Film Review: “The Iron Claw”

The Iron Claw’s energy in the ring can’t overcome its weaknesses outside the ring

Your mileage may vary on how much you care about wrestling. Wrestling only became major sports entertainment in the late 1980s with the growing popularity of the WWF (World Wrestling Federation). But in the early 1980s, the Von Erich family sought fame on wrestling’s biggest stages, but tragedy continued to get in the way. The Iron Claw, a new sports drama named after the family’s trademark wrestling move, hastily captures this incredibly sad, hard-to-believe true story, but lacks emotional thoroughness in between its wrestling matches.

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Film Review: “See How They Run”

The only mystery here is how this tiresome picture got made

Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are on the case when a Hollywood director is murdered at a London theater.

With the success of Knives Out and its upcoming sequel The Glass Onion (which will open the Mill Valley Film Festival on Oct. 6th), murder mysteries are back in vogue, and you can’t blame filmmakers for wanting to capitalize on the trend. But just because you can make a murder mystery doesn’t mean you should, and the new British whodunit See How They Run is a case in point.

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Film Review: “Where the Crawdads Sing”

Edgar-Jones, Strathairn bright spots in otherwise forgettable bestseller adaptation

Tate (Taylor John Smith) and Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) spend a lot of time sitting dreamily in gently waving grass.

Readers of the massive (over 12 million copies sold!) 2018 bestseller Where the Crawdads Sing have likely been eagerly anticipating the Reese Witherspoon produced adaptation of her book club phenom. To prep for the movie, I read the Delia Owens novel, and can tell you up front that the movie does indeed capture the gist of the book. Some small plot details have been eliminated or changed slightly, and longer sections have been compressed, but the book’s themes and emotional underpinnings remain intact. The novel’s readers will have an inherent interest in the film, just for the curiosity of seeing how the story and characters translate to the big screen.

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