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‘CONCLAVE’ A Punchy Papal Political Thriller and One of the Best of the Year

The Pope is dead. Cardinals from across the globe arrive in Rome, ready for an unknown period of sequester and deliberation wherein they must elect the future leader of the Catholic Church. The ceremony, known as a papal conclave, is amongst the most secretive and ancient election processes in the world. The doors and windows are secured, shuttered, and locked. The flow of information in and out of the Sistine Chapel limited to billows of chimney smoke. It is here that Edward Berger’s papal political thriller, Conclave, smoothes its vestments and edges its daggers to deliver a sharp-tongued battle of worshipful wits. Read More

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Out in Theaters: ‘THE SNOWMAN’

The Snowman, Tomas Alfredson’s (Let the Right One In) adaptation of Jo Nesbø’s Norwegian best-seller of the same name, is an icy cold movie. Frigid to the touch, there is no spark of life to be found in this desolate frozen tundra of a film nor is there anything resembling a mere flicker of intelligence. A detective joint that cannot stand up under the slightest bit of scrutiny, this mindless slog tries to follows in the footsteps of films like Seven or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, what with its random explosions of grizzly violence and salty procedural backbone, though nothing of that sort ever comes to pass. Instead we’re victim to a mopey, faux-edgy, pseudo-gritty, sulking, snow-blasted post-mortem noir impersonating smarter, sexier, more engaging entries from the often beloved genre. To call it freezing cold garbage is only the icing on this frosty cake of shite. Read More

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Out in Theaters: ‘OUR BRAND IS CRISIS’

David Gordon Green is as hit-and-miss a director as they come. He is also about as prolific as they come. Our Brand is Crisis is Green’s fourth film over the last three year period, coming on the heels of 2014’s widely panned Manglehorn starring Al Pacino. In 2013, Green saw two films open, the highly regarded backwoods drama Joe, starring a Nicholas Cage at the top of his game, and the off-beat buddy comedy Prince Avalanche. Even as a relative Green fan, I hated Prince Avalanche, citing its ill-fitting petulance and overwhelming sense of idiotic indecency as sources of extreme personal annoyance, but found Joe to be thoughtful and dramatically rich (if not excessively dour). Not to mention, it featured Cage’s best performance in years. Read More