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EDDIE THE EAGLE (2016)
Sometimes, formulaic films can just be exactly what we need, and Eddie the Eagle is one of those films. While watching it, you’ll be very aware it’s following the template of so many other inspirational and uplifting sports movies, but that doesn’t stop it from working tremendously. That’s especially true if you don’t know all…
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ZOOTROPOLIS (2016)
Even if you disregard the relatively consistent quality of its Pixar co-productions, Disney itself has been on a hot streak with animated features over the past few years. 2009’s The Princess and the Frog was the last film from Walt Disney Animation Studios that could arguably be called a dud, but was soon followed by…
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VINYL, 1.6 – ‘Cyclone’
It’s only taken six weeks, but Vinyl finally produced an episode in which the good outweighed the bad. Yes, there were still problems—the Bowie cameo was a particularly cringeworthy moment—but this was a tight, taut episode, which largely focused on Richie’s (Bobby Cannavale) downward spiral; what drugs cost him before. and what they might yet…
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BETTER CALL SAUL, 2.6 – ‘Bali Ha’i’
As we ease into the second half of Better Call Saul’s sophomore year, it’s becoming clear that Jimmy McGill’s (Bob Odenkirk) storyline isn’t a strong as his occasional partner-in-crime Mike’s (Jonathan Banks). I’ve had concerns about this being the case before on the show, but I think season 2’s highlighting the split more because the…
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THE CLUB / EL CLUB (2015)
Recently crowned Best Picture at the Oscars, Spotlight detailed the uncovering of the shocking child sex scandal associated with the Catholic Church. While that film focused primarily on the journalists working doggedly to reveal the heinous conspiracy to cover up what turned out to be a long history of systemic child abuse, the latest film…
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THE AMERICANS, 4.1 – ‘Glanders’
We return to The Americans in the middle of a nightmare, as Philip (Matthew Rhys) dreams about the time, as a child, he beat a bully to death with a rock. When he wakes up, Elizabeth (Keri Russell) asks what’s wrong, and he tells her that he has to let Martha (Alison Wright) know about Gene—the FBI…
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VINYL, 1.5 – ‘He in Racist Fire’
Far too much of my time is spent wondering exactly why Vinyl doesn’t work for me. It looks wonderful, the pieces are in place, the script sometimes sings, the cast is strong —and yet the show is a hotter mess than its coke-snorting protaganist. Part of the problem is that it’s entirely lacking in subtlety.…
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BETTER CALL SAUL, 2.5 – ‘Rebecca’
I love how Better Call Saul fleshes out its own narrative, with glimpses of the past that inform the future (which is also, slightly confusingly, the past to fans of Breaking Bad). The opening of “Rebecca” answered the obvious question the title provokes, with a lovely vignette set during the time Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) was working…
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STAG (BBC, 2016)
There’s a long tradition of stories about groups of people being hunted and killed, one by one, by a mystery assailant (most owing a debt to Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel And Then There Were None, maybe a few to 1987’s Predator). There’s an even longer real-life tradition of soon-to-be-married men being thrown raucous parties, to…
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THE WITCH (2015)
I wasn’t surprised to learn that The Witch’s writer-director, Robert Eggers, is from New England (his hometown is Lee, New Hampshire, about an hour from where I grew up). The film, which opens in a Puritan village, may have been filmed in Canada, but Eggers (also a production designer) and his crew put a great deal of…
