Director Destin Daniel Cretton’s 2013 film, “Short Term 12,” was a sensitive story of troubled youth, told in a way that felt emotionally honest without ever pandering. He turned that tricky material into one of that year’s best films. One of “Short Term 12’s” key strengths was Brie Larson’s fantastic lead performance, and so it […]
Brie Larson
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Sharp shooting
Released nationwide this week after making a splash on the festival circuit last fall, the movie “Free Fire” is an over-the-top crime-thriller about a black market arms deal that goes horribly, unexpectedly wrong in 1978 Boston. The film has earned a great deal of praise for its cast — which includes recently-minted Oscar-winner Brie Larson, […]
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Film review: ‘Free Fire’
A black market arms deal goes south in spectacularly bloody fashion in the darkly comedic crime-thriller “Free Fire,” the latest from prolific British director Ben Wheatley. The filmmaker’s follow-up to his ambitious but flawed dystopian satire “High-Rise,” “Free Fire,” is an audacious, over-the-top genre exercise that’s somewhat scattershot in execution, but it makes for a […]
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Film review: ‘Kong: Skull Island’
“Kong: Skull Island” director Jordan Vogt-Roberts clearly paid attention to the criticisms leveled at Gareth Edwards, whose 2014 “Godzilla” reboot used a less-is-more approach to the massive, atomic lizard. By contrast, Vogt-Roberts gets the human-smashing, monster action going early and often. He loads his movie up with as many man-eating beasts as he can fit […]
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Film Review: “Room”
If ever there was a perfect illustration of how a film is less what it’s about than how it is about that thing, “Room” is it. Adapted by Emma Donoghue from her best-selling 2010 novel, “Room” is a gripping and deeply emotional story that nevertheless revolves around a nightmarish scenario of victimization. Taking inspiration from […]
