This banner is for a review of The Phoenician Scheme.

‘The Phoenician Scheme’ Movie Review: Wes Anderson’s Stylish Misfire

Everybody knows the greatest thing about Wes Anderson’s movies is their sense of style. Style is the tool he uses to bring lightness to dark and complex subjects such as grief, the creeping threat of fascism and being an insufferable young person. The staging and blocking, the centering of images, …

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‘Lilo & Stitch’ Movie Review: One of Disney’s Most Heartfelt, Adorable Remakes Yet

It’s inevitable. With every new live-action remake released by Disney, the same cycle of controversy, ridiculous boycotts, and deafening noise from hate groups and internet users who can’t handle any deviation from the established norm repeats itself – even if that “norm” is just their highly romanticized childhood memories. Casting …

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‘The New Boy’ Film Review: A Contemplative Look at Colonization and Faith

Stories about colonization seldom humanize the colonizers, and for good reason. Focusing on the victims of abuse should always be the priority. However, there is value in examining a colonizer’s motivations. In his film The New Boy, writer and director Warwick Thornton examines some of those motivations through the lens of …

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‘Case 137’ Film Review: France and Lessons Learned From 2018

The ripped-from-the-headlines Case 137 (Dossier 137) combines two genres everybody loves. The first is the detailed bureaucracy of justice and how much easier it is to find objective truth since we all started carrying recording devices (our mobile phones) around at all times. Think Anatomy of a Fall and Saint …

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Interview: Suzanne Raes on Pulling her Audience into Another World in ‘Where Dragons Live’

Independent Dutch director Suzanne Raes’ documentary, Where Dragons Live, revolves around Harriet and her siblings, who, following their mother’s death, begin preparing their stately childhood home, Cumnor Place in Oxfordshire, for sale. Sorting through the house that has become cluttered with forgotten and once-important belongings, stir memories of their childhood. …

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‘Ernest Cole: Lost and Found’ Documentary Film Review: A Reflection on Segregation, Post-War Politics, and Colonial Violence

In Ernest Cole: Lost and Found by the legendary Raoul Peck, we learn more about Cole and the South African apartheid. In 1948, with the election of Daniel François Malan as the first minister of South Africa, apartheid became a policy of the government. The black population of the country …

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‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ Movie Review: Fame, Depression, and a Stylistic Blur of Misfires

Hurry Up Tomorrow is directed by Trey Edward Shults (It Comes at Night), a filmmaker who here collaborates with Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Reza Fahim (The Idol) on the screenplay. Starring Jenna Ortega (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) and Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin), with Tesfaye himself playing a fictionalized version …

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‘Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music’ Documentary Review: Looking Back at Music and Television History

On October 11th, 1975, television changed forever. NBC premiered a revolutionary concept. It combined a bunch of young and innovative comedians who would perform sketches written during the week. The show, commanded by the young Canadian writer Lorne Michaels, was Saturday Night Live. Fifty years later, SNL became a place …

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This is a banner for an interview with director Emmanuel Courcol of The Marching Band.

Interview: Emmanuel Courcol on ‘The Marching Band’

In French director Emmanuel Courcol’s comedy drama, The Marching Band (En fanfare), the celebrated orchestra conductor, Thibaut Desormeaux (Benjamin Lavernhe) is diagnosed with leukemia. To his surprise, the tests to identify a bone marrow donor reveal that he was adopted. The search for his brother leads him to Jimmy (Pierre Lottin), …

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‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ Movie Review: So Excellent It’s Hard to Believe

Some years ago I went to Arles for the annual photography festival and discovered that, on Saturday nights, the local bullfighting school put on a show in the Roman amphitheatre. I paid my ten euros and watched three young matadors in training kill their bulls while the locals treated this …

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