Dann Gire
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Brilliant 'Herself' delicately balances optimism with brutal realities of domestic abuseJan 07, 2021 5:00 am - “Herself” - ★ ★ ★ ★ Phyllida Lloyd's domestic drama “Herself” believes in the essential goodness of the common person, and the inevitable triumph of honesty and generosi...
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Big ideas, small screens - Dann Gire's Top 10 movies of 2020Dec 27, 2020 6:18 am - As the old saying goes, hindsight is 2020. And movie fans are among the throngs of people who want to see 2020 in hindsight. It was a year in which COVID-19 brought movi...
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Action-packed 'Wonder Woman 1984' a mixed blessing for superhero film fansDec 24, 2020 5:00 am - “Wonder Woman 1984” - ★ ★ Just when we needed a pure escapist superhero movie to lift us out of our pandemic malaise and inspire us with some truth, justice and American...
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Gerard Butler rides to the rescue in disaster film 'Greenland'Dec 17, 2020 5:00 am - “Greenland” — ★ ★ At first, I thought someone had played a practical joke on me. I had just started watching a digital press screener for Gerard Butler's new thrill...
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'The hap-hap-happiest' holiday films of Northbrook's John HughesDec 10, 2020 5:00 am - Filmmaker and longtime Northbrook resident John Hughes is known mostly for his comic teenage romance films that greatly contributed to the “Brat Pack” legacy of the 1980...
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'Dear Santa' documentary a heartwarming gift about the power of generosityDec 03, 2020 5:00 am - “Dear Santa” - ★ ★ ★ ½ Dana Nachman's documentary “Dear Santa” is an accomplished journalistic work of nonfiction that profiles altruistic human actions at their true Ch...
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Mel Gibson plays gun-toting corporate Santa in tone-deaf comedy 'Fatman'Nov 12, 2020 5:00 am - “Fatman” - ★ ½ Heavy on the realism. Light on the magical. Virtually nonexistent on the fun. My guess would be that writers/directors Ian Nelms and Eshom Nelms wan...
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Diane Lane, Kevin Costner offer gripping performances in 'Let Him Go'Nov 05, 2020 5:00 am - “Let Him Go” - ★ ★ ½ A range war rages in Thomas Bezucha's Western-inspired revenge tale “Let Him Go,” sort of an AARP variation on John Ford's classic “The Search...
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Inventive time-travel thriller 'Synchronic' compromised by conventionsOct 23, 2020 6:00 am - “Synchronic” - ★ ★ ★ Most people might drop “Synchronic” into the time-travel genre, but it has more in common with the first “Star Wars” trilogy than it does “Loo...
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'Treasure trove' of tapes helped filmmaker create John Belushi documentaryOct 14, 2020 5:30 am - Most biographical documentaries merely inform us about their subjects. Then there's R.J. Cutler's “Belushi,” a biographical doc that in 108 fleet minutes achieves someth...