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3/5
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Creed III
(2023)
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Adam Kempenaar
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Creed III is too sleek, too rushed, and too contrived to deliver [all] the emotional payoffs it promises.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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3.5/5
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The Integrity of Joseph Chambers
(2022)
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Adam Kempenaar
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Machoian and his sound designer, Peter Albrechtsen, layer those natural sounds with occasional bursts of seemingly unnatural ones, mirroring Joseph’s increasingly unbalanced psyche and maximizing tension.
Posted Feb 17, 2023
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2.5
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Magic Mike's Last Dance
(2023)
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Adam Kempenaar
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One of the things I appreciate most about Soderbergh is his ingenuity… but even he can’t make this no-stakes show go.
Posted Feb 17, 2023
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3.5/5
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Navalny
(2022)
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Adam Kempenaar
|
Part political portrait, part espionage thriller - containing perhaps the most jaw-dropping phone call in the history of cinema.
Posted Feb 10, 2023
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3/5
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To Leslie
(2022)
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Adam Kempenaar
|
As a showcase for Riseborough’s estimable talent, To Leslie succeeds.
Posted Feb 10, 2023
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5/5
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Psycho
(1960)
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Adam Kempenaar
|
Not that [Marion] or we are guilty of the horrors [Norman] is, but this is a movie fundamentally about shame, of which guilt is an inextricable component.
Posted Feb 10, 2023
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2/5
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Knock at the Cabin
(2023)
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Adam Kempenaar
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Like its band of zealots, Shyamalan’s movie is insistently menacing with a patina of compassion and empathy.
Posted Feb 03, 2023
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4/5
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White Noise
(2022)
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Adam Kempenaar
|
Above all, it is - not surprisingly - a marriage story, and the story of a family that, in its own bizarre way, might be the most functional and relatable Baumbach has ever portrayed.
Posted Jan 16, 2023
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1.5/5
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Avatar: The Way of Water
(2022)
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Adam Kempenaar
|
Overwritten, when it isn’t underwritten. Overwrought. Overblown. I’m over it.
Posted Dec 13, 2022
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4/5
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RRR
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
I was expecting insane, rocket-fueled spectacle. I was not expecting an insane, rocket-fueled THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP with Ram Charan as Anton Walbrook... and N. T. Rama Rao Jr. as Roger Livesey.
Posted Dec 09, 2022
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3.5/5
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
(2022)
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Adam Kempenaar
|
Leave it to del Toro to transform a kids’ fairy tale into a funny, sad, and resourceful rumination on obedience, the messiness of immortality, and the world’s true monsters - fascists and others who exploit the innocent.
Posted Dec 09, 2022
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2.5/5
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Empire of Light
(2022)
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Adam Kempenaar
|
Earnestly crafted and intentioned, mostly avoiding over-simplifying the struggles of its characters or offering trite solutions to complicated issues – but there’s still a whiff of falseness to it.
Posted Dec 09, 2022
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4/5
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Last Flight Home
(2022)
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Adam Kempenaar
|
Eli Timoner gave us a manual for how to live; documenting her father’s life and death, Ondi gives us a manual for how to say goodbye.
Posted Dec 09, 2022
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5/5
|
Grave of the Fireflies
(1988)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
It’s one thing to have a film really sadden you, but I also found it sublime in its beauty... [Setsuko and Seita's] happiness together is transcendent.
Posted Dec 07, 2022
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1.5/5
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Avatar
(2009)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
It’s not just that we’ve seen the tale before… it’s that every aspect of the screenplay is terrible.
Posted Dec 07, 2022
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3.5/5
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"Sr."
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
[Downey Jr.] has developed this construct of a movie as a means to interrogate his father... to be able to ask him things he wouldn’t normally be able to ask; the artifice allows him to probe.
Posted Dec 02, 2022
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4/5
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The Fabelmans
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
...wants to reckon in a meaningful way with the idea that cinema – like any art form – can be powerful and revealing and magical... but [also] can be just as dishonest as it is honest.
Posted Dec 02, 2022
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3.5/5
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The Eternal Daughter
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
Sneakily and suggestively subverts our expectations of a ghost story… to create this eerie dreamspace within which Julie finds herself.
Posted Dec 02, 2022
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4/5
|
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
(2022)
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Adam Kempenaar
|
Glass Onion is so cleverly and distressingly prescient. Some of its timeliness is serendipity; the larger share is a smart writer and director who understands that the roots of these sad farces are as old as our country.
Posted Nov 18, 2022
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3.5/5
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Nanny
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
The way Jusu visually manifests Aisha’s pervasive dread is suffocatingly evocative.
Posted Nov 18, 2022
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3.5/5
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Bad Axe
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
...a curious, compassionate portrait of a country, community, and family in flux. And as socio-politically topical as it is, what lingers are the emotionally introspective ways the family members change during this volatile time.
Posted Nov 18, 2022
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3/5
|
Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter
(2021)
|
Adam Kempenaar
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...[Anthony] Bourdain lamented what he perceived as a lack of appreciation towards Trotter from the food culture that Trotter effectively begat. Love, Charlie is a successful reclamation of the revolutionary chef’s achievements and impact.
Posted Nov 18, 2022
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2.5/5
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
The MCU’s mechanics are too oppressive to allow for true mournful meditation.
Posted Nov 18, 2022
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3.5/5
|
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
A less unhinged parody of Oscar-bait music biopics, no matter how dead on, would have been an insufficient celebration of Weird Al and his work; nothing and everything is true about it.
Posted Nov 11, 2022
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4.5/5
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Aftersun
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
We see a Polaroid of father and daughter begin to develop but never come fully into focus, a powerful visual metaphor for Wells’s exploration of identity and a relationship that is just in the process of forming...
Posted Nov 11, 2022
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4/5
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Descendant
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
We meet so many people in Descendant who could be the primary subjects of their own documentaries, and Brown deftly peels back the layers of all of their stories and makes them heard.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
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3.5/5
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Armageddon Time
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
Gray isn’t just well-intentioned... while the world around Paul may want to move on from Johnny, we can’t.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
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2.5/5
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Triangle of Sadness
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
There is scarcely a gag or scenario that isn’t telegraphed and obvious, and yet it’s seemingly just as satisfied with its own cleverness as its targets are with their over-pampered, empty lives.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
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3.5/5
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Meet Me in the Bathroom
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
Lovelace and Southern render this chronicle of the early 2000’s New York music scene in a dreamy, expectant haze tinged with an inescapable fatalism.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
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3.5/5
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Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
…joyfully but soberly investigates Armstrong’s immense artistry and complicated legacy.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
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3.5/5
|
Causeway
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
...if anything, its audaciousness lies in its restraint…all of the revelations are small-scale but meaningful.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
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4.5
|
The Banshees of Inisherin
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
Banshees’ dramatic resonance is a result of how deftly McDonagh delivers his characters’ virtues and vices. What’s hilarious and tragic is that both are so modest compared to the amount of anguish they cause.
Posted Oct 28, 2022
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4.5/5
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Decision to Leave
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
...this combination of sensuality and the sensory experience makes it so profound.
Posted Oct 23, 2022
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4.5/5
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Tár
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
TÁR wants us to consider the costs of greatness, for the artist determined to achieve it and those who suffer under that determination. What’s permissible? What’s off-limits? Field isn’t interested in easy answers.
Posted Oct 16, 2022
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3.5/5
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God's Creatures
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
With sound and cinematography, Holmer and Davis devise some relatively subtle but potent moments that isolate their characters against communal spaces – spaces within an all-too-cozy village where that community can be one’s blessing or curse.
Posted Oct 07, 2022
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3.5/5
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Three Thousand Years of Longing
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
Rhythm is essential when talking about Miller. Three Thousand Years certainly isn’t the intricate symphony of chaos that Fury Road was, but there’s an underlying musicality that glides it along.
Posted Sep 30, 2022
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1.5/5
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Don't Worry Darling
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
...lingers far too long in the Victory Project. In an alternate reality, there’s a brilliant, 95-minute, reimagined, and restructured version of Don’t Worry Darling – one that leaves you with the right kind of questions.
Posted Sep 30, 2022
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3/5
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Blonde
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
Is the movie a success because Dominik puts us inside Marilyn’s head and makes us experience life through her sad eyes in a way that is off-putting and difficult? Or is this yet another person exploiting her and her sadness?
Posted Sep 30, 2022
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2.5/5
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The Woman King
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
Predictable script hitting every conventional beat... It all plays out like a Disney movie made for kids, except with copious throat slitting – and even that is relatively tame in order to maintain the PG-13 rating
Posted Sep 30, 2022
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4/5
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Moonage Daydream
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
...a thoughtful, meditative, almost trance-inducing rumination on the meaning of art and life.
Posted Sep 30, 2022
|
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4/5
|
Fire of Love
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
...has that same sense of playfulness but also wants to explore [Katia and Maurice's] obsession, their willingness to face danger.
Posted Aug 12, 2022
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3.5/5
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Prey
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
The rare franchise installment that finds a fresh, compelling spin on the material while also effectively drawing inspiration from the original without being suffocated by it.
Posted Aug 12, 2022
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4/5
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The Lady Eve
(1941)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
[Stanwyck] is moving at a speed – processing the situation and dictating it – that is so much faster than [Fonda] and yet they aren’t out of sync with each other at all.
Posted Aug 05, 2022
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3/5
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Bullet Train
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
At his best, there’s an audacity to Leitch’s direction that can be invigorating when combined with his tempo and technical proficiency – and a very game movie star. Which is what he has here.
Posted Aug 05, 2022
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3/5
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The Gray Man
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
The most glam dad-enjoys-while-folding-laundry movie ever.
Posted Aug 04, 2022
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1/5
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Thor: Love and Thunder
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
For a movie seemingly made with the sole purpose of inserting as many goofy gags per minute as possible while employing a healthy dose of vivid colors and rousing GNR hits, Love and Thunder is shockingly lethargic.
Posted Jul 15, 2022
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3.5/5
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Hustle
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
I don’t necessarily need to see more [Adam] Sandler Netflix movies; I do need to see more movies by Jeremiah Zagar.
Posted Jun 17, 2022
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3.5/5
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Steamboat Bill, Jr.
(1928)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
...leans into a distinction between the macho father and Keaton’s character – [and] in its own way becomes a critique of masculinity and societal expectations.
Posted Jun 08, 2022
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4.5/5
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The General
(1926)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
The Mad Max: Fury Road of its day.
Posted May 27, 2022
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2.5/5
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Men
(2022)
|
Adam Kempenaar
|
"...frustratingly stuck between needing a PhD in theology and pagan rituals [to appreciate], or it all seeming slight and obvious."
Posted May 27, 2022
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