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For the first time in their four collaborations, the director/actor pairing of Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone misses fertile soil. Bugonia, a remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 comedy Save the Green Planet!, proves to be a mismatch of tone and mat...

After watching the Coen Brothers spend years mowing their way through genres and upending conventions, one question comes to mind: Is there anything these guys can't do. Common wisdom suggests "no" and, after winning Oscars early this year for No...

The scenario presented in Captive State would almost certainly have worked better in a mini-series format. The filmmakers’ low-budget approach of minimizing special effects might have allowed for an expansion of the narrative over a six or ei...

Writer/director Paul Schrader makes moody, low-budget movies about isolated people. While his highly regarded reputation as a screenwriter is deserved (he wrote, among other titles, Raging Bull and Taxi Driver), his directorial resume is checke...

It would be easy to dismiss Catch a Fire as yet another story of a heroic rebel fighting against an oppressive regime. That would be an accurate high-level description of the story, but it neglects the intangibles: solid acting, effective direction...

Labor Day weekend is arguably the worst time of the year for a U.S. movie release. Films set to open at the end of August/beginning of September are given up for dead by their distributor. This is typically for one of two reasons: the production is...

Sometimes, the lure of generic horror tropes can be too strong for even the most high-minded films to avoid. Come Play is an example. The premise intrigues with its potential – the idea that just because something looks like a traditional �...

As a dramatic exploration of the political wrangling that occurs behind-the-scenes when the College of Cardinals meets to elect a new pope, Conclave is compelling and intriguing. As an opportunity for a group of top-notch actors to showcase their ...

Henry Selick has a particular sensibility and, when choosing material for his movies, he seeks stories that fit into the slightly twisted, quasi-fairy tale realm where he feels comfortable working. Thus, in the past, he has collaborated with Tim B...

Dallas Buyers Club tells the story of Ron Woodroof, a raging heterosexual homophobe who, over the course of several years in the mid-to-late 1980s, was transformed by circumstances from a card-carrying bigot into a staunch gay rights' activist. Aft...