Screen

‘Spy Next Door’ is limp and lifeless

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"Every day you get older," Butch Cassidy once griped to The Sundance Kid. "It's the law...

Step into the story

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At last year’s Starz Denver Film Festival, I entered a theater playing the movie Grigris with no knowledge of what it was about, who made it, what country it came from or anything other than it was screening and I was free. Grigris — a joint production between Chad ...

Reel to reel | Week of October 10, 2013

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Blue Jasmine After everything in her life falls to pieces, elegant New York socialite Jasmine moves into her sister Ginger’s modest apartment in San Francisco to try to pull herself back together again. Rated PG. At Boedecker, Esquire, Colony Square. Captain ...

The lie that points toward the truth

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Gary Zimmer (Steve Carell) is a typical liberal elite, the kind they grow in labs somewhere along the coast. He dresses well enough to...

Diabetes: the real monster

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Hansel (Jeremy Renner) has diabetes. This is not a throwaway character trait, not a bit of bizarre nuance in a quasi-steampunk re-imagining of a Grimm fairy tale. The fact that Hansel must stop combating the forces of darkness whenever his wrist-alarm-thingie goes ...

The terror of St. Valentine

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Let´s face a simple fact about Valentine’s Day: there are fewer things less romantic than being forced to be romantic along with the rest of the world. Instead of crowded restaurants and run-of-the-mill flower bouquets, forget the Hallmark holiday spirit this year ...

Alexander Payne’s sweet stakes

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I like Alexander Payne. I really do. His ability as a director to mine for subtle laughs others would leave buried is as pleasant as his now-signature genre of “middle-aged-and-older men having muted epiphanies.” I guess I just miss the Citizen Ruth/Election-era ...

Jerry Garcia documentary in the works after years of delays

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Deadheads rejoice — a new documentary chronicling the life of the late guitar-god Jerry Garcia is in the works for an end of the year release.Filmmaker Malcolm Leo has teamed up with former Eagles manager John Hartmann to tackle the life of Grateful Dead frontman ...

Wes Anderson could go full Burton

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It’s not writer/director Wes Anderson’s fault that since he burst on the scene with what is still his best film, Bottle Rocket, he has become a hipster demigod...

R2D2 meets the AARP

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First things first: although she’s only eight years younger than he is, nobody will accept that Susan Sarandon would want to kiss Frank Langella on his mouth parts. That premise requires a bigger suspension of disbelief than the rest of Robot & Frank, which presumes ...

Cons, vexing

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Despite its title and the fact that Will Smith continually mouth-dumps exposition about how pulling a con requires attention to detail, Focus is hella sloppy. It’s not just that genuinely thrilling “who’s playing who” moments bump up against a holistically ...

Legendary ski family hopes to start a movement

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Stories about people overcoming obstacles are uplifting and inspirational and all that. A new film on people with disabilities aims higher: It’s designed to start a movement...