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Chicago Tribune: Kenneth Turan
It would be Pollyannish to pretend that the documentary "Earth" is without its problems, but the bottom line is, difficulties be damned, it shouldn't be missed. What it does well is so remarkable that by the time the credits roll you likely won't want it to end. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Betsy Sharkey
We tend to think of the U.S. justice system as the best in the world. Then along comes a film like "American Violet," a disquieting drama based on the true story of a young single mother victimized by what turned out to be a tainted, race-based drug arrest and the crusade of a conviction-hungry district attorney in a small Texas town. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Betsy Sharkey
It is a trembly and vulnerable Michael Caine we see in "Is Anybody There?" - a finely drawn and gentle British drama propelled by another of the star's unforgettable screen portraits. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Robert Abele
A tale of encroachment and entrenchment - and, perhaps, the perils of undernourishment - the drama "Lemon Tree" from Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis pits Salma, a lonely Palestinian widow (Hiam Abbass) tending a family lemon grove in her West Bank village, against a slick Israeli defense minister (Doron Tavory) building his new house on the Green Line border that abuts her property. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
Present-day Tijuana is one of the most compelling places on earth, and even among border cities (what few I've seen, anyway) it represents a spectacular welter of rich possibility and crushing limitation. It's a symbol of the push-pull co-dependency of America and Mexico, a city defined by a fence that runs straight down the beach, into the Pacific Ocean. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
I can't imagine a baseball fan - or a moviegoer - who wouldn't respond on some level to the new film "Sugar," a rich and moving reminder of the way professional sports aspirations can shape someone's destiny in the real world, as opposed to the mythological realm of "The Natural." Now, you may love "The Natural" the way I love "Bull Durham." But "Sugar" is something else. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Mikchael Phillips
The film's subtitle, "A Skeptic's Journey into the World of Yoga," does not refer to Kate Churchill, the dedicated yoga practitioner who co-wrote, produced and directed this documentary. The skeptic, rather, is New York City freelance journalist Nick Rosen, who brings plenty of initial wisecracking resistance to a transformative adventure in self-actualization. Unfortunately the film is also an adventure in superficiality: As Churchill's camera follows Rosen from New York to L.A. to Hawaii to an extended trip to India, his interest in yoga shifts from the physical to the spiritual. There's probably a good film in this subject, but Churchill sets up the central dynamic - nattering true-believer filmmaker locking horns with her blase subject - in ways that feel phony and smug. "I'm sick and tired of trying to get Nick to be meaningful," she says at one point, and while it's half-a-joke, as a filmmaking statement of intent it's also half-appalling. For die-hard yoga fans only; I'm no yogaphobe but by film's end I was thinking some fairly uncharitable and un-spiritual thoughts. more |
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Chicago Tribune: Michael Phillips
In most sports movies the big moments are big: Robert Redford's star-spangled mega-homer in "The Natural." 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: Michael Phillips
English actor Tom Hardy is rumored to be the new Mad Max in that franchise's reboot. If he does end up in Mel Gibson's boots, judging from Hardy's riveting work in the new film "Bronson," the "mad" part won't be an issue. more |
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