We’ve heard the term “elevated horror”, which describes a horror film that is both scary but also features social commentary of some kind and is made with a different level of artistry from the standard horror movie. But the term “elevated romantic comedy” isn’t nearly as popular a phrase in the cinematic lexicon. Much like an elevated horror movie, elevated romantic comedies have plots and characters that feel like they are from a typical…
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Sidney Lumet’s 1978 musical The Wiz has been added to the Criterion Collection. L. Frank Baum’s timeless story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, gets a funky reimagining in this lavish adaptation of a landmark Broadway show based on the book. Diana Ross brings her showstopping star power to the role of Dorothy, here a Harlem schoolteacher who is magically transported to a surreal fantasyland that resembles New York City, complete with man-eating trash cans and a disco…
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I think if you surveyed anyone who saw the first John Wick film back in 2014, there wouldn’t have been a whole lot of people who thought this would become a franchise of four movies and a spin-off. The film, which grossed a modest but respectable $43 million at the box office and received solid critical reviews, became a word-of-mouth hit and an immediate cult sensation, reviving Keanu Reeves’ career and creating a franchise…
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Charles Burnett’s long-lost directorial debut, Killer of Sheep, has been added to the Criterion Collection. A quiet revelation of American independent filmmaking, Charles Burnett’s lyrical debut feature unfolds as a mosaic of Black life in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a father worn down by his job in a slaughterhouse, and his wife (Kaycee Moore) seek moments of tenderness in the face of myriad disappointments. Equally attuned to the…
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Bruce Robinson’s dark comedy How to Get Ahead in Advertising has been added to the Criterion Collection. Writer-director Bruce Robinson and star Richard E. Grant, the cracked comic geniuses behind the cult favorite Withnail and I, reteamed for this diabolically dark satire of runaway capitalism in Margaret Thatcher–era England. Grant gives a virtuosically crazed performance as an ambitious advertising exec whose latest assignment—devising a campaign for a pimple cream—has him on the edge of a nervous breakdown….
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Danny and Michael Philippou follow their 2023 surprise horror hit Talk to Me with Bring Her Back, a blood-curdling, twisted horror film that solidifies the Philippou brothers as some of the most horror directors working today. Following the death of their father, Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) move in with Laura (Sally Hawkins), a seemingly nice and friendly woman who is also caring for Oliver (Jonah Wren Philips), a mute child who…
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The Mission: Impossible franchise is my favorite movie franchise still churning out movies. I don’t think there is a single bad movie in the franchise (yes, even Mission: Impossible 2 is good), and I could argue that since 2011’s Ghost Protocol, the franchise has produced some of the greatest action films ever made. So, needless to say, I was excited for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the latest and potentially final entry of the…
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Friendship might be the hardest I have laughed in a movie this decade. Written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, Friendship is an absurdist comedy that finds two of our best comedic stars working at the height of their powers in perfect unison. It’s a shame it forgets to be a movie for the last act. Tim Robinson plays Craig, an unassuming suburban dad who works for a marketing company, wears nothing but Ocean View…
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A Little Prayer is a gem of a movie. A drama that lets you live with a family and understand the ins and outs of how they function, elements of their past, and all their personalities. It makes you feel like you are part of this family, or that you have been invited in and are staying in the guest room. A Little Prayer centers around Bill (David Strathairn) and his family. Bill owns…
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There is one great thing about Matthew Shear’s Fantasy Life, and that is Amanda Peet. Peet, who came to prominence in the early 2000s in such films as The Whole Nine Yards, Saving Silverman, and Identity but has not been in a theatrical film since 2015’s Sleeping With Other People, gives a spectacular performance as Dianne, an actress and mother who hires Sam (Shear) to be the family’s au pair as she prepares for…
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