Dann Gire
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Wizard of awes: Magnificent movie musical ‘Wicked’ exceeds its hype as cinematic work of ingenuity, thrills and funNov 19, 2024 5:10 pm - The most popular song from the Broadway musical “Wicked” may very well be “Popular,” but the cinematic piece de resistance in Jon M. Chu’s magnificently mounted movie version turns out to be a jaw-dropping, retina-ripping, ear-drum-thumping number “Dancing Through Life.”
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Big gain with ‘Pain’: Sublime cast, sharp characters, wit, sentiment blend in emotionally honest relationship studyNov 13, 2024 5:30 am - Jesse Eisenberg has hand-crafted a wonderful gem of a movie wisely titled “A Real Pain.” This compact 89-minute relationship study works with an almost nonexistent plot, and with sharply drawn, realistic characters brought to life by a sublime cast.
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Hugh Grant diabolically good as a villainous scholar in religious thriller ‘Heretic’Nov 05, 2024 12:27 pm - Once two missionaries (Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher) settle in to discuss religion with Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) in the religious thriller “Heretic,” the directors turn him into a congenial spider that has us —along with his guests — in his tightly crafted web.
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‘Here’ isn’t there: Conceptually daring visuals blunt empathy, emotions in tiresome gimmick movieOct 31, 2024 5:30 am - “Here” is a conceptually daring, but tiresome gimmick movie, a virtually plotless, visually busy anthology of nonintersecting stories spanning zillions of years, and we feel as if we’ve seen most of them already.
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Highbrow drama: Smart, savvy Vatican thriller presciently parallels U.S. politics in ‘Conclave’Oct 23, 2024 2:52 pm - If the Academy Awards ever created a special Oscar for “Best Performance by a Furrowed Brow,” Ralph Fiennes would handily win for his lively and versatile forehead wrinkles in Edward Berger’s elegantly staged, unpredictable and extremely timely drama “Conclave.”
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Mitzi Gaynor: Superstar, one-time Elgin girlOct 17, 2024 4:15 pm - Editor’s note: Actor-dancer Mitzi Gaynor died Thursday at age 93. This story was originally published on March 19, 2013. “Oh, honey,” Mitzi Gaynor told us, “it's hard to...
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Grin Reaper: Visceral visuals, sly humor prevent overstuffed ‘Smile 2’ from being frowned uponOct 17, 2024 5:30 am - A great horror movie dwells deep within Parker Finn’s enigmatic “Smile 2.” The film constantly keeps us off-kilter, employing a brutal barrage of mind-bending perspectives that plop us directly inside the embattled brain of a woman under psychic assault by a nebulous evil entity.
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Gibson’s crusty cop highlights a flawed but fun pre-Halloween treat in ‘Monster Summer’Oct 03, 2024 5:30 am - The visually slick indie movie “Monster Summer” meets its modest aspirations as a fun, end-of-summer romp targeting a tweener demographic anxious for another “Goonies” knockoff.
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Committed, fearless Ronan triumphs in nonfiction addiction drama ‘The Outrun’Oct 03, 2024 5:30 am - Nora Fingscheidt’s contemplative and cluttered biographical drama “The Outrun” adds a little bit of individuality to the cinematic canon of struggling substance abusers bottoming out until finally clawing their way out of addiction to face a brighter tomorrow.
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A very fable genius: Coppola’s crazy, baffling film still a pure cinematic delightSep 25, 2024 1:39 pm - Francis Ford Coppola poured four decades of frustration, compromise, stress and hope into every frame of “Megalopolis.” The result is a joyous, artistic mess.