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Annapurna Booksmart Is Destined for Cult Status
Olivia Wilde’s wonderful film confronts the same anxieties as earlier teen classics while updating its worldview for the weary ranks of Generation Z.
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Walt Disney Pictures It’s Impossible to Take the New Aladdin Seriously
Disney’s live-action remake of the 1992 animated classic is a special-effects-laden extravaganza that comes off as clumsy and half-hearted.
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A24 The Souvenir Is a Masterly Coming-of-Age Portrait
One of the year’s best films so far, Joanna Hogg’s semiautobiographical drama charts a young woman’s painful emergence into adulthood.
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Summit Entertainment The Bloody, Thrilling Legend of John Wick Continues
The third entry in the Keanu Reeves action saga, subtitled Parabellum, is a fun sequel that raises the stakes of its hero’s journey.
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Vianney Le Caer / Invision / AP Mel Gibson’s New Film Seems Designed to Outrage
The actor-director known for making anti-Semitic remarks in the past is set to star in a movie with the provocative title Rothchild.
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Robert Youngson / Sony Pictures Classics In Shakespeare’s Life Story, Not All Is True. In Fact, Much Is Invented.
A new film by Kenneth Branagh is a textbook case of how portraitists of the bard spin a paucity of fact into fairy tale.
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MGM The Hustle Is a Lazy Gender Swap
The remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson doesn’t do much with its new female leads—and what it does do, it does poorly.
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Fox Searchlight The Tolkien Biopic Is Just Lord of the Rings References
A new movie about the beloved author overlooks interesting details of his life in favor of drawing obvious connections to his influences.
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Warner Bros. It Should Be Impossible for Detective Pikachu to Be This Good
The noir-influenced kids’ adventure movie starring an electric yellow CGI mouse-monster shouldn’t even make sense. Somehow it’s delightful.
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Toby Melville / Reuters / The Atlantic What It Was Like Making the Biggest Movie of 2019
The brothers Anthony and Joe Russo discuss their unlikely journey to directing Marvel’s megahit Avengers: Endgame.
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Corey Nickols / Getty / Arsh Raziuddin / ... ‘The Goddess of Good Sex’
Dr. Ruth, the world’s most famous sex therapist—and at 90, the subject of a new documentary—has long harnessed the power of pop culture to tackle that most intimate of subjects.
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Netflix Netflix’s Ted Bundy Movie Is a Study in True Crime’s Most Troubling Questions
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile tries and fails to reckon with the legacy of a killer who shaped his own image.
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HBO A New Film Reveals How Larry Nassar Benefited From a Culture of Silence
The sports doctor was able to assault so many athletes for so long. Erin Lee Carr’s HBO documentary, At the Heart of Gold, explores the environment that protected him.
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Lionsgate Another Rom-Com About How Crazy It Would Be to Fall for Seth Rogen
The new movie Long Shot, also starring Charlize Theron, thrives when it gets away from its tired premise.
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Columbia / Everett Collection The Critique That Inspired John Singleton to Make Poetic Justice
After Boyz n the Hood was challenged on its portrayal of African American women, the late director created a character meant to better reflect their myriad experiences.
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Disney / Marvel The Final Scene of Avengers: Endgame Is More Than Worthy
The film’s last moments may be polarizing audiences, but they fit Captain America’s journey perfectly.
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Fred Prouser / Reuters Why John Singleton Wanted the ‘Z’ in Boyz n the Hood
The late filmmaker’s unconventional spelling was a stylistic choice that signified the forging of an anti-establishment identity in rap music.
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Richard Shotwell / Invision / AP John Singleton Changed How Hollywood Sees Black America
The Boyz n the Hood director, who died Monday at 51, ushered in a renaissance of black film in the 1990s.
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Disney / Marvel What Avengers: Endgame’s Historic Box Office Means for the Future
The film is a big-selling rebuke to the idea that traditional filmgoers are largely content to stay home these days.
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Marvel The Inevitability of Black Widow
Why Scarlett Johansson’s superhero can’t escape her origins from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s early days
