Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston reprise their roles as private detectives Nick and Audrey Spitz in this so-so follow-up to the 2019 Netflix hit. In what may be the ultimate case of if-you-liked-the-first-you’ll-like-this-one-too, the sequel comes off as essentially a ninety-minute continuation. It’s not terrible by any means, and you […]
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The Magician’s Elephant
Reminiscent of Guillermo del Toro’s recent, excellent version of ‘Pinocchio’, mixed with a little ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’, this directorial debut from visual effects supervisor Wendy Rogers is a sweet and wholesome film that will tear at your heart and keep you wildly entertained at the same time. It’s […]
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Wildflower
This halfway-charming Indie coming-of-age comedy stars Kiernan Shipka as a teenager who feels responsible for looking after her own intellectually disabled parents. Written and directed by Matt Smukler (based on his own short film), it’s a semisweet and quirky film about family and love with an all-star supporting cast, including […]
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Supercell
I’m a sucker for a good tornado flick, and this one—the full-length debut of writer-director Herbert James Winterstern—is a fairly decent one. Starring Skeet Ulrich, Alec Baldwin, and (in one of her last roles before her 2022 death) Anne Heche, it’s a pseudo-‘Twister’ knock-off with a little more heart and […]
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Boston Strangler
Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon star as the real-life newspaper reporters who helped crack the terrifying serial murder case from the early 1960s in this drama written and directed by Matt Ruskin. It’s beautifully dark and spooky, thanks in large part to cinematographer Ben Kutchins (‘Ozark’, ‘The White Lotus’), but […]
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Champions
Woody Harrelson stars in this feel-good comedy as Marcus, an NBA assistant coach who, after getting busted for DUI, is given the ‘sentence’ of coaching an Iowa rec league team of intellectually disabled young men and women. What could have been a condescending or, worse, exploitative movie—particularly in the hands […]
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Scream VI
Apparently hoping to atone for the debacle of last year’s entry into the franchise, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett return and move the goings-on to the Big Apple. Turns out, it may be all that was needed. Upping the blood and gore certainly helps the film return to its […]
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Faraway
Feeling like a German update of the 2003 swooner ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’, this Croatian-set romance stars Naomi Krauss as a lonely frustrated woman who discovers she has inherited a summer house on the Adriatic. Leaving her entire world behind, she sets out for some ‘me time’, only to find […]
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Cocaine Bear
Based (hopefully VERY loosely) on the true story of a bear who overdosed on smuggled cocaine dropped from a plane in the Tennessee wilderness in 1985, this gonzo movie is one of the more wild-n-crazy things you may see all year. Over-the-top, cartoonish violence and a whack-a-doo script by Jimmy […]
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