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Sean Means Reviews Movies for November 7th, 2019

ARTSIES

 

MAKING WAVES – TBD

Few realize that sound is 50% of the cinematic experience. Building on the pioneering sight-and-sound discoveries of iconic filmmakers, this documentary features the first generation of recognized Sound Designers who designed great movies with sound before a frame was shot.   Read More

Director: Midge Costin

Starring: Erik Aadahl, Ioan Allen, Richard L. Anderson

 

PAIN & GLORY – 3 1/2 Stars

Pain and Glory tells of a series of reencounters experienced by Salvador Mallo, a film director in his physical decline. Some of them in the flesh, others remembered: his childhood in the 60s, when he emigrated with his parents to a village in Valencia in search of prosperity, the first desire, his first adult love in the Madrid of the 80s, the pain of the breakup of that love while it was still alive and intense, writing as the only therapy to forget the unforgettable, the early discovery of cinema, and the void, the infinite void that creates the incapacity to keep on making films.   Read More

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia

 

FARTSIES

 

MIDWAY – Not Screened by Me

MIDWAY centers on the Battle of Midway, a clash between the American fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy which marked a pivotal turning point in the Pacific Theater during WWII.   Read More

Director: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans

 

PLAYING WITH FIRE – 1 Star

When straight-laced fire superintendent Jake Carson (John Cena) and his elite team of expert firefighters (Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo and Tyler Mane) come to the rescue of three siblings (Brianna Hildebrand, Christian Convery and Finley Rose Slater) in the path of an encroaching wildfire, they quickly realize that no amount of training could prepare them for their most challenging job yet — babysitters.   Read More

Director: Andy Fickman

Starring: Judy Greer, Keegan-Michael Key, John Cena

 

DOCTOR SLEEP – 2 1/2 Stars

“Doctor Sleep” is the continuation of Danny Torrance’s story 40 years after the terrifying events of Stephen King’s The Shining. Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the “shine.” Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality.   Read More

Director: Mike Flanagan

Starring: Rebecca Ferguson, Ewan McGregor, Jacob Tremblay

 

LAST CHRISTMAS – 3 Stars

Kate (Emilia Clarke) harumphs around London, a bundle of bad decisions accompanied by the jangle of bells on her shoes, another irritating consequence from her job as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop. Tom (Henry Golding) seems too good to be true when he walks into her life and starts to see through so many of Kate’s barriers.   Read More

Director: Paul Feig

Starring: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Emma Thompson

 

OPENING NEXT WEEK 

 

Charlie’s Angels

Cyrano, My Love

Fantastic Fungi

Ford v. Ferrari

The Good Liar

The Report 

The Warrior Queen of Jhansi 

Waves

 

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