It was only a matter of time before James Gray ended up in space. As his career has progressed, the great American filmmaker has turned his focus toward the journey, with steady upward growth: His most recent films have featured a Polish immigrant trying to survive in New York (2013’s The Immigrant) and an obsessed…
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“I was with the woman of my life.” Cold War is a film from another time. It exists to be projected in a dark room, where people lean forward in rapt attention, perhaps smoking a cigarette or sipping on a drink. Afterward, they will go to a local bar, or walk beside the sienne, and…
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I’ll admit: I’m two years late to the game with this one. The OA, which dropped seemingly out of nowhere on Netflix in late 2016, was a show that was always on my radar but never quite made it onto my screen. Why, I’m not sure. The premise, to be fair, is quite something. Created…
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Here is something I know to be true: I love American Beauty. It’s a small thing to say, but somehow, it feels huge. Because Sam Mendes’ 1999 success has had a rough go of things as of late. To profess love, in 2019, could be considered a controversial statement. It is, at the very least,…
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My picks of the litter in a particularly great year in film. 18. The Tale Jennifer Fox’s cinematic memoir is an unflinching investigation into the sexual abuse she endured as a child and later re-worked in her memory, until a childhood story resurfaced, throwing everything back into the light. A typically excellent Jennifer Dern acts…
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There is a certain insanity in space travel. A small cylinder, small by the standards of the universe, fused with earthly skills. Screws and bolts and metals; the same principles of your car or your kitchen sink. And yet it will transcend the Earth’s atmosphere, and explore the unknown. Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon’s…
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A lot of Debra Granik’s remarkable second feature is spent without warmth. Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) and her father Will (Ben Foster) have grown accustomed to this, having spent a significant amount of time living in the national parks of Portland, Oregon. There, they have built a home: A living area, with a fire pit and…
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