Reviews
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‘Ride the Cyclone’ Theater Review: How to Give Rod Serling a Bad Name
A new Off Broadway musical embraces the macabre but not much else
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‘Mifune: The Last Samurai’ Review: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg Honor Japanese Cinema Legend
Toshiro Mifune and his unforgettable collaborations with Akira Kurosawa are recalled in this celebratory doc about the indelible actor
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James Greenberg -
‘Miss Sloane’ Review: Jessica Chastain’s Complicated Lobbyist Feels Cable-Ready
The actress does her best to fill in the script’s character gaps, but the whole enterprise is undone by some third-act switcheroos
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‘Rules Don’t Apply’ Review: Warren Beatty Makes Great Pieces That Don’t Quite Fit Together
There’s a Howard Hughes biopic and a lovely Hollywood romance going on here, but they never quite cohere enough to make one movie between them
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‘Bad Santa 2’ Review: Billy Bob Thornton’s St. Nick Never Sounded So Sour
This numbingly repetitive holiday crime comedy is the most cynical of re-gifts
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Dave White -
‘Moana’ Review: Dwayne Johnson Invigorates Disney’s South Seas Saga
This latest animated adventure is mostly business as usual, but the title character does bolster the studio’s roster of non-princess heroines
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‘Bad Santa 2’ Bashed by Critics: ‘Despicable,’ ‘Vile,’ ‘Lazy’
Billy Bob Thornton’s second go as the character receives a disappointing score of 25 percent on Rotten Tomatoes
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‘Allied’ Review: Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard Rarely Intrigue as Spies in Love
Robert Zemeckis’ WWII espionage tale evokes classic Hollywood but struggles to balance glamour, suspense and starry romance
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Robert Abele -
‘Sweet Charity’ Theater Review: Sutton Foster Galumphs Her Way to Musical-Comedy Greatness
This working girl resembles a clomping giraffe in a bad Dynel wig — both hilarious and pathetic
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‘Dead Poets Society’ Theater Review: Jason Sudeikis Goes Back to School, But Why Should We?
Tom Schulman adapts his 1989 screenplay about a 1950s boys’ prep school to the stage. Oh, for the future days of STDs and crystal meth among our youth
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‘Bleed for This’ Review: Miles Teller Can’t Punch His Way Out of a Routine Boxing Movie
True story of Vinny Pazienza has lots of potential, almost none of which is realized in Ben Younger’s biopic
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Claudia Puig -
‘Best Worst Thing’ Review: Sondheim’s Beloved Flop Recalled in ‘Merrily’ Bittersweet Documentary
Original “Merrily We Roll Along” cast member Lonny Price revisits Stephen Sondheim’s notorious classic and captures something timeless about showbiz ecstasies and agonies
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Robert Abele -
‘Manchester by the Sea’ Review: Casey Affleck Excels in Mournful Family Tale
A New England fishing town is the chilly backdrop for Kenneth Longergan’s psychologically astute, beautifully acted story of one man’s crushing grief
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Robert Abele -
‘Take Me to the River’ Review: This Family Reunion Plays Like Polanski, With Cicadas
Writer-director Matt Sobel’s extraordinary debut feature boasts a powerful ensemble cast and finds the tension in what people don’t talk about
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‘Edge of Seventeen’ Review: Woody Harrelson Steals Angsty High School Comedy
Toronto 2016: Kelly Fremon Craig’s coming-of-age film stars Hailee Steinfeld, but a laconic Harrelson is its clear MVP