“SLAVE” RIPS OPEN AMERICA’S FESTERING WOUNDS
By Greg Popil Referring to the nearly 400-year era in which America allowed an entire race of human beings to be subjugated to enslavement as an “injustice” can seem pathetically quaint. Indeed, all ...
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“POMPEII” PROVIDES MINOR B-MOVIE PLEASURES
By Greg Popil In 79 A.D., the small Italian villa of Pompeii was completely and utterly obliterated by the eruption of Vesuvius, a massive volcano that buried the town beneath 20 feet of ash and lava....
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A “WINTER’S TALE” BEST LEFT UNTOLD
By Greg Popil After a lifetime of watching movies, a bad one can feel like white noise, a mildly irritating sensation that passes, barely noticed, and is forgotten the moment the discomfort is over. ...
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“THE LEGO MOVIE” ATTEMPTS TO MAKE COMMERCE INTO ART
By Greg Popil Is it possible to make a real artistic statement out of a commercial? The brain naturally recoils at the notion. Art has always had a tenuous but working relationship with capital (mos...
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“KIDS FOR CASH” EXPOSES NEPA’S OPEN WOUNDS
By Greg Popil A sad, tragic story, particularly in documentary form, can be painful to watch regardless of the tale’s location, participants, and details. A good filmmaker can chronicle the exploits ...
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THE BEAUTIFUL, BRAVE STORY OF “HER”
By Greg Popil As a society, or at least as the subset of society that enjoys websites about rock music and independent film, we can get caught up in lionizing the idea of “authenticity.” The notion t...
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“INSIDE” THE COEN BROTHERS’ LATEST TOUR DE FORCE
By Greg Popil The movie starts, after a brief title card explaining that we are in Greenwich Village in 1961 on a stark shot of an old-fashioned microphone in a black background. The anticipation of ...
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A STRONG, CONFLICTED “HUSTLE”
By Greg Popil Seven features and 19 years into his directorial career, one would think that it would be possible to understand David O. Russell’s outlook on the world at large, but one of the central ...
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AGING ‘WOLF’ HOWLS
By Greg Popil By the time most directors reach their sunset years, the ones who have not yet retired are generally making movies that, directly or indirectly, are focused on the ideas of aging, wrappi...
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