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Movie review: “My Friend Dahmer”: Portrait of the serial killer as a young man
In some ways, "My Friend Dahmer" is a typical coming-of-age movie about an awkward teen. What distinguishes this particular case of adolescent angst is that it's the true story of...
Movie review: “Jane” documentary looks at a pioneering primatologist
Film tries too hard at times to juice up a powerful story.
Sharp social-media satire “Tragedy Girls” features Instagrammers who would literally kill for “likes”
Taking "Mean Girls" to a Grand Guignol extreme, the gory horror-comedy "Tragedy Girls" is at least the third movie this year -- after "Ingrid Goes West" and "Friend Request" --...
Movie review: “Te Ata,” the biopic of a gifted Native American performer, fails to tell her story
Overcoming racial prejudice to become a popular storyteller, Native American performer Te Ata Fisher led an inspirational life. How ironic, then, that "Te Ata," while meaning well, fails to bring...
Movie review: Mild Facebook anxiety becomes a supernatural nightmare in “Friend Request”
In the age of social media, is being alone the ultimate horror? The mildly creepy thriller "Friend Request" takes Facebook anxiety and turns it into a supernatural nightmare. While that's...
“Rebel in the Rye” an all-too-conventional portrait of literary iconoclast J.D. Salinger
Based on Kenneth Slawenski's 2010 book "J.D. Salinger: A Life," the biopic "Rebel in the Rye" is a marginal improvement on Salerno's documentary.
“California Typewriter” hammers out a love letter to a nearly extinct machine
Documentarian Doug Nichol's debut feature "California Typewriter" celebrates the surprising staying power of a technology that has become almost -- but not quite -- obsolete.
“The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature”: Stale jokes and slapstick, the sequel
Unfortunately, despite its adorable heroes, you'd have to be nutty to sit through "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature," a largely unengaging modern-day animal fable.
Halle Berry is a mother who’ll stop at nothing to rescue her abducted son in “Kidnap”
The omens did not bode well for "Kidnap," a New Orleans-set action movie in which Halle Berry plays a single mother who stops at nothing to rescue her abducted 6-year-old...
“The Women’s Balcony”: A synagogue is divided when a balcony collapses
Set in an Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem, "The Women's Balcony" centers on the literal breakdown of a synagogue. Structural damage to the women's seating section results in a social...