Not another X-Men spin-off, it’s the true story of Richard Kuklinski, a family man turned hit man who showed so little emotion doing his dirty deeds that not even his wife and kids knew what he really did for a living. Richie carried out his guise for around 20 years, finally getting caught in 1986. […]
nudity
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A Boy and His Dog
One would think that a film — boasting source material from a writer with an especially rabid following — that established the visual template for the now ubiquitous post-apocalyptic wasteland and stars Don Johnson would have caught on at some point over the past 38 years. Yet, not even when there was such a shortage […]
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Ishtar
Derided before it even premiered in the spring of 1987, the last stand (directorial, at least) of Elaine May cast Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty against type: Hoffman is Chuck, the P-magnet; Beatty, Lyle the dolt. Both are struggling songwriters stuck in the New York City supper circuit. The joke is that they’re struggling because […]
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Drinking Games / From the Head
Not the psychological thriller it pegs itself as being, Drinking Games takes place largely in a college dorm room the night of Snowmageddon, the big party before winter break. Richard (Blake Merriman, who wrote it) is writing a paper and dealing with a family tragedy, whereas his roommate, Shawn (Nick Vergara), wants to use their […]
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Magic Magic
While you’re at it, give Magic Magic credit for being something different, even if it ultimately proves a disappointment. Written and directed by one Sebastián Silva, the Chilean-set chiller sends Alicia (Juno Temple, Killer Joe) on her first trip outside the United States. She joins cousin Sarah (Emily Browning, Sucker Punch) and a few of […]
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The Brontë Sisters
The film stars Franco-actress standouts Isabelle Adjani (Possession) and Isabelle Huppert (Amour) before they were household names in international cinema. Adjani is Emily, the most recognized of the Brontë sisters; Huppert is Ann, the youngest; and the moral realist in the family and the oldest and least-known, Charlotte, is played by the late Marie-France Pisier […]
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Street Trash
Debuting on Blu-ray in Synapse Films’ “Special Meltdown Edition,” the 1987 skid-row epic centers on an auto junkyard populated by homeless winos. One of them, who looks like famed Torgo from Manos: The Hands of Fate, finds that a decades-old bottle of Tenafly Viper purchased at the local liquor store causes those who drink it […]
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To the Wonder
His Tree of Life in 2011 earned praise and derision alike for its ambitions and meandering, largely plotless tale. It was my No. 1 film that year, but I had no idea at the time that it would look like Iron Man 3 when compared to his follow-up, To the Wonder. Now on Blu-ray and […]
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Amour
In other words, the guy is definitely not the lovey-dovey type. But that unblinking, cold-blooded aesthetic is largely what makes Amour, coming to home video after an Academy Award win for Best Foreign Language Film, so remarkable. In its depiction of an elderly Parisian couple coming to terms with illness and looming death, the film […]
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On the Road
An ode to poet Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation, On the Road fails to elicit nostalgia for all things Beat, but not for lack of ambition. Its Americana backdrop depicts the unbridled beauty of the West. The visuals are a testament to a time when these United States were more innocent and collectively curious. […]