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Cinematary

where film criticism goes to die
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Robert Pattinson and THIS BABY star in director Claire Denis’s High Life

Robert Pattinson and THIS BABY star in director Claire Denis’s High Life

High Life (2019) by Claire Denis

May 6, 2019

Review by Michael O’Malley

High Life fits pretty neatly within the tradition of “arthouse sci-fi” and even more neatly into the sub-category of “arthouse space voyage” that began, for all intents and purposes, with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 in 1968 and continues on through Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris in 1972 and Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar in 2014.

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Avengers: Endgame (2019) by Joe and Anthony Russo

May 1, 2019

Review by Courtney Anderson

As Tony Stark says, “Part of the journey is the end.” Endgame feels like a very appropriate end to this version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Homecoming (2019) by Beyoncé Knowles

April 22, 2019

Review by Courtney Anderson

The biggest celebrity in the world is a Black woman who is willing to push herself way past any limitations — her own and the ones the world tends to thrust upon us--to manifest her vision. And it’s amazing to watch her do it.

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Hugh Jackman and Zach Galifianakis star in Laika studios’ fifth feature, Missing Link

Hugh Jackman and Zach Galifianakis star in Laika studios’ fifth feature, Missing Link

Missing Link (2019) by Chris Butler

April 18, 2019

Review by Lydia Creech

Cinematary favorite Laika’s fifth feature Missing Link is a globe-spanning adventure aimed at a slightly younger crowd than their previous films.

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Peterloo (2019) by Mike Leigh

April 15, 2019

Review by Etan Weisfogel

It remains to be seen whether the film is simply an outlier or rather the first sign of what might be termed “late-period Leigh.” Peterloo has all the markings of an archetypal late-period work, namely a purified, ascetic style that feels like the product of someone who no longer feels a need to prove himself.

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Four different kitties play Church, the feline lead of Pet Sematary

Four different kitties play Church, the feline lead of Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary (2019) by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer

April 8, 2019

Review by Diana Rogers

This movie is your very own monkey's paw, giving you everything you thought you wanted, but in the most unsatisfying way imaginable. Was this movie made by aliens? Robots? People who've never seen a moving picture and have no concept of what actually makes them work? It's not scary, and it's not emotionally engaging. It feels perfunctory, anemic and soulless. "They don't come back the same," you say? No, they certainly do not.

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Virginia Gardner stars in director A.T. White’s debut feature, Starfish

Virginia Gardner stars in director A.T. White’s debut feature, Starfish

Starfish (2019) by A.T. White

April 3, 2019

Review by Andrew Swafford

Starfish is not really a horror film. It’s something else – and that something is kind of beautiful.

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The Beach Bum (2019) by Harmony Korine

April 1, 2019

Review by Nadine Smith

The first thing we see Moondog do is save a stray cat. Opening with that old screenwriting adage— if you want us to like your character, write a scene in which they save a cat — might make you think we’re supposed to be endeared to the titular sea-side ass of Harmony Korine’s latest film. But Moondog isn’t like the rest of us Earthlings; he transcended everyone else’s opinion of him long ago.

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Dragged Across Concrete (2019) by S. Craig Zahler

March 28, 2019

Review by Nathan Smith

For better or worse, Dragged Across Concrete is neither the totally hateful and bigoted movie you’ve been warned about nor the formalist masterpiece you’ve been promised.

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Us (2019) by Jordan Peele

March 27, 2019

Review by Courtney Anderson

I imagine that Jordan Peele’s brain is kind of a chaotic place, with millions of ideas, societal critiques, and rational thoughts flying around at rapid speed. I also imagine that every nightmare, moment of fear or spike of anxiety Peele’s ever had is running around freely, too.

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Captain Marvel (2019) by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

March 13, 2019

Review by Courtney Anderson

This movie really just needed tighter writing. It doesn’t have any super glaring issues, and it’s certainly not the first Marvel movie to have problems with exposition and character development – nor is it the worst of the offenders.

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Rory Culkin stars as black metal founder Euronymous in director Jonas Åkerlund’s Lords of Chaos

Rory Culkin stars as black metal founder Euronymous in director Jonas Åkerlund’s Lords of Chaos

Lords of Chaos (2019) by Jonas Åkerlund

March 11, 2019

A conversation between Andrew Swafford and Mike Thorn

It seems like most people who have reviewed the film have some sort of passionate stance about black metal, which, in almost every case, has elicited anger.

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Alita: Battle Angel (2019) by Robert Rodriguez

March 4, 2019

Review by Nadine Smith

Though it’s a few degrees below the Wachowskis, Alita is the kind of genuinely cinematic, good-natured blockbuster filmmaking that’s all too scarce in Disney’s gated community.

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Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami – the stars, writers, and directors of The Breaker Upperers

Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami – the stars, writers, and directors of The Breaker Upperers

The Breaker Upperers (2019) by Madeleine Sami & Jackie van Beek

February 27, 2019

Review by Jessica Carr

When I saw The Breaker Upperers, I was immediately caught up in the chemistry of writer-director-star duo Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami.

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Clint Eastwood, star and director of The Mule

Clint Eastwood, star and director of The Mule

The Mule (2018) by Clint Eastwood

February 20, 2019

Review by Logan Kenny

Regardless of whether it is or not – I certainly hope it isn’t – this feels like the last film of Eastwood’s career. It feels like a goodbye. The film doesn’t attempt to justify him for his selfishness, nor redeem him for his failures and criminal decisions over the runtime, but rather it shows the beauty of someone trying to be better before it’s too late.

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Steve Carrell stars in director Robert Zemeckis’s Welcome to Marwen

Steve Carrell stars in director Robert Zemeckis’s Welcome to Marwen

Welcome to Marwen (2018) by Robert Zemeckis

February 7, 2019

Review by Logan Kenny

Zemeckis is more interested in coating his actors’ faces in hideous doll CGI and referencing his past works in a disorientating cluster of explosions and overpriced imagery than he is interested in reckoning with the tragedy of his protagonist.

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Olivia Coleman stars in director Yorgot Lanthimos’s The Favourite

Olivia Coleman stars in director Yorgot Lanthimos’s The Favourite

The Favourite (2018) by Yorgos Lanthimos

February 5, 2019

Review by Diana Rogers

Sometimes the women don't look fabulous while they're going about the business of being complicated and fascinating. Sometimes they're middle aged and overweight, un-corseted, gout-ridden and wearing eye makeup that makes them look like a badger. Some of the most celebrated male roles are those that revel in their characters' flaws, their actual human-ness. It shouldn't be so uncommon for women to feature in similar parts, yet somehow it still feels revolutionary, because it happens far too infrequently.

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Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) by Dan Gilroy

February 4, 2019

Review by Reid Ramsey

Upon reflection, what first appeared to be a self-congratulatory commentary on art reveals itself to simply be a five dollar gore-fest; and the movie is all the better for this reason.

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Glass (2019) by M. Night Shyamalan

January 24, 2019

Review by Nadine Smith

M. Night Shyamalan has given us many twists over the past two decades. But there’s another twist waiting in the wings. M. Night Shyamalan got your attention and your dollars with Split, and instead of fulfilling your expectations or building a new cinematic universe, he’s used it to make one of the strangest studio movies of the last decade, a superhero movie that is everything superhero movies aren’t supposed to be.

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Rami Malek stars as Freddie Mercury in director Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody

Rami Malek stars as Freddie Mercury in director Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) by Bryan Singer

January 22, 2019

Review by Logan Kenny

This movie should have been something more, something uplifting and beautiful, but it is not, and all we can do is speak out about its problems together, to not stay silent.

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