REVIEW: Dough [2016]

“How can you lose trousers?” Think of John Goldschmidt‘s latest film Dough (his first in the director’s chair since 1987) as a cinematic peace pipe for race relations and religious zealots. Rather than tobacco and herbs mixed into kinnikinnick for a clay vessel, however, screenwriters Jonathan Benson and Jez Freedman use marijuana and challah. The concoction sells through the roof, has London’s East End overrun by patrons like never before, and gets its unwitting purveyor remembering what it’s like to live. Just when Jewish baker Nat Dayan (Jonathan Pryce) thought…

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REVIEW: Albert Nobbs [2012]

“Life without decency is unbearable” I really enjoy films residing in the duplicitous limbo between aristocracy’s flights of fancy and the laborers at their beck and call. Rodrigo García‘s Albert Nobbs is the latest of such endeavors containing a little of its own singular intrigue as the dark secret of a meek little man’s identity rests alongside the petty constraints of social status and unwritten rules of gossip amongst two opposing classes colliding within Morrison’s Hotel’s 19th century Dublin establishment. The impeccable head waiter adored by staff and guests alike,…

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REVIEW: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger [2010]

“Where is my life heading? I need direction.” Whether you’re a fan or not, Woody Allen’s ability to churn out a film a year is nothing short of astounding. They are not all masterpieces—in my opinion few of them are—but that only makes the greats greater. His current renaissance abroad in Europe has had a few gems, so rather than the late-90s/early-00s sense of trepidation and lack of interest in what he created, I’ve actually been excited for much of his newest work. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger…

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