‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ Movie Review: Ruben Fleischer Presents a More Polished Yet Empty Trick

Expectations were low. My relationship with this saga has been, I admit, troubled: mixed feelings regarding the original film and manifestly negative regarding the second chapter. Despite being aware that this third entry, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, has received the warmest reception of the entire franchise so …

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Interview: Director Stephen Shimek talks ‘Murder at the Embassy’

Director Stephen Shimek recently sat down with us to discuss Murder at the Embassy, his new film that’s out now in theaters and on demand. It’s a murder mystery set in 1930s Cairo starring Mischa Barton along with Mido Hamada and Richard Dillane. It’s the second installment in the Miranda …

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‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ Film Review – Rose Byrne Takes On Motherhood

Rose Byrne’s magnificent performance grounds this takedown of modern motherhood (not parenthood) under capitalism, but If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is really about the flaws of modern American society. Its unmissable message is that America is completely ruled by its addictions and its impossible desire to get without …

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Interview: Mido Hamada talks filming in Egypt and more for ‘Murder at the Embassy’

Travel back to 1930s Cairo in this exclusive interview with Mido Hamada, who discusses his role as the skeptical Head of Security Mamoud in the new murder mystery film Murder at the Embassy with Mischa Barton. It’s the second installment in the Miranda Green series and is a delightfully fun …

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‘Exile’ Film Review: A Genre-bending Vision of Proletarian Inferno

Following his 2021 Filmmakers of the Present debut Streams, Tunisian director and screenwriter Mehdi Hmili made his return at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, with the out-of-competition title Exile, which functions as part revenge thriller and part grief and social drama stylized in a way that evokes visual poetry and …

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‘A House of Dynamite’ Movie Review: A Case Study in Filmmaker’s Intent Versus Narrative Impact

The expectations surrounding A House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow’s new and highly anticipated film, were understandably stratospheric. After military tension and psychological analysis masterworks like The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, the prospect of Bigelow returning to a theme of war and existential crisis — dealing with the nuclear …

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‘Ballad of a Small Player’ Movie Review: A Sensory Overload Carried by Colin Farrell’s Magnetic Performance

Following the intense and visceral rawness of All Quiet on the Western Front and the meticulous religious intrigue of Conclave — both of which are among my absolute favorites from their respective release years — the mere idea of Edward Berger tackling a psychological thriller focused on addiction and moral …

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‘After the Hunt’ Movie Review: All That Remains of This Hunt is Just the Deafening Void of Pretense

My expectations for Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt were, I confess, moderate, but they leaned toward cautious optimism. I like most of his films, with Challengers being my favorite, and I generally admire his work, even if I don’t consider myself an unconditional fan. However, the initial reception of this …

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‘Motor City’ Film Review: Alan Ritchson’s 70’s Stunt Spectacular

There is a fascinating new trend in cinema gathering steam: action movies with hardly any dialogue. Finland’s Sisu from 2022 shows Nazis being slaughtered without saying much about it, while America’s No One Will Save You from 2023 has a young woman fighting off an alien attack. And now Detroit …

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‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Film Review: Rian Johnson’s Crisis of Faith

The formula established in Knives Out and Glass Onion has been changed in Wake Up Dead Man. The series of good old-fashioned murder mysteries solved by gentleman detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) has been a roaring success because they were mostly about fabulously wealthy people being held to account. Tweaking the …

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‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’ Film Review: Paul Dano’s Remarkable Performance

Jude Law’s first appearance as Vladimir Putin is so eerily accurate the Venice Film Festival audience around me laughed in surprise. Who would have thought he could do it? Well congratulations to director Olivier Assayas and his casting director Antoinette Boulat, because the performance Mr. Law gives here is one …

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‘Black Rabbit’ Series Review: Jude Law and Jason Bateman As Brothers

We don’t choose our family.  Love them, hate them, they are our families, and we are stuck with them.  Some of us are blessed with living, supportive ones; others not so much, and the rest fall somewhere in between.  Black Rabbit is a story of brothers who fall somewhere in …

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‘Wayward’ Review: Mae Martin Netflix Thriller Fails To Pay Off The Creepy Premise

Comedian Mae Martin’s (Feel Good) first venture into drama is a confused exploration of a dysfunctional town with a mysterious school. What has the potential to be a Lynchian mystery falls flat as it struggles to combine two perspectives. Told through two separate viewpoints, Wayward follows cop Alex Dempsey (Martin) …

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‘One Battle After Another’ Movie Review: A Star Is Born in One of the Year’s Best and Most Important Films

Of all the hype bubbles that form around the first reactions to a new release, One Battle After Another generated some of the most effusive of this century. And I mean that almost literally, since many of those reactions contained the pull-quote-ready taglines that marketing departments love so much — …

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