Cate Marquis

LADY MACBETH film review

– By Cate Marquis –   Director William Oldroyd’s LADY MACBETH is not Shakespeare but it is certainly Shakespearean in its bloody mix of murder and sex. The story is not about Shakespeare’s murderously ambitious character but is based on a 19th century Russian novel, “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” by Nikolai Leskov, inspired…

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MAMMA MIA musical theater review

MAMMA MIA! gives long-running tour a fine send off at Fox – By Cate Marquis –   The spandex and ABBA’s ’70s pop songs take the stage one more time for Mamma Mia’s farewell tour, at the Fox Theater, July 28 – 30. The hit musical has been touring for 15 years, and even has…

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THE HERO film review

– By Cate Marquis – Sometimes one role can define an actor’s career. Sam Elliott plays such an actor in late life, facing his own mortality and coming to grips with his life and career, in the sometimes funny, sometimes touching drama THE HERO. THE HERO is an intimate personal drama that draws on universal…

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THE BEGUILED film review

– By Cate Marquis – Sophia Coppola’s atmospheric period thriller THE BEGUILED is a re-make of a 1971 psycho-sexual thriller starring Clint Eastwood. Coppola re-frames the Civil War story from a woman’s viewpoint, where a wounded Union soldier is taken in by a house full of Southern women and girls at a young ladies’ boarding…

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BABY DRIVER film review – by Cate Marquis

Writer/director Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD) delivers the kind of summer movie you hope for – action-packed, light, with a bit of humor – in BABY DRIVER. Car chases and a non-stop jukebox music soundtrack help drive this highly entertaining flick, which shares its title with a Simon and Garfunkel song. This delightful summer…

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MEGAN LEAVEY film review

– By Cate Marquis – MEGAN LEAVEY is a true story-based drama about young woman whose close bond with a dog changes both of their lives. Although the young woman is a Marine serving in Iraq and the dog is her bomb-sniffing teammate, this really is a touching dog story rather than a war story….

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PAST LIFE – St. Louis Jewish Film Festival – film review

Tuesday, June 6 at 1 PM at Plaza Frontenac Cinema   – By Cate Marquis –   Two sisters uncover their father’s secret past in the true story-based Israeli mystery PAST LIFE, one of the films playing as part of the annual St. Louis Jewish Film Festival. The Israeli film, in Hebrew, English German and…

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KEEP QUIET – St. Louis Jewish Film Festival – film review

Thursday, June 8 at 1 PM at Plaza Frontenac Cinema   – By Cate Marquis –   The mind-boggling documentary KEEP QUIET is about a far-right, anti-Semitic Hungarian politician who discovers his own hidden Jewish heritage when it is revealed that his beloved grandmother is an Auschwitz survivor. Faced with this new reality, he decides…

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A GRAIN OF TRUTH – St. Louis Jewish Film Festival – film review

Wednesday, June 7 at 7 PM Plaza Frontenac Cinema   – By Cate Marquis –   In the chilling crime thriller A GRAIN OF TRUTH, a hard-nosed prosecutor investigates a murder with bizarre and mysterious trappings, and finds himself immersed in Poland’s antisemitic past, a past that keeps resurfacing despite the modern world. Murder, mystery…

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FANNY’S JOURNEY – St. Louis Jewish Film Festival – film review

Sunday, June 4 at 7 PM at Plaza Frontenac Cinema   – By Cate Marquis –   FANNY’S JOURNEY is a compelling true-story-inspired historical drama about a 13-year-old girl who leads a group of 11 children to safety as they flee the advancing Nazis in World War II France. Directed by Loila Doillon, it is…

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