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Bugonia
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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You certainly get value for money; it smashes together several genres and takes a swipe at everything from capitalism and conglomerates to echo chambers and internet rabbit holes. But whether it adds up to much or has anything to say, also still not sure.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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This will doubtless satisfy the completists. But non-completists – I could have named only two of his songs, tops – may wonder if it’s that interesting.
Posted Oct 24, 2025
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One Battle After Another
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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The film never flags, bounding from moments of high tension to ones that are sublime. The comedy, meanwhile, always feels integral.
Posted Oct 02, 2025
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Dead of Winter
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s well made, tense, fun, and if you’ve longed to see an ordinary, sixty-something-year-old woman brandish a gun or put a claw hammer through someone’s foot you will not be disappointed.
Posted Sep 25, 2025
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A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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The direction is prosaic and sentimental, while Robbie and Farrell have zero chemistry, not a squeak, and understandably fail to breathe life into such poorly written characters.
Posted Sep 18, 2025
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The Cut
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s a story that’s been told umpteen times but what set this apart, I would suggest, is its deep and unremitting unpleasantness.
Posted Sep 04, 2025
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The Roses
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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There’s some fun in watching Colman and Cumberbatch go head-to-head and there are some decent lines. But it’s not a relationship you can believe in and it fails to outshine the original.
Posted Aug 29, 2025
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The Thursday Murder Club
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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Columbus doesn’t introduce much suspense or tension. And the cast’s talent is barely made use of. But, overall, it’s a loving salute to an old-fashioned kind of storytelling -- and a book that I’ll never read.
Posted Aug 22, 2025
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Materialists
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s lushly photographed and beautifully framed and it’s not a nightmare to sit through but whereas Past Lives stayed with you, I can feel this leaving me already.
Posted Aug 15, 2025
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My Oxford Year
(2025)
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James Delingpole
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My Oxford Year may be a work of accidental genius, but it’s a work of genius nonetheless. You will squirm, you will laugh derisively, you will cringe. By the end, though, you will be forced to admit that you secretly enjoyed every moment.
Posted Aug 15, 2025
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The Kingdom
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Think of it as The Godfather from the point of view of a teenage Connie Corleone. Or The Sopranos from the perspective of Meadow. Or just take it for what it is, which is tense, brilliant and rivetingly convincing.
Posted Aug 07, 2025
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The Naked Gun
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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Within the first few minutes I heard a strange noise and felt a peculiar sensation and realised I was laughing. It happened quite a few times more, in fact. I was as surprised as anybody.
Posted Jul 31, 2025
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Bring Her Back
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s ultimately pretty simplistic. Still, the Philippou brothers know how to scare the bejesus out of you and the performances are all excellent, particularly Hawkins and Wren Phillips.
Posted Jul 24, 2025
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Four Letters of Love
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Steele directs with a sure hand and there is much else to delight in here. The cinematography has never made the Irish coast look so gorgeous (or sunny) or the cottages, with their jewel-coloured interiors, so cosy and the performances are all excellent.
Posted Jul 17, 2025
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The Trouble with Mr Doodle
(2024)
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James Walton
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A curious tale, efficiently, if somewhat incuriously, told.
Posted Jul 10, 2025
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Superman
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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The plot, which also incorporates geopolitics, is all over the place, convoluted and confusing. Die-hard fans may find it less so but have we stopped inviting everybody in?
Posted Jul 10, 2025
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Jurassic World Rebirth
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s always astonishing to think that these beasts did once roam the Earth and it was this thought that stopped me slipping into sleep.
Posted Jul 03, 2025
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28 Years Later
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s entertaining but not outstanding. The biggest surprise is its tonal swerve into sentimentality. Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes, however, bring character and heft and, just to put your minds at rest, yes, it’s as magnificently bloodthirsty as ever.
Posted Jun 20, 2025
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Tornado
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s a super-bloody revenge story filmed in just 25 days with a running time of 90 minutes. We love a 90-minute film, so I feel bad saying this, but it does feel as if it needed more time to cook.
Posted Jun 12, 2025
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Falling Into Place
(2023)
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Deborah Ross
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I knew within the first few minutes we were in safe hands and I was set to like this Aylin Tezel. In Falling Into Place she’s created a literate and sensitive romance that is allowed to unfold gently.
Posted Jun 05, 2025
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Rollerball
(1975)
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Kenneth Robinson
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It really is effective.
Posted Jun 05, 2025
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Night Moves
(1975)
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Kenneth Robinson
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They have made a film with characters who are credible and interesting and a story that is teasing and fascinating. The brutal climax sends the mind searching back over earlier events, to chain together the links of People's reactions to each other.
Posted Jun 05, 2025
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The Salt Path
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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The film will frustrate those who like a juicy plot but Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs make it rather glorious.
Posted May 29, 2025
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Riefenstahl
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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This documentary wants to get to the truth. But even if you’ve already made your own mind up -- I had! -- it’s still a mesmerising portrait of the kind of person who cannot give up on the lies they’ve told themselves.
Posted May 08, 2025
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Flame
(1975)
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Deborah Ross
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We know the beats: young lads dream of making it big, do make it big, but are destroyed by a business that only sees them as cash cows. Nevertheless it is told with a raw energy.
Posted May 01, 2025
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The Friend
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Even if you’re not into the ‘non-action’ genre, the film’s worth it for the dog. There is a dog by the way, did I say?
Posted Apr 24, 2025
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Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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You could say it’s impossible to make a poor documentary about the writer Edna O’Brien as she’s never said or done anything uninteresting in her life. Point a camera and we’re away. But Sinead O’Shea’s Blue Road... is especially rewarding.
Posted Apr 17, 2025
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The Return
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Fiennes and Binoche are, of course, spellbinding. I could look at their faces all day. But the narrative is so parched and meditative it’s ultimately enervating and seems as depressed as the hero himself.
Posted Apr 10, 2025
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Mr. Burton
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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The film is too devoted and sedate to fly as a cinematic event. It has the feel of a Sunday evening television drama. Nothing wrong with that -- although you could just stay home on a Sunday evening and watch television if that’s what you’re after.
Posted Apr 03, 2025
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The End
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Just as you’re expecting a confrontation or events to escalate -- just as you are expecting drama -- it all fizzles to nothing. Scenarios bubble up, then disappear.
Posted Mar 27, 2025
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Disney's Snow White
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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The production values are high and all the enchanted animals are cute, but where are the jokes? And where is the personality?
Posted Mar 20, 2025
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Mickey 17
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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It eventually descends into a cartoonish, sub-Armando Iannucci comic caper with, as far as I could ascertain, nothing fresh to say. It’s not the biggest disappointment I’ve had in my life but it’s up there.
Posted Mar 06, 2025
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The Last Showgirl
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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We’re never allowed to sit with any of the characters, which makes them feel underexplored. Elegiac as it is, the film doesn’t offer deep insights. Anderson, however, is transfixing.
Posted Feb 27, 2025
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Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
(2025)
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Deborah Ross
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It may not have the sardonic bite of the first film, and it sometimes slips into sentimentality, but it sharply marries the contemporary with the age-old and I enjoyed it.
Posted Feb 13, 2025
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The Seed of the Sacred Fig
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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It is brave cinema, and daring cinema, as well as great cinema.
Posted Feb 06, 2025
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Hard Truths
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Jean-Baptiste is magnificent, and the film is compelling, and it will linger in the mind, but it is also 90 minutes of watching someone being aggressively unhappy without properly knowing why. This Pansy certainly brought out my inner Pansy.
Posted Jan 30, 2025
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The Brutalist
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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This is a film of ambition and swagger and Brody’s performance, suffused with pain and longing, is terrific. However, there are some odd decisions.
Posted Jan 23, 2025
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A Complete Unknown
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s captivating, even if you could argue that it’s dramatically underpowered. The events building up to Newport are listless in nature, but it has a seductive, meditative, cumulative power. I wasn’t bored for a single second.
Posted Jan 16, 2025
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Maria
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s hard to fathom what Larrain, and screenwriter Steven Knight, want to say about her. Or how we are meant to feel... The film never gets to the truth of her, or her art, which is why the singing doesn’t feel true, either.
Posted Jan 09, 2025
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We Live in Time
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Though I am a crier by nature, my tears were not jerked. I checked -- and double-checked: eyes dry as anything. I couldn’t get beyond the phoniness. You might do better.
Posted Jan 02, 2025
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Bad Tidings
(2024)
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James Walton
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Viewed objectively, Bad Tidings is drama by numbers of the most blatant kind. Viewed pleasantly drunk, I concede, it might just hit the spot.
Posted Dec 19, 2024
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Queer
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s Craig’s powerful performance that makes it. Much is asked of him and he delivers. In lesser hands, Lee would definitely be repellent, but Craig deploys his ravaged charisma to imbue him with such pain and longing and woundedness that we feel for him.
Posted Dec 12, 2024
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Nightbitch
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Adams is wonderfully watchable throughout and I wasn’t ever bored and I’m going to stick my neck out and say: it may be the best film about a woman turning into a dog that you’ll see this year.
Posted Dec 05, 2024
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Conclave
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Conclave is a papal thriller based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris and it stars a magnificent Ralph Fiennes. If he doesn’t win an Oscar I’ll eat my hat and also yours. Luckily, the film is also well written, smart, taut and visually stunning.
Posted Dec 03, 2024
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Anora
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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I know you won’t believe it’s as good as everyone is saying it is until you hear it from me so here you are: yes, it’s as good as everyone is saying it is.
Posted Nov 22, 2024
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Gladiator II
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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Compared to the original it is plainly, and disappointingly, not as goodus.
Posted Nov 14, 2024
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Heretic
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s enjoyable watching Grant have so much fun. All those years as a rom-com star when what he’s most good at, it turns out, is being thoroughly bad.
Posted Oct 31, 2024
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The Room Next Door
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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What is there to care about? Why do these two women matter? Where is that knitwear from? Spoiler alert: no answers are forthcoming.
Posted Oct 30, 2024
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The Apprentice
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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It’s an origin story, if you like, and I was gripped throughout. It’s brilliantly acted and conceived, and it takes its subject seriously. It’s not like an extended Saturday Night Live routine.
Posted Oct 17, 2024
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Joker: Folie à Deux
(2024)
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Deborah Ross
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It made me long for the Joker from my childhood. At least he was fun and had sneezing powder.
Posted Oct 10, 2024
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