Josh Bell
Story Archive
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Film
Standouts and disappointments at this year’s Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival
Friday, Jan. 30, 2015 This year’s festival included only three narrative films.
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Film
Race relations: 'Black or White' offers an awkward take on a custody battle
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015 In this courtroom battle, the white guy is the underdog.
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A&E
'The Nightly Show' is a worthy Colbert successor
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015 Wilmore is a confident host, funny and engaged with the subject matter.
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Film
The Dam Short Film Festival returns to Boulder City
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015 The small-town film fest has scaled back to four days, but it's still set to feature 141 short films.
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Film
'A Most Violent Year' delivers character-driven suspense
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015 Over the course of three features, filmmaker J.C. Chandor has demonstrated remarkable range.
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Screen
'Black Sea' is an effective submarine thriller
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015 Plus, three more sub movies to watch.
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Film
Spike Lee's obtuse, ponderous vampire film
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 His crowdfunded remake of a cult vampire movie confounds.
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Film
Rainn Wilson solves crimes rudely in 'Backstrom'
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 He's TV's latest misanthropic jerk who solves mildly interesting cases.
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Film
'Cake' wallows in its own misery
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 Despite Jennifer Anniston's notable performance, this listless indie drama goes nowhere.
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Music
Album review: Ryan Bingham's 'Fear and Saturday Night'
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 Bingham is a world-weary journeyman, playing roots music that’s equally comforting and fragile.
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Film
'The Boy Next Door' is a bad-movie gold mine
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 If you're looking for a movie so bad that it's funny, this is your Boy.
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Film
Film review: 'Predestination' is a twisty but emotional sci-fi story
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015 And it's a reminder that sci-fi doesn’t need overblown action to keep audiences intrigued.
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Film
Michael Mann’s 'Blackhat' is stylish nonsense
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015 Though the plot is incoherent, Blackhat is a stylistic treat.
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Film
'12 Monkeys' makes a generic TV show out of a distinctive movie
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015 It's not bad, it just isn’t as striking or creative as its source material.
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Film
'American Sniper' offers a superficial look at the life of Chris Kyle
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015 The film focuses on a streamlined, crowd-pleasing story that celebrates Kyle’s life while failing to offer any insight about it.
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Film
Film review: 'Selma' is a vivid portrait of the Civil Rights Movement
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 It brings home the very real dangers of the time.
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Entertainment
Come on, Liam Neeson! Give some other big actors a chance at the action realm
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 Daniel Day-Lewis kicking butt? We'd pay to see that.
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Film
This year’s far-reaching Jewish Film Fest program offers something for everyone
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 These are movies you will not catch anywhere else in Las Vegas.
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Film
'Inherent Vice' is an entertaining enigma
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 Paul Thomas Anderson takes a step back from the grandiose, operatic movies he’s made in recent years.
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Screen
'Togetherness' starts funny … and ends dreary
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 Brothers Mark and Jay Duplass have been indie-movie fixtures, but this episodic format doesn’t necessarily fit their style.
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Film
‘The Woman in Black 2’ is a redundant horror sequel
Friday, Jan. 2, 2015 The spooky original boasted an impressive cast and a simple but effective story, but the sequel features a B-level cast, a recycled story and a relative lack of scares.
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Screen
The Marvel TV universe expands with ‘Agent Carter’
Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015 With this stylish new series, maybe Marvel TV shows can take their place alongside Marvel movies.
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Film
‘The Interview’ is a dumb comedy that became an international incident
Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014 No movie could live up to the amount of controversy that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s dopey comedy has been subject to recently.
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A&E
Best of 2014: Films
Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014 Weekly film critics pick their 10 favorite movies of the year.
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A&E
Best of 2014: TV
Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014 Weekly's film editor Josh Bell picks his favorite TV shows of the year.
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Entertainment
Film review: 'The Gambler' remake is miscast and unconvincing
Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014 Another remake that just rings hollow.
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Film
Tim Burton's 'Big Eyes' is breezy look into a bizarre corner of pop-culture history
Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014 Revisiting the drama behind Margaret Keane's paintings of sorrowful big-eyed paintings.
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Film
'Unbroken' never makes the connection needed to turn the hero into a human being
Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014 Zamperini is more of a superhuman ideal than a person.
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Entertainment
'Wild' is a stunning showcase for Reese Witherspoon
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014 Every book adaptation should be this good.
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Screen
New 'Annie' offers no improvement over the irritating original
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014 "Starting with insipid material once again yields insipid results."
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Film
'The Hobbit' trilogy finishes on an unexceptional note
Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014 Five Armies dashes the mild hopes built up by last year’s improved second installment of this series.
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Music
Concert review: Smashing Pumpkins mix old and new at Brooklyn Bowl
Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014 For an artist who often seems to delight in denying audiences what they want, Billy Corgan was remarkably accommodating.
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Entertainment
TV review: Despite lots of cash spent and lots of sex, Netflix's 'Marco Polo' is unwatchable
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 It could have been the next Game of Thrones. Oh well.
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Film
Film review: Despite being disavowed by Cage and company, 'Dying of the Light' gets a contested release
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 It's a seriously compromised vision.
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Screen
Chris Rock gets personal with 'Top Five'
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 "A big step in the right direction."
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Music
Album review: The Smashing Pumpkins' 'Monuments to an Elegy'
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 The release is the latest in Pumpkins mastermind Billy Corgan's ongoing Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project.
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Film
Ridley Scott trudges through the Bible with 'Exodus: Gods and Kings'
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 God apparently loves CGI.
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television
TV review: 'The Librarians' feels like too little, too late
Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014 This is not the way to make an old franchise new again.
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Music
Rodeo roundup: Highlights of NFR week’s country concerts
Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014 Plenty of great acts, plenty of venues.
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Screen
Film review: 'The Babadook' makes parenting scary
Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014 Is it a ghost, or a demon, or just a manifestation of her own ambivalence about being a parent?
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Film
Tommy Lee Jones returns to the Western with 'The Homesman'
Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014 Tommy Lee Jones demonstrates a clear affection for and understanding of the genre.
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Film
'Horrible Bosses 2' returns with more awfulness
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014 Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey reprise their roles from the first movie in the most contrived ways possible.
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Film
Grumpy Cat stars in a bizarre holiday special
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014 Subjecting the feline to starring in a bargain-basement Lifetime Christmas movie seems like a form of animal cruelty.
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Film
Film review: 'Penguins of Madagascar'
Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014 Characters who are refreshingly funny in small doses aren’t necessarily suited to carrying entire movies.
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television
Beware the dubious Christmas Specials
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014 Not all of them can feature beloved characters like Buddy the Elf and the toys of Toy Story.
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Film
A Proper Vigilante: Katie Holmes as prim murderer ‘Miss Meadows’
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014 Over-the-top camp or disturbing psychological thriller? The movie never succeeds at either.
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Music
Garth Brooks returns with the mediocre 'Man Against Machine'
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014 Not a worthy comeback effort for country music's biggest seller.
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Film
Film review: The third 'Hunger Games' moves forward with purpose
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014 Mockingjay - Part 1 sets the stage for a more satisfying finale to the series.
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Film
Odd futures: More dystopian movies to check out after watching 'The Hunger Games'
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014 Battle Royale, Code 46 and more.