Note: If you have any interest at all in seeing this film, I firmly advise that you go in completely cold and don’t read this until after you’ve seen it. I don’t know if Chronicle is the first found-footage superhero film, but I’m certain it’s the best—and will remain so for a very long...
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Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim work best in sketches. If you’re reading this, I suspect you’re a fan of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, if not, it’s a sketch show that’s best bits mock public-access television, from the strange and self-aggrandizing programs to those car commercials from the local dealer who insists...
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On this episode of the Almost Locals Only podcast John and Shannon give their reviews of the Liam Nesson staring The Grey. They also discuss A Dangerous Method and this Tuesday’s Academy Award nominations, and the snubs that always come every year with them. Show notes (podcast recorded Thursday January 26, run time 39mins...
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David Cronenberg has always been drawn to psychologically challenging material, especially when it has to do with breaking societal taboos. Flip through his filmography (Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Crash) and you’ll see some seriously depraved stuff. He has mellowed substantially in recent years (The History of Violence, Eastern Promises), but thankfully,...
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Maybe I was overly optimistic, but Harold Lloyd’s classic “Safety Last!” was the first association I found myself thinking of as I waited for the unfortunately limp Man on a Ledge to begin. In the infamous sequence from the silent film, Lloyd scales a building (and hangs from a clock) which provides shock, humor,...
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January is usually known as an arid wasteland for new film releases. Studios dump all the films that weren’t good enough for awards consideration, and the results are not pretty. My expectations for The Grey were tempered accordingly. I expected a campy creature-feature, nothing more. What I got instead was a complex, touching and...
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The nominations for the 2012 Academy Awards were announced this morning. The awards will take place on Sunday, February 26.  Films receiving the most nominations were Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (11 noms) and silent film The Artist (10 noms). Best Picture The Artist The Descendants Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close The Help Hugo  Midnight in...
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On this episode of the Almost Locals Only podcast John, Shannon and Nat get together for the third year running to talk their favorite films of the year 2011. Great goodness that concession stands packed with snacks salty and sweet! Give the show a listen! Show notes (podcast recorded Wednesday January 18, run time...
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I suspect this film will be quite polarizing for audiences, but not for the reasons you may think. Though Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close takes place in the days, weeks and months following 9/11, it is essentially devoid of controversy or political overtones. The tragedy serves as a catalyst for the story of one...
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I think George Lucas deserves some credit where it’s due, and say what you will about the prequels, the opening to Revenge of the Sith, with the dogfight over the planet was pretty awe-inspiring. So when the trailer for Red Tails came out, I was excited to see a Lucasfilm production that focused mainly...
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  I didn’t know what to expect. From the endless trailer play The Artist received at the Landmark on Clark, I have to admit I didn’t have much hope. It looked too “artsy,” too cute, too self-important. That’s at least how it seemed. And then the reviews started coming in, and pretty much everyone...
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Remember back in the day when MTV’s The Real World was all the rage? I waited every week with bated breath to see what shenanigans would occur when people “stopped being polite and started getting real.” That tagline is a pretty good synopsis of Carnage, a biting drama directed by Roman Polanski. The film takes...
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Like a successful spy, the quiet and grippingly brilliant Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy sits unobtrusively amidst the flashier year-end Oscar contenders—alternately heartwarming (We Bought a Zoo), Artistic with a capital “A” (Hugo, The Artist), tragic (War Horse, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), scene-devouring and envelope-pushing (Shame), glossily true to life (Iron Lady, My Week...
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Happy News Years Eve, everyone. In honor of the day, we are posting this super cute video that Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt made together. It’s stinkin’ adorable. The two have been friends for quite some time, and starred in 500 Days of Summer a few years ago. The song is entitled “What...
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Upon watching a trailer for War Horse a few months ago, my first thought was, “I will never be able to see that movie.” I’ve heard that many grown men have been reduced to openly sobbing while watching the play (that used puppets, for God’s sakes). How on earth could I make it through...
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Every little boy seems drawn to adventure. Swashbuckling. Damsels in distress. Treasure. Dragons or other mythical beasts. Pirates. The wilderness. The jungle. The sea. Just a few choice key words can evoke the imagery of a gaggle of boys riding their bikes on a secret quest filled with mystery and imaginary guns fired with...
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Well, what can you say? It has a zoo, the zoo has animals—and not just local ones like the raccoons and possums they had at the petting zoo across the street from my house growing up—this zoo has lions and tigers and bears and giraffes and snakes and whatnot else. It has Matt Damon...
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Like a lot of people, I didn’t see any need for an Americanized version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The Swedish film was quite good, and it seemed as though actress Noomi Rapace had cornered the market on the character of Lisbeth Salander with her tough as nails portrayal of the troubled...
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