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- “Literature is the written expression of revolt against expected things.” Happy Birthday to the least happy man ever, Thomas Hardy
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- “If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.” — poet Countee Cullen
- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
- “Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
- “I never heard the term ‘rockabilly’ back then. Nobody did…When people asked what music we played, we were rock ’n’ rollers.” — Sonny Burgess
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- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
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- Dave on Review: The Chronology of Water (2025)
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
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Tag Archives: reviews
Review: Taxi (2015); d. Jafar Panahi
Talk about persistence in the face of unimaginable obstacles. Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi, arrested, imprisoned, placed on house arrest, dealing with a 20-year ban on film-making, not allowed to travel, not allowed to talk to foreigners, his livelihood taken … Continue reading
Review: Breathe (2015); d. Mélanie Laurent
French actress Mélanie Laurent, who was so unforgettable in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (I wrote a post about her acting here, which should be all the proof you need that Quentin Tarantino is a GREAT “actor’s director”), and other films … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged coming of age, France, Mélanie Laurent, reviews, women directors
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Review: The Visit (2015); d. M. Night Shyamalan
I admit that this one took me by surprise. I haven’t loved one of his movies in years. And I was a huge fan at the get-go. But The Visit is so good! Yes, super-scary. But also extremely funny. I … Continue reading
Review: Break Point (2015)
An okay family drama, with good performances, but somewhat lackadaisical, and low-risk. My review of Break Point is now up at Rogerebert.com.
Review: Straight Outta Compton (2015)
Man, this has been a great year for music biopics (a genre that tends to follow the predictable old “and then this happened and then this happened and then this happened” structure). Love & Mercy and Straight Outta Compton? In … Continue reading
Review: Phoenix (2015); dir. Christian Petzold
The collaboration of director Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss is one of the pleasurable partnerships of our day and age. It’s exciting that these two have “found” one another, and that they continue to make films together, the latest being … Continue reading
Review: Digging for Fire (2015); dir. Joe Swanberg
I’ve been iffy on Joe Swanberg’s stuff. I loved Digging for Fire. It also features a host of awesome indie-stars strolling in and out of the action: Ron Livingston, Rosemarie DeWitt, Melanie Lewensky, Sam Rockwell, Chris Messina, Orlando Bloom, Brie … Continue reading
Review: Tom at the Farm (2015); dir. Xavier Dolan
Love him or hate him (and the camps are pretty divided), Xavier Dolan is a phenom. His latest, Tom at the Farm, doesn’t quite work though, although there are some weird undercurrents I liked. Also it looks fantastic. My review … Continue reading
Review: 10,000 Saints (2015)
A coming-of-age drama set in 1988 East Village NYC. I really liked it. My review of 10,000 Saints is now up at Rogerebert.com.
Review: Ricki and the Flash (2015); dir. Jonathan Demme
Preamble: The trailers have been everywhere. For months. With minor tweaks here and there, the trailers give the impression that 1. they are telling the entire story of the movie and 2. the movie is probably not any good. Whoever … Continue reading