Tom Hardy

Review: “Lawless”

“Lawless,” an ultra-violent gangster tale by John Hillcoat (“The Proposition,” “The Road”), is a textbook example of why the final act of a film is its most important. Movies that start off poorly have the potential to rebound, gaining the audience’s trust and respect with future developments. The ones with weak midsections can often be …

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Review: “The Dark Knight Rises”

It’s hard to deny that an insidiousness permeates Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, and not just because of the real life unpleasantness that has transpired offscreen. “The Dark Knight Rises” is almost unbearably grim, a tangle of frayed nerves and cultural angst. The fiery and destructive imagery of the ad campaign symbolizes Batman’s rebirth, but could …

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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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