Although there are discernible arcs and some level of growth for a few of the characters, ‘Youth’ is all so on-the-nose and force-fed that the whole affair comes off as decidedly manufactured and plastic.
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December 2015
The Force Awakens is an action film. It feels like Star Wars but it isn’t Star Wars.
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An expertly crafted drama with impeccable performances, a tight script, stunning set and costume designs, and a brisk yet thoughtful pace, director Todd Haynes’ newest film, Carol, soars.
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At nearly three hours, one laments the wasted opportunity, for there is ample time, directorial muscle, and acting horsepower to walk the line between cinematically engaging and broadly digestible.
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In order for a professional critics body to have integrity, nomination and voting guidelines must be consistent with the way they were laid out at the beginning of the process. Nominating “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” for Best Picture does not follow those guidelines, and re-ignites a loophole for this kind of thing to happen every year.
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Mad Max: Fury Road was chosen as the Best Film of 2015 by the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, the second oldest critics group in the country. The winners were announced yesterday during a ceremony at the Alamo Drafthouse Theatre in Kansas City.
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For months now, people online and off have been speculating, hoping, disavowing their interest in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. So with so much non-film related stuff swirling around J.J. Abrams latest installment of the Star Wars serial, how is one to offer any insightful critique of The Force Awakens?
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As a spectacle, as pure entertainment, The Force Awakens delivers. Its pace is near break-neck, but it rarely feels rushed. The climax manages to feel bigger-than-life and starkly intimate at the same time. And people will be talking about the movie’s big plot points for months.
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The Kansas City Film Critics Circle, the second oldest film critic organization in the country, released their nominees for the 50th Annual James Loutzenhiser Awards, recognizing the best in film for 2015.
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There’s an odd, weirdly cozy relationship between Christmas and crime, at least in cinema. Hollywood’s scribes churn out “holiday” films on the regular, and since conflict drives story, nefarious doings often get stirred into the plot-stew of Yuletide yarns. Today’s list ranks the various Christmas capers that have popped up in Christmas films throughout the years, and judged them based on their creativity, ultimate success, and quality of presentation.
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