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![]() America. My theory is that Forrest Gump serves as personification of the early baby boomers, i.e. of the America of that era. Naive, idealistic, rambunctious, Forrest’s life functions as allegory for the cultural journey of the generation that came of age during the 60s. Whether you buy that…
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Lovely Hanks
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Heroism and bravery have a new name, and that name is Ree. Just 17 years old, Ree’s as brave and heroic as any movie hero ever. Played by stellar newcomer Jennifer Lawrence, her quest – Winter’s Bone being a quest movie – is so virtuous and she’s so intrepid, so true, that you know she’s boun…
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"Talking just causes witnesses."
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![]() Deeply affecting, Terrence Malick’s ultimate family drama omnisciently observes a nearly idyllic household afflicted by two bolts of tragedy. Love, marriage, birth, death, and all the hoods – fatherhood, motherhood, brotherhood, childhood, adulthood, neighborhood – get touched upon in the proces…
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This is how movie brilliance appears.
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Fingering two of society’s soft spots, Cyrus lampoons middle-aged singles looking for love and grown kids who’ve been emotionally indulged their entire overly-protected lives. Plus it generates plenty of LOL moments in the offing. Score. John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill deliver great performa…
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Snow White and the Two Dorks
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![]() New addition to the boxing movie canon? Absolutely, complete with elemental title, elemental story and devastating performances. A female power story as much as a male one, Melissa Leo, Christian Bale and Mark Walhberg’s maternal-fraternal triangle pegs the meter for codependency. When Amy Ada…
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All in the (dysfunctional) Family
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![]() The Way, Way Back is the perfect summer movie from this Summer of `13. It opens and closes with a painfully awkward teen in the late, lamented way-way-back of a 1970 Buick Estate Station Wagon. In between he spends a life-changing summer at the beach house of his mom’s asshole boyfriend, pl…
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Awkward boy meets way, way cool girl
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![]() A woman on the edge propels the oh-so-smart drama in this almost too clever movie. The story turns back in on itself time and again, not fully revealing its convergence till the end. An ultimately satisfying twist does come, though not before we’re asked to hang in through lots of puzzlingly se…
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OK, not from the movie, but Jennifer!!
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![]() Where did Drive come from? Under-titled and under-promoted, it seems to have sprang from nowhere. Pity, because it’s an extremely invigorating thriller. It also burnishes Ryan Gosling’s growing legend while establishing Nicolas Winding Refn as a major Hollywood director. Wow. Few action …
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Hammer in hand, Gosling looks for a n...
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![]() Better to think of Jeff, Who Lives at Home as affecting drama with LOLs than as comedy with some stinkers. Consider the title as Exhibit A. Funny and intriguing to me, others might say “What The …?” Many will reject Jeff@Home on stinkers alone, though it ends up as serious as a shot to…
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Jeff's got skills. Wait, is that Kevin?
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![]() An important but hardly perfect movie, The Hunger Games is however great enough to justify the fuss. The monster box office generated by this first installment of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling trilogy of YA novels is helping The Hunger Games and heroine Katniss Eberdeen become primary cultura…
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A new Screen Goddess: Healthy•Huntres...
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