Justin Chang
Stories
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Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers team up to create 'No Other Land'
This Oscar-nominated documentary, which tells the story of the Israeli military's demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank, was created by a team of two Palestinian and two Israeli filmmakers.
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In this haunted house horror you see what the ghost sees — and it's terrifying
In Steven Soderbergh's supernatural thriller Presence, a family finds they aren't alone in their new house. It's a ghost story told masterfully from the ghost's point of view.
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Film offers 'Hard Truths' about why some people are happy — and others are miserable
Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives a phenomenal performance as a profoundly unhappy woman. There isn't a lot of plot, but director Mike Leigh builds his stories from the details and detritus of daily life.
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'Close Your Eyes' is the best film of 2024 — but these 10 others are also contenders
Fresh Air's film critic takes stock of the past 12 months' worth of movies, pairing 10 of his favorites, and picking one that stands alone.
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'The Brutalist' and 'Nickel Boys' are 2 ambitious and captivating dramas
Nickel Boys is one of the most thrillingly inventive literary adaptations our critic has seen in years, while The Brutalist is a rare American films that feels genuinely worthy of the word "epic."
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Shot in secret, 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' calls out Iran's authoritarian regime
Earlier this year, Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof fled his country to escape an eight-year prison sentence. His new film centers on a middle class family grappling with Iran's social unrest.
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In 'Queer,' Daniel Craig is outstanding as a fictionalized William S. Burroughs
In this adaptation of Burroughs' autobiographical novel, Craig plays an American who falls hard for a younger man in 1950s Mexico City. It's a singular performance, but also a deeply human one.
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'Gladiator II' and 'Wicked' are lavish spectacles — but are they another Barbenheimer?
Two big-budget films are set to battle at the box office: Wicked offers a gravity-defying origin story for the Wicked Witch of the West, while Gladiator II revisits the violence of ancient Rome.
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Friendship becomes a powerful act of resistance in 'All We Can Imagine as Light'
This enveloping drama, which centers two women in Mumbai, is about solidarity between women, about making ends meeting, and about how a populous city can feel like the loneliest place in the world.
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'Juror #2' is a thorny legal thriller — and possibly Clint Eastwood's last film
Eastwood takes measured aim at the American justice system in a film that centers on a murder trial — and a juror who realizes he may be implicated in the crime.
