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1 week ago | 
northernexpress.com | Joseph Beyer |Art Bukowski |Molly Cox |Ren Brabenec
5 Stars By Joseph Beyer | April 12, 2025 As a former Angeleno who once spent lazy afternoons at Dodger Stadium watching the groundskeepers (in a time when you could still walk in on game days and sit in the stands with the sports reporters), I was immediately drawn to the new three-part documentary series Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series, now streaming on AppleTV+.
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1 month ago | 
northernexpress.com | Joseph Beyer |Todd VanSickle |Abby McKiernan |Art Bukowski
2 Stars By Joseph Beyer | March 22, 2025 With a $320 million budget (the largest single content investment in Netflix history); the multi-hyphenated creative duo Joe and Anthony Russo behind it, alumni of directing four Marvel Cinematic Universe hits; a storyline with ROBOTS ROBOTS ROBOTS, and a cast with more stars than the Milky Way…what could go wrong?
It turns out, a lot.
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1 month ago | 
northernexpress.com | Joseph Beyer |Anna Faller |Rachel Pasche |Art Bukowski
5 Stars By Joseph Beyer | March 8, 2025 While the glitter and shine from the 97th annual Academy Awards is still hanging in the air, and with geopolitical unrest all around us, allow me to button up this awards season with one last recommendation before the curtain falls (on the film industry and/or America respectively).
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2 months ago | 
northernexpress.com | Joseph Beyer |Victor Skinner |Anna Faller |Molly Cox
5 Stars By Joseph Beyer | Feb. 22, 2025 There is something to be said for not knowing anything in advance about the fascinating new documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, which knocked me out with its fresh and creative riffs and the depth of 20th-century history it brought back to life.
Using found footage, newsreels, and existing materials, the film is woven together beautifully into a fusion by the writers Johan Grimonprez and Daan Milius.
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2 months ago | 
northernexpress.com | Joseph Beyer |Art Bukowski |Karl Klockars |Geri Dietze
4 Stars By Joseph Beyer | Feb. 15, 2025 With an elongated running time of 3 hours and 35 minutes (which doesn’t even include the mandated 15 minute theatrical intermission), director Brady Corbet’s epic drama The Brutalist is not for the faint of heart or time.
Should you decide, after 10 recent Academy Award nominations, that it’s finally time to see it on the big screen, I hope you feel it was worth it.
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Jan 25, 2025 | 
northernexpress.com | Joseph Beyer |Art Bukowski |Greg Tasker |Anna Faller
5 Stars By Joseph Beyer | Jan. 25, 2025 You might be forgiven if, like me, you were suspicious about another independent film directed by yet another director with the last name Coppola. Of course there’s the patriarch Francis Ford (The Godfather), then his daughter Sofia (Lost in Translation), then his son producer Roman (The French Dispatch), and now most recently his granddaughter Gia.
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Nov 30, 2024 | 
newsdirectory3.com | Joseph Beyer
Gladiator II ReviewRating: 3 StarsAuthor: Joseph Beyer | Nov. 30, 2024Ridley Scott is a prolific director with 60 films, including the Oscar-winning Gladiator. The original film, featuring Russell Crowe as Maximus, captivated audiences and became a cultural sensation. Gladiator II debuts with high expectations. It has a sizable budget of $250 million and an aggressive marketing push of $100 million. However, the question remains: is it entertaining?
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Nov 30, 2024 | 
northernexpress.com | Joseph Beyer |Karl Klockars |Art Bukowski |Ross Boissoneau
3 Stars By Joseph Beyer | Nov. 30, 2024 Ridley Scott is one of the most prolific Hollywood directors, with a whopping list of 60 iconic films notched into his career belt, including the cultural phenomenon Gladiator, which won Best Picture at the 2001 Academy Awards. It was a rare moment as the film wasn’t honored in either the Original Screenplay category (that went to Almost Famous), or Directing (that went to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic).
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Nov 16, 2024 | 
northernexpress.com | Joseph Beyer |Ross Boissoneau |Ellen Miller |Geri Dietze
4 Stars By Joseph Beyer | Nov. 16, 2024 While there aren’t many Lutheran or Presbyterian thrillers out there in the multiplexes, audiences can always count on the world of Catholicism to return to the big screen. Vatican City alone is so cinematic and intriguing there are over 40 films set there, according to Wikipedia.
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Nov 2, 2024 | 
northernexpress.com | Joseph Beyer |Victor Skinner |Ross Boissoneau |Art Bukowski
5 Stars By Joseph Beyer | Nov. 2, 2024 The most interesting and heartfelt “buddy film” of the year is also a true story. In Netflix’s Will & Harper, we find an intimate and vulnerable documentary about a longtime relationship that also becomes an intentional allegory for America’s reckoning with transgender understanding.
