“Searching for Sugar Man” is the rarest kind of documentary — one that chronicles events so unbelievable that the viewer is content to simply sit in awe of what is unfolding before them. The filmmaking isn’t particularly sophisticated and the material isn’t particularly challenging, but by sharing such a stranger-than-fiction story, first-time director Malik Bendjelloul […]
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“Easy Money” is being released in the United States under the banner “Martin Scorsese Presents,” an honor it most likely earned because the legendary filmmaker felt flattered by the movie’s attempts to emulate his organized crime dramas, particularly “Goodfellas.” Everyone else will wonder why they didn’t just re-watch a Scorsese joint instead, for “Easy Money”
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Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office grosses. Last weekend, three of four releases did well, delivering exceptional results — in the case of “The Bourne Legacy,” results that few predicted. One wonders if their success will lend itself to equally strong holdover
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If Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the husband-and-wife directing team who burst onto the scene with the 2006 crowd-pleaser “Little Miss Sunshine,” intended for their latest film, “Ruby Sparks,” to directly represent the human condition, then their effort should be regarded as a failure. Teaming with writer Zoe Kazan, Dayton and Faris take their high-concept–a
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It’s been a big season for Steven Spielberg fans. Not only does the director’s famed “Jaws” drop today on a beautifully restored Blu-Ray, but now comes news that perhaps his most beloved work of all-time, the Indiana Jones adventure “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” will play IMAX theaters on September 7 to celebrate/promote its own
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” returning to theaters… in IMAX! Read More »
Even the most vocal detractors of David Frankel’s “Hope Springs” must recognize the miracle of the film’s existence. This is a studio-funded production about the sex lives of old people that is neither an Oscar-hungry downer nor an outrageous farce. It approaches an issue that affects married couples over 40–hardly Hollywood’s target demographic–honestly and empathetically.
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“Two and a Half Men” gets a bad rap for being a misogynistic, uninventive CBS sitcom, but for those of us who prefer our “so bad it’s good”-style comfort food relegated to the boob-tube rather than the silver-screen, the show hits the spot rather well. Now comes news from The Hollywood Reporter that “singer-actress” Miley Cyrus,
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Ever since “The Dark Knight Rises” took the megaplexes by storm, the box office has been in a relative slump, what with “The Watch” and “Step Up Revolution” bombing two weeks ago and “Total Recall” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days” underperforming last weekend. Well, that slump just ended, because “The Bourne Legacy”
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One moment of quiet solitude stands out amongst all the kinetic action sequences and globetrotting theatrics that have defined the Jason Bourne trilogy up to this point: a man’s lifeless body floats in the ocean, captured in low angle by a submerged camera and backlit by brilliant moonlight. It’s a shot that represents the fragility
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Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office grosses. It must be August, because we finally have a weekend with a healthy four new releases after many consecutive weekends of just one or two, which is the standard schedule for summer tent-pole season. That
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