MovieSorter

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Coco Before Chanel
Very Good 66 Points 2009

Coco Before Chanel is a well mounted biopic of iconic fashion queen Coco Chanel.

This simply fashioned, handsome movie reveals her humble origins & early successes. Hmm.
Simple & revealing brings to mind – why yes – the Chanel design aesthetic. The movie suits its subject.

Chanel f…

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WikChip Video Chanel Trailer
Jersey Boys
Very Good 66 Points 2014

This long movie is no longer than the smash stage show it brings to the Silver Screen. It just feels like it. Clint Eastwood apparently couldn’t come up with a way to transform the show for the screen, with middling results. I can’t think of a way either, but that doesn’t change the underwhelm…

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WikChip Video Jersey Boys @Tonys: This U can dance 2
Begin Again
Very Good 83 Points 2013

Begin Again is a low-key treat for grownups in need of a quality Date Night Movie. More a music romance than a people romance, music lovers and especially musicians will find in it a true bonus: Great Music!

Mark Ruffalo & Keira Knightly are terrific separately and have great chemistry toge…

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WikChip Video Lost Stars: Now this is a perfect song.
Frank
Very Good 66 Points 2014

Tragically hip alt-rock crosses over into madness in the under-titled Frank, about a charismatic band leader and his devoted bandmates. Here’s the thing: Frank wears a large fake head, all the time.

Starting in Britain, Frank’s band brings on a guileless recruit before decamping for Ireland,…

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WikChip Image Frank plays guitar.
A Star is Born
Very Good 83 Points 2018

Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga got themselves the best Star is Born of the past half-century. Think about it, Cooper & Gaga beat Kristofferson and Streisand all to hell, he the better actor, she the better rock singer.

Nevermind that Cooper’s major moviestar turn as a rootsy rockstar with a ragi…

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WikChip Video A Star is Born Moment
Miles Ahead
Very Good 66 Points 2015

A moviestar who directs himself playing an iconic figure in a dramatic biopic has a fool for a leading-man. Don Cheadle provides proof of this as Miles Davis in Miles Ahead, following in the footsteps of Kevin Spacey, who stubbed his toe directing himself as Bobby Darin in the similarly flawe…

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WikChip Video Kind of Blue is Kind of Perfect
The English Tea...
Good 66 Points 2013

An Instagram moment propels this fitfully funny comedy about a High School lit teacher who gets aroused by a former student, after which video evidence gets socially shared around school. It’s all very au courant.

The English Teacher keeps its sex comedy in bounds by steering clear of curre…

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WikChip Image Ingénue & Author: Same Old Story
At Eternity's Gate
OK 66 Points 2018

Vincent van Gogh deserves a great biopic. At Eternity’s Gate isn’t it, not even close.

Frequent screen blackouts and repeated dialogue are just two flaws. At Eternity’s Gate has several more, including scenery that isn’t beautiful until Van Gogh makes it so. Yet its worst flaw is to waste …

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WikChip Video Nice Scene
Can You Ever Fo...
OK 83 Points 2018

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is not unforgivably bad, but is hardly a good movie either. The small stakes crimes of a literary criminal and her wages of sin trigger our morbid fascination with human train wrecks.

Is that so bad? No, but it ain’t enough to be fulfilling. Ultimately just OK, Melis…

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Big Sur
OK 66 Points 2013

Big Sur destroys Jack Kerouac’s legend, revealing the beatnik icon to be a self-pitying, self-absorbed alky. Generations of young romantics were awestruck by the celebrated author, pining for his life On The Road. I’ve long been one of those romantics, so was eager for a peek. But, as it’s sa…

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WikChip Image Cassady & Kerouac - fake & real