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Dave Chappelle: The Closer
(2021)
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Jonathan P. Higgins, Ed.D.
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Why Netflix Deserves Some of the Heat for Dave Chapelle’s Transphobic Comments
Posted Aug 08, 2023
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Orlando
(1992)
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Natalie Marlin
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Orlando’s story is not confined to 1928, nor 1992. It does not fade, it does not wither, it does not grow old. It lives as long as Orlando does.
Posted Apr 01, 2022
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The Power of the Dog
(2021)
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Jourdain Searles
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A brutal meditation on masculinity.
Posted Apr 01, 2022
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Spider-Man: No Way Home
(2021)
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Olivia Zayas Ryan
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For Maguire and Garfield’s characters, the multiverse allows them a chance to make things right in the MCU.
Posted Apr 01, 2022
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The Matrix Resurrections
(2021)
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Grace Lavery
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This is an exultation of thoughtless mediocrity.
Posted Dec 23, 2021
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Spencer
(2021)
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Grace Lavery
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By exhuming Dynasty Di from her saintly casket, LarraÃn and Stewart have done the world a great favor.
Posted Dec 23, 2021
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If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power
(2021)
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Rachel Saywitz
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It's within this view of parenthood, and the effect it has on gender and how pregnant people are perceived, that the events in If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power begin to make sense.
Posted Nov 12, 2021
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Shrek
(2001)
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Rachel Klein
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Turning the fairy-tale genre on its head was a clever, if not totally novel, notion at the time, and Shrek still retains much of its ironic charm 20 years later.
Posted Oct 22, 2021
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Dear Evan Hansen
(2021)
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Gloria Oladipo
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In recycling played out tropes, Dear Evan Hansen delivers surface-level and ableist representations of mental health challenges.
Posted Oct 20, 2021
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Candyman
(2021)
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Lea Anderson
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Instead of projecting the monster onto an outside other, that gaze is directed inward and outward simultaneously... Fear of the monster is fear of one's own tail, one's own reflection.
Posted Oct 20, 2021
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Cloud Atlas
(2012)
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Julie Goldman
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There were so many prosthetic noses.
Posted Aug 31, 2021
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The Mitchells vs. the Machines
(2021)
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Jodie Hare
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In its celebration of these characters... this film demonstrates how indispensable every single one of us is, and how much those living with disabilities have to offer the world, if only people took the time to notice.
Posted Jun 04, 2021
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Cruella
(2021)
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Rebecca Long
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The movie is fun, stylish, and over the top (in mostly a good way), but it struggles to prove that it's more than a muddled cash grab.
Posted Jun 04, 2021
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The Woman in the Window
(2021)
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s.e. smith
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The Woman in the Window explores disability in an intimate way, yet ultimately returns to a cultural status quo.
Posted May 21, 2021
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Tina
(2021)
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Andi Zeisler
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"I hope she knows how loved she is," says Bassett. Tina ensures that there's no possible doubt.
Posted Mar 31, 2021
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Minari
(2020)
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Hannah Bae
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Chung and his talented cast of actors refuse to reduce any of Minari's characters to mere caricatures.
Posted Mar 18, 2021
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Antebellum
(2020)
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Vanessa Willoughby
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Who is this movie for? Antebellum's portrayal of slavery is neither revolutionary nor unique.
Posted Mar 16, 2021
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Mulan
(2020)
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Roslyn Talusan
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I can only describe Mulan as a visually spectacular disappointment. Void of any emotional resonance, the film eschews coherent storytelling for what amounts to an Orientalist war epic masquerading as a feminist win for Asians everywhere.
Posted Mar 16, 2021
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Unpregnant
(2020)
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Kyndall Cunningham
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Unpregnant still manages to accomplish a lot with its funny and affecting script bolstered by two formidable performances by Richardson and Ferriera. But it also illustrates why diversity in the abortion film genre is so urgent.
Posted Mar 16, 2021
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Black Is King
(2020)
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Kovie Biakolo
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Black is King works because it is honest: a film of hope and belonging, represented by those whose cultures and diaspora continue to survive and thrive beyond a displacement that is similar, but not the same.
Posted Mar 16, 2021
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The Kissing Booth 2
(2020)
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Rachel Charlene Lewis
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While Noah and Elle's relationship feels less toxic in this film, which is slower and drags throughout its more than two-hour run, the pair still struggles to be honest with each other.
Posted Mar 16, 2021
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The Kissing Booth
(2018)
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Rachel Charlene Lewis
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[Noah and Elle's] relationship quickly spirals into one of those classic toxic relationships that populate Netflix's teen dramas.
Posted Mar 16, 2021
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Palm Springs
(2020)
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Sarah Jae Leiber
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Palm Springs still stands out because it's so deeply interested in the beauty and difficulty of knowing and being known by someone.. . I don't believe Sarah denied Nyles consent in the traditional sense, but... it gets sticky.
Posted Mar 16, 2021
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Chicken Run
(2000)
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Dejan Jotanovic
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Chicken Run, if anything, offers an alternative to a desolate world that many of us are increasingly afraid of.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Lucy in the Sky
(2019)
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Beatrice Loayza
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Hawley articulates Lucy's mental breakdown as if running through an uninspired checklist of bourgeois female suffering that he hopes will compensate for a lack of character building.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Jenny Slate: Stage Fright
(2019)
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Noa Azulai
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These moments of tenderness are a reminder that even amidst the chaos of today, there is joy, and thus power, in the ones you love, in your moments of faith or embarrassment, in your community, in your sexuality.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Vita & Virginia
(2018)
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Rachel Vorona Cote
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Much of the dialogue in Vita and Virginia is scooped directly from love letters exchanged between the writers - which, unfortunately, makes for a rather cumbersome screenplay.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Hustlers
(2019)
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Aya de Leon
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Hustlers is a triumph.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Alternate Endings: Six New Ways To Die In America
(2019)
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s.e. smith
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Alternate Endings ignores the cultures whose attitudes toward and traditions of death have long been "alternative." After all, humans have been dying at home and caring for their own dead for millennia.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Embrace of the Serpent
(2015)
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Mallika Khanna
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Crucial for global audiences to see.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Share
(2019)
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SezÃn Koehler
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Share sets a groundbreaking new model for a fresh paradigm of post-assault parental behavior.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Always Be My Maybe
(2019)
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Aline Dolinh
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The film's funny, contemporary, and uniquely tender take on the friends-to-lovers formula is further bolstered by its cultural specificity.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Late Night
(2019)
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Jourdain Searles
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All the while, Molly doesn't grow much at all. Her dream job simply falls in her lap, forgoing the possibly compelling journey that it would take to get it in the real world.
Posted Mar 15, 2021
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Ma
(2019)
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SezÃn Koehler
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[Ma is] an antihero of the highest caliber...The catharsis was glorious.
Posted Mar 13, 2021
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Booksmart
(2019)
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Aline Dolinh
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Though it really shouldn't be at this point in time, it's exhilarating to see a film centered on teenage girls... Yet to champion the film as a universal reflection of teenage girldom rather than a highly specific fantasy also does it a disservice.
Posted Mar 13, 2021
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Roll Red Roll
(2018)
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s.e. smith
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Roll Red Roll is an intense, provocative look at modern iterations of rape culture, and how becoming the home of an incredibly high-profile crime can reshape a town forever.
Posted Mar 13, 2021
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Booksmart
(2019)
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Rachel Vorona Cote
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With elegant clarity, Booksmart demonstrates how certain experiences can feel colossal and of walloping import even when we know we're waiting for something else-something we can't possibly fathom.
Posted Mar 12, 2021
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Second Act
(2018)
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Diane Shipley
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It goes with a twist that's as sentimental as it is improbable.
Posted Mar 12, 2021
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J.T. LeRoy
(2018)
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Katharine Coldiron
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Kristen Stewart is note-perfect as the androgynous, uncomfortable Knoop - alluring in spite of her awkwardness, intelligent and well-spoken when she decides to speak, constantly on the brink of fleeing any room she's in.
Posted Mar 12, 2021
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Captain Marvel
(2019)
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Keah Brown
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The chemistry between Larson and Lynch propels the last half of the movie; Lynch brings depth, love, and believability to Maria.
Posted Mar 12, 2021
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Dumplin'
(2018)
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Mariana Viera
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Dumplin' is a beautiful illustration of what good parenting can do for fat children.
Posted Mar 11, 2021
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On the Basis of Sex
(2018)
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Caroline Reilly
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On the Basis of Sex stands, additionally and crucially, as a testament to the power and importance of the legal world's unseen corners.
Posted Mar 11, 2021
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Halloween
(2018)
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SezÃn Koehler
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Halloween is [Laurie Strode's] love letter to all of us, wrapped in a most excellent slasher movie.
Posted Mar 11, 2021
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Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
(2018)
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s.e. smith
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The Crimes of Grindelwald's lack of awareness goes much deeper than a mere miscasting,
Posted Mar 11, 2021
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The New Romantic
(2018)
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Sofia Barrett-Ibarria
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Sugar-baby stories themselves, however, need to evolve to reflect the reality of who and what real sugar babies are.
Posted Mar 11, 2021
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Crazy Rich Asians
(2018)
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Li Sian Goh
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Crazy Rich Asians represents people and places with so little thought that it upholds a painful, brutal hegemony that's painfully apparent to people who live in Southeast Asia, where the film is actually set.
Posted Mar 11, 2021
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To All the Boys I've Loved Before
(2018)
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Laura Sirikul
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Thanks to films like To All The Boys I've Loved Before, The Edge of Seventeen, and Running from Grace, Asian American teenagers can see dimensional versions of themselves onscreen who are worthy of falling in love, no matter who they end up with.
Posted Mar 11, 2021
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I Spit on Your Grave 2
(2013)
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Cate Young
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By equating the victim with her attackers, the film fails to comment on sexual violence in a meaningful way that justifies its gross depiction.
Posted Mar 08, 2021
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Elle
(2016)
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Cate Young
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The rape scenes are neither gratuitous nor lingered upon.
Posted Mar 08, 2021
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The Misandrists
(2017)
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Samantha Riedel
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It's an ambitious and baffling conceit, and while Bruce LaBruce doesn't have enough of a coherent thesis to bring it together, his attempt is strangely fascinating.
Posted Mar 05, 2021
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