REVIEW: Dreamland [2020]

Except I’m the man in the hat. Eugene’s (Finn Cole) father used to say about their Bismarck home, “This place is cursed.” It didn’t matter that it’s where he and his wife Olivia (Kerry Condon) settled with a bunch of other families to begin building their lives. John Baker simply never thought any good could come from staying. So he left. Olivia and Eugene remained. Dust storm after dust storm swept through that land destroying crops, farms, and hope. The banks subsequently arrived with foreclosure after foreclosure. Olivia Baker eventually…

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REVIEW: Mistress America [2015]

“Five feet to the left and unhappy” I’ve considered myself a sociopath for a while now, but Noah Baumbach‘s Mistress America has confirmed it. Maybe this is why I have such a love hate relationship with the writer/director’s work—it’s full of them. I guess it’s the light in which the one I align myself with most is shone that determines my reaction. Or maybe it’s whether or not he makes a concerted effort to portray the film in which they’re depicted as purposefully satirical or authentic. But even then it’s…

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