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Alison Gillmor
Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications:
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Robot Dreams (2023) |
Sweetly, deceptively simple, this affecting all-ages animated film speaks to the boon of friendship without saying a word. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Aug 24, 2024
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Trap (2024) |
Whatever happens to Cooper, serial killer and Girl Dad extraordinaire, Shyamalan is once again caught in a trap of his own making. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Aug 14, 2024
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Kneecap (2024) |
Ó Cairealláin, Óg Ó Hannaidh and Ó Dochartaigh have no problem being musicians, but they also hold their own as actors. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Aug 03, 2024
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Twisters (2024) |
Scripted by Mark L. Smith and Joseph Kosinksi and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, Twisters delivers solid action set-pieces, stand-out special effects, and two remarkably good-looking and charismatic leads. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Fly Me to the Moon (2024) |
Either approach might have worked, but taken together they drag down the comic and romantic momentum, lead ing to a stalled-out conclusion... - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jul 12, 2024
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The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (2023) |
This film is not for everyone. But if you're into radical dreariness, Arnow is definitely one to watch. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jun 27, 2024
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I Saw the TV Glow (2024) |
Perhaps the scariest thing about this film is that these ordinary memories seem far less palpable than the ever-present glow of the TV screen. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jun 14, 2024
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Civil War (2024) |
Garland, likewise, is testing the limits of the war genre. He gives us the immediacy and awfulness of its violence, but he leaves us to navigate the narrative's implied political and moral complexities on our own. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jun 11, 2024
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The Fall Guy (2024) |
Watching superstar Ryan Gosling getting beat up, set on fire or pushed out of a helicopter is a good way of drawing attention to stunt performers’ hidden labour. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted May 10, 2024
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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) |
Mostly, though, this story is building on the recent Apes trilogy while also setting up its own series arc. Its ending clearly gestures towards a sequel — or two. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted May 10, 2024
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Someone Like You (2024) |
Buoyant but bland, this inspirational romance feels like a Hallmark movie that has inexplicably expanded to fit the big screen. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Apr 05, 2024
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William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill (2023) |
Even as we sense some of Shatner’s offstage loneliness, we also see his abiding sense of wonder and curiosity. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Mar 22, 2024
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One Life (2023) |
One Life contains several scenes of huge emotional uplift, but through Hopkins’ subtle and affecting work, we see this is not only a feel-good story. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Mar 17, 2024
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Seagrass (2023) |
Seagrass is not a standard ghost story. This family is haunted by the ghosts of the past — and the ghosts of a future not to be. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Mar 09, 2024
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Dune: Part Two (2024) |
For a big Hollywood blockbuster, Dune is unafraid to say some very dark things about religion, politics, power and violence. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Mar 02, 2024
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Perfect Days (2023) |
Wenders has always had a distinct and poetic sense of place, whether that’s Berlin or Paris, Texas. Here we see repeated shots of the SkyTree, but mostly we see the city’s parks and its actual trees... - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Feb 24, 2024
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How to Have Sex (2023) |
In this sharp, assured feature-film debut from writer-director Molly Manning Walker, three working-class British girls head to Malia on the island of Crete for a long weekend of clubbing, binge-drinking and hooking up. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Feb 17, 2024
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The Teachers' Lounge (2023) |
Director Çatak asks hard questions softly. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jan 26, 2024
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Mean Girls (2024) |
There’s still a lot of fun to be had in this overall amiable film. If only the smart dialogue and story flow didn’t keep get interrupted by kids breaking into song. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jan 19, 2024
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Saltburn (2023) |
Saltburn may be nihilistic and nasty, shallow and insubstantial, but in its own weird way, it's effective. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jan 19, 2024
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Monster (2023) |
That fourth act, created by the viewers themselves, as they sift through what they’ve seen and experienced, could be the most rewarding... - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jan 05, 2024
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Wonka (2023) |
Wonka is a comic look at monopoly capitalism. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Dec 30, 2023
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The Holdovers (2023) |
If you need some holiday consolation, this moving, melancholy film — which is getting some Oscar buzz — could become a new Blue Christmas classic. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Dec 20, 2023
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Merry Little Batman (2023) |
Merry Little Batman could be the fast, frantic children’s cartoon for you. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Dec 20, 2023
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The Velveteen Rabbit (2023) |
A slow, quiet, gentle short film. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Dec 20, 2023
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Best. Christmas. Ever! (2023) |
What follows is standard Christmas-movie fare: a town-square nativity pageant, a couple of precocious kids and some eggnog-sweet lessons about love and friendship, all marred by an uncomfortable and abrupt tonal shift. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Dec 20, 2023
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Candy Cane Lane (2023) |
For folks who feel holiday movies are too pat and predicable, this one is nutty as a fruitcake. And as with fruitcake, this is a flick some people will love and some people will hate. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Dec 20, 2023
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Repeat Performance (1947) |
For movie fans who like their holiday flicks sardonic, alcoholic and glamorous. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Dec 20, 2023
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Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (2023) |
Brooks’ film — no surprise here — is often laugh-out-loud funny, even when covering painful material... - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Nov 28, 2023
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Sly (2023) |
Though Stallone made his name as the unkillable action-man of his generation, his story ends up being unexpectedly poignant. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Nov 28, 2023
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The Killer (2023) |
Just as the film seems to be setting up the same-old, same-old tropes, Fincher signals he might be delivering a slow, sneaky deconstruction of the hitman mystique. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Nov 28, 2023
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Napoleon (2023) |
This sprawling biopic doesn't seem to know what to make of the iconic French emperor. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Nov 28, 2023
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Priscilla (2023) |
Exquisitely controlled and beautiful, this (kind of) true story is also somewhat muffled, flat and anti-climactic. This feels like a deliberate choice by filmmaker Sofia Coppola, however, who adapted the script from Priscilla Presley’s autobiography. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Nov 17, 2023
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Anatomy of a Fall (2023) |
Anatomy of a Fall is one of those fascinating films that doesn’t stop at the end credits but will be completed, in a sense, by people hashing it out in the theatre lobby or on the car ride home. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Oct 27, 2023
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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) |
Tragic, stately, sombre, bluntly violent, Martin Scorsese’s new epic is a crime drama set in the vast spaces of the American West and the intimate corners of the heart. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Oct 27, 2023
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The Exorcist: Believer (2023) |
An unholy disaster. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Oct 12, 2023
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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) |
Once more, Wes made me cry with the beauty and sweetness of it all. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Oct 06, 2023
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The Creator (2023) |
An original movie that's not original enough, a standalone movie that doesn't quite stand up. Despite spectacular visuals, some fascinating world-building and weighty, non-generic special effects, the overall story feels confused and slightly synthetic... - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Sep 30, 2023
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Dumb Money (2023) |
This little film has its flaws, but basically, if your bank balance is less than nine figures, there will be something here for you to enjoy. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Sep 30, 2023
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A Haunting in Venice (2023) |
Kenneth Branagh finally lives up to his moustaches in the third and best of his Agatha Christie adaptations... - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Sep 21, 2023
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Golda (2023) |
It’s a risk: in the real-life news coverage, we see an energy and spark this sharply focused but often flat film can’t quite catch. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Aug 25, 2023
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Jules (2023) |
Sure, there are some UFO-related shenanigans for our three pensioners, even a few hijinks, but Jules is at its melancholy best when it’s slowly and quietly exploring the ordinary, everyday aspects of life on Earth. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Aug 25, 2023
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The Exorcist (1973) |
After 50 years, The Exorcist is still scaring us. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Aug 18, 2023
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Meg 2: The Trench (2023) |
All chomp, no romp. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Aug 08, 2023
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Oppenheimer (2023) |
Fascinating and frustrating, too close and aloof, this anti-biopic is a winning fusion of explosive paradoxes. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jul 29, 2023
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Barbie (2023) |
Amid all the pink, there’s plenty of room for a think. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jul 29, 2023
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Elemental (2023) |
This candy-coloured new cartoon may be mid-tier Pixar, but even average Pixar projects can be charming. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jun 23, 2023
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The Flash (2023) |
The film’s Big Theme is a warning against too much looking back, wishing you could change things, instead of moving forward. A lesson The Flash itself doesn’t always hear, but one that could prove valuable for the upcoming DC Extended Universe reset. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jun 16, 2023
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Joyland (2022) |
All these story threads come together in a nuanced, complex conclusion that combines deep sadness and (some) muted hope. Sadiq is a filmmaker to watch. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jun 09, 2023
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You Hurt My Feelings (2023) |
A sharply insightful, emotionally generous ensemble piece, You Hurt My Feelings looks at the big fallout of a small untruth. - Winnipeg Free Press
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| Posted Jun 02, 2023
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