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Alan Ball: Rick Santorum inspired “True Blood” Season 5

HBO’s original programming has never catered to conservatives; since the premium cable giant ramped up production in the mid-1990s, its target audience has always been progressive, urban 20- and 30-somethings. But recently, HBO content has been exceptionally hostile toward the GOP. First, there was the HBO Original Movie “Game Change,” which sought to morph Sarah …

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Streaming Pick: “Elevator to the Gallows” (1958)

Although film noir is a genre that traditionally refers to certain crime films made by Hollywood during the 1940s and ‘50s, the French, who originally coined the term and defended its artistic merits, made several examples of their own, following the German occupation. The French New Wave, in particular—that loose collective of critics-turned-filmmakers who so …

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Video Minefield: DVD & Blu-Ray releases for May 29

There are five new options for home viewing this week. We’ve got you covered… Coriolanus, actor Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut, is a post-modern treatment of Shakespeare, but those hoping for the exuberance of Baz Lurhman’s Romeo + Juliet had best stay far away. Here, Fiennes and writer John Logan transplant the Bard of Avon’s dialogue–largely …

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Video Minefield: DVD & Blu-Ray releases for May 22

On tap this week: five new home viewing options. Here are our capsule reviews… Certified Copy was the cinephile’s head-scratcher of 2011, a beautiful film about the afternoon spent between a man (opera singer William Shimell) and a woman (the incomparable Juliette Binoche). What first appears to be a cerebral character piece along the lines …

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Video Minefield: DVD & Blu-Ray releases for May 1

New selections available for home viewing this week: Haywire is Steven Soderbergh’s star-studded experiment in genre filmmaking, a modest action film that struggles with its own low aim. It’s a curious exercise seeing a prolific auteur approach a task that he likely thinks is beneath him, resulting in a work that’s appealing and exciting at …

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