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Alien: Romulus
(2024)
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Jack King
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It's more like a warp-speed remix, Ãlvarez the club DJ putting his own distinct touch on familiar bangers with the singular object of getting our blood pumping as quickly as possible.
Posted Aug 15, 2024
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Deadpool & Wolverine
(2024)
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Ben Allen
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Itâs not quite the silliest MCU plot ever, but nearly two decades into this whole thing, itâs one of the least engaging. Itâs phoned in, like the writers have realised that plot is no longer what audiences are turning up for.
Posted Jul 24, 2024
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A Quiet Place: Day One
(2024)
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Jack King
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Not only is it technically well-made, it makes you feel things, which is why people still go to the movies, by and large.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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The Bikeriders
(2023)
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Jesse Hassenger
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That interplay [between fantasy and reality], including Nicholsâ ability to bring out the dusky beauty amidst all that noise and exhaust, holds The Bikeriders together when the story itself threatens to wander off into vague self-mythologizing.
Posted Jun 21, 2024
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Godzilla Minus One
(2023)
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Iana Murray
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Despite the filmâs charming background and ostensible small size, Minus One is tapping into the same thrills of blockbuster filmmaking with the support of hard-earned pathos.
Posted Jun 06, 2024
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The Apprentice
(2024)
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Iana Murray
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Director Ali Abbasi certainly has guts -- his film is an unflattering portrait with a surprising, well-judged turn from Sebastian Stan at its centre.
Posted May 29, 2024
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Emilia Perez
(2024)
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Rory Doherty
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Rather than turning his story into farce, Audiard heightens all the sincere emotions to the point that expressing them as poppy earworms or electric dance numbers feels a natural fit.
Posted May 29, 2024
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Bird
(2024)
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Iana Murray
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Keoghan is at his best when he acts small, and in Bird, he delivers a lived-in performance thatâs low-key but no less textured and alive. It might just be his greatest performance yet.
Posted May 29, 2024
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Megalopolis
(2024)
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Iana Murray
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Very little of Megalopolis makes sense, but itâs nonetheless fascinating to watch the story of a man playing god against all odds and witness Coppola attempt the very same. It is ludicrous and awe-inspiring. Most importantly, it is never boring.
Posted May 21, 2024
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The Kitchen
(2023)
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Jack King
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The Kitchen is a good, timely film, but without Wright's concreting presence, you wonder if the foundations would be as brittle as the tower block in which it's set. Thank god they transferred him in.
Posted Jan 26, 2024
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The Holdovers
(2023)
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Lucy Ford
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A bittersweet and funny drama, the kind designed for elevated family Christmas viewing and it's also pretty intimate, with rarely more than a few people on screen at the same time and its flashiest moments reserved for 70s-ifying its Boston set pieces.
Posted Jan 11, 2024
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Anatomy of a Fall
(2023)
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Jack King
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The crowning example of the recent renaissance for the â90s-style legal thriller.
Posted Jan 11, 2024
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Wonka
(2023)
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Lucy Ford
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It's the sort of movie that kids (and their parents) will remember watching at the cinema in years to come. And yes, it will give you a warm and gooey feeling, like Lindt chocolate at Christmas.
Posted Dec 08, 2023
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Five Nights at Freddy's
(2023)
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Jack King
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Maybe the fans are satiated by reams of lore, but we wanted blood. Even if it was a bit of a gory romp, that wouldn't do much to paper over the technical cracks, like some of its shoddy editing. Josh Hutcherson innocent, of course.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Bottoms
(2023)
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Daisy Jones
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Itâs confounding, haywire, absurd and spectacular... Bottoms has all the makings of a cult classic in the sense that it is beloved by many, and misunderstood or disliked by everyone else.
Posted Nov 09, 2023
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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
(2023)
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Jack King
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The movie whips past in a moment, a result of the combined pace of the dialogue and sets that shift and morph endlessly; it's like trying to keep up with a speeding hare on your hands and feet.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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Dumb Money
(2023)
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Patrick Sproull
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Despite The Big Short-ish pace and rapid-fire gags, there's a sadness hanging over Dumb Money.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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Rotting in the Sun
(2023)
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Jack King
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It's also sexy, which feels strangely unfamiliar despite the fact the sex scene is making something of a comeback.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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The Killer
(2023)
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Jack King
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Fincher deserved it all [appaluse] and then some for The Killer's dark, noir-ish, eminently watchable kill-fest.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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Priscilla
(2023)
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Jack King
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Elordi is quieter, subtler, as is Priscilla, but you never think he's not the King.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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Past Lives
(2023)
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Daisy Jones
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Aesthetically, too, the film is gorgeous -- like something you want to reach out and touch.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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Ferrari
(2023)
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Xuanlin Tham
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Ferrari regrettably splinters into two films. One is a genuinely hold-your-breath racing movie that viscerally captures all of motorsportâs inherently cinematic, spellbinding qualities. The second is a disappointingly muted interpersonal drama.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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Choose Love
(2023)
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Patrick Sproull
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Itâs a bit like playing The Sims if you were only given access to the most boring options imaginable.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story
(2023)
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Jack King
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It's Ford vs. Ferrari with a drive-thru's worth of corporate merchandising.
Posted Aug 18, 2023
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Barbie
(2023)
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Lucy Ford
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Barbie is a movie about existentialism. It's about questioning who we are... Behind the glitter and the bleach-blonde bouffants, Barbie and Ken are on opposite but equal journeys to personal enlightenment.
Posted Jul 19, 2023
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Killers of the Flower Moon
(2023)
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Hannah Strong
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This might not be the film that most audiences might expect from Scorsese, but at this stage in his career, itâs thrilling to see the master filmmaker continue to innovate and deliver the unexpected.
Posted May 25, 2023
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
(2023)
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Jack King
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[Guardians Vol. 3 is] the best Marvel since Avengers: Endgame. That may not immediately read as high praise given the dearth of quality in the interim, but the film has made one thing very clear: James Gunn really, really knows what he's doing.
Posted May 04, 2023
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Money Shot: The Pornhub Story
(2023)
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Lucy Ford
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Money Shot is smart in overloading the front end of its documentary with the deeply unsexy reality of what it takes to get our rocks off.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Cocaine Bear
(2023)
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Hannah Strong
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In the age of franchise domination and streaming service supremacy, thereâs nothing quite like sitting down with a packed house to watch something outrageous on a giant screen.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
(2023)
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Jack King
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To introduce Kang, really, is all Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania exists to do. In and of itself, it's a boring story devoid of meaningful stakes.
Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Avatar: The Way of Water
(2022)
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Jack King
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It's a shame because the spectacle truly is brilliant, as tremendous as Avatar and then some. But there is such thing, as it turns out, as a little too much.
Posted Dec 16, 2022
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
(2022)
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Jack King
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Where Wakanda Forever works best it leans into its pathos, something of an untapped resource across the Marvel stable at large. Angela Bassett, as T'Challa's grieving mother, is the glue that holds the movie together.
Posted Nov 11, 2022
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
(2022)
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Lucy Ford
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Look, it's all a bit of innocuous fun, and would land without quibble if the story was as strong as Knives Out.
Posted Oct 21, 2022
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Black Adam
(2022)
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Lucy Ford
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A convoluted slog that feels both too slow and too surface-level, it's hard to really care much about whether we'll ever see these characters again.
Posted Oct 21, 2022
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Don't Worry Darling
(2022)
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Jack King
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or the lionâs share of Donât Worry Darling, [Styles] truly holds his own. Weâd go as far as to say heâs pretty bloody good.
Posted Sep 08, 2022
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No Time to Die
(2021)
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Thomas Barrie
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It's extremely rare for a film of this scale to be this affecting.
Posted Sep 30, 2021
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F9 The Fast Saga
(2021)
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Thomas Barrie
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It is undeniably a lot of fun and the villains, frankly, are the best bit.
Posted Jun 25, 2021
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A Quiet Place Part II
(2021)
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Alice Kemp-Habib
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The film oscillates between several storylines and it is just as thrilling as the first. But it is also a blatant foray into franchise territory.
Posted May 28, 2021
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Black Bear
(2020)
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Thomas Barrie
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There's something promising lurking at the bottom of this murky soup of a psychological thriller.
Posted Apr 23, 2021
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The Mauritanian
(2021)
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Ben Allen
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Without even attempting to assess the post-9/11 scars on the American psyche that enabled this kind of reprehensible behaviour, it catastrophically fails its audience.
Posted Apr 03, 2021
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Godzilla vs. Kong
(2021)
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Stuart McGurk
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It's gloriously shameless in its silliness. It doesn't care one bit about your cynicism.
Posted Apr 01, 2021
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Corona
(2020)
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Olive Pometsey
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The film's message is important, but it would have perhaps been more powerful had it not been filmed with such haste.
Posted Mar 29, 2021
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Songbird
(2020)
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Olive Pometsey
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The second obstacle that Songbird stumbles over is the fact that the future it depicts feels increasingly unrealistic each day...
Posted Mar 29, 2021
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Locked Down
(2021)
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Olive Pometsey
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Locked Down isn't a bad film, but, again, there is something slightly grim about watching other people Zoom their bosses during your own free time.
Posted Mar 29, 2021
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Zack Snyder's Justice League
(2021)
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Steve Rose
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The overall mood is funereal, though most funerals are shorter than this. Stretched over four hours, Snyder's limitations as a visual stylist also become apparent.
Posted Mar 18, 2021
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Cherry
(2021)
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Stuart McGurk
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While some films are not the sum of their parts -- and Cherry is also that -- Cherry is more specifically not the sum of its remarkable Tom Holland performances.
Posted Mar 12, 2021
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Coming 2 America
(2021)
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Olive Pometsey
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Sure, Coming 2 America is cheesy, formulaic and relies heavily on its predecessor's reputation. However, it's also occasionally heartwarming, full of joy and doesn't take itself too seriously.
Posted Mar 05, 2021
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I Care a Lot
(2020)
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Olive Pometsey
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Through half-concealed smiles when met with technically bad news and a fiendish glint in her eye, Pike has mastered the art of portraying the corrupt pretender, lulling audiences into a sense of sinister security as she enacts her evils.
Posted Feb 25, 2021
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Malcolm & Marie
(2021)
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Olive Pometsey
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Both actors do enough with the material to make you believe that something interesting might happen in Malcolm & Marie, but the trouble is that something never arrives.
Posted Feb 06, 2021
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Stardust
(2020)
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Dylan Jones
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A film that, remarkably, seems to get incrementally more awful the longer it lasts.
Posted Jan 15, 2021
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