Two brothers in 1910s California struggle to maintain their strict, Bible-toting father’s favor as an old secret about their long-absent mother comes to light.

Based on John Steinbeck’s bestseller, this movie is masterfully directed by Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront). The story is great, well-paced and grips you from the first minutes, but the chemistry between Julie Harris (Abra) and James Dean (Cal) is amazing. Five popcorns and goes into the Movie Vault.

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2038: George Almore is working on a true human-equivalent AI. His latest prototype is almost ready. This sensitive phase is also the riskiest. Especially as he has a goal that must be hidden at all costs: being reunited with his dead wife.

Moon meets Ex Machina meets Chappie meets Black Mirror. Slow burning but not too slow, good cinematography, decent acting, good soundtrack by Steven Price (Gravity, Fury, Suicide Squad) all coming together by the writing and directing of Gavin Rothery (head graphic designer for Moon). The robots are excellent.

Five stars and it goes into the Movie Vault.

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The film tells the story of Ion Creangă, who charmed generations with his fairy tales and stories, and his relationship with Mihai Eminescu, the great national poet. Creangă considers his stories a simple source of amusement, devoid of depth, but Mihai Eminescu tries to convince him that he has a special talent. The poet has his own problems, being involved in an impossible love affair with Veronica Micle.

Good movie, filled with popular quotes, a nice pacing and some funny bits. All in all, a good Romanian movie, Four popcorns.

PS: Couldn’t find a trailer, so there’s the full movie after the jump.

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After a woman’s at-home DNA test reveals multiple half-siblings, she discovers a shocking scheme involving donor sperm and a popular fertility doctor.

Documentary about one of the most fucked up crimes anyone committed, some shit that requires new laws. Unbelievably true story that impacted a lot of lives.

Four popcorns.

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Classic cartoon craziness meets an interactive quiz in CAT BURGLAR. In this Tex Avery inspired toon from the creators of BLACK MIRROR, the viewer helps Rowdy Cat vex Peanut the Security Pup and break into a museum with the goal of making off with a priceless prize. With an average runtime of ten minutes, and over an hour and a half of animation to choose from, the viewer could play CAT BURGLAR a hundred times and never view the same cartoon twice!

While the cartoon is a good throwback to Tex Avery toons (Looney Tunes, Droopy, Chilly Willy), but the creative part is ruined by the “gameplay”. Trivia questions, most of the time pretty complex or mind-benders, that you need to read, think and answer in packs of three in about 4 seconds. I tried playing it a bit, but the complexity of the trivia part ruined it for me. I would have loved this if it had a more “Bandersnatch” approach, where you’d choose the action that the cat will take, rather than a “pass/fail”. 4 stars for the cartoon itself, zero stars for the implementation.

Two popcorns. I put on some Looney Tunes instead.

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A behind-the-scenes look at how Jim Carrey adopted the persona of idiosyncratic comedian Andy Kaufman on the set of Man on the Moon (1999).

Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton is a fantastic documentary about how Jim Carrey became Andy Kaufman. Featuring never-seen before footage and interviews. If you haven’t seen Man on the Moon (1999), drop whatever you are doing and watch it.

Six popcorns.

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It follows the rise and fall of the American financier and ponzi schemer: Madoff.

Ponzi schemes, fraud, Wall Street shenanigans, taking from the rich and giving to other rich. A good four part documentary about greed and the dream of making easy money and getting bit in the butt. Four popcorns.

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Yorkshire-based crime drama centering on the personal and professional life of Police Sergeant Catherine Cawood.

Amazing TV series produced by the BBC. Just as they usually do, each season has a few episodes (six) and is released a couple of years apart. It’s a gut-churning, heart in the throat crime drama. The plot squeezes the characters so hard that it’s sometimes unwatchable because you relate so intensely to the psychological pressures they’re under, both the good guys and the bad.

Two seasons are already out in 2014 and 2016 and the last one is being released weekly over 6 weeks.

Six popcorns and one for the Movie Vault. Excellent drama.

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Biography of Ben Carson who grew up to be Dr. Ben Carson, a world famous neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins.

Not much to say. Very good TV movie based on the true story of Dr. Ben Carson, great acting by Cuba Gooding Jr., great dramatisation of the facts and solid emotional responses triggered throughout the entire movie. Four popcorns.

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With his two friends, a video-game-obsessed young man finds himself in a strange version of Tokyo where they must compete in dangerous games to win.

So The Cube meets Squid Game. A lot of brilliant special effects, pew pew, Japanese girls in swimsuits, blood, gore and violence. Five popcorns and a deck of cards.

Season two trailer here, but beware, it contains spoilers from Season 1!

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Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

Great drama, great music, great cinematography, great casting and acting. Nothing short of what you’d expect of a Spielberg movie. Five popcorns and a videocamera.

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When a major celebrity comes to her small town, a young woman makes desperate attempts to meet him but she’ll have to beat out her three friends.

It’s silly, it’s mindless fun, and at times is funny. Not even close to being the best of the year, but it’s good if you want to waste almost 2 hours one someting easy-going. Three popcorns because it’s actually funny. Altough I linked the trailer, don’t watch it, it’s full of spoilers.

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