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Payback: Margaret Atwood Warns of Environmental Doom
With its novel approach and wider-than- usual scope, this riff on Margaret Atwood’s 2008 book-length essay, Payback: Debt…
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The Dark Knight Rises: Too Dark, Too Much, Too Long
Though a shallow repository of ideas, considered as a work of sheer sensation, Dark Knight Rises has something…
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Take This Waltz: Michelle Williams Strays Into Temptation
Sarah Polley’s second feature, much like her superb Away From Her (2006), thoughtfully probes the pitfalls of coupledom…
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Beasts of the Southern Wild: A Half-Charming, Half-Annoying Sundance Darling
A zealous gumbo of regionalism, magical realism, post-Katrina allegory, myth, and ecological parable, Beasts, the southern Louisiana-set debut…
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Ballplayer: Pelotero: Diamond Dreams in the DR
One of out every five professional baseball players in the U.S. comes from the Dominican Republic. Take a…
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Elena: Life Is Still Grim in the Old Soviet Union
Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena is a tale of two apartments: a spacious chrome, glass, and marble luxury flat that…
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Paul Williams Still Alive: The “Rainbow Connection” Guy Is Out of Rehab
More than 40 years after the Carpenters made Paul Williams’ “Rainy Days and Mondays” a hit, the flamboyant…
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The Invisible War: The U.S. Army Would Like to Rape You Now
In this documentary, Kirby Dick lays bare the scandalous epidemic of rape in the U.S. armed forces—the war…
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Wish Me Away: A Country Star’s Carefully Stage-Managed Coming-Out
What it lacks in artfulness, Wish Me Away makes up for in emotive force. Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly…
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The Amazing Spider-Man: A Comic-Book Movie That Deserves to Be a Hit
Spider-Man’s story is some primal-ass teenage wish fulfillment: nerds beating jocks, astonishing old people, romancing hot girls, dangling…
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A Cat in Paris: A Delightful French Animation Caper
First be warned, this animated French tale about a cat burglar and his companion in crime, a cat,…
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The Color Wheel: Worst Road Trip Ever?
Alex Ross Perry’s second feature, shot in 16mm black-and-white, is an offhand-picturesque road-trip movie with a mock-epic Northeastern…
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El Velador: The Human Costs of Mexico’s Drug War
Only once is the director’s voice heard in Natalia Almada’s ruminative yet potent documentary about the carnage that…
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Where Do We Go Now?: Stopping the Violence in Lebanon
If women were in charge, there’d be peace in the Middle East—or at least that’s what’s suggested by…
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Polisse: French Cops on the Verge of Mental Breakdown
An episodic ensemble piece based on cases handled by Paris’ Child Protection Unit, Polisse is a mutant beast:…
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The Beat Hotel: Enough With the Bohemians, Please!
I have seen many passable minds of my generation fritter away their best creative years working on tributes…
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100% Off: A Recession-Era Romance: Two Seattle Couples Gradually Come Apart
Not yet 30, local filmmaker Shaun Scott has an unusual affinity for history and archival footage. Both are…
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People Like Us: Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks Avoid Incest
Let us now take this moment to praise Michael Bay. In a Hollywood career devoted to blowing shit…
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God Bless America: Bobcat Goldthwait’s Violent Misfire of a Satire
In one week, Frank (Joel Murray), a divorced, 50ish, glumly alcoholic white-collar worker, loses his job, becomes completely…
Film
Lost Bohemia: Artists Are Evicted From a House of Culture
Gotham’s contradictory dedication to both bohemianism and unchecked greed is exposed in photographer Josef Astor’s bleak Lost Bohemia.…