Family Drama

‘Happy Christmas’ (2014) is low-budget and low-key

Writer-director Joe Swanberg, as he did the previous year with “Drinking Buddies,” delivers a slice of life in “Happy Christmas” (2014), titled with purposeful inaccuracy.

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30 observations about ‘Christmas Vacation’ (1989)

“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” came out 30 years ago this month, and it has only grown in status as a holiday classic since. Here are

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‘Kick-Ass 2’ (2013) finds its groove

Writer-director Jeff Wadlow, taking the reins from Matthew Vaughn, delivers a funnier and more focused “Kick-Ass 2” (2013). It’s formulaic, but that makes it better

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‘Knight Before Christmas’ is more empty calories from the Netflix holiday machine (Movie review)

“The Knight Before Christmas” (November, Netflix), like most of TV’s recent holiday movie catalog, is so uninspired that I wonder if the sets, locations, casting

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‘Good Boys’ is somehow both the raunchiest and cutest comedy of the year (Movie review)

There were many ways “Good Boys” could go wrong, from over-reliance on the shock value of tweens dropping F-bombs, to kids who can’t act, to

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It’s the Sixties, man, in ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Season 3

Season 3 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon Prime) starts off in the too show-offy fashion that marks the worst excesses of writer-director Amy Sherman-Palladino.

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‘Blinded by the Light’s’ Pakistani family drama awkwardly mixes with Springsteen tunes (Movie review)

I love the way Javed (Viveik Kalra) loves Bruce Springsteen in “Blinded by the Light.” The Pakistani-British youth sings and dances in the street once

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‘The Vicious Kind’ (2009) a sweet and sour Thanksgiving flick

Thanksgiving plays a small role in “The Vicious Kind” (2009). There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it turkey dinner, and one character sleeps through the holiday. But the fall

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Hilarious Florida roast aside, ‘Big Mouth’ takes a step backward with hit-and-miss Season 3 (TV review)

Although “Big Mouth” Season 3 (October, Netflix) ultimately delivers enough good episodes that I give it a soft recommend, it is a clear step back

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PKD goes mainstream in ‘Confessions of a Crap Artist’ (1975)

“Confessions of a Crap Artist” (1975) was the public’s introduction to Philip K. Dick’s non-science-fiction novels. Even though he wrote it in 1959 – along

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