Mark Schroeder’s Movie Reviews
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Grade: C+
I’ve now seen all the Oscar nominated movies in the picture, director, and acting categories. The last one for me, and one of the only clunkers, was The Master, which featured wonderful cinematography and 3 deserving nominated performances, but was long, plodding, confusing, and lacked focus. It’s mildly interesting, and may be worth another try sometime in the distant future. I may have missed the boat on this one.
Grade: C+
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[…] Some huge stars receive prominent billing on the posters and advertisements, but their roles are glorified cameos at most. I’ll get to them in a minute. Our main players here are Alana Kane (played by Alana Haim of the rock band Haim) and Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son), both making their feature film acting debuts. Their inexperience colors their performances and works in their favor. These are not some jaded, polished child stars. This is a pair of character embodiments that live and breathe with refreshing freshness. Alana Kane in particular consistently has wonderful poise and interesting acting instincts, all of which look natural. It helps that she shares a first name with her character, and her sisters and parents appear in the movie, as her family. Cooper Hoffman’s casting is a poignant and appropriate choice, given that his late father was a veteran of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films (he was in Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, and was nominated for an Oscar for The Master). […]
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[…] and at times meandering, like his Licorice Pizza. It dips its toe into the avant garde pool like The Master. He likes to cut around to various points of view experiencing the same moment (here’s what’s […]
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