Eerily similar to 2022’s ‘Press Play’ (which no one saw, so… no harm, no foul?), this time-travely rom-com centers on young Harriet (Lucy Boynton), who is mourning the death of her boyfriend and gets sent back through a wormhole to their time together whenever she hears particular songs. The standard […]
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The Beautiful Game
Based on the true story of the annual Homeless World Cup soccer competition, this feel-good Netflix original stars Bill Nighy as the coach of the England squad. All the standard tropes abound, but dang it, this thing’s actually pretty good. Sure, at its core it’s a fairly basic underdog sports […]
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The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane
In true ripped-from-the-headlines fashion, this spooky and eminently compelling documentary unravels the truth of what happened to a young British student murdered in New Zealand in 2018. Primarily relying on thousands of hours of CCTV footage, the police piece together the case, which went on to become a rallying cry […]
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Finestkind
This seafaring tale of two scallop-fishing brothers and the struggles they face both out on the ocean and back on dry land has the promise of at-sea dramas like ‘The Perfect Storm’, but it falls woefully short. Hampered by an ultra-clichéd plot and groan-worthy dialogue, even the top-shelf cast (Ben […]
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Road House
This remake of the iconic 1989 Patrick Swayze flick is fine enough for what it is (testosterone-fueled mayhem) but unfortunately takes itself way too seriously to succeed as the cheesy bit of mindlessness it could (and should) have been. Much of the appeal of the original was the almost-goofy, tongue-in-cheek […]
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Irish Wish
Is the Lohan-aissance a thing? The former Hollywood darling-turned-pariah follows up 2022’s ‘meh’ Netflix flick ‘Falling for Christmas’ with this more admirable effort about a young book editor who makes a wish to marry the author she’s fallen for (and who is, sigh, engaged to one of her best friends). […]
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American Dreamer
Inspired by an episode of ‘This American Life’, this story of woeful schlub Phil Loder (Peter Dinklage), who wants nothing more than to own his own home, is a quirky and fun black comedy. When Phil discovers an opportunity to move into a sprawling mansion, he takes it, only to […]
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Ricky Stanicky
Everyone who’s ever tossed out an ‘It wasn’t me’ or made up some outlandish excuse why they couldn’t attend their neighbor’s kid’s cousin’s cello recital will appreciate this (very) low-brow and ultimately eyeroll-worthy effort… but that’s about as far as this one goes. Zac Efron is one of three musketeers […]
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Spaceman
Directed by Johan Renck (‘Chernobyl’), this sparse drama starts with plenty of promise, with Adam Sandler as Jakub, a solo astronaut six months into a mission to investigate a strange cloud near Jupiter. Shortly after we pick up the story, though, he comes face-to-face with a huge (though friendly?) spider, […]
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