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C
|
Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
A slick but old-fashioned spy extravaganza weighed down by an uncharismatic lead turn and a plot no cleverer than the title.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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C
|
Creed III
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Its hokey and familiar quality comes off as formulaic...while the movie isn’t an embarrassment, it’s far from a knockout.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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B
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Linoleum
(2022)
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Frank Swietek
|
While in the end it’s really nothing more than a cinematic parlor trick, for the most part it’s an intriguing one, even if a completely satisfactory resolution to its myriad mysteries proves elusive.
Posted Mar 01, 2023
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C
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Jesus Revolution
(2023)
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Frank Swietek
|
An authorized cinematic history, with rough edges smoothed off and a benign face put on everything. But it does paint a portrait, however sanitized, of an intriguing movement of twentieth-century Christian revivalism in the United States.
Posted Feb 26, 2023
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C+
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Emily
(2022)
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Frank Swietek
|
Given the enigmatic nature of Brontë’s life, it’s fair to speculate about the incentives behind her writing. But even with the clandestine romance O’Connor postulates, “Emily” is basically just a medium-grade Masterpiece Theatre episode.
Posted Feb 26, 2023
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C-
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Your Place or Mine
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
A flat, predictable piece of work, coming off like a mediocre two-hour sitcom that doesn’t even have a laugh track to remind you that it’s meant to be funny.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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|
C
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Cocaine Bear
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
It doesn’t really live up to the hype: though sporadically amusing, it’s too busy and tries too hard.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
|
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B
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The Other Fellow
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
The film takes you places you probably were not expecting to go.... It represents a good idea, nicely carried out.
Posted Feb 20, 2023
|
|
D+
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Devil's Peak
(2023)
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Frank Swietek
|
Less a thriller than a brooding tale of domestic dysfunction in a small-time crime family that’s unlikely to raise your pulse rate or give you an adrenaline rush.....The peak is more of a molehill in this backwoods...melodrama.
Posted Feb 17, 2023
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|
A-
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Close
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
The loss of childhood innocence has rarely been portrayed so powerfully on screen as in this heartbreaking second feature from Belgian writer-director Lukas Dhont.
Posted Feb 16, 2023
|
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C
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Sharper
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Though the film is about con piled upon con, the attempt at subterfuge doesn’t prove clever enough to keep the mark—the viewer in this case—sufficiently off-balance, even when delivered by a first-class ensemble.
Posted Feb 16, 2023
|
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D
|
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
(2023)
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Frank Swietek
|
A story so threadbare that it might have been written on a napkin, gussied up with a cascade of CGI effects that are splashy but rather ugly and exhausting.... If “Quantumania” is what Phase 5 is all about, perhaps Phase 5 should be phased out.
Posted Feb 15, 2023
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|
C-
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Magic Mike's Last Dance
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Mike Lane’s magic has run out...manages to be at once unduly serious and utterly silly.
Posted Feb 11, 2023
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C
|
Consecration
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Atmospheric but lethargic and structurally misjudged...a lesser contribution to the ever-expanding genre of Catholic-themed horror movies.
Posted Feb 10, 2023
|
|
B
|
The Amazing Maurice
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
A droll send-up of the Pied Piper fable with more than a touch of the macabre added to the mix.
Posted Feb 08, 2023
|
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C
|
Ocean Boy
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Some agreeable actors, lovely locales and nifty surfing footage aren’t enough to save this meandering Australian coming-of-age tale.
Posted Feb 08, 2023
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|
|
Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
A fascinating, even touching dual biography of two men whose common love of precision and mutual personal respect have kept them working together for half a century.
Posted Feb 07, 2023
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B+
|
EO
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
It takes courage to attempt a new take on a film many regard as a classic; it’s a challenge Skolimowski has embraced to remarkable effect.
Posted Feb 07, 2023
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C
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The Locksmith
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Boasts a good cast but a weak script, winding up as a would-be modern film noir weighed down by genre clichés and some absurdities of its own.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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C
|
Blood
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Directed by Brad Anderson without a hint of humor or camp, “Blood” is effective enough in its grisly way, but gruesome and unpalatable.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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|
C+
|
80 for Brady
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
A sweet little human-interest vignette blown up into an episodic, old-fashioned big-screen sitcom...elevated by the expertise of the four stars, who prove instrumental in transforming the feeble material into an agreeable time-waster for older audiences.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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|
C
|
Shotgun Wedding
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Despite a promising cast, “Shotgun Wedding” is sadly true to its title—it’s a dud action-comedy-romance that misfires on all three counts.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
C-
|
Maybe I Do
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
If the cast entices you into thinking about maybe watching “Maybe I Do,” don’t...even actors as skilled as these can’t milk many laughs from the tired jokes or much emotion from the serious speechifying.
Posted Jan 27, 2023
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C
|
You People
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
An attempt to revivify a hoary old premise that...can’t camouflage its musty roots simply by applying an avalanche of crude stereotypes and standup-style jokes to the mix.
Posted Jan 26, 2023
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|
B-
|
When You Finish Saving the World
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
It would be a stretch to suggest that “When You Finish Saving the World” is a natural crowd-pleaser [but it's] a prickly little portrait of characters it’s impossible to love but hard not to have compassion for.
Posted Jan 26, 2023
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|
B+
|
Saint Omer
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
A fact-based courtroom drama that upends the genre’s usual histrionics, Diop’s film is artistically inspired as well as inspired by an unspeakable act.
Posted Jan 25, 2023
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|
C
|
There's Something Wrong with the Children
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
[A] straightforward creepy children tale that offers nothing new, content to do the tried-and-true but doing it reasonably well.
Posted Jan 20, 2023
|
|
C
|
The Son
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Intended to be lacerating but instead just comes across as familiarly, and rather tepidly, melodramatic.
Posted Jan 19, 2023
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|
C+
|
Alice, Darling
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
As a chamber drama of a young women’s gradual liberation from psychological abuse, “Alice, Darling” carries emotional power, largely because of Kendrick’s outstanding performance; but it is not without serious flaws.
Posted Jan 19, 2023
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B+
|
Women Talking
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Yet while some will criticize Polley’s film as claustrophobic and too dramatically restrained, it uses the situation Toews created to stimulating, thought-provoking effect. And it’s an example of superb ensemble acting.
Posted Jan 12, 2023
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B+
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Living
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Thanks to Nighy’s flawlessly gauged performance, the gamble of reimagining Kurosawa’s film in British terms turns out handsomely in all respects.
Posted Jan 12, 2023
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|
C+
|
Plane
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Nothing more than a Gerard Butler action potboiler, [but] it’s one that’s competently made, delivering the adrenaline rush his fans expect.
Posted Jan 12, 2023
|
|
C
|
The Pale Blue Eye
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Long on atmosphere but short on logic and excitement, Scott Cooper’s brooding adaptation of Louis Bayard’s 2003 historical mystery wastes an exceptional cast on a tale that grows increasingly silly as it plods to an exasperating conclusion.
Posted Jan 12, 2023
|
|
C
|
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Yet another attempt to emulate Federico Fellini’s 1963 “8½"...a film rich with hypnotic images but groaning under the weight of its own self-importance.
Posted Jan 12, 2023
|
|
C-
|
The Old Way
(2023)
|
Frank Swietek
|
[An] enervating slog through Western clichés, which a somnolent Cage doesn’t even bother trying to energize.
Posted Jan 07, 2023
|
|
C
|
M3GAN
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Starts out more smartly than most of these mad-science-goes-berserk movies, but as the story progresses the cleverness recedes and the horror clichés accumulate.
Posted Jan 05, 2023
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|
C+
|
Corsage
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
While one can respect the intention behind Kreutzer’s reveling in the clichés of biographical drama while simultaneously upending them to deliver a feminist message, the stolid, lethargic rhythm...leaves the film feeling obvious and heavy-handed.
Posted Jan 05, 2023
|
|
B-
|
A Man Called Otto
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
A bit more sentimental and manipulative than its predecessor, but not by much; both are mildly successful middlebrow crowd-pleasers, perhaps best described as not unpleasant...Not a ringing endorsement, perhaps, but an accurate one.
Posted Jan 05, 2023
|
|
B
|
Wildcat
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
While structurally somewhat ragged, it not only will engage lovers of big cats, but proves a compelling story of damaged humans who help one another as well as the animals they care for.
Posted Dec 29, 2022
|
|
B
|
Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Warchus has done an exceptional job of bringing the joy and sentiment of the lauded stage production to the screen without slighting the book’s macabre sensibility and its exaltation of children’s rebellion in the face of adult cruelty.
Posted Dec 29, 2022
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|
B+
|
White Noise
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
If the result sometimes falls short of its source, the film is still a noble effort to capture the book’s idiosyncratic spirit on film.
Posted Dec 28, 2022
|
|
C
|
The Whale
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
This is an instance when one can appreciate an actor’s accomplishment while acknowledging that the vehicle to which he’s contributing isn’t worthy of his talent.
Posted Dec 22, 2022
|
|
D
|
Babylon
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Though its style is positively hysterical, “Babylon” is elephantine in its effect—frantic but turgid, wildly over-the-top but drab and dull.
Posted Dec 22, 2022
|
|
C
|
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
If you just want to hear lots of Houston’s music presented in auditorium sound, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” will do the trick; it’s rather like a Wikipedia article with a soundtrack.
Posted Dec 22, 2022
|
|
B+
|
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
A darker but surprisingly engaging take on the character’s quest to remake himself under threat of impending demise, powered by a typically high-octane, self-mocking turn by Antonio Banderas and splendid DreamWorks animation.
Posted Dec 20, 2022
|
|
C
|
Something from Tiffany's
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Overall the picture is a bland affair, from the farfetched original premise through a relatively laugh-free midsection to a finale that’s a definition of manufactured sentimentality.
Posted Dec 19, 2022
|
|
C+
|
Lady Chatterley's Lover
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Except for the occasional explicit sex scene, it’s fairly typical Masterpiece Theatre-style fare, and then not an example of that genre’s highest quality.
Posted Dec 19, 2022
|
|
C
|
Avatar: The Way of Water
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
It’s visually and technically magnificent, but woefully deficient in plot, characterization and dialogue.
Posted Dec 15, 2022
|
|
A-
|
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
An enchanting feast for all... a “Pinocchio” that’s a copy of nothing—neither the original nor any previous version of it—but a brilliant, highly personal reimagining of its themes [in] gorgeous stop-motion animation.
Posted Dec 10, 2022
|
|
C
|
Spoiler Alert
(2022)
|
Frank Swietek
|
Tells a story that, while formulaic, can’t help but be touching. But while it may succeed in wringing a few tears from you, in retrospect you probably won’t feel they’ve been earned.
Posted Dec 08, 2022
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