Why do adult men often struggle to make friends with other men? Such fraught camaraderie dynamics inform writer-director Andrew DeYoung’s black comedy Friendship, in which an ill-fated bromance makes for an observant movie which, like the great human comedies, mines hilarity from humiliation and…
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It’s been 25 years since Final Destination first arrived on screens, its crafty (and best) 2000 original ushering in a popular franchise predicated on elaborately contrived mayhem and driven by grim musings on mortality and fate. Fourteen years have passed since the last installment, which makes…
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On Swift Horses, a period melodrama about hidden love and sexual identity in 1950s America, is so tasteful it makes you wish it would cut loose with the abandon its characters experience in their frequently heated moments of self-discovery. Featuring an attractive cast led…
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In his beautifully mounted spellbinder Sinners, writer-director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Creed) mixes tones, styles and genres to supremely entertaining heights in a boldly confident piece of studio movie showmanship. Across a sumptuous, 137-minute picture about a pair of ne’er-do-well twin brothers returning from the big…
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Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare is a relentless, war is hell exercise delivering exactly what its title promises: an immersive descent into the chaos of combat. Collaborators on last year’s provocation Civil War (Garland helmed with Mendoza as military advisor), the pair has…
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Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza didn’t set out to make just another war film. After working together on last year’s provocative button pusher Civil War, their creative partnership evolved when a conversation about potential future collaborations turned into something far more personal. The resulting…
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From its well-cut trailer, The Alto Knights appeared to have all of the requisites of a good studio entertainment—Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson helming, star Robert DeNiro back in beloved mafioso mode and screenwriter Nicolas Pileggi (Goodfellas, Casino, The Irishman) penning another true tale of wise-guy intrigue. Yet watching The…
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There won’t be a better movie performance this year than Jonathan Majors’ work in Magazine Dreams, the beleaguered indie that captured the 2023 Sundance Jury Prize and was headed for awards season consideration—that is, until Majors’ subsequent, high-profile domestic assault arrest and misdemeanor conviction saw…
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With his new spy thriller Black Bag, Steven Soderbergh handily demonstrates that intelligent, made-for-adults entertainment isn’t yet dead. It’s been some time since an American film has made us sit up, lean in and follow a plot that puts us through the paces, and…
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American filmmakers have mostly abandoned incisive political cinema. A few years ago, I lamented this to Oliver Stone, who plainly noted that neither studios nor audiences want political thrillers or government critiques anymore. The new Mickey 17, however, sees a world-class Korean filmmaker using…
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