Anne Brodie
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Tenzin (2023) |
Tenzin describes the experience of trauma viscerally, and plainly, and how oppression has cursed the world throughout human history, via a confused young man. Wrenching.
- What She Said
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Riceboy Sleeps (2022) |
The extraordinary Riceboy Sleeps is a revelation that reverberates days after seeing it. Its power is in its subtlety and spare style, we aren't so much watching mother and son as living inside them, a phenomenal achievement for filmmaker Anthony Shim.
- What She Said
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Brother (2022) |
Clement Virgo's Brother is beautifully made, and performers give their all - an exquisitely painful and provocative experience that cuts deep. The limitations of poverty missed opportunities and dashed hopes are staggering and Brother becomes an elegy.
- What She Said
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Woman of the Photographs (2020) |
Takeshi Kushida’s Woman Of The Photographs is a strangely seductive number. We see inside their thoughts, ponder humans and bugs, the tyranny of social media and the reality that yet another woman has succumbed to body dysmorphia - What She Said
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| Posted Mar 10, 2023
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I Like Movies (2022) |
A heart-tugging, film-loving smartypants with a wicked tongue rules! The character study, tell-all and comedy-drama seems fun ‘n’ games to start but develops complexity and emotional power. Terrific stuff! - What She Said
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| Posted Mar 10, 2023
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The Quiet Girl (2022) |
Clinch’s superbly nuanced performance, at age 11 is phenomenal, her stillness reverberating with emotional power with occasional bursts of pure joy. It lingers. - What She Said
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| Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023) |
It’s strong stuff and be warned that there’s a powerful whiff of sadism and a helluva social media diss. - What She Said
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Juniper (2021) |
A poignant and sometimes difficult look at the ways we can change if we open our minds and accept that connection and conversation to recover from trauma. The story’s based on the filmmaker's own experiences.
- What She Said
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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To Leslie (2022) |
Her performance makes you weak in the knees. It is deep, precise, and woundingly real. Sustaining figurative nakedness as Riseborough does is a championship feat that could win her the Oscar.
- What She Said
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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(undefined) |
Rose McGowan’s staunch activism is one of the doc’s greatest takeaways- she and others are fighting the fight. This may curl your hair but sheds light on what you’ve been watching all these years. It’s not pleasant - What She Said
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Sharper (2023) |
The beat is constant, relentless plus insights into why savvy folks are so often successfully targeted. This whiplash noir challenges is full of fun surprises, and a cautionary look at sharpers.
- What She Said
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Marlowe (2022) |
Marlowe’s fun, unusual, Lange’s fabulously outré, Neeson dominates, but no signature action moves. Kruger’s cool ambition, Huston’s seething rage – it’s all there. Jordan had fun with this. - What She Said
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Somebody I Used To Know (2023) |
Ally differs from the usual rom-com roles. She’s out for herself she'll steamroll, gaslight, fake befriend, and plant seeds of doubt not just the anti-hero, but the villain. Brie is terrific, multi-layered and carries it.
- What She Said
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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One Fine Morning (2022) |
Léa Seydoux sans makeup hair cropped close is Sandra, facing major difficulties. carries it with dignity, a strong sense of self, and love for her daughter. A provocative stirring portrait of a woman keeping the universe in balance. - What She Said
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023) |
touchless lovemaking repeats ad infinitum. Unsubtle, muscular, astonishing in its physicality with risible dialogue and a thin plot. Fortunately, Channing Tatum’s easy charm gives us something to work with. Not Steven Soderbergh's best. - What She Said
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011) |
a heady, spicy, and utterly joyous experience, with Vreeland’s most famous bon mots. Her deep red apartment, her “garden in hell” was social and cultural New York for decades. - What She Said
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Godland (2022) |
A bleak morality tale of great power, Lucas, a priest who is unsympathetic. A tableau of his dead pony, rotting over time, symbolises all that is wrong and Lucas’ unsuitability. The landscape dictates life and he failed there, to add to his sins. - What She Said
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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Alice, Darling (2022) |
Mary Nighy ramps up the intensity, revealing the paradox of an abused woman who is smart, educated and financially independent but gives in to her abuser. Women in such relationships will relate to Alice, and Kendrick’s unhinged performance nails it. - What She Said
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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Erin's Guide to Kissing Girls (2022) |
refreshingly honest a kids struggling to find their way but buoyed by inner strength and a positive outlook. Women will appreciate the message of self-worth and also glimpse inside middle school and all its nostalgic, universal trials and triumphs.
- What She Said
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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Close (2022) |
The delicacy and compassion of Dhont’s work reverberate long after the film ends, as does the pain of knowing that the boys represent (people) afraid of being perceived as different. A heartfelt, shimmering look at innocents in mature situations.
- What She Said
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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80 for Brady (2023) |
It certainly revs up a crowd judging by post-screening chuckles and energy. It celebrates friendship and seems completely unbelievable, but the story’s ripped from reality. It’s pat, a bit too feel-good, too perky. And the audience loved it.
- What She Said
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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Life Upside Down (2023) |
Takes us back to the pandemic’s early days - as lockdowns and social restrictions forced us all to look at our lives and face ourselves, often alone, in our homes, wondering when and how to live again. The stinging familiarity.
- What She Said
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| Posted Jan 28, 2023
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Shotgun Wedding (2023) |
Total comic eye candy thanks to the setting, wardrobe, and pretty stars, aided by the element of surprise and Lopez’ performance - she jumps, flies, fights, shoots, spins and thinks strategically in midair. A starstudded mid-winter no-brainer. - What She Said
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| Posted Jan 28, 2023
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You People (2023) |
Deeply uncomfortable conversations on culture are the crux .... this particular culture war plays out ...heed the warnings about personal integrity and remember empathy. - What She Said
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| Posted Jan 28, 2023
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Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb (2022) |
How marvelous to write a series of thick volumes on U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, with an “intelligent and sympathetic” editor you’ve trusted for most of your life. It doesn’t mean they are close friends. Just extraordinary, these two - What She Said
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| Posted Jan 20, 2023
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Ever Deadly (2022) |
Ever Deadly spotlights Tanya Taqaq’s performance, throat singing, and the harsh, otherworldly environs of Canada’s Cambridge Bay (Iqaluktuuttiaq) - singing seems too tight a definition for the ecstatic, pain-filled, gorgeous soundscape she produces.
- What She Said
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| Posted Jan 20, 2023
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Women Talking (2022) |
Polley’s excellent adaptation of the novel including the “narrator” gender switch is judicious, her direction down to the grey palette indicating faded brokenness, essential. You'll be stunned into contemplative silence. - What She Said
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| Posted Jan 20, 2023
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The Son (2022) |
Explores the emotional fallout of divorce on a teenage boy. Tough going, provocative, and a reminder that children go through their parents’ divorces with fewer tools to cope. Zeller brings it home clearly - What She Said
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| Posted Jan 13, 2023
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The Seven Faces of Jane (2022) |
It feels episodic. Directors’ styles are sometimes jarringly different because none knew what the others were doing per producer Roma Coppola. The randomness of it actually adds tension. An unusual and bold experiment - What She Said
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| Posted Jan 13, 2023
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Living (2022) |
Oliver Hermanus’ shimmering character with its cinematic beauty and equally beautiful story – and score – will pierce the hardest heart. Nighy has given over to Williams with deep compassion. - What She Said
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| Posted Jan 13, 2023
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A Man Called Otto (2022) |
Not exactly heartwarming, it has a bitter edge, forgoes easy sentiment, and lifts us in deep midwinter. Like Otto, a little effort and openness can make things better. - What She Said
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| Posted Jan 12, 2023
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Hold Me Tight (2021) |
Krieps' character is part illusion, fragmented between interior life, varying realities and bold plays with the fundamentals, a psychological montage of a woman’s moments... gently, shatteringly emotional, elegant, capricious.
- What She Said
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| Posted Dec 30, 2022
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Broker (2022) |
Broker lands a devastating emotional punch in its look at the psychology and humanity of people considered lawless, and the strength love gives them. Bears repeat viewing to catch all of the subtleties of this unexpectedly magical experience.
- What She Said
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| Posted Dec 30, 2022
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No Bears (2022) |
Iranian Jafar Panahi's No Bears brings to light the suppression of artists in his homeland, who, like him, carry on - a stoic figure shooting, observing, and directing his feature remotely as tensions rise in brutal government suppression and mob rule. - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Corsage (2022) |
A "seditious" biopic of Empress Elisabeth of Austria who refuses to be quiet, or subservient to anyone. The death of her child sets her on a path of exploration and expression, fearless, modern, and unyielding, like the film itself. - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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The Pale Blue Eye (2022) |
Harry Melling has an uncanny gift for revealing character; he's extraordinary in a classical way. The attention to period detail is intoxicating, and the canny twists, riveting to the final frame.
- What She Said
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Babylon (2022) |
Get by the lurid first act then you'll find Babylon's value. So an hour of scatological/genital dreck and two hours of darkness .. replacing jolts per second. Chazelle's runaway style and scattershot focus are deeply distracting.
- What She Said
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Geographies of Solitude (2022) |
Filmmaker Jacqueline Mills uses a “contact mic” which enables us to hear the constant buzz of life – in wood, insects crawling up a plant – fascinating. Consider how lucky we are to be able to explore Sable Island for 90 minutes. - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 16, 2022
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Tiger 24 (2022) |
Tiger 24 is a painful story, but it's a tribute to him and a warning against ineptness in those charged with tiger and environmental protection. He remains in custody with health problems after India's top court allowed it. - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 16, 2022
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The Whale (2022) |
A man facing imminent death finds small joys and reason to laugh and looks forward to his release. Charlie's an example of apparent weakness and carelessness who is wide awake and strong. Extraordinary stuff. Haunting, demanding and oh-so human.
- What She Said
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| Posted Dec 16, 2022
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Food and Romance (2022) |
celebrates female friendship, women w their own faces and bodies and shows starting over can be the best thing ever. A fun, light tonic for the winter blues that lives in goodwill and good food - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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Something from Tiffany's (2022) |
A life-changing romantic mixup set against a backdrop of baked goods, twinkling holiday lights, and Christmas sounds of Dean Martin plus Karen Dalton’s beautiful song Something on Your Mind - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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Framing Agnes (2022) |
Trans actors recreate historic trans figures like Christine Jorgenson ..compelling interviews with historian Jules Gill-Peterson, who wrote Histories of the Transgender Child..who says it's easier today to be seen, which is emancipation.
- What She Said
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) |
Will leave you breathless. This is galvanizing, heady stuff, particularly the sacrifices Goldin has made to help addicts and their families - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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Empire of Light (2022) |
The outsize talent of Olivia Colman is on full display in Sam Mendes’ doomed seaside romance. humane direction and poetic moments add to the whole with Ward in a note-perfect performance. - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) |
The most satisfying-looking film adaptation and it’s also the scariest, finds evil lurking but promises that love will prevail, no matter how painful the journey. Funny moment – hearing for the first time in a children’s film “Bugger off”. - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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Baking All the Way (2022) |
Sweet but formulaic - hardly matters considering all the baked goods. Colin Mochrie's hilarious as is his RL wife Deb McGrath and comic legend, Jayne Eastwood - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022) |
Lady Chatterley's Lover has lots of sex scenes, lots of them, acres of flesh. Pretty to look at, and modern for its time, maybe not ours, but it does the job as an erotic period piece.
- What She Said
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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"Sr." (2022) |
Brilliantly and subtly, Sr. tells all our stories of life and death, family, enduring love and loss. Two great minds, two great artists showing us what it is like for them. Take your tissues. - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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White Noise (2022) |
Satirical, dark, dark portrait of an American family scope ranging from tiny to huge irritations leading then being blasted out of their wordy complacency. The actors are game for anything and 110% living and breathing the chaos. - What She Said
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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