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A Lavash and a Bagel Walk Into a Bar

“Sausage Party” leaves a lot to chew on (sorry)

I can picture it now. Seth Rogen is in a pitch meeting with Sony and Columbia Pictures and he’s got one hell of an idea. A hard R-rated animated comedy—in the vein of Pixar and Dreamworks animated films—about anthropomorphized food people coming to terms with their grisly fate. “Deadpool” proved that a “fun” movie can […]

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General Excitement

Silent 1926 classic, “The General,” screens with a new, live score

In case you haven’t seen it, Buster Keaton’s “The General” is one of the greatest movies ever made. No hyperbole needed or used: the movie is the pinnacle of the silent film era, combining some of the most jaw-dropping stunts and hilarious physical comedy ever captured on celluloid. To see a screening of “The General” […]

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Hunting For Freedom

“Wilderpeople” is a delightful New Zealand oddity

“Hunt For the Wilderpeople” is one of those movies that you can only describe as lovely. The script, the tone and the performances all combine to make a movie that just soars by, content to be exactly what it is and nothing more. The film tells the story of Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison), an orphaned […]

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Squad Goals

Can something be so bad it’s brilliant?

The narrative being constructed by critics and fandom right now is that of a battle between DC Comics’ Extended Cinematic Universe (DCEU) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While Marvel’s started back in 2008 with the first “Iron Man” film and is plotted through 2019’s “Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2,” DC is still in […]

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Risky Business

“Nerve” is a movie in search of a soul

Oh, “Nerve,” you had so much promise, and you squandered it so hard. Taking cues from the very simple premise of David Fincher’s under-appreciated 1997 thriller, “The Game,” “Nerve” wants to be so many different things. It’s a teen romance, a cyber thriller, a horror movie, a parable about social media and a finger wagging […]

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Chasin’ Bourne

Matt Damon vs. the law of diminishing returns

Matt Damon had already achieved some measure of success by the time “The Bourne Identity” was released in 2002, but it definitely bumped him from actor to movie star. “Good Will Hunting” (1997) put him on the map. “Dogma” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley” gave him cred, and “Oceans Eleven” made him “Hollywood,” but “Bourne” […]

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Over the Garden Wall

“Swiss Army Man” unfolds expertly

“Swiss Army Man” came out of the Sundance Film Festival amid multiple walkouts, critically derided as Daniel Radcliffe’s farting corpse movie. I am happy to report that is EXACTLY what the movie is (among about two dozen other things) and it earns every second of its scatologically-obsessed running time. There are poops, farts, boners, masturbation […]

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Space Oddity

“Star Trek” soars beyond its galaxy

The Star Trek franchise has learned a valuable lesson in the three years since “Star Trek Into Darkness.” American and worldwide audiences want some fun in their science fiction blockbusters. There can be darkness and serious plot developments, but when everything comes across as joyless and dour, audiences and critics don’t respond quite as well. […]

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Brobusters

Your childhood is perfectly safe

We should get the elephant in the room out of the way first. “Ghostbusters” 2016 is a reboot of the classic 1984 film and the less classic 1989 sequel (plus numerous video games and an animated series). The four new Ghostbusters are also women played by Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. […]

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Gerwig in a Box

“Maggie’s Plan” defies convention with convention

There is a specific type of indie romantic dramedy that has popped up over the last few years that owes a deep debt to the work of John Cassavetes. He brought a cinéma vérité style to American independent films that added a gritty realism to a genre that had only ever been light and fluffy. […]

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