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Four Rooms
Unwatchable fluff from four seemingly promising 90s directors. Bloated and self indulgent on every level.
31st Dec 2014
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Sleeping Beauty
Genre-pushing 1950s Disney fairytale, this time in epic widescreen. Tastefully done.
Halliwell says: Rather stodgy, unwisely Cinemascoped feature cartoon of the old legend; very fashionable and detailed, but somehow lifeless.*
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29th Dec 2014
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The Interview
Witless comedy with none of the observation of Knocked Up, or the outrageousness of Team America.
28th Dec 2014
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Ice Age
Dawn of the Dinosaurs
More action packed ice adventures, this time with added Simon Pegg. A plus for once.
27th Dec 2014
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Terriers
Great characters, fantastic scripts, a long-game season arc and a bunch of good twists make this very watchable TV.
26th Dec 2014
Read more 4 star reviewsDavid Simon on The Wire’s new HD remastering process: http://t.co/cJ5ZRBbbk5
26th Dec 2014
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\#Spotted: The Sarge from CHiPs, as the Bishop in Disney's 'Frozen'. http://t.co/MlQy8aYpBQ
26th Dec 2014
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Frozen
Disney's latest mega-sensation is heavy on songs, light on jeopardy and is missing an antagonist.
26th Dec 2014
Read more 2.5 star reviewsI'm 140 movies deep into 2014 and it's suddenly got very Disney-heavy.
26th Dec 2014
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Peter Pan
Rich, action-packed Disney entry, benefitting from J. M. Barrie's more layered source material.
Halliwell says: Solidly crafted cartoon version of a famous children's play; not Disney's best work, but still miles ahead of the competition.***
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26th Dec 2014
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The World's Fastest Indian
Textbook, sentimental, heartstring-plucking tale - done flawlessly.
25th Dec 2014
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Le Week-end
Talky, thought provoking middle aged comedy about dreams v life. Solid script from Hanif Kureishi.
24th Dec 2014
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Multiplicity
If you like Michael Keaton, you'll love this screwball comedy that doesn't really have a start or end.
24th Dec 2014
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Cinderella
Disney's flashy re-tread of Snow White, missing some of the charm but pushing forward animation technique.
Halliwell says: A feature cartoon rather short on inspiration, though with all Disney's solid virtues. The mice are lively and the villainous cat the best character.**
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24th Dec 2014
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Save The Date
Slight, middle-class, hipster dramedy - saved from disaster by some reliable casting.
23rd Dec 2014
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Tarzan
Reasonable late-era Disney, enhanced/dated by a flamboyant Phil Collins soundtrack.
23rd Dec 2014
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Cherry
Predictable indie drama. Following in the footsteps of 'Starlet', but with less style and originality.
23rd Dec 2014
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RIP Joe Cocker
The Sheffield singer - best known to 80s kids as the guy who sang the Wonder Years theme tune With A Little Help From My Friends - has died at 70. Little background to how the reruns couldn't afford his amazing version here on Quartz
23rd Dec 2014 - Add Comment - Tweet

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Genre-defining animation from Disney. Dated in some ways, but still full of style.
Halliwell says: Disney's first feature cartoon, a mammoth enterprise which no one in the business thought would work. The romantic leads were wishy-washy but the splendid songs and the marvellous comic and villainous characters turned the film into a world-wide box office bombshell which is almost as fresh today as when it was made.****
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22nd Dec 2014
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\#Spotted: Avon Barksdale, bussing tables in 'As Good As It Gets'. http://t.co/l8hVkcw8hA
20th Dec 2014
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The Hunt
Intense, paranoid witch hunt. Thought provoking and intricately crafted, with many stand out performances.
19th Dec 2014
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Felony
Underwhelming Aussie police thriller. A slim concept, padded out to feature length.
19th Dec 2014
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Triangle
Laborious time loop thriller with many similarities to the far superior Timecrimes.
18th Dec 2014
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Trailer Park: Knight of Cups
Trailer up for the next Terrence Mailick movie, "Knight of Cups". Bale looks bearabale for once and the movie itself looks like a change of direction after the rambling dullness of "To The Wonder". The movie will debut at the Berlin Film Festival in February.
16th Dec 2014 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Insider
Intense, paranoid drama about the tobacco industry. Super stylish, riveting and genuinely shocking.
12th Dec 2014
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Labor Day
Powerful, stylish drama. Beautiful cinematography, anchored by strong performances and a solid script.
12th Dec 2014
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The Hottest State
Heavy-handed coming-of-age movie that attempts to capture some of Linklater's charm.
12th Dec 2014
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\#Spotted: A Game of Thrones beard and music by @WarOnDrugsJams, flogging Jimmy Choo perfume. http://t.co/IZRcPNoRJj http://t.co/HoHo7xjeLQ
8th Dec 2014
Read on TwitterWes Anderson Presents: Star Wars Force Awakens Trailer
La force se réveille...
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7th Dec 2014 - Add Comment - Tweet

I Origins
Compelling, stylish, indie-ish sci-fi. Laced with originality, if a little heavy handed in places.
5th Dec 2014
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Predestination
Clunky time-travel-paradox yarn that telegraphs its beats well ahead of time.
5th Dec 2014
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Escape From Tomorrow
Ambitious Disneyland-set indie flick, hampered by an un-engaging, creepy, surrealist script.
4th Dec 2014
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\#Spotted: \#Lebowski's brother shamus, as a rival wardrobe kingpin in 'Modern Family'. An Irish monk? http://t.co/l8YR1y71Xp
2nd Dec 2014
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\#Spotted: Cagney, or Lacey - as Lilly's cranky teacher in 'Modern Family'. http://t.co/Dr2pEAAyjS
2nd Dec 2014
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Out Of The Furnace
Pretentious Deer Hunter clone, with Bale and Casey Affleck trying to out-mumble each other.
1st Dec 2014
Read more 2.5 star reviewsTrailer Park: Star Wars 7
The Millenium Falcon is looking pretty tasty in the new Star Wars trailer - and the X-Wings skimming across that lake are not too shabby either. Less so the comedy rolling robot, or the lame attempt to top Darth Maul's lightsaber.
"It's as good as the Phantom Menace trailer looked" - CJ

28th Nov 2014 - Add Comment - Tweet
Wilco - What's Your 20?
Wilco have clocked up an impressive 20 years since their first gig in 1994, as The Black Shampoo. For their 20th anniversary, they are relased a retrospective best-of, plus a 4 disc set of rarities. Out in the UK on Dec 1st.
Epic timeline below.

WILCO
• May 1, 1994 - Uncle Tupelo performs its last show as a band at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, MO.
• May 1994 - After Uncle Tupelo's split, Jeff Tweedy, Max Johnston, Ken Coomer and John Stirratt carry on as Wilco. Factoid #1: Before arriving at Wilco as the band's name, they considered calling themselves "National Dust."
• August 1994 - The sessions for what would become Wilco's debut album, A.M. begin with Brian Paulson as producer for Reprise Records. (Paulson handled similar duties for Uncle Tupelo's final album, Anodyne.) The Bottle Rockets' Brian Henneman, formerly a guitar tech for Uncle Tupelo, plays lead guitar on the album (and clinking bottles on "Casino Queen"). Jay Bennett joins the band after recording finishes.
• September 13, 1994 - The first released Wilco recording, a collaboration with Syd Straw on the Ernest Tubb song "The T.B. is Whipping Me," debuts on the benefit album Red, Hot + Country.
• November 17, 1994 - Performing as "Black Shampoo," Wilco make its live debut at Cicero's in St. Louis, MO.
• March 28, 1995 - Wilco releases A.M., touring extensively behind it.
• October 29, 1996 - The double-disc Being There is released. Bob Egan joins the band
during recording, while Max Johnston leaves afterwards.
• November 1997 - The band spends a week at Willie Nelson's Texas studio Pedenales
working on demos for songs that would eventually appear on Summerteeth.
• December 1997 - The band take occupancy of The Loft, the Chicago space that they
record and practice in to this day.
• January 1998 - Mermaid Avenue recording sessions begin in Dublin with
singer/songwriter Billy Bragg after a trial run in Chicago the month before. The album
brings to life previously unrecorded lyrics by Woody Guthrie.
• June 23, 1998 - Mermaid Avenue is released and eventually nominated for a GRAMMY
in the category of Best Contemporary Folk album. Bob Egan leaves the band and Leroy
Bach joins.
• March 9, 1999 - Summerteeth is released, taking another jump ahead of expectations.
More songs are recorded for eventual inclusion on Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 2.
• January 9, 2000 – The band’s last show at Lounge Ax, the late, great Chicago music
venue co-owned by Tweedy's wife Sue Miller Tweedy and Julia Adams.
• May 30, 2000 - Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 2 debuts, featuring new Guthrie songs from Wilco
as well as others by the band and Bragg that didn't make the first record.
• January 2001 - Coomer leaves the band not long before cameras begin rolling on Sam Jones' documentary about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's recording. Glenn Kotche, who had begun working with Tweedy on side projects and live shows, joins.
• June/July 2001 - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is turned in to Reprise Records and initially met with dismay and silence. Management begins a delicate back and forth with the label to extricate the band from its recording contract. The band eventually leaves Reprise with the album, no strings attached, to shop around elsewhere.
• July 4, 2001 – Wilco headlines WXPN’s Fourth of July concert in Chicago's Grant Park; unbeknownst to anyone at the time, this will be Jay Bennett’s last show with the band.
• August 16, 2001 - Jay Bennett leaves Wilco.
• September 10, 2001 - Scott McCaughey visits Chicago and enlists Wilco to back him up
on the latest album by his project The Minus 5. The album, titled Down With Wilco, is
released on Yep Roc Records on February 25, 2003.
• September 18, 2001 - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot begins streaming for free on Wilcoworld.net,
a practice the band also employs on future recordings. Tour plans are made featuring Tweedy, Stirratt, Kotche and Bach, re-configuring the band’s live performance in the wake of Bennett's departure.
• April 23, 2002 - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot arrives in stores via Nonesuch Records. The album goes on to be certified Gold (sales in excess of 500,000) by the RIAA and remains to this day the band’s best-selling album.
• July 26, 2002 – Sam Jones' documentary on the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, entitled I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, opens in select theaters. Also that year, Mikael Jorgensen begins working with the band, first in the capacity of sound mixer, later adding keyboardist to his duties.
• November 2003 - Work begins in New York City on A Ghost Is Born with producer Jim O'Rourke.
• January 28, 2004 - Leroy Bach's departure is announced.
• March 4, 2004 - Pat Sansone and Nels Cline join the band.
• April 2004 – Tweedy enters rehab to treat an addition to painkillers; A Ghost is Born
release is delayed.
• May 19, 2004 - The first live performance with the new lineup (which is now Tweedy,
Stirratt, Kotche, Jorgensen, Cline & Sansone) debuts at Otto's in Dekalb, IL. The lineup
remains current.
• June 15, 2004 - Greg Kot's bio on the band, Learning How To Die, hits bookstores.
• June 21, 2004 - A Ghost is Born is released. Factoid #2: Alternate title considered: Wilco
Happens.
• November 2, 2004 - The band releases The Wilco Book, capturing Wilco in pictorial, literary and musical form.
• December 31, 2004 – Wilco headlines Madison Square Garden, sharing a bill with Sleater-Kinney and The Flaming Lips. They close the show, in their pajamas, with a post- midnight covers-set including “Don’t Fear The Reaper.”
• February 13, 2005 – A Ghost is Born wins Best Alternative Music Album at the 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards.
• November 15, 2005 - Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, the band's first live album, is released, featuring tracks recorded over the course of four shows at Chicago’s Vic Theater.
• May 15, 2007 - The first studio album to feature Cline and Sansone, Sky Blue Sky, is released. It debuts at #4 on the Billboard charts and is nominated for a Best Rock Album GRAMMY.
• September 12, 2007 - Wilco performs first ticketed show at the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The show is a benefit and raises more than $100,000 for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
• February 15 – 20, 2008 - The band plays every song from every one of their albums over a five-night residency at the Riviera in Chicago.
• March 1, 2008 – Wilco performs “Walken’” and “Hate It Here” on Saturday Night Live. Ellen Page hosts.
• April 28, 2009 - Wilco: Live - Ashes of American Flags, a concert film from directors Christoph Green and Brendan Canty following the band from Tulsa, OK to Washington D.C. on their 2008 tour, is released on DVD.
• May 2009 - Former Wilco member Jay Bennett passes away at his home in Illinois. A statement from the band remembers Bennett as a "truly unique and gifted human being."
• June 30, 2009 - The band gets meta with the release of Wilco (The Album) and its lead single "Wilco (The Song)." Like Sky Blue Sky, Wilco (The Album) debuts at #4 on the Billboard charts. Wilco receives a GRAMMY nomination for Best Americana Album.
• July 2009 – Jeff Tweedy appears on the cover of SPIN magazine.
• January 29, 2010 – Wilco performs Buffalo Springfield’s “Broken Arrow” at MusiCares
2010 Person of the Year concert honoring Neil Young. SPIN calls the performance
“brilliant,” and one that “revealed a band in complete control of its capabilities.”
• August 13 – 15, 2010 - Wilco kicks off the inaugural Solid Sound Festival at the
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The festival features band members' side
projects, as well as other artist-friends like Mavis Staples.
• January 2011 - The band announces the creation of its own label, dBpm Records after
their contract with Nonesuch ends. The label's first release is the Wilco single "I Might"
with a B-side cover of Nick Lowe's "I Love My Label," first released at Solid Sound
Festival. Factoid #3: dBpm had been kicked around as a possible album title for years.
• September 27, 2011 - The Whole Love, the band's debut album for its label dBpm
Records, hits the Billboard charts at #5 and receives a Grammy nomination for Best Rock
Album.
• November 23, 2011 – Rolling Stone names Nels Cline one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists
of all time.
• April 21, 2012 - Timed for Record Store Day and to commemorate Woody Guthrie's
100th birthday, Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, a vinyl box set (which includes the first two volumes, a third collecting unreleased songs, as well as a DVD of the documentary, Man In the Sand) is released. Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 3 is also released digitally.
• July 8, 2012 - Wilco plays largest headlining show (to date), performing to 15k+ fans at Chicagoland's Kane County Cougars 5/3 Bank Ballpark. The show coincides with the breaking of a Midwest heat wave that saw Chicagoans sweltering through multiple days of record-breaking temperatures exceeding 100-degrees.
• June 21, 2013 – Wilco plays an all-request covers set during the opening night of the 2013 Solid Sound Festival. Songs performed include Television’s “Marquee Moon,” Abba’s “Waterloo” and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” Tommy Stintson joins for a cover of The Replacements “Color Me Impressed.”
• June 26, 2013 – Wilco joins Bob Dylan’s AmericanaramA tour. The band welcomes several guests to the stage throughout the tour including Government Mule’s Warren Haynes, Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter and The Band’s Garth Hudson.
• November 17, 2014 – Exactly twenty years to the day since Wilco’s first performance (as Black Shampoo) Nonesuch Records releases two Wilco collections: The first, Alpha Mike Foxtrot, a 4-CD, 4-LP/Digital box set amassing rare studio and live recordings from the band's archives, and the second, What's Your 20?, is a 2-CD/Digital compilation of essential tracks culled from the band's previously released studio recordings.
28th Nov 2014 - Add Comment - Tweet

Hummingbird
A low bodycount for Statham in this muddled macho-with-message effort from the Peaky Blinders guy.
25th Nov 2014
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The Kings of Summer
Promising debut feature. Schizophrenic, with lots of nice touches, but not entirely successful.
24th Nov 2014
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Promo Promo: Pond - Elvis' Flaming Star
New album from Tame Impala cohorts Pond on the way in Jan - Man It Feels Like Space Again
23rd Nov 2014 - Add Comment - Tweet
WTF is @BritMarling doing in Babylon? I thought she was the next J-Law.
20th Nov 2014
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For Lovers Only
Inspiring arthouse pic from the Polish Brothers. Remarkably offhand et casual. A bit pretentious.
20th Nov 2014
Read more 3.5 star reviewsRaiders of the Lost Ark, reimagined by Steven Soderbergh. http://t.co/FrG5qzRVJf
19th Nov 2014
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Guardians of the Galaxy
Light-hearted sci-fi. Deftly handled, with a tone you rarely see these days.
19th Nov 2014
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