Forty-nine minutes pass before an act of what passes for conflict occurs. Ironically, doing so further slows a glacial pace. The existential Western Meek’s Cutoff looks like Run Lola Run by comparison. Written and directed by junior filmmaker Julia Loktev, The Loneliest Planet divided critics wildly in its brief theatrical release; viewers can decide on […]
thriller
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Compliance
In a role that should have earned her an Academy Award nomination (but I suspect the old-fart contingent couldn’t make it through the film, if it tried at all), Ann Dowd (Side Effects) gets the role of her long character-actress career as Sandra, manager of a fictional fast-food restaurant. Her shift at ChickWich starts as […]
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Argo
It’s a testament to the skills of the filmmakers that Argo delivers a deluge of suspense even when its ending is never in doubt. Up for seven Oscars on Sunday, it was released earlier this week on Blu-ray and DVD. There’s no way the movie industry could have resisted this stranger-than-fiction yarn. The film chronicles […]
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The Bay
Inspired by an actual event in which fish and birds inexplicably turned up dead in mass quantities, the movie takes place in Claridge, Md., as the Chesapeake Bay celebrates Independence Day in 2009. Much of the footage we see comes courtesy of TV news intern Donna Thompson (Kether Donohue, Pitch Perfect) via a WikiLeaks-esque site, […]
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Sinister
Had I been watching it alone, on a dark and stormy night, my neck likely would be sore by the end of it, from making repeated glances behind the couch — you know, just to be safe. It’s 2012’s Insidious: well-built, respectful of viewers’ intelligence and yet genuinely freaky. Ethan Hawke (Daybreakers) plays Ellison Oswalt, […]
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Seven Psychopaths
Working again with McDonagh, Colin Farrell (Total Recall) is Marty, a screenwriter having troubles on the job — all he has on paper is a title — and at home with his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish, Sucker Punch). These pale to the life-or-death situation his slacker pal, Billy (Sam Rockwell, The Sitter), gets him into, involving […]
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The Factory
Skipping theaters and debuting on DVD free of digital bells and whistles, the Dark Castle Entertainment thriller exactly lacking in famous faces, with John Cusack and Jennifer Carpenter in the leads as partnering police detectives in snowy Buffalo, N.Y. Mike Fletcher (Cusack, The Raven) is an 18-year veteran of the force obsessed with a longtime […]
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Kill for Me
For Hailey, it’s her dad (Donal Logue, Silent Night). For Amanda, it’s a stalkery ex-boyfriend. But problems can solved and, you know, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. In other words, Kill for Me, I kill for you. Director Michael Greenspan’s follow-up to the disastrous Wrecked is a marked improvement. It’s like a gender-swapped […]
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Black’s Game
1. Among its producers is Nicolas Winding Refn, the filmmaker who steered Drive straight to the top of my list of 2011’s best films. 2. It opens with a title card that translates to “BASED ON REAL HARDCORE SHIT.” 3. See No. 2; repeat as necessary. Based on a novel based on a true story, […]
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The Thieves
So don’t complain that you have to read subtitles; literacy is good for you. Depicting the theft of a national treasure from a seemingly impenetrable art vault, a 10-minute prologue puts viewers right in the mood for its jaunty, addicting vibe — one that marries the globetrotting derring-do of the Mission: Impossible franchise with the […]