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Smile (2022)::rating::3.5
M uch like Taken, the 90s horror flick with Denzel Washington, Smile presents the most terrifying killer imaginable:  A virulent, incorporeal monster, traveling invisibly on the breeze.  It randomly lights on a victim, cursing them until they either end their life or murder someone else.  In their final moments, the afflicted wears the wide, unconvincing smile of…
February 21, 20230Comments
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Aftersun (2022)::rating::4
A s with the best coming-of-age dramas, Aftersun makes the correct decision to simply step back and let life wash over its characters.  There’s very little screenwriting artifice on display here, almost every scene feels carved from reality.  Yes, we see flash-forwards, but those only appear in micro-doses.  In truth, this is a character study that examines…
February 10, 20230Comments
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M3GAN (2022)::rating::3.5
M 3GAN might not set the world on fire as a horror flick, but it burns bright and kinda brilliant as a whacked-out social satire.  Look long enough into its shenanigans and you'll find riffs on the increasing encroachment of artificial intelligence, and how parents use gadgetry to distract unruly children. (Count me guilty of the…
February 8, 20230Comments
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To Leslie (2022)::rating::4.5
T o Leslie sent my thoughts back to a similar film, Hillbilly Elegy.  In that middling, piddling, manipulative hooey, millionaire actors slap on prosthetics and moth-eaten flannel.  For two hours, they bark at each other in flimsy redneck accents in a blatant attempt to chase down Oscars.  It was hollow, predictable, poorly-written tripe, a fact made…
January 24, 20230Comments
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The Menu (2022)::rating::3.5
I managed a wine store for almost fifteen years, and I affectionately remember some of the pretentious wine reviews that hung from the shelves.  My favorite was attached to a Spanish red, which boasted it had a “firm international structure.”  Now, if anybody anywhere knows what in the holy honey-baked hell that means, I…
January 17, 20230Comments

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