Movie Reviews
Get the latest movie reviews from our in-house critics, Shirrel Rhoades and Ian Brockway. You’ll also find reviews from film festivals and advance screening movies. Do you have what it takes to be a Guest movie reviewer? Send us your review to info@TropicCinema.com for approval and maybe you’ll earn a spot! Want to make sure you never miss a review? Follow the Tropic on Facebook for daily updates!
Front Row at the Movies: Sweet Bird of Youth
What’s a playwright to do? Tennessee Williams wrote as true as he could, his psyche pouring onto the pages like tears of rage. He didn’t shy away from difficult subject matter on stage -- but movies were another matter. Hollywood would often water down his messages, his languages, his imagery, his … rawness.
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Front Row at the Movies: Gloria Bell
Chilean director Sebastián Lelio has reimagined his 2013 film “Gloria,” this time calling it “Gloria Bell.” Rumor has it that Julianne Moore twisted Lelio’s arm to remake the film. Shrewd if she did. This is a juicy role. Variety calls it “one of the great female-led films of the 21st century.”
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Tropic Sprockets: Apollo 11
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins demonstrated that it was possible to travel to the moon and back, a trip that is analogous to the wonder of a human birth in its indescribable detail and importance. In watching the moon landing, human sight was born anew, never to be repeated except for certain after-images seen in the cinema and our own vertiginous dreams.
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Tropic Sprockets: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
This is a feel-good story of doing the right thing against an autocratic villain. It is rhythmic and sweeping with morals that are never self-righteous or overbearing. Last but not least, its sweet spirit is not cloying or sappy. "The Hidden World” is a fitting conclusion to an effervescent trilogy with something for every dragon advocate.
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Front Row at the Movies: The Image Book
More of a media installation than a movie, “The Image Book” presents a world in the process of disintegration. Jean-Luc Godard seems to be delivering the message to enjoy yourself, you’re doomed anyway.
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Front Row at the Movies: Boom!
Although critics panned “Boom” when it first came out, it remains filmmaker John Waters’s very favorite movie. A sometimes visitor to Key West, Waters describes the film as “beyond bad. It’s the other side of camp. It’s beautiful, atrocious, and it’s perfect.”
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Tropic Sprockets: Captain Marvel
“Captain Marvel” is greatly entertaining with old school matinee fun. The film spills over with color, action, humor and heart. It also has a serious and very real message that women can and have always been an indispensable part of our world’s equilibrium.
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Tropic Sprockets: Everybody Knows
Asghar Farhadi is a great director known for his highly emotive and intense stories. His latest “Everybody Knows” is Farhadi’s version of a Hitchcock thriller. Though the story has some compelling details, an ominous setting and a great cast, the drama as it unfolds feels rote, derivative and emotionally lethargic.
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Front Row at the Movies: Captain Marvel
Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the film will officially introduce Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first headlining female superhero.
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Tropic Sprockets: Never Look Away
More than a film about war, this is a film about how art is interpreted, viewed, manipulated and cheapened under fascist hands. It is also a story about a young man’s efforts to stay expressive and free under the blight of authoritarian regimes.
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