Screen

Crisis of context

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I believe it’s a lack of context, not empathy. Because if it’s a lack of empathy, we’re screwed — doomed as a country, culture, maybe even species. The dismissal of the poor as bottom-feeding, system-exploiting moochers comes from not having a full perspective of ...

Train of thought

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No matter how blue-collar or red-meat the story, director Tony Scott’s movies revel in his luxe, glossy yet easily distracted technique that ensures every shot is trailer-ready, and every fractured moment strives for maximum coolness. He’s an old-school cliche-...

BIFF: The Human Experiment

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Every single one of us is being transformed daily into a walking cocktail of chemicals...

Brick-a-Bat

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Forget “Don’t Tread on Me.” If Americans really wanted a flag that captures our collective mentality, it would be a morbidly obese snake with...

A long time ago…

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America in the 1970s was not exactly abundant with optimism. The tragic death of Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Free Concert on Dec. 6, 1969 cast a dark shadow over the free love and hippy counterculture of the ’60s. Then came the fallout from the Vietnam War, the ...

Kevin Costner hates you

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He laid low...

More vulgarity, please

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In 1956, not long after she married Death of a Salesman playwright Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe made a movie with director and star Laurence Olivier at England’s Pinewood Studios. The film, The Prince and the Showgirl, came from Terence Rattigan’s drawing-room ...

Libraries: More than a building full of books

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Located on Fifth Avenue, nestled between 40th and 42nd streets, the New York Public Library is as inspiring as it is imposing. Opened in...

Numerically accurate

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Among the last words of 1960s The Magnificent Seven is this Nietzschian fortune cookie quote: “We lost. We’ll always lose.” At the end of...

‘Saw VI’ more of the same

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"You have seen the errors in your policy," Jigsaw...

Sorry, Malaysian tourism industry!

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No Escape feels like it was written by somebody who violently hates the entire Asian continent. Culled from every xenophobic stereotype, down to the eating of dogs, the film plays like a two-hour anti-tourism ad: “Malaysia, You’ll Probably Die Here.” Setting aside ...

‘Horrible’ pretty good

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You can practically hear little coils of contempt tightening inside Jason Bateman every time he’s in a pickle on screen. In the new comedy Horrible Bosses, the Bateman specialty is the are-you-trying-to-tell-me response. At one point in the film, when confronted ...