A
Fences
During the 1950s Blacks were continuing the “Northern migration” from the Jim Crow oppression in the south to the northern states. Blacks felt that in the North at least some…
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D+
Life
It’s often stunning to think it’s been less than 60 years since man went into space — sorry conspiracy theorists. What’s less stunning is how space has since captured the…
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Ghost in the Shell (1995)
In post-war Japan, rebuilding quickly meant embracing new technologies. Every decade brought more advancements and a deeper integration of burgeoning computer power. The high-tech future, always a part of Japanese popular imagination, became…
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B+
Sing
Buster Moon desperately wants to save his theater… and himself. When he was a young koala, his parents took him to see a stage production in which a sensational Suffolk…
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The Innocents
Faith is twenty four hours of doubt, and one minute of hope. Serene liturgical music fills the ears as the film opens, the voices of women, nuns in a contemplative…
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Get Out
Jordan Peele is best known for his comedy work on Mad TV and Key and Peele, but for his feature film debut he chose a decidedly different path. Get Out…
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Brief Encounter
The first film review I ever wrote was of Brief Encounter, for a Wisconsin Lutheran college newspaper. The review is, mercifully, lost to us, and so I find myself writing…
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B
Split
Ever since Newsweek dubbed him “The Next Spielberg” in July 2002, M. Night Shyamalan has had a rough go in Hollywood. That’s not to say he’s hurting for monetary success:…
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
No one writes movies like Charlie Kaufman. Who else would make his feature screenwriting debut about a portal inside the brain of John Malkovich as he did in Being John…
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Silence
Silence is the story of two priests who travel from Rome to Japan in search of their former teacher, Father Ferreira, who is said to have apostatized* under persecution from…
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