2012

With the new Blu-ray release of Anderson’s 2012 standout Moonrise Kingdom, The Criterion Collection has now issued all but one of his movies with a deluxe treatment that celebrates that universe.

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The Armstrong Lie is a fascinating portrait of a man in denial, told from the firsthand perspective of Gibney, who himself was duped at a certain level by Armstrong’s own confidence and charm. Wadjda is about an 11-year-old girl in Saudi Arabia who longs for some of the same freedoms that women in the Western world take for granted.

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This weekend the Screenland Armour is the home of Panic Fest, a horror and thriller film fest with vendors that acts as general celebration of everything creepy, crawly, and scary. It’s a great fest for people who like their horror a little more off the beaten path than the latest uninspired remake of whatever classic horror film Hollywood is butchering next.

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Lesson learned. Don’t let an angry drunk near a typewriter. Here’s LA-based movie tech guy Wayne Swab’s Top 10 Personal Movie Letdowns.

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Figuring out who you are and where you fit in can feel like war at a young age. I Declare War brings all those feelings rushing back and is rousing, funny, thoughtful entertainment to boot.

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The best picture and certainly the most raw, honest, and devastating film of last year is Michael Haneke’s Amour, released today in a crisp, hi-def Blu-ray that amplifies the formal design of one apartment building in Paris

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Two horror movies out Tuesday on DVD and Blu-ray take completely different approaches, though neither is wholly successful.

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Before you think that this all this fawning over Rick Springfield is too weird, consider this: We all have a nostalgic obsession to one thing or another. For an entire generation of “nerds” (who seem to have inherited the summer movie season in all its $200-million+ budget glory), Star Wars has been a defining cultural entity. So before you go off all high and mighty about the weirdos that follow the Yellow Rick Road, think about the bit of pop culture that helped define you.

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Had Much Ado About Nothing come from a young director just beginning their career, it would seem an exciting, yet flawed introduction. Coming from Joss Whedon, one of the biggest and most established directors of our time, it seems stupid.

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“Putzel” is a Yiddish slang word meaning dummy, schmuck, or more literally, penis, and like some kind of abandoned love child sprung from the loins of Bob Newhart and Woody Allen, the ineffectual Putzel definitely lives up to his moniker.

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Michael Mohan’s ‘Save the Date’ explores some of the same ground as ‘When Harry Met Sally…,’ but with the self questioning and skepticism that make it more approachable and believable to a contemporary audience.

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Focusing on an emotionally stoic and sexually unfaithful foursome, and one magically restorative hard shell suitcase, Bob Byington’s 76-minute episodic narrative would not have the impact or charm had the budget been ten million dollars. In the confines of low budget independent film, Somebody Up There Likes Me is refreshing and poignant.

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This Saturday sees the release of the documentary Last Shop Standing: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of the Independent Record Shop via Blue Hippo Media. This film is the official film of this year’s Record Store Day.

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Graceland, the second feature from director Ron Morales, features a story that isn’t necessarily new to American audiences, but it’s set in a place that is. Morales’ kidnapping thriller unfolds in the Philippines

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The Central Park Five is a documentary (appearing on PBS tonight) about five young men wrongly accused of rape and assault in New York in 1989. It’s a story that will make you disappointed in humanity and righteously angry at those responsible for incarcerating the wrong people.

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