MovieSorter

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Parkland
Good 17 Points 2013

Can you really make an entire feature length film out of a single day’s events following JFK’s assasination? Well, yes – by following four different stories: Zapruder the famous film-maker, The Oswalds, the law, and the emergency room doctors and nurses. The result is a bit muddled, but keeps …

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The Queen
Great 17 Points 2006

The Queen is a showcase of Helen Mirren’s acting prowess. The main story takes place during the time surrounding Diana’s death and the disdain of the royal family (except Charles) in being forced to deal with the ex-Royal. This turns out to be a terrific venue to showcase the queen’s stiff yet …

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USS Indianapoli...
Great 17 Points 2016

Nicolas Cage stars in the remarkable story of Captain Charles Butler McVay, who commanded the USS Indianapolis during WWII in the Pacific. The Indianapolis was known for its final mission of secretly delivering components of the atomic bomb to Tinian. On its way to Guam it was torpedoed and su…

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I, Tonya
Great 17 Points 2017

Margot Robbie was great, but Allison Janney shows why she got the Oscar in I Tonya. Before seeing this, I had no idea about the poor white trash background of the skater’s mom who routinely used phrases like “lick my a$$” and chain-smoked her way through Tonya’s life. The move was great and a ho…

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The Kennedys
Great 66 Points 2011

The Kennedys no longer occupy the white-hot center of American consciousness, as they did in the Sixties. The Kennedys, a high quality docudrama, reminds us why they held that position nearly thru the Nineties. Ultimate 1%ers, they looked, acted and misbehaved like royalty, yet became beloved…

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WikChip Image Katie's Jackie mourning JFK or her ma...
Killing Kennedy
Good 66 Points 2013

Killing Kennedy could easily be titled Kennedy’s Killer given its salutary focus on Lee Harvey Oswald. JFK we knew. It’s unfortunate then that Killing Kennedy spends time on the Leader of the Free World’s womanizing. Given 90 minutes of real runtime, bikinis take away from also understanding …

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WikChip Image Killing Kennedy brings this to life.
Marshall
Great 66 Points 2017

The American hero who almost single-handedly defeated institutional racism personified his unique first name. Lots of Marshalls, just one Thurgood, which is why Marshall is a poor title for this stirring biopic. OTOH, Thurgood sounds like a thoroughly good historical drama about Thurgood Mars…

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WikChip Video Thurgood Marshall, American action hero
Too Big to Fail
Barely OK 66 Points 2011

The NY Times’ take on the banking crisis endgame gets reenacted in this made-for-HBO docudrama. Notwithstanding the Big Lie told in the middle, the movie otherwise seems to competently essay the mechanics of the fall of Lehman Brothers, AIG and the imposition of TARP.

The Big Lie comes when t…

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WikChip Image Tim Geithner: Mr. Too-Big-To-Fail him...
The Big Short
Great 66 Points 2015

The Big Short isn’t the Big Lie, but isn’t far from it either. The government hides just offscreen in Adam McKay’s seriocomic docudrama about the epic falsehoods that consumed the banking industry in 2008.

Falsehoods one and two were Washington’s ability to safely stimulate homeownership amo…

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WikChip Video Margot Robbie in a bubblebath
Operation Finale
Perfect 66 Points 2018

The banality of evil gets a powerful debunking in Operation Finale, an awkwardly if accurately titled docudrama about the Mossad’s 1960 capture of Final Solution logistics chief Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. Little Adolf was famously said to embody “the banality of evil” as he dissembled during …

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WikChip Video The (real) Man Who Got Eichmann