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She Dies Tomorrow belongs to a film category that is sometimes referred to as “existential horror,” which prioritizes atmosphere over characters and narrative and a creeping sense of dread over more tangible, jump-in-your-seat scares. Ther...

Although not on the same high level as certain other chronicles of investigative journalism – All the Presidents Men (Watergate), Spotlight (Catholic Church sex scandals), and The Post (the Pentagon Papers) – She Said nevertheless offers many ...

See if this sounds familiar... A hot, young hunk bets his friends that he can turn any girl into a prom queen, and the friends pick out the geekiest girl in the school. The boy contrives a story to meet her, then starts to hang out with her, but,...

There are a variety of ways one can evaluate the effectiveness of standard-order romantic comedies. Mine is to ask three questions: (1) Do I like the characters? (2) Do I sense chemistry between them? (3) Am I rooting for them to be together at t...

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them". - Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene V That single quotation, and a few of the names and plot points are all that remain of Shakespeare...

One of the great action movie staples is the story of a grim survivor bonding with and becoming the protector of a child. This adoptive parent/child relationship, if handled with a degree of finesse, can add a layer of depth to high-caliber set pi...

Schlock Holmes is too brutal. Call it instead The Adventure of the Da Vinci Code Knock-off or The Adventure of the Missing Ending. Either would be equally appropriate. This original story, which borrows heavily from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "can...

It can be argued that few things embolden a filmmaker more than success. When Guy Ritchie re-invented the world's best-known detective for his 2009 Sherlock Holmes, no one knew how the movie would be received. Ritchie's vision was validated by a s...

It's a rare thing when an individual performance defines an entire film, but it happens once or twice per year. Such is the case with Sherrybaby, the feature debut of Laurie Collyer. A simple tale of one woman's attempts to re-connect with her yo...

The Shining is a curious motion picture. On the one hand, as a ghost story and adaptation of the Stephen King novel, it's largely a failure. On the other hand, as an example of directorial bravura and as a study of madness and the unreliable narr...