Film Festival

Sundance 2024 Reviews: “Didi” & “Between the Temples”

Posted January 28, 2024 by Mitch Salem

  DIDI (no distrib):  Sean Wang’s endearing memory piece won the US Dramatic Competition Audience Award.  It’s set in 2008 Northern California during the summer before Chris (Izaac Wang) begins high school and his sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) leaves for college in San Diego.  The kids have essentially been raised by Chungsing (Joan Chen) as […]

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THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Breaking Dawn Part I”

Posted November 18, 2011 by Mitch Salem

    THE TWILIGHT SAGA – BREAKING DAWN PART 1:  Watch It At Home – The Saga Sags In Slow Prelude To The End   The worldwide phenomenon that is Twilight often finds itself compared to Harry Potter, and for obvious reasons:  both are multi-film, multi-billion dollar franchises aimed at young audiences and telling a […]

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THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “The Lorax”

Posted March 3, 2012 by Mitch Salem

> THE LORAX:  Not Even For Free – A Seussian Mess It may not be pretty, but surely it’s true–Credit must go where credit is due.  In this case, that means the Universal Pictures Marketing Department, which as it turns out has done a splendid job these last few weeks of hiding just how thoroughly […]

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THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Sarah’s Key”

Posted July 23, 2011 by Mitch Salem

  SARAH’S KEY – Watch It At Home:  Misses a Difficult Mark     There may be no cinematic minefield more dangerous for filmmakers than the Holocaust.  For films entering that difficult territory, the choices of tone, approach and imagery may not just be called into question, but outright offend audiences, and viewers have very […]

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Film Festival

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL Day 4 Capsule Reviews: “Sing,” “Denial,” “Nocturnal Animals,” “Moonlight” & “Queen of Katwe”

Posted September 12, 2016 by Mitch Salem

  For this audience member, it was the day Toronto moved into high gear. MOONLIGHT (A24 – October 21):  Barry Jenkins’s second film, after his little-seen but much-praised Medicine For Melancholy, is a validation of film festival culture and a reminder of the power of film as personal expression.  (Although the source material is a […]

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Current Release

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: “The Lego Movie”

Posted February 7, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  THE LEGO MOVIE:  Buy A Ticket – The Pieces All Fit Together Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s THE LEGO MOVIE wants to have its family movie cake and eat it too, and it’s a remarkably tasty dish.  Lego takes the kind of endlessly clever, fully-realized fantasy universe we associate with the best of Pixar […]

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Current Release

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: “The Butler”

Posted August 16, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  THE BUTLER:  Worth A Ticket – Superb Acting Elevates A History Lesson THE BUTLER, in its form and earnestness, recalls the days of prestige TV movies and miniseries that used to be associated with the Hallmark Hall of Fame and network sweeps periods (and which now exist only as a vestige on pay-cable, mostly […]

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Film Festival

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Boy Erased” & “Vita & Virginia”

Posted September 14, 2018 by Mitch Salem

  BOY ERASED (Focus/Universal – November 2):  Joel Edgerton’s film is the second of the year concerning gay conversion therapy, and its tone is far more conventional than The Miseducation of Cameron Post.  Lucas Hedges plays Jared Eamons (this is a fictionalized version of a true story), son of southern pastor Marshall (Russell Crowe) and […]

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