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Some thoughts on the pedestrian Ben Wheatley-directed “Rebecca” (hint: we did not like it all that much)

The legacy of a life cut short
Armie Hammer and Lily James
Directed by Ben Wheatley

The new Netflix produced “Rebbeca” is a film haunted by the very present ghost of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 Oscar-winning namesake, also adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 gothic novel. Armie Hammer, who is carving out an interesting career for himself and who can be great, is much too wooden in his portrayal of the dashing and wealthy heir Maxim de Winter. Maxim cannot overcome nor recover ... more >

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: “YESTERDAY” was great fun to watch. Then the self-indulgent pathos began

Imagine there's no Beatles
Himesh Patel and Lily James
Directed by Danny Boyle

Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday” is a delight almost to the end. How can it not be? First of all, perfect pitch by both Himesh Patel (Jack) and the too-lovely-for-words Lily James (Ellie). Patel is Jack Malik, a store employee who, through a blackout on earth and being hit by a bus, wakes up in an alternate world where he is the one and only person who knows the Beatles. A third-rate musician who kind of ... more >

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Gary Oldman is awesome in “Darkest Hour”

Rises to the occasion
Gary Oldman, Lily James and Kristin Scott Thomas
Directed by Joe Wright

In “Darkest hour,” what Gary Oldman’s Churchill has to contend with in a time of war reminded me of what a newspaper editor does: tense negotiations, the reworking of sentences, an overarching need to get the message out, loudly and clearly. The real context of the story, the history, is, evidently, a very different one from this. In the early forties European countries were falling like dominoes ... more >