#‘Heroic’ Review: A Stark and Unsettling Drama Exploring Abuse in the Mexican Military

#‘Heroic’ Review: A Stark and Unsettling Drama Exploring Abuse in the Mexican Military

‘Heroic’ Review: A Stark and Unsettling Drama Exploring Abuse in the Mexican Military A punishing look at extreme military indoctrination, David Zonana’s second feature, Heroic, portrays the relentless system of abuse, torture and violence that new army recruits go through while attending Mexico’s own version of West Point, which is ironically called the Heroic Military…

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#‘20 Days in Mariupol’ Review: Harrowing Doc Chronicles Russian Siege of Ukrainian Port City

#‘20 Days in Mariupol’ Review: Harrowing Doc Chronicles Russian Siege of Ukrainian Port City

‘20 Days in Mariupol’ Review: Harrowing Doc Chronicles Russian Siege of Ukrainian Port City As 20 Days in Mariupol tragically demonstrates, as long as there are wars, there will be war documentaries. First-time filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov’s effort is a particularly immersive example of the genre, chronicling the weekslong siege of the titular Ukrainian city by…

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#‘Fremont’ Review: Jeremy Allen White Lifts Study of a Young Afghan Woman in Northern California

#‘Fremont’ Review: Jeremy Allen White Lifts Study of a Young Afghan Woman in Northern California

‘Fremont’ Review: Jeremy Allen White Lifts Study of a Young Afghan Woman in Northern California There’s a loose template to many films that find a platform at Sundance and frequently disappear into the ether thereafter — the small-scale, muted mood piece that ambles along until something significant finally happens in the last half-hour or so….

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#‘The Longest Goodbye’ Review: Absorbing Doc Ponders the Toll of Travel to Mars

#‘The Longest Goodbye’ Review: Absorbing Doc Ponders the Toll of Travel to Mars

‘The Longest Goodbye’ Review: Absorbing Doc Ponders the Toll of Travel to Mars You’d be hard-pressed to find a fictional representation of long-haul space travel that didn’t focus on the psychic weight of isolation and claustrophobia. It’s the seed of everything from Elton John’s “Rocketman” and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” to movies like Moon and…

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#‘Shayda’ Review: An Iranian-Australian Filmmaker’s Affecting Drama of Maternal Strength

#‘Shayda’ Review: An Iranian-Australian Filmmaker’s Affecting Drama of Maternal Strength

‘Shayda’ Review: An Iranian-Australian Filmmaker’s Affecting Drama of Maternal Strength Within the unassuming exterior of a suburban house, the central setting in Shayda, a handful of women are working to reclaim their lives. The title character is one of them, determined to leave an abusive marriage with her young daughter and not return to their…

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#‘Little Richard: I Am Everything’ Review: The Overdue Coronation of a Seminal Figure in Rock Royalty

#‘Little Richard: I Am Everything’ Review: The Overdue Coronation of a Seminal Figure in Rock Royalty

‘Little Richard: I Am Everything’ Review: The Overdue Coronation of a Seminal Figure in Rock Royalty The blazing comet that was Richard Wayne Penniman is captured in Little Richard: I Am Everything, with all the complexities of a Black artist who was unapologetically queer and flamboyant one minute, only to renounce his sexuality and hedonism…

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#‘Kim’s Video’ Review: A Film Lover’s Paradise Is Lost and Found in a Playful Documentary Investigation

#‘Kim’s Video’ Review: A Film Lover’s Paradise Is Lost and Found in a Playful Documentary Investigation

‘Kim’s Video’ Review: A Film Lover’s Paradise Is Lost and Found in a Playful Documentary Investigation New York City’s fabled movie rental chain, Kim’s Video, shuttered its downtown locations throughout the early-to-mid aughts, offering an early warning sign that the cinema as we once knew it was dying, or at least migrating to other formats….

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#‘Sometimes I Think About Dying’ Review: Daisy Ridley Carries a Poetic Meditation on Isolation

#‘Sometimes I Think About Dying’ Review: Daisy Ridley Carries a Poetic Meditation on Isolation

‘Sometimes I Think About Dying’ Review: Daisy Ridley Carries a Poetic Meditation on Isolation Loneliness is the subject of a poetic exploration in Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying. Premiering in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition and adapted from the Oscar-shortlisted live-action short of the same name (which was based on Kevin Armento’s play killers),…

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