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THE APPRENTICE: A BIOPIC FOR OUR TIME

In Theaters Leonard Maltin
1816

The first thing you should know is that this biopic is not a hatchet job on the former President. It’s a smart, but not smart-alecky, dramatization of his evolution as an entrepreneur and public figure, under the tutelage of the notorious New York lawyer Roy Cohn. That relationship is at the core of this film, and its impact may be muted somewhat if you’ve seen Matt Tyrnauer’s excellent 2019 documentary Where’s My Roy Cohn?  (still a must-see, it’s streaming on Prime). The compensation is savoring Jeremy Strong’s uncanny performance as Cohn, the man who embodied the word “contradiction.” He was one of a kind, thank goodness, but he blazed a trail that even he couldn’t have predicted for his protégé. And while Strong has been grabbing most…

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FOLIE INDEED: THIS TIME THE JOKE IS ON US

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
3086

What a waste! The only folie (or delusion) in Joker: Folie à Deux is believing that I want to spend quality time with Arthur Fleck, the pathetic figure first played by Joaquin Phoenix in 2019. This time, he meets his match in a groupie (Lady Gaga) who joins him in performing a roster of tunes that might comprise an album called Songs for the Criminally Insane. I don’t need to be reminded what good songs like “Get Happy” and “Bewitched” sound like. I can listen to them anytime and I don’t have to suffer through a turgid drama in the bargain. The only consolation I take is that the song catalogues of such great teams as Burt Bacharach and Hal David or Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley…

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NEW ON DVD/BLU-RAY/4K IN SEPTEMBER

Blu-Ray/DVD
3052

The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE. NEW ON DVD/BLU-RAY/4K IN SEPTEMBER: ALL OF US STRANGERS, MENUS PLAISIRS, GREGG ARAKI’S TEEN APOCALPYSE TRILOGY, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL All of Us Strangers (The Criterion Collection): With previous films like Weekend and Lean On Pete, writer-director Andrew Haigh has revealed his fluency in the language of heartache and longing, and those sentiments are front and center in this acclaimed drama. Andrew Scott stars as a blocked screenwriter dealing with not only a potential new relationship with a neighbor (Paul Mescal) but also the fact that the ghosts of the writer’s parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) have turned up at his childhood home, meeting their…

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I’M JUST WILD ABOUT ‘THE WILD ROBOT’

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
5128

I no longer feel an imperative to see and review every animated feature that comes along, but Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot is exceptional in every way. It embraces a wide range of emotions and somehow manages to keep cynicism at bay. My class of 20-somethings at USC adored it, and so did I. Sanders is by now a veteran in the field, having attended Cal Arts and worked on such Disney films as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Mulan, finally taking command on the distinctive-looking Lilo & Stitch. (He even performed the impish character’s voice). Moving to DreamWorks with his longtime partner Dean DeBlois he was instrumental in shaping How to Train Your Dragon and launching a mini-industry in the process. This is reportedly the last DreamWorks Animation film to…

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HEADS UP: IT’S NATIONAL SILENT FILM DAY

Leonard Maltin
1689

What started out as a lark, or a novelty, has blossomed into an event of real significance: National Silent Film Day. Some participants are celebrating this Saturday, the 28th, and some on Sunday, the 29th. I could easily watch a silent film every day of the week but for people who have to be cajoled (or possibly shanghaied into) the process I understand the usefulness of making it An Event. Time and time again I have seen newbies—especially kids—be wowed by the potency of silent movies on a big screen. Until you’ve heard children laughing out loud at Chaplin, Keaton, or Laurel and Hardy you just haven’t lived. The folks at Kino Lorber tell me that they are servicing more than 25 screenings in various…

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THE CRITIC

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
1531

Any film bearing that title and Ian McKellen in the leading role holds the promise of good entertainment, even the possibility of greatness. Add to that the credentials of the writer, Patrick Marber (Closer, Notes on a Scandal), director Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie) and a top-notch supporting cast (Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Lesley Manville, Ben Barnes, Romola Garai) and expectations grow stronger. But sorry to say, The Critic is unworthy of anticipation. Mind you, this is a revised version of the feature that unspooled at the Toronto Film Festival last year. The participants are vague about what was altered but there was definitely a reshoot involving several of the principals. I shudder to think what the first draft looked like. McKellen plays an aged drama critic for…

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BRINGING RARE MOVIES AND MOVIE LOVERS TOGETHER

Leonard Maltin
1443

This past weekend was like visiting an oasis. It brought back memories of attending the annual Cinefest in Syracuse, New York, where every day was packed with screenings—and lots of chatter with like-minded friends in between. I proposed to the folks who run Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Theater in Los Angeles that we show a selection of early 1930s Universal Pictures, using pristine prints the studio struck over the past twenty years. My colleague Dave Kehr at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, took advantage of this goldmine eight years ago and framed it as a tribute to Carl Laemmle, Jr., the unsung namesake of the studio’s colorful founder. But until I thought of trying the New Bev, as its denizens call it, I…

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