their lives as grim realities, grateful that we’re not in their shoes, and seldom do we stop to consider the forces—both personal and social—that continually…
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There are two films competing in director Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus—the first an impeccably designed technical nod to Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien and James Cameron’s 1986 Aliens, recreated with meticulous reverence. But the second is a story that’s little more than a riff on…
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For all the whirlwind menace on display in Twisters, a reboot of the silly-fun 1996 summer hit about storm chasers braving heartland funnel clouds (and most famous for an airborne cow), Minari director Lee Isaac Chung’s high-tech new update also has a swirling black…
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The arrival of Longlegs—Osgood Perkins’ killer thriller about an FBI agent tracking a murderer—comes on the heels of distributor A24’s canny, months-long marketing campaign of carefully curated raves raising high hopes that just maybe a new horror “masterpiece” would be unleashed. But landing…
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In Nicole Riegel’s new Dandelion (IFC Films, July 21), star Kiki Layne plays a not-so-young Cincinnati musician fiercely committed to doing things her way, and to finding a home onstage that is uniquely hers across spaces that are not always welcoming to Black female…
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A few months ago, Ti West’s MaXXXine dropped a ripping good trailer promising the lurid thrills of adult film actress Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), stalked by a Hollywood slasher in a perfectly recreated 1985 Tinseltown milieu. But the film’s arrival proves a disappointment, West…
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Familiarity proves a slight problem for A Quiet Place: Day One, an origin story preceding the first two hit films and depicting the arrival of the deadly alien race bent on decimating humanity. The problem this time is mainly one of sameness—here we have…
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You have to hand it to Yorgos Lanthimos. After taking the Oscar season by storm with his ribald liberation saga Poor Things, the celebrated writer-director has returned to his anarchic origins with the misanthropic Kinds of Kindness, a marathon of twisted deadpan and gleeful…
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A taxi driver and his passenger unexpectedly bond in writer-director Christy Hall’s Daddio, starring Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson on an extended trip from JFK to Midtown, one yielding plenty of talk and transformation. It’s a two-character “small” picture with a few bigger ideas…
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Jeff Nichols’ new film The Bikeriders charts the birth and rise of a fictional 1960s-era Chicago motorcycle club named the Vandals, as seen through the eyes of three compelling actors: Tom Hardy as the gang’s founder and leader, Austin Butler as his young protégé…
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