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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
Am I the only one on the planet who liked "Little Miss Sunshine," sort of, without believing a second of it? I never believed those nutty, single-trait characters belonged to the same fractured family. I didn't believe the rousing feel-good finale. What I liked, I liked because of what the performers did to transcend their own material. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
There's not much wrong with the house in "The Haunting in Connecticut" that a little WD-40 couldn't cure. Everything creaks, including the dialogue. You'd swear the place was haunted by the ghost of a sound designer whose predilection for metallic clangs every time an apparition swoops by a mirror turns this thing into a virtual anvil chorus. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
"Duplicity" opens with a scene, shot in horrified slow motion, of corporate tycoons Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson arguing and then wrestling and then punching each other on a rainy airport tarmac, while their slack-jawed employees wonder what has become of American business practices. Nothing duplicitous here: These men want each other's hearts on a platter. Writer-director Tony Gilroy makes this audaciously weird intro genuinely funny. I thought so, anyway. And if you do too, you'll probably enjoy "Duplicity" even as its narrative starts coiling around itself like a snake. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
"Hunger" stars Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army terrorist/martyr who starved himself to death in 1981, at 27, to bring attention to the extraordinarily harsh conditions in which he and his fellow prisoners of the infamous H-Block of the Maze Prison, near Belfast, lived under British authority. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
A minor but enjoyable entry in the boy-man comedy genre, "I Love You, Man" stars Paul Rudd as a guyless guy - a heterosexual L.A. real estate agent engaged to be married but short on straight-up male companionship in general and a best man for his wedding in particular. Rudd has worked wonders in all sorts of comedies, from "Anchorman" (no one could turn to the camera, suddenly, with more phony intensity) to "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up." The reason Rudd wears so well has something to do with charm and, more important, spiking that charm with an unsettling dash of vinegar. He's easy company, but that smile seems to be hiding something. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Christopher Borrelli
A man is privy to the details of upcoming disasters - when, where and how many people will die. That man is Nicolas Cage. Knowing that, the moviegoer now makes certain calculations: Cage is not like other men. He is composed of 66 percent water, 21 percent forehead, 10 percent terrible movies and 3 percent movies that make you wonder why that other 10 percent has been so ridiculously high for so long. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
Crushingly realistic one minute and melodramatically hokey the next - the strategy worked for "Slumdog Millionaire," why not for "Sin Nombre"? This debut feature comes from writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga, an Oakland native who developed his project at the Sundance Institute. The film went on to considerable acclaim at this year's Sundance Film Festival, as did last year's "Frozen River." more |
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Chicago Tribune: Betsy Sharkey
"The Great Buck Howard," an affectionate though flawed comedy, stars John Malkovich as a mentalist who once filled venues around the country and appeared 61 times on "The Tonight Show" in the Johnny Carson era. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
"I love beauty. Is not my fault." So says the high priest of Italian high fashion, Valentino Garavani, answering a TV interviewer's question about why he ventured into the design business. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
The Bush era will forever be defined by America's war in Iraq, which provoked a barrage of left-leaning documentaries - some great, like "No End in Sight" and "The War Tapes," others one-dimensional and hectoring - dealing with its consequences. more |
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