Drama
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Now and Then: The Soul of Netflix's New Series? The BBC's 'House of Cards'
"Lilyhammer," Netflix's first foray into original programming, failed to generate sustained attention when it premiered last year. One suspects this won't be true of its star-studded second attempt, "House of Cards," debuting Friday. Except Netflix's latest isn't so novel after all: its animating fo...
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WikiLeaks Drama 'The Fifth Estate' Kicks off with Director Bill Condon and Benedict Cumberbatch
Production of "The Fifth Estate" has kicked off with director Bill Condon at the helm. The material is certainly heavier than Condon's "Twilight" films, as it stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange and Daniel Brühl as Daniel Domscheit-Berg in the controversial story of Wikileaks' early days...
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Now and Then: A 'Zero Dark Thirty' Piece That's (Mostly) Not About Torture
We are Maya. That's the first thought that comes to mind about Jessica Chastain's tireless, obsessed CIA analyst in "Zero Dark Thirty," a "motherfucker" who's been chasing Osama bin Laden for twelve years — nearly the same length of time as this country's impossible war.
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Now and Then: 'Justified' and the Anti-Antihero
Tony Soprano. Dexter Morgan. Walter White. Television's latest "Golden Age," on cable and in the ancillary afterlife, is full of men who break bad. Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), the U.S. Marshall at the heart of "Justified," may not be squeaky clean, but he's a saint by comparison — and the key ...
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DVD Review: 'The Words' Has A Serious Case of Writer's Block
It would be easy to come away from "The Words" with the impression that writing is a stiff, musty line of work — all grand ballrooms, solemn readings, and blue-blooded accents, a veritable Titanic of pretensions. This would be a mistake. The only sinking ship here is the film itself.
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Rachel Weisz Talks 'Deep Blue Sea,' Consuming Love [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO] UPDATE
Rachel Weisz is a terrific actress at the height of her beauty and power who is trying to push good roles up the hill, with varying results, from "The Whistleblower" to "Agoura." (More mainstream thriller "Dream House" yielded husband Daniel Craig, but was not a c...
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Now and Then: 'Lincoln,' the Movies, and Historical Accuracy
"Lincoln" is no dour disquisition, no romance of an imagined past, but a heroic, even thrilling drama of compromise and chicanery in the midst of the Civil War. Indeed, it resolves one of the medium's oldest conundrums: "Lincoln" is that rare thing, good history and great cinema at once.
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Now and Then: 'Your Sister's Sister,' Lost in the Oscar Shuffle
As much as I enjoy awards chatter, this time of year can be frustrating. Spring, summer, even early fall releases that merit attention melt away before the campaigns of the heavy hitters. Lynn Shelton's lovely character study "Your Sister's Sister" won't factor in the Oscar race, and maybe it doesn'...
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Now and Then: 'Four,' Moving Portrait of Love and Sex in the Time of Craigslist
"Four," director Joshua Sanchez's remarkably honest, empathic adaptation of Christopher Shinn's play about a quartet of lovelorn folks in a modern age, works on you slowly. It's taken me about a week since seeing it at the New Orleans Film Festival to suss out just how complex and world weary it is,...
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NOFF Review: Weinstein Oscar-Fodder 'Quartet' Stars Maggie Smith
Like "The King's Speech," "Quartet" is musty and middlebrow, set in an imagined Britain of high class and low jokes. What it lacks in period pedigree it makes up for in a steady diet of quips from the form's reigning dowager, Maggie Smith. In The Weinstein Company's hands, it will likely earn solid ...
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