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Shoplifters

6/26/2019

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B+
​3.44

A makeshift family pulls in a little girl they find on the street.

Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring Lily Franky and Sakuro Ando
​Review by Jon Kissel

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The films of Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda typically contain no drama at all.  In something like Our Little Sister or Still Walking, he makes the equivalent of TV hangout sitcoms where he organically clues the viewer in to various dynamics and watches as the characters visit a graveyard or prepare a complicated dish.  Not every film has to have physical stakes, and his often don’t.  I’ve seen about half of Koreeda’s films and Shoplifters has the highest stakes, by far.  There’s a constant risk of discovery in the central family-ish unit, and Koreeda has called Shoplifters his ‘socially conscious’ entry.  One can’t make a political point without some kind of conflict, and Shoplifters certainly has that.  It also has what makes Koreeda such a notable filmmaker i.e. a realistic adherence to workaday life that still allows for the possibility of beauty to enter at any moment.


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No Country For Old Men

6/20/2019

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A-
3.64

A man who finds a satchel of money in the desert is pursued by a deadly hitman.

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, and Tommy Lee Jones
Review by Jon Kissel

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No Country For Old Men is indicative of both how good its directors are and what a phenomenal year for movies 2007 was.  This is a film that has it all: memorable characters, quotable lines, thrilling setpieces, a coherent worldview, the perfect amount of humor to leaven the darkness, and something to say about how we view history and justice and cause and effect.  It’s all those things, while also being arguably Joel and Ethan Coen’s sixth or seventh best film and barely cracking my personal top 5 for 2007 releases. That this near-perfect film is relegated to those kinds of finishes makes me want to watch Fargo or Ratatouille again, but we’re here to praise No Country first.  ​


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Frank

6/6/2019

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A-
​3.56

An experimental band with an eccentric lead singer run into internet notoriety.

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson
Starring Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Review by Jon Kissel

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​This one was a lot of fun.  Lenny Abrahamson's Frank could have been an insufferable quirk-fest, but his  story of a musician with a unique compulsion strikes the balance between oddity and pathos.  Featuring a spectacular physical performance from man-in-the-head Michael Fassbender and a ridiculous soundtrack, Frank is loaded with meaty material that has kept me thinking about it long after the initial viewing.


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