REVIEW: A Star Is Born [2018]

I love the way she sees them. It began with Hollywood as William A. Wellman and Robert Carson won an Oscar for their story about a young actress dreaming of super stardom in 1937. From there it went the way of the movie musical thanks to Judy Garland taking the lead before earning six nominations in 1954. Next came Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson to shift things to the music world with its aging rock star and hopeful songstress adding a 1976 Best Song to the awards cabinet. Now—almost a…

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REVIEW: Snitch [2013]

“You just have to trust me” Watching the trailer for Ric Roman Waugh‘s Snitch had me believing the film would be a high-octane actioner in the vein of Dwayne Johnson‘s other one-word titled thriller Faster. Between the depiction of The Rock’s John Matthews going undercover with the DEA to bring down a narcotics kingpin and the writer/director’s past as a stuntman/stunt coordinator, it seemed a pretty easy leap to make. Interestingly enough, however, this isn’t the case and I’m torn whether that realization is a positive or negative. Generally action…

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TIFF08 REVIEW: Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist [2008]

“Where’s Fluffy?” What do you get when you cast Michael Cera as an awkward late-teen/quasi-geek; a sassy, smart, attractive girl who is a better catch then she thinks; a killer Indie soundtrack; and comedic side characters that deliver the goods? Juno? Not quite. Peter Sollett decided to follow-up his acclaimed drama Raising Victor Vargas by jumping on the pretentious cool train to do a “smart” teen comedy. What we get is Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is a real good time;…

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