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Sole Proprietor: Review

Dan Eberle plays Crowley from the internet in this sparsely plotted spy thriller, with Alexandra Hellquist the high priced prostitute Sophie who he visits early on in the movie. The first 15 minutes is wasted on this faux sexual encounter. The viewer hopes things will get better, but they do not. A Honduran drug cartel

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Review: Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words

As honest as the day is long, this is a film about Frank Zappa, by Frank Zappa, starring Frank Zappa and, yes, it is in his own words. Directed by Thorsten Schütte, the screenplay is a treasure trove of archival interviews with the Boss hisself. A few performance clips are thrown in, but it is

Review: The Childhood of a Leader

Writer/director Brady Corbet (co-written with Mona Fastvold) has created a unique and powerful film that is stripped to bare bones but ripples with under currents. The superficial story is that of a troubled child, his parents, and those close to them. Some have used the words “disturbed” or even “psychopathic” to describe the son (played

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Review: Captain Fantastic

Writer/director Matt Ross comes out swinging in his second debut starring the never-looked-better Viggo Mortensen. In Captain Fantastic Mortensen plays Ben, the father of a family of six kids aged 6 to 18 who have long since left society to live far off the grid. During the first half of the movie father Ben appears

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Review: The Infiltrator

Emerging director Brad Furman grabbed the gold ring with this bit of fantastic casting starring Bryan Cranston from the smash “Breaking Bad” series. The BB Cranston was a bad guy playing a good guy, in The Infiltrator he is a good guy playing a bad guy. As it turns out, it is the same thing, at

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Review: Under the Sun

Just when you think you have seen everything, there comes a documentary that is so improbable that it refuses even the label of a doc. As the story goes, writer/director Vitaly Mansky was invited by the hyper-secret government of North Korea to make a documentary. The doc was to feature typical scenes in the days

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Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

“Never work with animals or children,” said W.C. Fields, but writer director Taika Waititi gambled on child actor Julian Dennison and won. Based on the book by Barry Crump, “Wilderpeople” is a charming road trip through the spectacularly beautiful New Zealand back country. Although respect for the land and animals is in every frame of

Review: Nuts!

What is exactly the opposite of impotence in human males? As John Romulus Brinkley tells the story, one of his sadly stricken patients pointed out that the male goat was the obvious answer. “If I could just do what that goat does, I would be a happy man,” pled the limp hubby. Thus, a medical

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Review: Maggie’s Plan

When will Greta Gerwig move out of New York City? No doubt this quirky and totally Greta movie received a lot of support from the Big Apple for showcasing several city tourist attractions, but it did not do the story any good. In spite of the overwhelming exposure for the location, the story is good

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Review: The Wailing

South Korean writer/ director Hong-jin Na’s labyrinthine tale of possession follows on the heels of his well-received If “The Chaser” and “The Yellow Sea.” Incorporating elements of a number of western films including the well-meaning police officer who will have a very bad day, the perky daughter who will play hostess to a very bad