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Enter the Dragon
(1973)
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Kevin Thomas
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Taking into account that the material is strictly comic book trash, Clouse wisely approaches it as if he were making a cartoon and even manages to bring to it a modicum of style.
Posted Mar 20, 2023
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La Civil
(2021)
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Carlos Aguilar
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[An] essential, if harrowing thriller...
Posted Mar 18, 2023
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A Difficult Life
(1961)
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Robert Abele
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It’s Silvio’s hapless, cause-driven arrogance that cinches this as Sordi’s tour de force, maximizing Risi’s canny trust that a fixed camera on gifted actors will yield plenty of funny, poignant, gritty life.
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Full River Red
(2023)
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Justin Chang
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The knives are out and then some in “Full River Red,” a murkily entertaining exercise in twist-twist-stab-stab from the Chinese director Zhang Yimou.
Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Moving On
(2022)
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Gary Goldstein
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An amusing and bittersweet little tale of love, friendship and, yes, retribution.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Boys on the Side
(1995)
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Peter Rainer
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The three women are so spirited and funny -- so emotionally keyed into all the hearts and flowers -- that they give the movie their own kind of truth.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Punch
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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Ings does a fine job of capturing the instant connection between these two young men and in conveying Jim’s combination of excitement and terror when he realizes this bond could evolve easily into a romance.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Sound of Silence
(2023)
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Noel Murray
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If nothing else, this movie is an effective demonstration of the directors’ ability to lull the audience into a relaxed state before knocking them around.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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I Got a Monster
(2023)
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Noel Murray
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The documentary can feel a little scattered due to its multiple angles, but it remains a fascinating and relevant tale, examining how any criminal justice system built around the idea that cops never lie is ripe for abuse.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Luther: The Fallen Sun
(2023)
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Noel Murray
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“Fallen Sun” is best described as a movie-size version of a “Luther” season — which, for longtime fans, is better than no “Luther” at all.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Unseen
(2023)
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Noel Murray
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A taut, inventive picture about two young Asian American women helping each other survive one terrible day.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Unicorn Wars
(2022)
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Carlos Aguilar
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Even this early in the year, it seems unfathomable that another release could dethrone “Unicorn Wars” as the most uncompromisingly audacious animated film of 2023.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Lotus Blossom
(1921)
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Edwin Schallert
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Except for some abruptness in the approach to the climax, the story is a very interesting and a truly appealing one. It is told with a fine sympathy for the leading characters.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Chang Can Dunk
(2023)
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Justin Chang
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“Chang Can Dunk” gets that the pursuit of fun, seemingly frivolous goals can be meaningful in itself, especially when undertaken with the loving encouragement of friends and family.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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The Magic Flute
(2022)
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Gary Goldstein
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If viewers can focus on its engaging young cast, vivid appearances by several international opera stars and well-executed melding of reality and fantasy, “The Magic Flute”... should prove a buoyant and enjoyable musical journey.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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65
(2023)
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Robert Abele
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Think “Gilligan’s Island.” Not because it’s like “65.” Just because it’s more entertaining than “65.”
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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The Dark Angel
(1935)
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Edwin Schallert
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This production, exceptionally well cast throughout... should enjoy the laurels of a popular effect in the annals of the screen.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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One Sings, the Other Doesn't
(1977)
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Charles Champlin
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While One Sings, the Other Doesn't is obviously a strong personal statement about women now, it is so beautifully particularized by the storyteller and her principals that it is a demonstration and never a lecture.
Posted Mar 08, 2023
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
(1953)
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Edwin Schallert
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This production is enriched with lavishness and Technicolor and everything to make it glittering for the eye.
Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
(1992)
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Charles Solomon
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Decades later, this masterpiece of graphic imagination has been reduced to a long, drawn-out cartoon-adventure that suggests an overblown episode of a Saturday morning TV show.
Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre
(2023)
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Katie Walsh
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Classic recent Ritchie: star-studded, snarky, and ultimately grating, lousy with weird glasses and bad accents. This thing is so slight, a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox of a “Mission: Impossible” that it’s barely a movie.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Chris Rock: Selective Outrage
(2023)
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Robert Lloyd
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Rock remains worth listening to, because there’s nothing casual about what he does, and most important, he knows how to craft and sell a joke. You may laugh even as you’re offended.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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The Creeping
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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The film works quite well, thanks to Hooper’s command of retro horror style.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Wolf Garden
(2023)
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Noel Murray
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Despite some nice mood-setting, too much of “Wolf Garden” is spent talking around the story rather than just telling it.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Transfusion
(2023)
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Noel Murray
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“Transfusion” is 25% slam-bang genre film and 75% melancholy character sketch — a balance tilted too far to the latter.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Free Skate
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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The film is visually sharp and quietly absorbing, and Olenius and Vilo sensitively capture the isolation and self-doubt that can make an athlete’s life so lonely.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Spoonful of Sugar
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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There’s not quite enough plot in “Spoonful of Sugar” to fill its running time, though the performances are so lively and director Morgan’s imagery so vivid that the picture is never dull.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Please Baby Please
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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Aimed squarely at fans of John Waters and Pedro Almodóvar, the arty oddity “Please Baby Please” is the kind of cinematic fetish object that should entice anyone who shares director Amanda Kramer’s particular fascinations.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Palm Trees and Power Lines
(2022)
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Justin Chang
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Starts off as a depressive snapshot of youthful ennui and soon becomes a stark, harrowing story of predation and abuse.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Ithaka
(2021)
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Robert Abele
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People are complicated, as Shipton rightly pleads at one point, but a more spirited, vigorous defense might have helped lift “Ithaka” from its solemnly reportorial mood.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Blueback
(2022)
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Gary Goldstein
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A transporting mother-daughter (and fish) drama as well as a beautifully shot memory piece that will reward patient viewers able to settle in and enjoy the film’s accessibly low-key vibe.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Sayonara
(1957)
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Edwin Schallert
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Truly this is a provocative feature to come to the screen as an example of Joshua Logan's direction, the writing of James Michener, and performances of the cast headed by Marlon Brando.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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What We Do Next
(2022)
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Michael Rechtshaffen
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While it doesn’t venture far from its evident stage roots, neither does “What We Do Next,” a sinewy, tautly calibrated morality play, ever stray from the decidedly contemporary issues at its complex core.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Pacifiction
(2022)
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Justin Chang
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“Pacifiction,” despite its unhurried editing, narrative miasma and generous 2 1/2-hour-plus running time, emerges as one of Serra’s more seductive efforts.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Celine and Julie Go Boating
(1974)
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Kevin Thomas
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The film's last 10 minutes constitute a stunning coup de theater, but the three hours it takes to get there, while intriguing, are awfully touch going.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Thelma & Louise
(1991)
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Kenneth Turan
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As pointed a look at what is timidly called the war between the sexes as we have had in quite some time. And it manages its success almost offhandedly, with a casual grace that makes everything look as easy as, well, falling off a raft.
Posted Mar 01, 2023
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Flower Drum Song
(1961)
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John L. Scott
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The plot is flimsy, but it serves as an adequate framework for the bright dances and some clever songs.
Posted Feb 28, 2023
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Cinema Sabaya
(2021)
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Robert Abele
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The old classroom concept of show-and-tell becomes a richer, deeper exercise for a workshop of Arab and Jewish women in Israeli filmmaker Orit Fouks Rotem’s heartfelt feature debut “Cinema Sabaya.”
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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God's Time
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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The individual pieces mostly work, but they don’t quite fit together.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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The Outwaters
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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Some may find all this tedious or confusing, but there’s an admirable integrity to Banfitch’s approach. “The Outwaters” genuinely feels like a first-person perspective on the end of the world.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Ambush
(2023)
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Noel Murray
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“Ambush” has the structure of an old-fashioned two-fisted combat picture, but with too little actual combat.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Devil's Peak
(2023)
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Noel Murray
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The elements of a good, “Winter’s Bone”-like depiction of the rural social order are here. But they only really coalesce — and combust — when Thornton’s on the screen.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Bruiser
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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What makes “Bruiser” so affecting is that Warren doesn’t keep any of these characters locked into types.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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We Have a Ghost
(2023)
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Noel Murray
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Landon gets a lot of help from Harbour, whose facial expressions alone capture this ghost’s wit, hopes, fears and heartbreak. He’s one lovable dead guy.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Juniper
(2021)
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Gary Goldstein
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Saville too often skims the surfaces of his characters, substituting traumatic concepts and plot devices for narrative logic and truly authentic, compelling emotion.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Linoleum
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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A minor-key domestic drama gradually transformed into something grander by its science-fiction elements.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Cocaine Bear
(2023)
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Justin Chang
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“Cocaine Bear,” like most movies that turn schadenfreude into entertainment, does a reasonably good job of both scrambling and satisfying your expectations.
Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Safety Last
(1923)
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Grace Kingsley
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As for Lloyd, we always knew he was funny, but we never realized how funny until this one. It isn't only that he does funny stunts; his comedy method Itself is perfect of its own original kind.
Posted Feb 22, 2023
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Safety Last
(1923)
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Helen Klumph
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It is a breathless thill picture, perfectly made, as [Lloyd's] pictures always are, but lacking the spark of originality he usually endows his work with.
Posted Feb 22, 2023
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Swallowed
(2022)
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Noel Murray
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A memorably intense experience, with sharp points to make about how the lives of outsiders and outlaws can tip in an instant into sloppy chaos.
Posted Feb 17, 2023
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