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Carl Weathers, the rugged actor best known for his portrayal(s) of heavyweight fighter Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” franchise, has died at the age of 76. A former pro football player, Weathers played numerous action movie and law enforcement roles, but his flamboyant presence as Creed, helped catapult the Rocky brand, and inspire varied cultural…

Leyla (Mala Emde) and Tristen (Jonas Dassler) are a couple in crisis. Leyla is dealing with depression and a disinterest in engaging with the world around her. Around others, she’s subdued and has since stopped working. The image of Leyla sinking below the surface as the light above her grows dim reappears throughout the film,…

A feature length debut, Molly Manning Walker’s “How to Have Sex” is a blisteringly real survey of female coming of age. Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Em (Enva Lewis), and Skye (Lara Peake) are three teen best friends who go on holiday to Crete for what is meant to be the best girls’ trip summer can offer.…

DreamWorks and Netflix’s “Orion and the Dark” does the Pixar Thing better than most recent Pixar movies. It so blatantly cribs from the Prime Pixar notebook of humanizing the impossible in films like “Inside Out” and “Toy Story” that it actually directly references the latter in its prologue. The good news is that it builds on…

“The Promised Land” is about ten movies in one. It’s a history lesson with a central figure driven by an impossible quest. There are bands of outlaws, sadistic aristocrats, and downtrodden peasants. There’s a little romance, a lot of torture, as well as a feisty runaway child. Historical epics like this really aren’t made anymore.…