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‘Better Living Through Chemistry’ flirts with danger, but never goes all-in

Better Living Through Chemistry flirts with danger from its opening moments, in which a narrator first says that while each of us can’t help everyone, everyone can help someone, and follows it up by saying that our lead character would dismiss that sentiment as fortune-cookie foolishness. That character, portrayed by Sam Rockwell, who grows more Sam Rockwell-esque by the minute here, would be right to do so, but the film he occupies essentially embraces that sentiment, if to a slightly amoral extent. Better Living Through Chemistry is, seemingly, a bit desperate to both occupy the same satiric subgenre as American Beauty and to be so emphatically unique among other American Beauty-esque films that it’s unable to fully achieve either goal in the end.

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The Definitive Kubrickian Films: 40-31

As we spend a month looking at the great Stanley Kubrick, we can also look at the filmmakers who were clearly influenced by Kubrick. “Kubrickian” films tend to exercise incredible control of the camera, are extremely ambitious, tend to deal with much weightier themes, and always maintain a sense of mystery, like a there’s an …

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Girls, Ep. 2.04: “It’s a Shame about Ray” – Wisdom and the Dinner Table

Girls, Season 2, Episode 3: “It’s a Shame about Ray” Written by Lena Dunham Directed by Jesse Peretz Original Air Date: February 2, 2013 In Luis Bunuel’s 1962 film, The Exterminating Angel, some high society types have a party and inexplicably find they are incapable of leaving. As the days and weeks pass, their values, behavior and …

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‘American Mary’ Movie Review – an affront to decent, moral thinking

American Mary Written and directed by Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska Canada, 2012 Do you know the feeling when you wash your hands with a bar of soap? How it makes your hands tensile, coarse, and uncomfortably dry? How it makes you squirm, uneasy, and perpetually unsettled? Like they were being constrained and sucked through …

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How to make a perfect movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes

Not every film can be Citizen Kane. Deemed by many as a perfect film (i.e. Rotten Tomatoes), Hollywood has tried to emulate its critical success for decades, but as an industry that strives on generic formulas, some have come close while other have missed the mark. Now, thanks to the trustworthy Tomatometer, we have a …

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Supporting Actors: The Overlooked and Underrated (part 5 of 5)

Gary Oldman as Jackie Flannery in State Of Grace (Phil Joanou, 1990, USA): Long considered one of the most talented actors in cinema, it’s very strange that his outstanding acting as the younger brother of Ed Harris’ local crime boss in this underrated film doesn’t get talked about nearly enough when discussing Oldman’s body of …

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‘Headhunters’ not only merits a remake, it’s all but inevitable.

Headhunters  Directed by Morten Tyldum Written by Lars Gudmestad, Jo Nesbø, and Ulf Ryberg Norway, 2011 While American politicians abjectly deride the Scandinavians for being ‘pinko commies’, Hollywood has been taking notice of their considerable cinematic talent, finding every opportunity to import some of their best films for American remakes. David Fincher’s The Girl with …

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