Category: 5 Stars
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Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (*****) The work of a master
“Brad Pitt has simply never been better. If he doesn’t exactly expand his range to 12 Monkeys range, his portrayal is spot on. He’s carries the load, quite literally. ”
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I Am Mother (*****) the future is then
Keeping the characters to a minimum in no way diminishes the effectiveness of the story. This is dystopian future story telling at its best. It makes us think about more than the story. It makes us think about who we are and what we could be.
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Shaft (*****) is damn right
John Shaft is the urban answer to the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.” It’s a remarkable statement that no doubt has lead many critics who live in big cities to blanch at the apparent crudity espoused by the filmmakers. Now in their 5th film and going on 5 decades. All it really does is show…
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Rocketman (*****) How about a hug?
“This may not ascend to the highs of Bohemian Rhapsody. It deserves to, though. We don’t have a martyr here. We have a survivor who moved past the stage of needing love from those who’d never give it to him. What he finds is a way to be his own friend. From there, he woke…
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Avengers: Endgame(*****) – I love you 3000 (no spoilers)
“After four Avengers films, they’ve finally made the perfect one. There’s but one overly gratuitous moment for me. It easily washes out, though, when the rest of the film feels so comfortable, so tense and anything but inevitable.”
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Forgotten Gem: Miller’s Crossing (*****) catching a star on the rise
“This film is a definite display of two of the best filmmakers of their time in Joel and Ethan Coen. They show all of the range that would later be used to make some of the films which I really enjoyed, even if there were still those weird one offs that still haven’t grabbed me.…
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Forgotten Gems – Lone Star(*****): John Sayles is still the king
“This is just the tip of the iceberg that goes down into the depths of a deep sea of the human condition. If there is one film that shows a completely honest viewpoint of life on the border of so many things.”
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Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse is a world without end
“Every once in a while, something comes along that opens your eyes to a new way of viewing cinema. Star Wars did this for me first back when I was 6 years old. Goodfellas did it in 1991. Now we have this…a comic book cartoon movie.”
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Eighth Grade (*****) – If you could only see you…
“…I cannot attest to how accurate the portrayal is from the perspective of a teenage girl. I can only say as the father of two he’s done a magnificent job of showing us – rather than telling us – how it feels. ”
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Roma (*****) – Share the Well
#roma “It’s a tough viewing, to be sure. It is also incredibly rewarding. It is so much higher a level of movie making that one is used to seeing. It’s not the kind of film that everyone could make it through, but it’s the kind of film that is utterly the point for art itself.”
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 