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Lone Survivors: The Stubborn Old Men Of ‘Nebraska’&‘All Is Lost’
Some movies are tougher sells than others. Certain films are almost willfully difficult to sell. How about a nice uplifting movie called All Is Lost, which features exactly three instances of dialogue...
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Rearranging ‘Artpop’: An Edit Of Lady Gaga’s Latest
Oh, Lady Gaga. How far we’ve come in such a relatively short time. It was only six years ago that the name “Lady Gaga” would have sounded like nonsense, which is exactly what I thought of it when I...
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All By Myself: Another ‘Lone Survivor’ Hits The Big Screen
If there’s a theme at the movies for 2013, it’s survival. Sure, lots and lots of movies are about survival — like, almost all of them. The biggest movies at the box office tend to be about the survival...
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Broke Folk In New York: ‘Frances Ha’&‘Llewyn Davis’
How’s this for irony? A film about an unappreciated artist made by some of the most praised filmmakers in the world. To many, the Coen brothers are gods of cinema, peerless in American cinema. They...
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Russell Does The ‘Hustle’: An All-American Ode To Bullshit
Hey, Academy, are you paying attention? But of course you are! Here’s a movie featuring a whole bunch of last year’s Oscar nominees, including several past Oscar winners, made by a guy who’s made two...
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Catching Heat: The Warmest Women Of 2013
(Films discussed in this post: Blue Is The Warmest Color, The Heat, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Drinking Buddies, Enough Said, The Invisible Woman.)Women are so hot right now. Again. Or… still. No...
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Away From ‘Her’: The Ultimate Long-Distance Relationship
Her is a rather unusual film, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s seen Spike Jonze’s other movies (or his music videos). He’s collaborated with Charlie Kaufman a couple of times, first on the...
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Screen Full Of Sugar: Disney’s Accidentally Meta ‘Mr. Banks’
Why is P.L. Travers such a bitch? That’s the question central to Saving Mr. Banks, and it’s up to Walt Disney, of all people, to solve the mystery. Movies like this one can be challenging, because the...
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Big Good ‘Wolf’: Scorsese’s Latest Is Excessive To The Max
Is Leonardo DiCaprio this generation’s Robert DeNiro? Yes — at least in the sense that he’s Martin Scorsese’s current muse, and yes in the sense that the movies he stars in tend to have some very hefty...
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A Divorce: Farhadi Repeats Himself In ‘The Past’
A quarreling couple. A troublesome pregnancy. A deceitful employee. A daughter who knows more than she lets on. If this all sounds familiar, you probably saw A Separation, the 2011 Academy Award winner...
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Orphan Is The New Bad: The Best Fucking TV Of 2013
And now it’s time to talk TV. I don’t watch a whole lot of TV, compared to the average American. The number of reality shows I watch regularly — or ever, unless I’m a captive audience — is zero. (Yes,...
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‘August’ Of Wind: Pot Smoking, Pill Popping & A Lot Of Bluster
It’s hot in Osage County in the summertime — likely because of all the star wattage you’ll find there. Let’s take a tour. Here we have the Oscar Queen, Meryl Streep, peerless amongst all actresses who...
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Italian ‘Beauty’: Death, Dancing & Debauchery In Rome
Think of Rome. All sorts of images may flash into your mind. You might first think of religion, or perhaps of the Italian glamor captured by Fellini in the sixties. Maybe you think of the history, the...
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The Tens: Best Of Film 2013
Hollywood is obsessed with money, I say. Duh, you think in response. But hear me out. In 2013, Hollywood was particularly obsessed with money. Not just with making money, but with telling stories about...
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The Not-Oscars 2013
It’s the morning of the Oscar nominations, and I’m not upset. This is weird. All the films I wanted to see nominated for Best Picture are. All the actors I hoped to see receive nominations for this...
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‘Looking’ Fine: The Good, The Bad & The Beards
Hey dude. Sup? Looking? That’s the 21st century equivalent of wandering into a bathhouse or the obfuscating brush of a city park at night. Most gay men I know have never gone to either of these places...
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‘Looking’ Again: “Looking For Uncut”
Sup? U looking for now? Hello? Dude? U there? For a show that’s not terribly exciting, Looking sure has generated a lot of scintillating conversation. HBO’s new half-hour drama premiered last week with...
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‘Looking’ For A Shirt: “Looking For $220/Hr”
When I first heard HBO’s new gay show would be set in San Francisco, I thought it was a bit strange. A gay show set in San Francisco, really? What is this, 1985? As it turns out, the creators of...
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‘Looking’ For The Point: “Looking At Your Browser History”
It only took three episodes for Looking to get around to having some actual conflict. And… maybe… a point. The third episode of HBO’s much-discussed Looking introduces two new characters and decides...
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‘Stranger’ Danger: Penises, Poor Choices & A Body Of Water
This blog has been so gay lately! Allow me to interrupt my coverage of Looking for a review of my first 2014 film, which is coincidentally (or not coincidentally) also about men cruising for sex....
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