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The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005)
If it didn’t happen to be true, you might dismiss it as feel-good fantasy. But part of what makes The Greatest Game Ever Played so appealing is that this is a real-life Cinderella story tailor-made for classic drama. Based on the 2002 book by Mark Frost (who also wrote the screenplay adaptation), the film details…
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Before Midnight (2013)
In Before Midnight, the third and final installment of director Richard Linklater’s odes to romance, there’s a sly bit that reflects the personal baggage that fans of this trilogy brought to this film. Jesse (Ethan Hawke), the writer we’ve watched meet, fall for and settle down with Celine (Julie Delpy), tells some colleagues about a…
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Frost/Nixon (2008)
When Richard Nixon sought to repair his reputation with television interviews in 1977, his aides selected an interviewer they were confident would be a pushover. David Frost, a lightweight British TV talk-show host with a taste for the good life, was more accustomed to interviewing the Bee Gees than disgraced world leaders. As the riveting…
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Blood in the Face (1991)
The bogeymen of our world haven’t changed much since the initial release of Blood in the Face, a documentary that opens a window on the subculture of American neo-Nazis, Klansmen and assorted white supremacists. The ugliness of white nationalism still thrives – hell, probably more so than those 20th century pre-MAGA neo-Nazis ever could have…
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Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told (1967)
The Merrye children of Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told don’t seem like they would have much to be merry about. The unfortunate brood suffers from a rare neurological disorder particular to their bloodline. As a voiceover narrator helpfully explain in the opening, at around the age of 10 or so, Merrye family…
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Alpha Dog (2006)
The murder of a 15-year-old boy at the center of Alpha Dog is rendered all the more tragic because it is so totally, utterly senseless. While the teenagers who populate the story fancy themselves as street-smart, they appear to be engaging in make-believe until it is too late – a bunch of self-styled tough guys barreling toward…
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American Hustle (2013)
Beginning a major Hollywood picture with a bald guy working on a comb-over isn’t the most obvious of artistic choices. American Hustle starts with Christian Bale, paunchy and fleshy and in decidedly non-Dark Knight shape, fixing his thinning hair with a watchman’s precision. He glues down a massive comb-over and maneuvers a monstrous toupee before…
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M3GAN (2023)
Hey, all you parents of screen-addled kids: Stay away from M3GAN. At least, that is, stay away if you don’t want to feel horribly guilty for letting computers and smartphones raise your child. This fiendishly dark horror-comedy has a lot to say about parenting and tech addiction, but such social observations are neatly ensconced in the…
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach
Let’s talk about movies.
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach 