Entertainment

Irresistible beach reads for the rest of summer

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So, what is a beach read, exactly? I’ve never been entirely sure; it doesn’t really make sense to read on a beach (all that glare!). But here are a handful of new books that caught my eye recently as being potentially good summertime reading; any of them might make a nice accompaniment to a lawn chair and an iced tea.

‘Talk to Me’ review: When a game of talk-to-the-hand turns into a nightmare

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In this movie summer of screaming pink (”Barbie”) and flaming orange (”Oppenheimer”), is there psychic and aesthetic room for a dour, low-lit Australian horror film about demonic possession?

Movie Review: Tensions boil over in haunting summer drama ‘Afire’

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Fire is in the air this summer, literally, and at the movies. Though the flames in German filmmaker Christian Petzold’s “Afire” aren’t of the nuclear variety, the smoke from his tension-filled chamber piece about a few young adults at a vacation house near the Baltic Sea certainly gets in your eyes.

Review: ‘Sound of Freedom’ makes its point, loud and clear

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In a let’s-get-to-the-point, hammeringly obvious kind of way, “Sound of Freedom” gets its message across. Child sex trafficking is awful, that much we can all agree upon.

Review: ‘The Out-Laws’ earns laughs but doesn’t capitalize on strong cast

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If you’re going to make a half-baked action-comedy, have the decency to put some enjoyable actors in it.

Review: ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ is nostalgic for the series’ past

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More than 40 years after “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Indiana Jones is still raiding lost arks, but his fifth big screen go-round, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” feels more like an homage to Indiana Jones than a proper Indy adventure.

Review: Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton and more star in ‘Asteroid City’

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Here are some of the things made fun of in “Asteroid City”: the Actors Studio, the Stage Manager in “Our Town,” ’50s sci-fi films such as “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” science fairs and playwright Clifford Odets. So, yes, it’s a Wes Anderson movie.

Movie review: Bigger, louder and even less necessary, ‘Extraction 2’ lumbers along

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Having barely survived the adventures of the first film, soldier for-hire Tyler Rake returns for “Extraction 2.” Played again by Chris Hemsworth, Rake is recovering in a remote cabin in Austria when he is visited by a mysterious handler (Idris Elba) and charged with rescuing the wife and two children of a Georgian gangster held in a ruthless prison.

Movie review: Great cast the secret ingredient in winning ‘Flamin’ Hot’

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Directed by Eva Longoria, making her feature film debut after directing television for several years, “Flamin’ Hot” tells the disputed-by-some story of real-life figure Richard Montanez (Jesse Garcia, “Quinceanera”), a doting husband and father and uneducated maintenance worker (i.e., janitor) at Frito-Lay, who has a dream of a creating a spicy line of Latino-aimed products.