Right out of the gate, this act of weird weather alerts audience that something bad is going to happen, and the calm before the storm will be anything but serene. Strangely, Curtis (Michael Shannon, TV’s “Boardwalk Empire”), a blue-collar worker in a small town in Ohio, is the only one who notices how different the […]
DVD reviews
Posted inArts & Culture
Period of Adjustment / Tall Story
She plays Isabel, a nurse from Sweetwater, Texas, who impulsively quits her job because she’s just as impulsively married one of her patients, George (Jim Hutton), a Korean War vet with a serious case of the shakes. Their union is off to a less-than-stellar start; Isabel erupts in tears leaving the church because he’s driving […]
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The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Being Swedish, director Göran Olsson inherently carries an advantage over most American historians when it comes to documenting domestic cultural phenomena, such as the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. Because who’s more objective than a foreign visitor? Olsson makes this point early on in “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975” when Swedish […]
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Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
Starting in 1994 on the East Coast, Justin Duerr did; he wondered what it meant. The more he encountered them, the more his interest was piqued. Curiosity beget obsession when an in-its-infancy Internet search yielded no results, and the documentary “Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles” follows Duerr in his roughly 15-year search […]
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Dirty Girl
The young woman of the title is Danielle (Juno Temple, “The Three Musketeers”), the resident class slut of Norman East High School. She’s brought down a peg or two when her in-class behavior gets her sent to a class for special-needs students, where she’s partnered with “fat fuck” Clarke (Jeremy Dozier, TV’s “iCarly”) on a […]
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Modern Family: The Complete Second Season / The League: The Complete Season Two
While its recent Emmy sweep was well-deserved, “Modern Family” may never be as good as the new-to-disc sophomore season. Because roughly halfway into the current airing one, the show has failed to be anything but a hair above average, and sometimes going a week without a single laugh. But that second season was fairly solid, especially […]
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Texas Killing Fields
While Ami Canaan Mann’s “Texas Killing Fields” is her first, she no doubt picked up some tips from her director dad, Michael Mann, who’s made more than his fair share in “Heat,” “Thief” and “Manhunter.” That much, I’d expect. What I didn’t expect was that the daughter’s film would be better than her revered father’s […]
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Don’t Let Him In
I couldn’t help but think of that throughout the whole of “Don’t Let Him In.” Don’t. Don’t. Don’t! The “Him” of this particular title refers to “the Tree Surgeon,” the serial killer who comprises a quarter of a group going off to a cottage retreat for the weekend. Half of the group is a secure […]
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Dead Hooker in a Trunk
Substitute “bomb” with “whore corpse,” and you have the Canadian crime spree known as “Dead Hooker in a Trunk.” The title is the best thing about it, raising all sorts of hope it cannot satisfy. Written and directed by sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska — who star as Geek and Badass, respectively — the low-budget […]
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Julia’s Eyes
The latest case in point is “Julia’s Eyes,” a Spanish thriller that kept me on that proverbial edge of my seat for most all of its 115 minutes. A good rule of thumb is that if you were moved and menaced by 2007’s “The Orphanage,” then by all means, see this. Sharing a leading lady […]