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Anita Modak-Truran

Stories by Anita

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Get Down with ‘Get on Up’

The red carpet rolled out in Mississippi for Tate Taylor's new film "Get On Up," starring Chadwick Boseman as the iconic Mister James Brown.

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Doin’ the Hustle

Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) and Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) make a cunningly irresistible pair in “American Hustle.”

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'Madea': A Farcical, Seasonal Romp

Tyler Perry reprises his cross-dressing role of Madea for a silly seasonal romp in “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas.”

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'Dallas Buyer's Club''s Emotional Rodeo

Jared Leto (left) and Matthew McConaughey deliver Oscar-worthy performances as people living with AIDS in the ’80s in “Dallas Buyers Club.”

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'The Book Thief': Powerful Stories

"The Book Thief" anchors itself in the reality of war, where true courage can mean ordinary people who keep promises to old friends.

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‘Catching Fire’: Class Warfare

In “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) once again finds herself fighting to save her sister Prim (Willow Shields).

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Gods, Tricksters and Strong Women

As the title character, Chris Hemsworth wields a mighty hammer in “Thor: The Dark World.”

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Loyalty and Love in ‘Last Vegas’

Industry giants Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro and Kevin Kline unite in “Last Vegas.”

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Cocktail of Debauchery

Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender are among the beautiful faces in the disappointing “The Counselor.”

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A Visceral ‘Captain Phillips’

Tom Hanks stars in the new Paul Greengrass movie, “Captain Phillips,” about a vessel overtaken by Somalian pirates.

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‘Gravity’: Space Without Noise

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney shine in the outer-space thrill ride “Gravity.”

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‘Rush’: Fast, Furious Boys

Chris Hemsworth plays a Formula 1 racecar driver in Ron Howard’s “Rush.”

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A Lingering Mood

Michelle Pfieffer (pictured) co-stars with Robert De Niro in “The Family.”

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Spirit of Dante

As the title character, Vin Diesel endures hell in “Riddick.”

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Excesses of the Car Chase

A slick car outperforms Selena Gomez and Ethan Hawke in the regrettable “Getaway.”

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Beers and ‘Bots

“The World’s End” completes Edgar Wright’s trilogy of comedies.

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Workingman’s Hero

Eugene Allen, a White House butler for more than 30 years, inspired Lee Daniels’ “The Butler.” Forest Whitaker stars.

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‘Lethal Weapon’ Wannabe

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg star in “2 Guns.

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Claws of Steel

A buff and hairy Hugh Jackman wields his razor-sharp claws in “The Wolverine.”

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Just Slightly Looney

Liam James nails the comedic scenes in “The Way Way Back.”

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A Poem of Violence

Rinko Kikuchi is rookie trainee Mako Mori in “Pacific Rim.”

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Crossing Boundaries

“The Lone Ranger” stars Johnny Depp (left) as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the masked man.

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Bust a Gut

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy are at the top of their game in “The Heat.”

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Grunt, Grunt, Shuffle, Grunt

Brad Pitt fights to save his family from the zombie apocalypse in “World War Z.”

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Savior in a Red Cape

"Man of Steel" aspires to wring out the flaws in our previous conceptions of Superman. The contrast between Vintage Superman and Reinvented Superman is startling--and for true believers, perhaps a touch too serious and sacrilegious.

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Techland Teamwork

Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn reprise their “Wedding Crashers” banter for “The Internship,” this time as two out-of-work friends who become Google interns.

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Roadtrip to Nowhere

Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms reprise their franchise roles in “The Hangover: Part III.”

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Gatsby: Not So Great

Baz Luhrmann's spectacle overwhelms the story in his adaptation of "The Great Gatsby," starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Summer Blockbusters

Although you wouldn't know it from the wild fluctuations in hot-cold flashes of rain-sunshine forecasts, the summer blockbuster movie season has officially begun.

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Uncharted Heights

Robert Downey Jr. makes the third “Iron Man” film his own.

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‘Mud’ Explores Love

Matthew McConaughey gives an Oscar-worthy performance in “Mud.”

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Burnett Retrospective at the Strand

Mississippi native Charles Burnett’s 1978 film “Killer of Sheep” is one of several films he directed featured at this weekend’s retrospective in Vicksburg.

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‘42’: Swinging a Heavy Bat

"42" hit a home run at the box office this past weekend, doing better in its opening debut than "Moneyball."

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The Death of a Critic

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert transcended his long battle with cancer last Thursday. He died at age 70, leaving behind a world richer from his words, deeds and actions.

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Big Men With Big Guns

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is Roadblock in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.”

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‘Wonderstone’ Sparks and Puffs

Steve Carell (front) is “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.” Steve Buscemi costars as his sidekick, Anton Marvelous.

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No Love for the Wizard

James Franco is on his way to the magical kingdom in “Oz the Great and Powerful.”

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Take Cover and Run

"Jack the Giant Slayer" transforms a public-domain fairy tale into a Marvel-comic-styled movie.

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Witch Girl and Home Boy

"Beautiful Creatures," the Richard LaGravenese film that sequesters acting giants Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson and Viola Davis into the shadows, is for audiences who can lose themselves in a southern Gothic romance between Happy Home Boy and Hormonal Witch Girl.

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Anita's Oscar Picks

If movies provide a lens into our cultural soul, what do this year's Academy Award nominees say about the past year?

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Cinematic Wedgie

Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) searches for answers for his patient’s ailments with a controversial drug in “Side Effects.”

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Romping Rom-Zom-Com

Nicholas Hoult’s dry delivery shines in the film “Warm Bodies.”

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Grim Revenge

Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner play the leads in “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.”

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Precious Little Drama

Jessica Chastain stars as an intelligence officer on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in "Zero Dark Thirty."

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Creativity Over Razzle-Dazzle

My favorite films of the past year are not the prettiest, but the ones where my perspective shifted in some way or where something new was added to the cinematic vault.

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Are We There, Yet?

What makes Peter Jackson’s films different from the work of other directors is an extraordinary combination of visual richness and visual freedom.

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Elevator Muzak

“Playing for Keeps” is a blasé work spiked with trifling comic bits and smoothed out with a mellow dilemma that works to limp the film to a predestined conclusion of awkward family bliss.

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Blurring Lines

It's a work so powerfully felt and so intensely expressed that somewhere along the way you feel better about the world.

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The Consummate Politician

It’s an enormous pleasure to see a movie that’s really about something and that doesn’t water down the subject to make it easier to ingest.

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Bloody Good Show

“Skyfall” is an exquisite film that teams suspense, remorse, and dysfunction in the MI6 family with snappy banter and inventive direction.

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