Film review
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Film review: ‘Table 19’

Avatar photo Adam Lubitow

It’s a relatively clever concept for a comedy: a group of strangers meet when they’re assigned to the “randoms” table at an acquaintance’s wedding (reserved for courtesy invites no one actually expected to attend). As the day wears on, the band of misfit guests forge an unlikely bond, enlisting one another’s help as they each […]

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Film review: ‘Bitter Harvest’

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German director George Mendeluk takes a stab at historical melodrama with “Bitter Harvest,” a tale of star-crossed lovers swooning against the backdrop of real-life tragedy. Set in Ukraine in the early 1930’s, the film follows a young peasant farmer and aspiring artist named Yuri (a bland Max Irons) desperately fighting to maintain his connection to […]

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Film review: ‘Toni Erdmann’

Avatar photo Adam Lubitow

The premise of “Toni Erdmann” — a practical joke-loving father tries to reconnect with his tightly-wound daughter by adopting a goofy alter ego and insinuating himself into her life — sounds like the recipe for a broad, over-the-top comedy. But “Erdmann,” from writer-director Maren Ade, exists on a wavelength all its own: the film is […]

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Film review: ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’

Avatar photo Adam Lubitow

The original “John Wick” was the biggest and most pleasant surprise of 2014. Stylish, smart, and exciting, it’s a B-movie executed with A-level precision. Now comes the terrific “John Wick: Chapter 2,” a sequel which takes everything that made the original great and ratchets it up to gloriously absurd levels, delivering more action, elaborately-staged mayhem, […]

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Film review: “I Am Not Your Negro”

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Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s Academy Awards, Raoul Peck’s extraordinary “I Am Not Your Negro” uses as its framework an unfinished 30-page manuscript by author and essayist James Baldwin. The book proposal was started in 1979, and the final work was to explore the experience of being black in America viewed through […]

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Film review: “Julieta”

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The latest from Spanish director Pedro Almodรณvar, “Julieta” finds its inspiration in a trio of connected short stories by author Alice Munro that center around the titular woman as she reflects on her life and her relationship with her long-lost daughter, Antรญa. The story is a Douglas Sirk melodrama by way of a Hitchcockian thriller, […]

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Film review: ‘Paterson’

Avatar photo Adam Lubitow

“Paterson” seems like the type of movie that makes people scoff and roll their eyes at film critics when we attempt to describe it: Adam Driver plays a bus driver named Paterson, who lives in Paterson, New Jersey. He writes poetry, goes to work, and well, not much else really happens. Written and directed by […]

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Film review: ‘Things to Come’

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Following hot on the heels of her masterful work in “Elle,” Isabelle Huppert delivers her second extraordinary performance of the year in “Things to Come,” playing a woman at a point of personal crisis. Huppert is Nathalie, a 60-ish professor of philosophy whose comfortable existence begins to unravel in small but collectively significant ways. Her […]

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Film review: “The Comedian”

Avatar photo Adam Lubitow

When Robert De Niro appeared as the title character in the dopey gross-out comedy “Dirty Grandpa” early last year, I’d assumed it was a fluke — after all, even living legends need an easy paycheck once in a while. But with his latest role as an aging insult comic in Taylor Hackford’s foul-mouthed, shaggy dog […]

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Film review: “Split”

Avatar photo Adam Lubitow

The career of M. Night Shyamalan has had its ups and downs over the years. After being anointed the next Spielberg following the massive success of “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” and “Signs” in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the filmmaker faltered with middling efforts, “The Village” and “The Happening,” before completely squandering any goodwill […]

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