Month: February 2018

Woodshock (2017)
A24 Films

Woodshock (2017)

Theresa (Kirsten Dunst) provides her terminally-ill mother with a cannibis joint laced with poison, allowing her to commit assisted suicide. After her mother’s death, she inherits her home in rural Northern California. Theresa’s boyfriend, Nick, wants her to move elsewhere with him, but she insists on staying in her mother’s house. Theresa returns to her job at a cannabis dispensary owned by her friend Keith, but is noticeably withdrawn. She attends a house party with Keith, and talks with Johnny, a mutual friend who is younger than both of them.

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Loving Vincent (2017)
Other Studios

Loving Vincent (2017)

A year after the death of the artist, Vincent van Gogh, Postman Roulin gets his slacker son, Armand, to hand deliver the artist’s final letter written to his now late brother, Theo, to some worthy recipient after multiple failed postal delivery attempts. Although disdainful of this seemingly pointless chore, Armand travels to Auvers-sur-Oise where a purported close companion to Vincent, Dr. Gachet, lives.

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Stronger (2017)
Lionsgate Films / Roadside Attractions

Stronger (2017)

Based on a true story, Stronger stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Jeff Bauman, a man who lost both legs in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. He has to deal not only with a disability, but with a country that wants to turn him into a symbol of survival. With that description, you usually know what you’re going to get: a very good actor trying their damnedest to get an Oscar in a weepy drama with snot-sodden monologues and soaring strings on the soundtrack. Stronger is not that movie. Gyllenhaal could win countless gongs, and fairly so, but it will be for a movie that is far from lazy award-bait.

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Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)
Fox Searchlight Pictures

Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)

The film begins during WWII, in 1941, with A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) – nicknamed “Blue” by his friends and family – and his wife Daphne (Margot Robbie) receiving a distressing telegram at their home. It then changes timeframe to a few decades earlier with Blue fighting in the Battle of the Somme, then resuming his life in England while suffering shell shock with occasional flashbacks to his battle experiences, and having a child with Daphne. She was hoping for a girl, and is disappointed to instead have a son, whom they name Christopher Robin Milne but call “Billy”. They hire a nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald) who is given primary responsibility for raising the child.

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Marshall (2017)
Open Road Films

Marshall (2017)

In 1940, Thurgood Marshall is an NAACP lawyer travelling the country defending people of color who are wrongly accused of crimes because of racial prejudice. Upon his return to his New York office, he is sent to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to defend Joseph Spell, a chauffeur accused of rape by his white employer, Eleanor Strubing, in a case that has gripped the newspapers.

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The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)
Warner Bros Pictures

The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)

A young boy ventures into an old relic shop, where he meets the mysterious owner, Mr. Liu, who begins to tell the boy the legend of Ninjago. Ninjago is a city within the Lego Universe that is frequently attacked by the evil Lord Garmadon, who is the father of Lloyd Garmadon and ex-husband of Misako (AKA Koko). Ninjago despises Lloyd for being Lord Garmadon’s son, which puts Lloyd under emotional stress.

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Brad's Status (2017)
Amazon Studios

Brad’s Status (2017)

While Brad Sloan (Ben Stiller) works for a non-profit organization, he imagines how his friends Craig Fisher (Michael Sheen), Billy Wearslter (Jemaine Clement), Jason Hatfield (Luke Wilson), and Nick Pascale (Mike White) are rich and accomplished. He is struggling with money and thinks about his in-laws dying and his inheriting some money. His wife Melanie (Jenna Fischer) tries to comfort Brad, telling him that they don’t need to compare themselves to the wealthiest 1%.

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Mother! Movie Poster (2017) - Jennifer Lawrence
Paramount Pictures

Mother! (2017)

Amidst a wild flat meadow encircled by an Edenic lush forest, a couple have cocooned themselves in a secluded grand mansion that was not so long ago burned to the ground, devotedly restored by the supportive wife. Within this safe environment, the once famous middle-aged poet husband is desirous of creating his magnum opus; however, he seems unable to break out of the persistent creative rut that haunts him.

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American Assassin (2017)
Lionsgate Films

American Assassin (2017)

Twenty three-year-old Mitch lost his parents to a tragic car accident at the age of fourteen, and his girlfriend to a terrorist attack just as they were engaged. Seeking revenge, he is enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy as a black ops recruit. Kennedy then assigns Cold War veteran Stan Hurley to train Mitch. Together they will later on investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on military and civilian targets. The discovery of a pattern in the violence leads them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent to stop a mysterious operative intent on starting a world war in the Middle East.

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