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‘Blow Out’ (1981) blows it at the end, but is still great

As it peers into the dark corners of a massive conspiracy but maintains a personal scope, writer-director Brian De Palma’s solid thriller “Blow Out” (1981)

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Hitchcock makes sound transition to talkies in ‘Blackmail’ (1929)

“Blackmail” (1929) is one of the first British talkies, and that might’ve been exciting at the time, but it plays like modern 3D film when

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Continental Op makes rip-roaring leap to novels in ‘Red Harvest’ (1929)

Modern readers diving into Dashiell Hammett might start with “Red Harvest” (1929), as it’s the first of the former Pinkerton detective’s five novels. But in

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Ricci tries bizarre British whimsy in ‘Miranda’ (2002)

During a brief British swing that included the paycheck horror film “The Gathering” (2003), Christina Ricci tried a creative art piece, “Miranda” (2002). The lone

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du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ (1938) a slower burn than the film

When a novel, play or short story becomes an Alfred Hitchcock film, it gets promoted in prestige but demoted in the public consciousness to “source

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‘Last Bookshop in London’ (2021) blends love of books with WWII

Book nerdery and the Nazis’ nightly bombing of London in World War II would seem to go together like orange juice and pickles. But Madeline

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2024: A horror ‘Oddity’ – Irish film is year’s best so far

If one has been watching a string of horror films that don’t quite get things right, “Oddity” plays like a revelation. A scary vibe –

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Horror-thriller ‘Longlegs’ has loads of style, not enough story

An odd combination of rigid filmmaking and going for broke, “Longlegs” has enough good scenes and moments to be worth a look. As a complete

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Hammett’s ‘The Glass Key’ (1931) digs into city political games

I generally don’t like getting into the nitty-gritty of political gamesmanship, but such is the writing skill of Dashiell Hammett and the appeal of his

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‘Shining Girls’ (2022): Make it make sense

Imagine Christopher Lloyd’s chalkboard-charted time-travel from “Back to the Future” cleanly plotted out on a sheet of paper. Now imagine that paper folded in half,

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