A bachelorette weekend descends into debauchery, drug-fueled benders, and some inadvertent manslaughter in “Rough Night,” a gleefully R-rated comedy that marks the feature debut of “Broad City’s” Lucia Aniello. The rarity of raunchy, R-rated comedies helmed by female directors is reason enough to root for the film, but while there’s plenty of laughs to be […]
Film review
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Film review: ‘Paris Can Wait’
The first narrative feature from Eleanor Coppola (wife of Francis, and mother of Sophia), “Paris Can Wait” is a pleasant, airy travelogue about a woman rediscovering the simple pleasures of life. Diane Lane stars as Anne, the wife of a workaholic film producer, Michael (Alec Baldwin). The couple are set to depart the Cannes Film […]
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Film review: ‘The Mummy’
Universal Pictures may have jumped the gun by announcing long-term plans for its “Dark Universe,” an interconnected series of films built around the studio’s stable of classic monsters, like Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, and my personal favorite, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. This planned franchise has suffered one failed launch already: […]
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Film review: ‘My Cousin Rachel’
The writings of Daphne Du Maurier were often moody tales of deception, betrayal, paranoia, and occasionally romance; qualities that made them favorites of Alfred Hitchcock and inspired his films “Rebecca,” “Jamaica Inn,” and “The Birds.” Du Maurier’s gothic-tinged “My Cousin Rachel” is perhaps slightly lesser known among her works, though it was previously adapted into […]
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Film review: ‘It Comes at Night’
In his debut film, “Krisha,” writer-director Trey Edward Shults took a drama about a fraught Thanksgiving family reunion and ratcheted up the intensity until it entered the realm of psychological horror. Now in his sophomore outing, the young filmmaker goes for full-on terror with the nightmarish, post-apocalyptic thriller “It Comes at Night.” As you might […]
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Film review: ‘Megan Leavey’
“Blackfish” director Gabriela Cowperthwaite shifts capably from documentary to narrative filmmaking with a different (and decidedly more uplifting) tale of human and animal relations in “Megan Leavey.” The film focuses on the real-life story of Leavey (a wonderful Kate Mara), a wayward 20-something who finds redemption through the bond she forms with a bomb-sniffing military […]
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Film review: ‘Wonder Woman’
Since her debut in the pages of “All Star Comics” nearly 75 years ago, Wonder Woman has gone on to become easily the most recognizable female superhero; a hero every bit as iconic as her DC brethren, Batman and Superman. Considering her revered status, it’s mind-boggling that the Amazonian princess is only just now, in […]
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Film review: ‘The Wedding Plan’
On the eve of her nuptials, a 32-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman named Michal (Noa Koler) faces the shocking announcement from her fiancé, Gidi (Erez Drigues) that he’s not in love with her. But her devastation at the news is eclipsed only by her steadfast determination to get married, and she chooses to take an absurd […]
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Film review: ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” series has run aground
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Film review: ‘Obit’
Early on in “Obit” — the affectionate new documentary which gives viewers a look into the day-to-day experiences of the writers staffing the New York Times obituaries desk — one of the film’s subjects is asked if their work is depressing. After all, the job of an obituarist requires one to literally spend nearly every […]
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Film review: ‘Alien Covenant’
Your feelings about the latest installment of the “Alien” franchise will depend largely on how you felt about “Prometheus.” The 2012 prequel marked Ridley Scott’s return to the science fiction series he established nearly 40 years ago. A direct sequel to that ambitious and polarizing blockbuster, “Alien: Covenant” splits the difference between continuing the earlier […]
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Film review: ‘The Lovers’
An unhappily married couple finally decides to end things for good, only to find themselves unexpectedly falling back in love in “The Lovers,” Azazel Jacobs’ wry grownup romance about love, sex, and the difficulties of finding happiness at any age. Mary (Debra Winger) and Michael (Tracy Letts) seem to have checked out of their marriage […]
