Steven Soderbergh is having one hell of a retirement. After announcing his intention to quit directing following “Magic Mike” and “Side Effects,” he directed, edited, produced and shot the insanely brilliant Cinemax show, “The Knick,” and HBO’s interactive puzzle series, “Mosaic.” He then instantly dove back into film with the Liberace biopic “Behind the Candelabra,” […]
Movies
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A Bit of Magic
“A Wrinkle in Time” has its audience in mind
Earnestness is almost impossible in 2018. Any time a show tries genuine emotion like that, it’s very quickly undercut with either a winking moment of humor or a liberal dose of cynicism. Heart-on-the-sleeve gentleness doesn’t seem to work with modern audiences and can be misinterpreted as sugary cheese instead of kindhearted optimism. Mr. Rogers might […]
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Hail to the King
“Black Panther” throws up the fist
I can understand the argument that there are too many superhero movies. At around a dozen a year, comic book movies are as ubiquitous to modern cinema as westerns were to the 1940s. Some are garbage (“Batman v. Superman” and “Suicide Squad” come to mind), but every year we get at least one new classic such […]
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String Theory
Searching for the “Phantom Thread”
Pardon me a very obvious analogy: There’s a lot going on in “Phantom Thread.” So much, that if you pull one delicately frayed string, it unravels 30 more passageways, showing how deftly woven the entire underlying structure is. And just like the secret messages its main character sews into the lining of his garments, there […]
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The Unsinkable Molly Bloom
Aaron Sorkin returns to the big screen
Here we are, smack dab in the middle of winter—a time when many people are snapping on their bindings and winter gear to ski, snowboard or snowshoe. Meanwhile, others look for warmer and less-physical ways to break our legs. High stakes poker with the Russian mob, perhaps? Based on the trippingly-titled memoir, “Molly’s Game: From […]
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Legend of the Bored
King Arthur is a swing and a myth
Why is it so hard for Hollywood to get the story of King Arthur right? Cinematic adaptations of Arthurian legend go all the way back to a 1904 silent film based on Wagner’s 1882 opera “Parsifal,” but very few of them have captured what makes the story special in the first place. Films like “Camelot” […]
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Inside Amy Schumer
Snatched is a trainwreck
Sometime after her popularity exploded during the first season of her show, Amy Schumer became not just the most popular female comedian in years, but also a feminist icon almost overnight. She fought back against misogynist culture by not allowing the typical body shaming of the Hollywood elite to change her looks, and her sex-positive […]
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Special Education
Gifted almost finds the heart of mathematics
It can be very surprising how lovely something so simple can be. “Gifted” is predictable, formulaic and deeply flawed, but the combination of perfectly calibrated performances and some honest and charming character work make the film a lovely piece of cinema, at times. The movie doesn’t do anything differently than dozens of other family dramas […]
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Wack Mirror
The Circle screams at social media
The only reason the film adaptation of “The Circle” will be remembered is because it’s the final screen appearance of the actor Bill Paxton after his untimely and shocking death. Not to be overly harsh, but the film is so forgettable that discussing it feels like time that could be better spent focusing on the […]
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We Are Groot
Marvel Studios adds art to commerce
I’ve been reviewing Marvel movies for as long as I’ve been writing about cinema. Truthfully, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not quite 10 years old (dating back to 2008’s “Iron Man”), but it has completely reshaped how blockbuster movies are written and directed. The staggering number of superhero movies released every year might be easy […]