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‘A Most Wanted Man’ is not so wanted after all in this stillborn spy thriller

In Anton Corbijn’s foreign espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman lends his take on an unconventional looking German intelligence agent, one without the usual dashing attributes associated with cinematic spies. Although sprinkled with cerebral-minded intrigue and conducting its atmospheric tension in methodical fashion, A Most Wanted Man feels relentlessly sluggish in its execution to live up to its labored political-coated drama. This low-energy, plodding spy showcase has its isolated highlights in sleek suspense, but fails to drive home any genuine revelations about its touchy subject matter regarding counter-intelligence suspicion and terrorist paranoia. Despite solid and committed performances, it’s a slow burn of a thriller that simply lingers without fortifying any convincing punch.

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A Look Back at ‘Moneyball’: A Fine Balance of the Old School and New School

With it being October, our site will be featuring lots of great writing on the Horror genre. This month doesn’t just bring the scares for me though, it also brings the postseason playoffs for my favorite sport: Baseball. While I won’t have as much on the line this year as my Braves played a sub-.500 …

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‘A Most Wanted Man’ features a superb Hoffman performance

Throughout the beginning of Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, it is hard to ignore that there are only a handful of upcoming performances left from Philip Seymour Hoffman in this world. The actor’s untimely death earlier this year left a hole in the world of cinema, one that will not be filled anytime soon. Hoffman was a character actor who managed to become an A-lister, without ever losing his chameleon-like ability to channel whatever or whomever he wanted.

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House of Cards: Season 2 flawed, but an improvement over season 1

House of Cards premiered last year to tremendous buzz, the highly-anticipated, prestige-soaked first original program from Netflix. Viewers embraced the series and no one was surprised to see it rack up nomination after nomination, both for the Golden Globes and Emmys. After the initial furor died down however, many critics were left cold by the show’s self-satisfaction and paint-by-numbers approach, the strong individual performances let down by predictable plotting and under-developed characterization. Fortunately season two of House of Cards, while still flawed, greatly improves on many of the first season’s biggest problem areas and this self-awareness bodes well for the already-commissioned season three.

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Fantastic Fest 2013: The Award Winners Have Been Announced

I’ve returned from Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, but the festival keeps on running until the end of the day tomorrow, September 26. And, like any self-respecting festival, there have been awards announced for various films and the people involved in their creation. The only award I can say I had even a slight hand …

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Fantastic Fest 2013, Day Four Report: World Showcase

They say timing is everything, and somehow, I managed to have good timing with some of the clothes I chose to wear to Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. (Bear with me and my nerdiness.) I had picked out an Epcot-specific T-shirt to wear to Day Two of Fantastic Fest, in some goofy way to tie …

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‘Adore’ a flaccid, dull sex-fueled drama that lacks provocation

The struggle to maintain one’s personal sense of youth is at the heart of Adore, an Australian drama that wishes to be provocative without being particularly salacious or deep. Based on one of four short stories by Doris Lessing in the collection “The Grandmothers,” Adore feels very much like an adaptation of a story that’s too brief, a mere wisp that should be a gale force.

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Fantastic Fest 2013: Second wave of films announced, including ‘A Field in England’ and ‘The Congress’

Anyone reading this likely knows that the end of summer portends a few important milestones in a moviegoing year, chief among them the proliferation of film festivals in locations as diverse as Venice; Toronto; Telluride; and, of course, Austin, Texas. Yes, we’re just over 5 weeks away from Fantastic Fest 2013. Today, the organizers announced …

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House of Cards, S1: Politics serves as backdrop for sea of grays, study of human nature

House of Cards, Season 1 Premiered Friday, Feb. 1st on Netflix Only a few years removed from an acclaimed collaboration with Aaron Sorkin on The Social Network, David Fincher has dipped his toe into the realm of serial storytelling with the first Netflix original series, House of Cards. A cynic’s alternative to Sorkin’s monumental series The …

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House of Cards, Ep. 1.07-1.13: Surprising character moves conclude solid series

House of Cards, Season 1, Episodes 7-8: “Chapter 7”, “Chapter 8” Written by Kate Barnow (1.07) and Beau Willimon (1.07, 1.08) Directed by Charles McDougall Season 1, Episode 9: “Chapter 9” Written by Beau Willimon and Rick Cleveland Directed by James Foley Season 1, Episodes 10-11: “Chapter 10”, “Chapter 11” Written by Sarah Treem (1.10) …

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House of Cards, 1.1-1.6: Charismatic leads, style make up for familiar story

House of Cards, Season 1, Episodes 1-2: “Chapter 1”, “Chapter 2” Written by Beau Willimon Directed by David Fincher Season 1, Episodes 3-4: “Chapter 3”, “Chapter 4” Written by Keith Huff (“Chapter 3”), Rick Cleveland (“Chapter 4”), and Beau Willimon (both) Directed by James Foley Season 1, Episode 5: “Chapter 5”, “Chapter 6” Written by …

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