Trashwire
Movie reviews, Whatcha Watchin podcast, and more
Category: Movies
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‘Amy’ a haunting cautionary tale
I wish a documentary like Amy was shocking because we didn’t see talented people self-destruct on the regular, but sadly, Amy Winehouse’s story is all too commonplace. Unlike your average Behind the Music rock doc, Amy doesn’t flower things up for a made-for-TV package. Instead, it shows us the stark reality of such a talented…
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‘Rock the Kasbah’ misses the mark
Rock the Kasbah is a movie with so much potential. It stars Bill Murray, features Zooey Deschanel, Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Scott Caan, and Danny McBride. Murray even promoted the movie by showing up at Comic Con for the first time to do a genuinely funny panel and answer fan questions. With all that going…
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‘Fargo’ explores what happens when regular people break bad
With smart writing, excellent visuals, and stellar performances, it was easy to get completely absorbed in Fargo, in part because it reminded me a lot of another one of my favorite binge-watching shows: Breaking Bad.
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Story and science make ‘The Martian’ compelling sci-fi
Great sci-fi films combine visual effects, plausible science, and engaging characters who feel like real people. It’s a difficult balancing act between explosions and action, math and engineering, and an engrossing emotional journey. This is why great sci-fi films are so few and far between, and why The Martian gives me hope that this kind…
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‘Straight Outta Compton’ does justice to hip hop legends
The first CD I ever bought was Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystyle”, which was quickly followed by Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic”, and thus began my love of 1990s gangsta rap. I was a little too young to know the story of N.W.A., so naturally, I was beyond excited for Straight Outta Compton. Thankfully, the movie more than…
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Handsome stars save ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’
I could review The Man from U.N.C.L.E. like a woman who studied film theory at a reputable university and who wrote a thesis paper on 1960s cinema. I could talk about Guy Ritchie’s trademark slick style, Hollywood’s onslaught of remakes and sequels, or even make an argument about how the spy genre has evolved along…
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‘Magic Mike XXL’ is here for your entertainment
Magic Mike XXL isn’t exactly an Oscar contender, and it’s not trying to be. Despite an unnecessarily long runtime, the movie still delivers enough of the goods (read: shirtless dudes with amazing bodies) to be enjoyable.
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New ‘Dark Places’ trailer
The trailer for Dark Places, the adaptation of the bestselling novel by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn is here. The film opens theatrically this August. SYNOPSIS: Libby Day (Charlize Theron) was only seven years old when her mother and two sisters were brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. In court, the traumatized child pointed…
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‘Jurassic World’ flawed but still fun
It’s never corny the first time. That’s the problem facing so many of today’s remakes and long-awaited sequels: our collective sense of nostalgia tends to gloss over any less-than-stellar moments in our most beloved movies. That’s doubly true for action movies, which tend to age like a bartlett pear. Revisit a 1990s blockbuster today and…
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First trailer for ‘The End of the Tour’ starring Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel
The first trailer for the new film The End of the Tour is here. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg as Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky, who spends five days interviewing novelist David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel). View the trailer and full synopsis here.
