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‘CHARLIE’S ANGELS’ Reboot Delivers Fluffy Girl-Powered Fun and Peak Kristen Stewart

Who knew that Kristen Stewart could have this much fun? Whether she’s whipping her body around the dance floor or head butting Tinder dates in the kisser, K-Stew is straight lit. She’s scorching hot. As on fire as a Flaming Doctor Pepper. And it’s good to bask in the heat. The Twilight alum has spent the last decade reshaping public perception of her acting chops, starring in dramatic and critically-acclaimed Films with a capital F. Most notably through her partnership with Olivier Assayas in Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper, Stewart has become an actress of high repute and though she’s yet to land herself any kind of Oscar nomination, her star has risen from blockbuster starlet with a Razzie nom to respectable leading lady whose projects are worth seeking out through her association alone. For what seems like the first time in probably ever, the many sides and talents of Stewart come to a head in Charlie’s Angels, a cutesy and shallow fun time that would allow the actress the chance to let her hair down had she not cropped it short. Even so, Stewart is here to shake it off and actually have some fun. And boy what a show she puts on.  Read More

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Shia LaBeouf Excises Demons In Emotionally Raw ‘HONEY BOY’

Everyone seems to have an opinion about Shia LaBeouf, the child-star turned Transformers/Crystal Skull actor turned Hollywood bad boy. But regardless of what you think you think, anyone who checks out Honey Boy, a revealing and emotionally turbulent tell-all written by and starring LaBeouf, will come out wanting to reach through the screen and deliver a big Shia hug.  Read More

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Bone Dry Procedural ’THE REPORT’ Values Facts Over Emotion

From longtime Steven Soderberg collaborator and writer/director Scott Z. Burns, The Report is a well-researched and competently constructed journalistic procedural that lacks in human emotion. Very much in a similar vein as movies like Spotlight and All the President’s Men, but lacking their towering sense of immediacy and tension, Burns’ film values objectivity and nonpartisanship most highly, allowing little room for things like a heartbeat or even the cinematic thrills customary with similar dramatic procedurals.  Read More

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‘FORD V. FERRARI’ is an Anti-Establishment American Western…with Race Cars

In 1966, the Ford Motor Company took on the very best in the business, Enzo Ferrari, at the world-renown Le Mans. The race? A 24-hour deathmatch that raged from dawn through dusk, past midday and midnight, through rain or shine, to its brutal conclusion. A showdown for the best and the ballsiest, Le Mans was won by the best cars driven by the ballsiest drivers. Over at Ford, men in slick suits seek corporate glory and a much-needed rejuvenation in sales. They attempt to reinvent the dad bod of cars that was Ford’s current models, opting for something sleek, sexy, durable. And, most of all, fast. In essence, a Ferrari. But a little elbow grease and a bunch of smoke-filled boardroom meetings do not a champion make. A champion requires an intangible; the perfect union of fallible machinery and the grit of man. Read More

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‘MARRIAGE STORY’ Is a Heartbreaking Depiction of Love Ending (That’s Especially Traumatic for Divorce Kids)

“What’s the opposite of a fiancée?” Scarlett Johansson’s Nicole muses, trying to find the right word to describe her soon-to-be ex-husband Charlie (Adam Driver). She doesn’t really want to still call him her husband, because that ship has clearly sailed. But nor is he an ex yet either. There’s a lack of finality to their relationship. Unsigned paperwork. Unfought legal battles. Unclaimed wreckage from what was once a marriage.  Read More

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Contemplative and Dour ‘DOCTOR SLEEP’ Deserves the Patience it Requires 

39 years ago, Stanley Kubrick played a game of chicken with Stephen King’s novel “The Shining”, redefining the term “loose adaptation” as he bent the source material to his will. In the process, Kubrick created not just one of the greatest horror films of all time but one of the very best films regardless of genre. Ever an industry maverick, Kubrick swung an axe at King’s IP (“Here’s Johnny” indeed), hacking the story into one more befitting the film medium and his own vision. This meant stripping away the more abject supernatural horrors (though there’s no shortage of rotting bathers and ghost furry lifestylers) and replacing them Jack Torrence’s descent into catacombs of his own inner madness.  Read More

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‘KNIVES OUT’ Boasts Killer Ensemble Cast, Mediocre Mystery 

Rian Johnson’s star-studded Knives Out is an Agatha Christie-esque whodunnit complete with a colorful cast of characters, a maybe-murder most foul, and an undercooked mystery that astute audience members will certainly figure out well before the intended reveal. As a fun, star-powered slice of old school murder mystery, Knives Out is a welcome bite of throwback entertainment, a high profile anti-blockbuster of sorts: free of CGI, action set pieces, and superheroics of any sort. In that capacity, the good-old-fashion Hollywood whodunnit is a welcome bit of counter-programming to the overly dramatic winter-season awards fare or the sensory-overwhelming, block-busting eye candy that dominates the box office, it’s just a shame that the whole enterprise feels so surface-level and ultimately easy to solve. Read More

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Fearlessly Silly Nazi Satire ‘JOJO RABBIT’ is Soul-Cleansing and Good-Spirited 

As seemingly improbable as Schindler‘s List with an added laugh track or Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom subbing in Hitler Youth for Boy Scouts, Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit’s very premise is a bold thought experiment: how do you make modern audiences (notoriously sensitive modern audiences, that is) comfortable laughing at WWII-era Nazism? How do you get them to sympathize with literal Nazi characters? And, maybe most importantly, how do you do all this without getting the endorsement of literal modern-day Nazis?  Read More

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Imperfect ‘TERMINATOR: DARK FATE’ a Welcome Return to Franchise Fun 

After preventing Judgement Day, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) has kept herself sharp throughout the years. Hunting the spare Terminator already en-route to various time periods from a defeated SkyNet program( that no longer exists) (it’s less complicated than that seems, I promise)) has become Sarah’s all-consuming purpose since she saved the world, but lost her son John Connor in the process, so many years ago. Her tinfoil hat lifestyle is thrown its biggest challenge in decades when two denuded future beings arrive in shimmering blue balls; one an enhanced human named Grace (Mackenzie Davis), the other a highly advanced Terminator, a Legion Rev-9 series played by Gabriel Luna.  Read More

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Body Cam Cop Thriller ‘BLACK AND BLUE’ Doesn’t Capture Greatness

What could have and should have been a lean mean socially-relevant cop thriller turns to indulgent putty in the hands of director Deon Taylor (The Intruder, Meet the Blacks.) Black and Blue hangs on but a single idea, one that James Moses Black’s Officer Brown conveys to his fellow pigmented protagonist Alicia West (Naomie Harris) early on in the film, “You’re not black anymore. You’re blue.” Meaning, the rookie cop should now identify as police, not African-American, because that is how the world sees her now. In the world Taylor creates, black and blue don’t mix.  Read More