It’s the deeply earnest performances from Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Oona Laurence and Rachel McAdams — and the natural tendency to get behind the underdog — that keeps Southpaw going, even when a crushing inevitability hangs over the entire movie.
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Rudd is his usual likable self, and he’s perfect for a role that requires a lot of exasperation. He’s an everyman that’s easy to root for from the get-go, and his droll sense of humor allows him to comment on the stranger goings-on with the appropriate amount of “WTF?”
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Lila & Eve is an interesting exploitation/psychodrama about a grieving mother who takes the law into her own hands after her son is killed in a drive-by shooting.
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Trainwreck still follows lots of typical rom-com formulas, but it also proves that there is still life left in these formulas, as long as there is true chemistry and tiny subversions along the way.
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The 1927 Ernest Hemingway short story The Killers was adapted to film twice in a span of less than 20 years, producing two fantastic films which share some of the same themes, but in every other respect couldn’t be farther apart. The fact that The Criterion Collection has updated their previously issued double-movie DVD and has just released it on Blu-ray is real cause for celebration.
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While this might be least-known of director Jack Hill’s efforts, even within the pantheon of work he did for Corman’s New World Pictures, it’s definitely worth a closer look.
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On the surface, this 1970 movie from Czech New Wave auteur Jaromil Jireš seems like a softcore porn Alice in Wonderland but without quite enough nudity to qualify.
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Written and directed by Patrick Brice, The Overnight is a sex comedy that takes on the issue of two couples sexually comingling. It is strange, awkward, and works brilliantly because of Brice’s brutally honest approach to the curiosity and insecurity that plagues each of us.
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl has a few nuances that are interesting and make it a welcomed newcomer to the dying teen genre, but still holds onto some worrisome tropes that keep it from rethinking the genre in a meaningful way.
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Newlywed couple Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but in order to qualify to be a parent, Ted will have to prove he’s a person in a court of law.
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High schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer.
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The Bridge is one of the best anti-war movies I’ve ever seen. Certainly its about the futility of war, but it goes farther than that.
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Vinegar Syndrome’s DVD release of the 1969 Nazisploitation/sexploitation flick The Cut-Throats — limited to 1,500 copies — is a very basic one. It has a 2k restoration, along with the original trailer, and that’s about it.
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Spanish language beat-em-up Redeemer from director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza doesn’t quite make up in its action chops what it lacks in its screenplay.
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Beloved Sisters, out now on Blu Ray and DVD through Music Box Films, is a dull slog through Enlightenment-era Europe about two aristocratic sisters who fall in love with German writer Friedrich Schiller.
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