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'Body Brokers' Review: Drug Abuse Is Big Business for More Than Just the Dealers

'Body Brokers' Review: Drug Abuse Is Big Business for More Than Just the Dealers
'Body Brokers' Review: Drug Abuse Is Big Business for More Than Just the Dealers
Director John Swab survived drug addiction to share this shocking exposé of how opportunists are exploiting a loophole in recovery programs.
Peter Debruge, provided by
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Running time: Running time: 113 MIN.
Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
Of all the dramas made about substance abuse, “Body Brokers” is the first I can recall about the “treatment industry” itself, that multibillion-dollar sector dedicated to helping hard-drug users kick the habit, and its conclusion is startling: Addiction is a veritable money machine for doctors, therapists and pharmaceutical companies alike, a substantial number of whom thrive not on recovery but on repeat business. The shadier among them rely on low-level recruiters, or “body brokers,” to keep the system supplied with souls in need of saving — or else just some easy cash.

San-diego , California , United-states , Ohio , Utah , Michaelk-williams , Viviana-zarragoitia , Jessica-rothe , Christopher-keating , Robert-ogden-barnum , Kathrynm-moseley , Thomas-dekker

'Silk Road' Review: Intriguing but Undercooked Drama About the Dark-Web Drug Site

'Silk Road' Review: Intriguing but Undercooked Drama About the Dark-Web Drug Site
Nick Robinson plays Ross Ulbricht, who thought selling illegal narcotics on the Internet made him a crusader.
Owen Gleiberman, provided by
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Director: Tiller Russell
With: Nick Robinson, Jason Clarke, Katie Aselton, Alexandra Shipp, Jimmi Simpson, Paul Walter Hauser, Daniel David Stewart, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Lex Rabe, Will Ropp.
When a dramatic feature film gets made out of an investigative magazine article, there’s usually some conventional heroic hook to it (the fight against corporate malfeasance, a think-different athlete or artist). But not always. “Silk Road,” written and directed by Tiller Russell, is

United-states , Utah , America , B-thomas-golisano , Alexandra-shipp , Richard-jewell , David-kushner , Duncan-montgomery , Julie-alexandra-shipp , Rick-bowdon , Shawn-fanning , Daniel-david-stewart

'The United States vs. Billie Holiday' Review: Scattered but Scorching, and a Must-See for Andra Day's Performance

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'The United States vs. Billie Holiday' Review: Scattered but Scorching, and a Must-See for Andra Day's Performance
Lee Daniels' biopic showcases Billie Holiday as a searing political artist, persecuted for singing "Strange Fruit."
Owen Gleiberman, provided by
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Director: Lee Daniels
With: Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund, Leslie Jordan, Miss Lawrence, Adriane Lenox, Rob Morgan, Natasha Lyonne, Da’vine Joy Randolph, Tone Bell, Evan Ross, Tyler James Williams, Blake DeLong, Dana Gourrier, Melvin Gregg.
The gifted and mercurial Lee Daniels, director of “Precious,” is one of the only filmmakers I can think of who would dare to drop a badass-diva moment of Billie Holiday violently slapping her spouse into the middle of an otherwise giddy celebrity-singer-on-tour montage. In Daniels’ “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” Billie, played with glamorous, blowsy, dagger-eyed force by Andra Day, has had her share of ups and downs — on and off heroin (mostly on); a stint in prison; a despicably unwarranted and relentless crackdown on her life and career by the U.S. government; a succession of romantic partners who are smooth-talking scoundrels — or, in one case, too nice and upstanding for her.

Carnegie-hall , New-york , United-states , Chiron , Centre , France , Paris , France-general , Washington , Blake-delong , Andrew-dunn , Jimmy-fletcher

'Cusp' Review: In a Clear-Eyed Sundance Doc, Three Small-Town Texas Teenagers Act Out Their Alienation, Partying Against Purple Skies

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'Cusp' Review: In a Clear-Eyed Sundance Doc, Three Small-Town Texas Teenagers Act Out Their Alienation, Partying Against Purple Skies
Aaloni, Autumn, and Brittney mostly want to party, but live with a daunting awareness of sexual violence.
Owen Gleiberman, provided by
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With: Aaloni, Autumn, Brittney.
The youth party culture, as portrayed in the mass media, tends to be driven by a certain debauched and glamorous energy: the clubbing, the drugs, the “freedom,” the your-life’s-a-soap-opera excitement that turns the rituals of hooking up into a flame that lures everyone. But in “Cusp,” a documentary about three small-town Texas teenagers wiling away the summer, the party imperative may be just as compulsive, but it’s the scaled-down, middle-of-nowhere version, where a party is a bonfire and a bunch of dudes standing around with beer and blunts and a jug of moonshine and whatever girls they can get to show up. It’s a slovenly frat house without walls. So unlike the average party you’d see on a reality show, it actually looks as selfish and dangerous as it is.

Hale-county , Texas , United-states , Naomi-mcdougall-jones , Isabel-bethencourt , Parker-hill , Joe-plummer , Eleanor-columbus , Jenifer-wetsphal , Irving-harvey , Chris-columbus , Aaloni-cook

'Willy's Wonderland' Review: Nicolas Cage Faces Off Against Animatronic Kiddie Monsters in a Horror Bash That Revels in its Cageness

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'Willy's Wonderland' Review: Nicolas Cage Faces Off Against Animatronic Kiddie Monsters in a Horror Bash That Revels in its Cageness
Kevin Lewis's giant-furry-funhouse-mascot slasher movie knows how preposterous it is but plays it straight.
Owen Gleiberman, provided by
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Director: Kevin Lewis
With: Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Rick Reitz, Chris Warner, Kai Kadlec, Christian Del Grosso, Caylee Cowan, Terayle Hill, Jonathan Mercedes, David Sheftell.
Directed by Kevin Lewis, from a script by G.O. Parsons, this defiantly out-of-the-box and in some ways rather cunning grunge horror film, set from dusk till dawn inside a run-down family fun center, is a tongue-in-cheek thriller that knows how preposterous it is.

Kai-kadlec , David-fannon , David-newbert , Ryan-liebert , Jeremy-daniel-davis , George-michael , Scott-harbert , David-sheftell , Rick-reitz , Mike-nilon , Liv-emily-tosta , Kevin-lewiswith

'Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar' Review: Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo Are Perfectly Daft As Middle American Fuddy-duddies on Vacation

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'Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar' Review: Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo Are Perfectly Daft As Middle American Fuddy-duddies on Vacation
In their first script since "Bridesmaids," the two actresses have given themselves a modest but winning vehicle.
Owen Gleiberman, provided by
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Director: Josh Greenbaum
With: Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo, Jamie Dornan, Damon Wayans Jr., Vanessa Bayer, Fortune Feimster, Phyllis Smith, Reyn Doi, Ian Gomez, Michael Hitchcock, Kwame Patterson, Wendi McLendon-Covey.
On “Saturday Night Live,” sketch characters arrive, connect with the audience (or not), and hit occasional sustained peaks of popularity, becoming laugh-riot fixtures and old friends. For a while, starting in the ’90s, the highest honor you could bestow upon an “SNL” character was for him or her to be given their own spin-off movie. That era faded (in 2010, “MacGruber” drove a stake through its heart), but that was probably a good thing, since most of those movies were notoriously tepid, hit-or-miss affairs.

Florida , United-states , Nebraska , American , Josh-greenbaumwith , Damon-wayans-jr , Kristen-wiig , Toby-oliver , Kwame-patterson , Phyllis-smith , Jonathan-mccoy , Will-ferrell

'M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity' Review: Takes an Irresistible Look Back at an Artist Who Played With Our Heads

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'M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity' Review: Takes an Intoxicating Look Back at an Artist Who Played With Our Heads
Filling in the life of the Dutch woodcut artist-turned-'60s icon whose images asked, "What is reality?"
Owen Gleiberman, provided by
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If you’re of a certain age, the mere mention of the name M.C. Escher can nudge you into a heady swirl of nostalgia. Robin Lutz’s joyful and kaleidoscopic documentary “M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity” took me back to the days when I was in junior high in the early ’70s, and I would go downtown to visit the head shops and stores selling beads and waterbeds, and there, amid the R. Crumb comix and hash pipes and alternative newspapers and tie-dye T-shirts, you would see those jaw-dropping eye-popping posters, most of them in black-and-white (a few, hung in the black-light room, in psychedelic color), and you would stare at them until they seemed to be staring right back. They looked like melting geometric acid trips from an alternative earth.

Alhambra , Castilla-la-manacha , Spain , United-kingdom , Rome , Lazio , Italy , Netherlands , Haight-ashbury , California , United-states , Russia

'The Map of Tiny Perfect Things' Review: A Couple's Never-Ending Reality Re-spawns Beautiful Breakthroughs

'The Map of Tiny Perfect Things' Review: A Couple's Never-Ending Reality Re-spawns Beautiful Breakthroughs
'The Map of Tiny Perfect Things' Review: A Couple's Never-Ending Reality Re-spawns Beautiful Breakthroughs
Two young lovers find joy in life's magical minutiae as they repeat the same day over and over in this familiar but appealing romantic comedy.
Courtney Howard, provided by
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Running time: Running time: 99 MIN.
Before we’re even out of the opening credits of “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things,” director Ian Samuels and screenwriter Lev Grossman waste no time clueing us into its premise revolving around a time loop that will teach its teen protagonists to accept life’s little gifts and major detours. This John Green-lite fantasy for the young-adult crowd holds many sequences that sparkle and shine, but a few that stumble and sag as well. Yet the feature’s genteel, sweet spirit and radiant lead performances rescue it from forgettable mediocrity and genre familiarity.

Ashley-fox , Josh-hamilton , Alison-cohen , Ian-samuels , Tom-bromley , Henry-jermaine-harris , Scott-lumpkin , Los-angeles , Aaron-ryder , Ian-samuelswith , Emma-cleo-fraser , Cleo-fraser

'Son of the South' Review: An Involving True-Life Story About the '60s Civil Rights Movement

'Son of the South' Review: An Involving True-Life Story About the '60s Civil Rights Movement
'Son of the South' Review: An Involving True-Life Story About the '60s Civil Rights Movement
Executive produced by Spike Lee, Barry Alexander Brown's drama features fine performances across the board, and a vivid evocation of a tumultuous period.
Joe Leydon, provided by
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Director: Barry Alexander Brown
With: Lucas Till, Lex Scott Davis, Lucy Hale, Cedric the Entertainer, Julia Ormond, Brian Dennehy, Shamier Anderson, Chaka Forman, Sienna Guillory, Sharonne Lanier, Nicole Ansari-Cox.
Running time: Running time: 103 MIN.
Variety
Although he occasionally uses a broad brush dipped in primary colors while fashioning his admiring portrait of Bob Zellner, the grandson of a Ku Klux Klansman who improbably evolved into a civil rights activist during the early 1960s, filmmaker Barry Alexander Brown shrewdly and intelligently avoids most of the “white savior” clichés common to such scenarios in “Son of the South.” Based on Zellner’s memoir “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement,” and available starting Feb. 5 in limited theatrical runs and on digital platforms, Brown’s well-crafted and period-persuasive biopic strikes a dramatically sound and emotionally satisfying balance between the moral awakening of its white protagonist and his relationships with sometimes encouraging, sometimes skeptical Black leaders and foot soldiers.

Barry-alexander-brown , Bob-zellner-lucas , Sharonne-lanier , Lucy-hale , Lex-scott-davis , Lucas-till , Bob-zellner , Chaka-forman , Shamier-anderson , Barry-alexander-brownwith , Sienna-guillory

'Bliss' Review: Mike Cahill's Sci-Fi Fable Misses the Mark

'Bliss' Review: Mike Cahill's Sci-Fi Fable Misses the Mark
A promising premise gets a dull, lead-footed treatment.
Andrew Barker, provided by
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Running time: Running time: 104 MIN.
Courtesy of Amazon Studios
The biggest challenge of discussing Mike Cahill’s “Bliss” lies in describing its premise without making it sound considerably wilder and more interesting than it actually is. In short, the film stars Owen Wilson as a sad-sack office drone who, after accidentally killing his boss, is rescued by an intense, shamanistic homeless woman played by Salma Hayek, who not only informs him that they are soulmates, but also that they are among the few flesh-and-blood humans inhabiting a complex computer simulation, and by imbibing the right combinations of colorful crystals they can bend the laws of physics, and also travel to a paradisiacal alternate reality where their days consist of lounging on yachts and hobnobbing at parties with Bill Nye and a holographic Slavoj Žižek. See? Sounds intriguing enough, doesn’t it?

Madeline-zima , Isabel-hayek , Bill-nye , Lucas-smith , Jorge-lendeborg-jr , Steve-zissis , Owen-wilson , Los-angeles , Ronnie-chieng , Marshal-swinton , Mike-cahill , Troy-takaki