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BRETT MICHEL

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Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower


"Just smile and be yourself," advises Charlie's naïve dad. "That's how you make friends in the real world."
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  September 25, 2012
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Review: House at the End of the Street


A project that's been around the block, Mark Tonderai's horror thriller was slated to go into production nearly a decade ago, with Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown) attached to direct.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  September 25, 2012
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Review: Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel


Legendary Harper's Bazaar fashion editor Diana Vreeland (1903-1989) was the inspiration for both the Maggie Prescott character in 1957's Funny Face and Miss Maxwell in 1966's Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  September 25, 2012
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Review: The Ambassador

Raoul Duke by way of Borat
Mads Cortzen is a diplomat on a mission.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  September 18, 2012
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Review: For Ellen

A man/child gets a brief taste of adult responsibility
Barely visible in a close-up behind the wheel of his car until the flame from his lighter illuminates his angular profile, floundering rocker Joby Taylor (Paul Dano) promptly spins into a snow bank. It's going to be that kind of trip.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  September 18, 2012
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Review: Resident Evil: Retribution

Creative bankruptcy
Uwe Boll gets most of the scorn, but has anyone done more to destroy hope of a decent movie being made from a video game than Paul W.S. Anderson?
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  September 18, 2012
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Review: Dredd 3D

Slow-mo blow-ups
Johnny Knoxville and his merry band of Jackasses were on to something when they shot their last movie in 3D; their formula of slow-motion + stereoscopic imaging was just about the greatest thing ever.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  September 20, 2012
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Review: The Cold Light of Day

Mabrouk El Mechri's latest film
What I learned from the latest movie from Mabrouk El Mechri ( JCVD ): Madrid's police only work during the daytime, when they're everywhere (in the morning, they seem to be the only people on the streets).
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  September 11, 2012
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Review: 2016: Obama's America

Not much of a movie or a documentary
Walking into Dinesh D'Souza and John Sullivan's political hatchet job, I overheard a woman exiting an earlier showing, breathlessly informing someone on her cell phone that "it's not a movie — it's a documentary!"
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  September 05, 2012
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Review: For A Good Time, Call ...

The usual opposites-attract sludge
Other than Kevin Smith, is there anyone more toxic to a film than Nia Vardalos?
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  August 28, 2012
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Review: The Bullet Vanishes

Lo Chi-leung's mystery actioner
Piracy has never been more rampant in China.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  August 28, 2012
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Review: Oslo, August 31

Surveying a failed life
Thirty-four-year-old Anders considers himself "a spoiled brat who fucked up."
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  August 21, 2012
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Review: Sushi: The Global Catch

Mark S. Hall's documentary
Director Mark S. Hall begins his documentary by focusing on the traditions and history of raw-fish preparation, as demonstrated by Mamoru Sugiyama, master chef at Tokyo's Sushiko Restaurant.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  August 23, 2012
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Review: ParaNorman

Throwback to Amblin's summer fare of the '80s
This second feature from animation house LAIKA (the company behind Coraline ) is the type of holiday entertainment that kids (and adults) used to tune into annually, back when Rankin/Bass was creating wonders of stop-motion.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  August 17, 2012
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Review: Searching for Sugar Man

The freshman film from Malik Bendjelloul
An obscure, forgotten singer-songwriter, Sixto Rodriguez was first discovered in a Detroit bar by celebrated producers Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore in the late '60s.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  August 08, 2012
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Review: Klown

A Danish import from Mikkel Nørgaard
You might think you know what you're in for from the Odd Couple -like music of the opening titles of this Danish import from Mikkel Nørgaard — a movie version of his sitcom Klovn — until an animated sperm cell penetrates his director credit.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  August 01, 2012
ShortTake: The Day He Arrives

Review: The Day He Arrives

Variations
"Stop copying me!" says Seong-jun (Yu Jun-sang), the has-been filmmaker at the center of the 12th cinematic Mobius strip from Hong Sang-soo.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  July 17, 2012
Film: Ice Age: Continental Drift

Review: Ice Age: Continental Drift

It's all been done
Perhaps you've seen "Scrat's Continental Crack-Up," the animated short that debuted theatrically a year and a half ago featuring the sabre-toothed squirrel causing a prehistoric tectonic cataclysm as a result of his pursuit of an elusive acorn.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  July 12, 2012
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Review: Natural Selection

Robbie Pickering's road movie
So memorable as Ed Helms's harridan wife in The Hangover , Rachael Harris is a natural for a lead role.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  July 03, 2012
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Review: Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection

More of Perry's ever-diminishing antics
The first of writer/director/producer/star Tyler Perry's Madea movies not based on one of his plays, his sixth outing as the sharp-tongued (but dull-witted) 6'4" Southern black woman is more of a sitcom.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  July 03, 2012
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Review: Brave

Merely good
Disappointing on a story level, this fable in the feminist Disney Princess mold (unremarkably so) signals problems from the start.
By: BRETT MICHEL  |  June 21, 2012
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