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SHAZAM! NEVER TAKES OFF
Shazam! wants to be slick and smartassy except when it suddenly chooses to be warm and sincere—like a TV commercial for some medication or life insurance. You can’t have it both ways but this film repeatedly tries to do so.…
US: JORDAN PEELE’S COMPLEX TAKE ON HORROR
Get Out announced the arrival of an exciting and important new voice in American film: writer-director Jordan Peele. We already knew what a talented actor and comedic artist he was, but the originality of this trenchant social satire was something…
‘THE AFTERMATH’ SQUANDERS ITS POTENTIAL
I find the period immediately following World War Two in Europe to be one of the most fascinating periods of the 20th century. It has inspired such great films as Fred Zinnemann’s The Search, Billy Wilder’s A Foreign Affair, and Carol Reed’s The…
THE MUSTANG REARS UP AND WON’T LET GO
Matthias Schoenaerts has a formidable screen presence. If you saw him in Bullhead (the Belgian film that put him on the map), Rust and Bone, or Far from the Madding Crowd, you know that I mean. The effect of his silent presence is put…
CAPTAIN MARVEL: GIRL POWER TAKES FLIGHT
As a parent, I wish a film like this had been made when my daughter was young. I searched for movies with positive female role models, and believe me, they were hard to find. In Captain Marvel, Brie Larson…
APOLLO 11: RELIVING A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME EXPERIENCE
I was a teenager when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in the summer of 1969 and, like millions of people around the world, I will never forget that moment. I can only guess how this film will…
NEVER LOOK AWAY
I don’t readily commit to watching a movie that runs more than three hours, but having admired The Lives of Others—a truly great film that won an Academy Award—I looked forward to Florian Henckel von Donnarsmarck’s new release Never Look Away,…
