Posts in ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW
MOVIE REVIEW: Sing

The new animated musical “Sing” from Illumination Entertainment bills itself as containing more than 85 memorable tracks from legendary performing artists and one new original song collaboration from Ariana Grande and Stevie Wonder.  When you divide the 110 minutes of the film by 86 songs, that averages out roughly to one song every 78 seconds.  A mashup like that plays well as a recurring Jimmy Fallon/Justin Timberlake bit on late-night television, but it’s exhausting and tiresome when stretched to nearly two hours.

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MOVIE REVIEW: La La Land

In front of and behind the camera, you will find creative people that deftly understand and properly tap into the spirit and flavor of the classic genres and eras they are blending.  Breathing jazzy life into a Hollywood musical set in the present day of Priuses and iPhones, Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to “Whiplash” is a modern cinematic masterpiece.  It is the kind of film where you will remember where you were when you first saw it.  You will not find a more jubilant, romanticized, or flat-out entertaining film this year.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Collateral Beauty

As entertainment, movies are an ideally suited artistic medium to motivate or stimulate emotional responses.  The smartly composed narratives among them can pull that off naturally.  Others force it.  When such happens, manipulation replaces motivation.  For an example, look no further than “Collateral Beauty” starring Will Smith and directed by David Frankel.  It is one of the most egregious miscalculations of filmmaking and marketing in recent memory.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Rogue One

Lags of preparation and mounting conflict aside, there is more than enough big-screen excitement infusing the gravitas that give way to pathos.  "Rogue One" smoothly delves into an untold narrative while providing clever and catchy callbacks and nods to the expanded universe we know is on the other side of the horizon.  Fleshing out key history, “Rogue One” instantly becomes an indispensable companion piece to “Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope.”  Watching this mini saga and seeing the seeds it plants makes one appreciate the fruits of the 39-year-old classic’s triumphs even more.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Jackie

Mesmerizing describes the film as a whole and its incomparable lead performance from Academy Award winner Natalie Portman playing First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the immediate hours and days following her husband's 1963 assassination.  Far from a biopic and more of a psychological examination, Portman and Larrain sear the screen with emotion and imagery that is as captivating as it is difficult.  It is astonishing that it takes a foreign director to create the most empowering portrait of American history put to film in years.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Hunter Gatherer

The micro-budgeted indie film “Hunter Gatherer” is the directorial debut of art director Josh Locy.  The filmmaker has cut his teeth creating the visual palettes of independent fare such as an art director on David Gordon Green’s “Prince Avalanche” and Peter Sattler’s “Camp X-Ray.”  His film, led by a charismatic performance from Andre Royo, shows the egotistical plight of a recently released con trying to reinsert himself in his old South Central Los Angeles neighborhood.  

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MOVIE REVIEW: Loving

With a minimalist style and unadorned simplicity to reflect on racial intolerance, Jeff Nichols crafts “Loving” as a reminiscence of history without the histrionics.  Devoid of soapboxes, speechifying, and manufactured swells of forced emotion seen in far too many historical dramas, “Loving” cuts a different cloth, trading in Hollywood glamor for blue collar truthfulness.  Nichols brilliantly lets the honesty and grace of Richard and Mildred Loving stand on their own without an unnecessary pedestal.  Cite this film as proof that “tell it like it is” does not require bombastic noise and volume.

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DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Resilience: The Biology of Stress and Science of Hope

The light shed by the shared research, connections, and testimonials of James Redford’s documentary “Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope” opens eyes and stirs immediate personal reflection.  Toward your own self or in the role of a parent, “Resilience” puts the right mirrors in front of faces.  It is a worthy alarm notification that encourages more character building than being told to “pull up your bootstraps.”

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MOVIE REVIEW: Doctor Strange

Now in its third phase, Marvel continues to take C-level and D-list comic book characters and titles, breath cinematic life into them with top-notch talent in front of and behind the camera, and turn the obscure in newly minted household names and merchandising windfalls.  "Doctor Strange" continues the studio's blueprint of Midas Touch success while jubilantly kicking down the door for magic and mysticism in the MCU.  You may not know him yet, but Stephen Strange is a major player and huge addition to an already-loaded heroic panorama.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Middle Man

52nd Chicago International Film Festival U.S. Indies entry and presentation

“Middle Man” blends an acidic edge with showy panache that bleeds from every character, large and small.  Credit the devious fun of Crowley for the snappy dialogue that pops from each character.  The comedy is clever instead of coarse while maintaining its darkness.  Nearly every speaking part of this colorful cast of funhouse mirrors nails a zinger or two that fits right into that line of taste.

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MOVIE REVIEW: In a Valley of Violence

“In a Valley of Violence” lives up to the promised bloodshed suggested by its title and spins its own brand of tension and, best of all, a frank and bone-dry humor that blows into the whole film.  You will either love the comedic edge or find it a distraction from the revenge.  There is an undeniable panache to the absurdity that makes the film an absolute hoot.  This is the giddy Western Quentin Tarantino wishes he could make while he wastes six hours of our time and stretched disbelief.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete)

All eyes are on the hotly anticipated live-action "re-imagining" of Walt Disney Pictures' enormously successful "Beauty and the Beast" from 1991.  That March 2017 sure-fire blockbuster will garner tremendous attention in its attempt to honor the animated Best Picture Oscar nominee and double Academy Award winner.  In the meantime, the fairy tale's home country of France throws down its own gauntlet to give Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's 1740 original story and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's abridged 1756 standard the grand, epic big-screen treatment it warrants.  Let's just say the French sure know what they are doing.  

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