It’s not often we get a biopic about one of the master painters, perhaps because the only thing more boring than watching paint dry may be watching someone apply it. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, however, had a rather bawdy explanation of his brush-stroke method, according to the film Renoir. It’s one we can’t print. Hear for yourself […]
drama
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At Any Price
Unfortunately, his latest effort is something of a stumble. At Any Price, which opens Friday exclusively at AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, 2501 W. Memorial, marks an admirable departure from Bahrani’s comfort zone. In contrast to his previous works, which featured nonprofessional actors and John Cassavetes-styled improvisation, this offering boasts an accomplished cast (a couple […]
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Nightfall
But 2012 may prove to be a banner year for him, based upon the smash-hit ensemble The Thieves and now the crime thriller Nightfall. In the latter, he portrays police inspector George Lam, who hasn’t quite been the same since his wife committed suicide five years ago, so his work — however gruesome — provides a […]
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The Bletchley Circle
When the meekest of them (Anna Maxwell Martin) notices a pattern in a string of Jack the Ripper-esque slayings plaguing back together, so to speak. London, she gets the band back together, so to speak. If they couldn’t tell anyone about their wartime efforts, they certainly can’t tell anyone now; after all, what could housewives […]
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Blancanieves
Once upon a time, the idea of a film being silent, foreign and — steee-rike three! — black and white equated to box-office poison. Then 2011’s The Artist won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture; earned $133 million worldwide; and lived happily ever after. Hoping for the same storybook ending is Spain’s Blancanieves. While every […]
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The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Like Boggy Creek, 1976’s Sundown states it is based on a true story. Unlike Boggy Creek, Sundown actually is. Better late than never, it makes a simultaneous DVD and Blu-ray release courtesy of Shout! Factory. Set in postwar Texarkana, the film depicts the fear that gripped that the heretofore optimistic town of 40,000 after a […]
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Disconnect
The fiction-film directorial debut for Henry Alex Rubin (Murderball, one of the greatest documentaries of this millennium), the movie doesn’t feel like a preachy lesson à la David Schwimmer’s Trust; it’s more of a is-what-it-is look, however voyeuristic, at the way everyday people get tangled in the web. Disconnect opens today exclusively at AMC Quail […]
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The Place Beyond the Pines
The opening minutes serve as a nifty precursor for the action, both physical and psychological, to follow. Stunt motorcycle driver Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling, Gangster Squad) emerges from a darkened trailer and into a traveling carnival. As the camera trails him over his shoulder, Luke gets on his cycle, enters the caged globe of death […]
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The Company You Keep
The Company You Keep, which opens Friday at AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, 2501 W. Memorial, is boomer meditation disguised as political drama. Directed by and starring Robert Redford, it pretends to be ambivalent about the 1960s counterculture, but the reverence of the treatment suggests otherwise. Last seen onscreen in 2007’s Lions for Lambs, Redford […]
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Upstream Color
Here’s what I think about Upstream Color nearly three weeks after seeing it: I’m unsure. I’ve not yet finished processing it. I can’t even explain the title. Screening Thursday through Sunday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the self-distributed film marks the belated sophomore effort of writer/director/producer/actor/editor/ composer/cinematographer/camera operator Shane Carruth, who became an […]