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Calvary (2014)
Brendan Gleeson exudes world-weariness as if it were a pheromone. Craggy and thick-bodied, his eyes hinting at untold sadness, he routinely makes a strong presence in most of his movies, no matter how modest the part. And he is at his dour best in Calvary, a tough, theologically minded film in which Gleeson portrays a…
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Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
The first thing you might notice about the vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive is how effortlessly cosmopolitan they are. Smart, artsy, sexy — these undead are unequivocally cool. That’s no surprise when you consider this is the work of writer-director Jim Jarmusch, a purveyor of the idiosyncratic (Dead Man, Night on Earth, Ghost Dog:…
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The Believer (2011)
The phrase “self-loathing Jew” is rife with provocative and unsettling meaning for Jews. For a people whose shared identity and history is partly tied to having endured persecution and injustice, some Jews might recoil from a sense of victimization that gnaws away at them even while remaining proud of their perseverance. Or maybe I’m wrong.…
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American Teen (2008)
They say youth is wasted on the young. That might be true, but high school is one rite of passage for which young people definitely earn their Purple Hearts. With its unforgiving caste system, peer pressures and never-ending crises, high school could reduce even the most hard-bitten survivalist into a knock-kneed mess. Regardless of your…
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Plane (2023)
I think it’s fair to say you will never see Plane as an in-flight movie. At least, I sure as hell hope you don’t. In Plane, after all, the fictional Trailblazer Airlines relies on faulty technology and pushes its pilots into dangerous situations, all for the sake of saving a few precious dollars. Can you…
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Death Sentence (2007)
As trashy vigilante fantasies go, you could do a lot worse than Death Sentence. That might sound like damning with faint praise, and perhaps it is, but director James Wan deserves credit for dressing up this Death Wish-knockoff with honest-to-goodness visual flair. Kevin Bacon lends a welcome intensity to the role of Nick Hume, a well-heeled business…
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The Great Debaters (2007)
Among the many intellectual exercises connected to competitive debate is the ability to defend stances that, at first blush, might seem indefensible. I know; I debated in high school and remember many a contest assailing the evils of seatbelts and motorcycle helmets. Judging by The Great Debaters, however, you wouldn’t think that debate requires much…
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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a starkly told tale of abortion and rape in the waning years of Romania under the oppressive Ceauşescu regime. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, it is all the more brutally effective because it is so quotidian, chronicling a day in the…
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach
Let’s talk about movies.
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach 