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Film Review: Killers of the Flower Moon

By Matthew Moorcroft Highest Recommendation A near 10 year in the making picture, Killers of the Flower Moon represents the third in a trilogy of late period Martin Scorsese projects that are mainly passion affairs. It started with his faith based masterpiece Silence and continued with his long awaited return to the gangster genre in…
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Film Review: The Zone of Interest

By Matthew Moorcroft Highest Recommendation When discussing historical tragedies in film, there is an inevitable urge to frame the action as some sort of humanitarian service; a documentation for future generations to perceive maybe not the full horror but just enough so they can understand the paths that have led humanity to this point. The…
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Film Review: The Night of the 12th

By Matthew Moorcroft Solid Recommendation From it’s opening title card, you know how The Night of the 12th is going to end. It doesn’t try to hide it at any point either, making it clear that what you are witnessing isn’t going to be resolved in any traditional manner. The film gives you just enough…
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Film Review: The Beast

By Matthew Moorcroft Solid Recommendation The Beast is confounding. Not even in just the traditional sense of being difficult to decipher – any film that opens up with a green screen recreation of a scene from it’s own third act is going to be – but in the sense of I’m not entirely sure all…
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Film Review: Robot Dreams

By Matthew Moorcroft Strong Recommendation A story of friendship is, on paper, the surface level idea on display in Robot Dreams, the animation debut of Spanish director Pablo Berger. Told with nary a single line of dialogue, Robot Dreams is immediately charming through simplicity in a way not a whole lot of films are. A…
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Film Review: Anatomy of a Fall

By Matthew Moorcroft Highest Recommendation A boy returns from a walk with his dog to find his father dead on the ground outside. Blood everywhere. He screams, the mother rushes outside and quickly comforts him. She is distraught and calls 911. It was an accidental fall, no blame to be found here. But something isn’t…
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Film Review: Last Summer

By Matthew Moorcroft Weak Recommendation If there is anything Catherine Breillant isn’t known for, it’s restraint. The French filmmaker, who has been in the business long enough to be known as old guard at this point, might not even know what the word means frankly, and while debates will rage on whether or not her…
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Film Review: The Beasts

By Matthew Moorcroft Strong Recommendation A horse to the slaughter is what opens The Beasts. Two brothers wrestle a horse presumably to death, for no other reason then to simply assert dominance. And yet, when we see the horses again, they do not obey, instead content to go their own way and find some kind…
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Film Review: Concrete Utopia

By Matthew Moorcroft Solid Recommendation I find myself at a crossroads with Concrete Utopia. So much disaster media is focused on the actual end rather then the aftermath or the people that are affected by it that I find myself drawn Concrete Utopia‘s depiction of a post-disaster society immediately enthralling. And to Concrete Utopia‘s credit,…
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Film Review: The Blue Caftan

By Matthew Moorcroft Highest Recommendation You can tell that Halim is closeted pretty early on. The explicit confirmation you do get after the fact is only really there to help confirm it to you, but eagle viewers will pick up on the small things almost immediately; the way he looks at his apprentice, the sad…