Just as did director Guillermo del Toro in Pan’s Labyrinth, first-time feature director Benh Zeitlin requires a suspension of disbelief to become part of a world seen and understood through a young girl’s eyes. Just as the creative force of Ofelia’s imagination in that 2006 film fought back against Franco’s fascism, this one, embodied in […]
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Bullhead
Hey, guys, you’d feel the same if you had no testicles. Bullhead is not, however, your average chunk of Oscar bait. In fact, nothing about it is average. Its distributor is Drafthouse Films, the theatrical arm of the legendary — among outré-cinema enthusiasts, at least — Austin, Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse, where you can enjoy a […]
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Racing Dreams
It’s not the go-kart you once rode up and down your driveway. These no-suspension, sponsor-stickered mini stock cars reach speeds of 80 miles per hour as they circle the track, their drivers’ rears a mere inch off the ground. “What kind of parents would let their kids go that fast when they’re not even old […]
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The Swell Season
Musicians Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová were not an item when they played the MFEO lovers of Once, but that relationship status changed after the movie’s release. By the time they deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Original Song the following year, they were sharing more than honors. Taking its name from Hansard and […]
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Miss Bala
Maria was also full of praise, earning an Academy Award nomination; Miss Bala was Mexico’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Oscars, but failed to make the cut. It feels like an inferior duplicate — not vastly inferior, but noticeably, thanks to a running time that grows as repetitive as those […]
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In Darkness
Based on factual events, it unfolds during World War II in the Polish town of Lvov, now part of Ukraine. Mass executions in the Warsaw Ghetto have driven about a dozen Jewish Poles to escape the Nazis by fleeing into the sewer system. They hide in the dank, dark confines of the underground, sharing their […]
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Annie Hall
But is its recent Blu-Ray release a worthwhile buy for fans of the Woodman? Well, if you haven’t seen the 1977 Academy Award winner enough times to quote it verbatim, or if you have but don’t own it, sure, it’s definitely worth a purchase. But Allen movies are notoriously no-frills on DVD and Blu-Ray, and […]
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Do the Busey
Last week, the paparazzi outlet caught the Oscar-nommed actor (in 1979, mind you, but perhaps there’s hope next year with “Piranha 3DD”?) in a playful moment, dancing in a parking lot, presumably to an audience of his car’s open trunk (parked in a handicapped spot, for what that’s worth). Grooving awkwardly to Orleans’ soft-rock 1976 […]
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The Staircase
It’s that gripping — a miracle, considering the film is so long (six hours), it has to span two discs. On Dec. 9, 2001, Nortel executive Kathleen Peterson died at the bottom of a narrow stairwell in her North Carolina home, presumably from a fall. She was found by her novelist husband, Michael, who called […]
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7 Faces of Dr. Lao
Although Randall primarily stars as the Chinese circus owner Dr. Lao, he also appears as Medusa, The Abominable Snowman, a horned goat man, a blind fortune teller and — in one, don’t-blink scene — a stupefied circusgoer. Lao rolls into a Western town on the verge of collapse, thanks to a drought. His mysterious and […]