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‘Mr. Burton’ Review: Harry Lawtey Plays Richard Burton in a Poignant Drama About the Actor and His Adoptive Father

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‘Mr. Burton’ Review: Harry Lawtey Plays Richard Burton in a Poignant Drama About the Actor and His Adoptive Father

Seven-time Oscar nominee Richard Burton continues to have an intriguing afterlife, four decades following his death. At this year’s BAFTA awards, a movie about his early life, Mr. Burton, earned a nomination for best British Film. Mr. Burton, directed by Marc Evans, was also one of the audience favorite films at January’s Palm Springs International Film Festival. It opens in theaters this week and, aided by a strong cast, should appeal even to audiences who have fuzzy recollections of the once notorious actor.

The film begins with a quotation from Elizabeth Taylor (who married Burton twice after a scandalous, heavily publicized affair that began during the shooting of Cleopatra in 1962). In it, Taylor states that Richard never would have found fame and fortune without the efforts of his adoptive father, Philip Burton (superbly played by Toby Jones in the film). Richard (Harry Lawtey of Industry) was actually born Richard Jenkins, the son of a Welsh miner who abandoned the family after the death of Richard’s mother. Richard was then raised by his older sister and her husband, but his talent was spotted by his teacher, Philip Burton, who recognized the young man’s appreciation of literature and drama.

Mr. Burton

The Bottom Line

An incisive origin story.

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Release date: Friday, March 20


2 hours 4 minutes

Philip Burton was himself an aspiring writer who penned some dramas for the BBC and had a number of contacts in the theater. But the film suggests that he felt disappointed by his progress and may have compensated in part by playing a mentorship role to Richard. Whether he also felt a physical attraction to young Richard is treated subtly and never definitively answered in the film.

Opening scenes contrast the comfortable but modest living conditions of Philip, who resides in a boarding house owned and overseen by a sympathetic landlady (trenchantly played by Lesley Manville), and the tension in Richard’s household. His brother-in-law demands that Richard drop out of school to contribute to the family finances; the boy resists following his father into the mines but gets a job at a clothing store instead.

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Eventually Burton comes up with the idea that Richard can move into the boarding house and return to school, but this may require Burton adopting Richard as his son. Richard is comfortable with this arrangement, and Philip suggests that Richard may have an opportunity for a fellowship to study acting at Oxford. But when Richard’s father and fellow students suggest that Philip may have something more than a paternal interest in the handsome young aspiring actor, Richard flees in terror.

It is to the film’s credit that it refuses to come to any definitive conclusion about Philip’s interest in Richard. There was never anything overtly untoward about their close bond, and until the end of his life, Richard continued to express gratitude for Philip Burton’s mentorship. Yet it may be significant that we never see any hint of Philip’s romantic or sexual interest in women. Richard did leave Burton’s household for several years, but when he had his breakthrough role in Stratford in 1951, portraying Prince Hal in Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays, Philip returned and (at least in this telling) helped Richard to a triumphant opening night.

Richard Burton quickly moved on from there. He earned his first Oscar nomination in 1952 for My Cousin Rachel, and in 1954, he starred in the first Cinemascope epic, The Robe. (Other memorable roles included Becket and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, his finest collaboration with Taylor.) Burton also continued acting in theater, and the 1964 production of Hamlet, in which he starred under the direction of John Gielgud, remains perhaps the most phenomenally successful production of the play in modern theatrical history.

Since unknown backstories behind startling successes always compel, Mr. Burton has a lot going for it. Lawtey doesn’t quite match Burton’s thrilling vocal delivery (who could?), but he convinces us of the young actor’s talent and potential instability. But it is really Jones, in one of the finest performances of his long career, who holds our attention throughout the movie. The subject of mentorship is not treated frequently onscreen, but Mr. Burton may be remembered as one of the definitive explorations of the theme. All the technical credits help to ground the film — cinematography by Stuart Biddlecombe is especially striking — but it is the performances that truly mesmerize.

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Movie Reviews

Quiz: Guess the Disney Movie From the One-Star Review That Roasted It

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Quiz: Guess the Disney Movie From the One-Star Review That Roasted It

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure—or in this case, one Disney fan’s favorite film is another reviewer’s reason to rage online. Even some of the most iconic animated classics haven’t escaped the wrath of one-star reviews, with critics calling out everything from plot holes to questionable character choices.

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Think you can see past the roasting and still recognize the movies? From timeless favorites to a few you might have forgotten, these brutally honest reviews put your memory of Disney movies to the test.

Take the quiz below and see if you can get a perfect score by matching each scathing review to the right film:

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How did you do? Whether your own Disney rankings lined up with the one-star reviews or led you completely astray, there are plenty more quizzes to test your knowledge. Share this one with your friends and see if they can beat your score!

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Box Office Bummers

Some Disney movies don’t just get roasted in one-star reviews—they also struggled to find an audience when they first hit theaters. While a few of these films have since earned cult followings, their initial box office runs tell a very different story.

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Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) follows Milo on an adventure to uncover the sunken city, standing out for its bold visual style and action-packed approach. But when it came out, it didn’t quite catch on with audiences—especially with major competition at the time, including Shrek (2001).

The film ultimately didn’t perform as Disney had hoped, and its disappointing returns led to canceled plans for follow-ups and related projects as well as an estimated $54 million loss at the box office. What’s interesting, though, is how its reputation has shifted over time. Today, Atlantis is often revisited as an underrated gem, with fans appreciating its animation and nostalgic appeal. 

Meanwhile, The Black Cauldron (1985) aimed to bring a darker, fantasy-driven story to Disney animation, following a group of unlikely allies as they set out to stop the evil Horned King, with elements pulled from Welsh mythology. Based on The Chronicles of Prydain, the film underwent major changes during production, including cuts that impacted its final story and pacing.

As the first animated film to feature Dolby sound and early computerized animation, it pushed into new territory, but that didn’t translate into success at the box office. The film struggled to connect with fans and ended up as one of the studio’s more notable financial disappointments, bringing in just $21 million—less than half of its $44 million budget. Still, it holds a unique place in Disney history and has gained a second life among viewers who value its moody atmosphere and departure from typical Disney formulas.

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Clearly, not every Disney film was destined for success. But that just makes these one-star reviews all the more fun to decode.

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Movie Review: “FORBIDDEN FRUITS” – On Wednesdays We Cast Spells – Rue Morgue

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Movie Review: “FORBIDDEN FRUITS” – On Wednesdays We Cast Spells – Rue Morgue

By PAYTON McCARTY-SIMAS

Starring Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung and Victoria Pedretti
Directed by Meredith Alloway
Written by Lily Houghton Meredith Alloway
IFC/Shudder

When we’re first introduced to Pumpkin (Lola Tung), the new-girl lead of Meredith Alloway’s pop-witchy debut feature, FORBIDDEN FRUITS, she’s holding a sample tray of knockoff Auntie Anne’s pretzel bites. Anyone who’s ever been to a mall can practically smell them through the screen: a blast of pure sugar, thick dough and hot grease. This suburban staple is overwhelmingly sweet and full of delicious, comfortingly familiar empty calories. As you get older, it’s likely you can’t eat this kind of high-calorie food court snack anymore; those yummy bombs of gluten and fat sit heavy in your stomach, and their one-note flavor no longer satisfies. But as a tween, they’re heavenly. Arguing about the merits of Auntie Anne’s, then, is a little beside the point. I doubt you could find someone who hates a cinnamon sugar pretzel. Really, you either like ‘em or you don’t. But at one point, I bet you probably did.

FORBIDDEN FRUITS is like that, too. This movie is, in essence, a Y2K mall-stalgic rerun of The Craft and Mean Girls, pure and simple, with dashes of catty confections like  Jawbreakers and The Devil Wears Prada thrown in. It’s produced by Jennifer’s Body scribe Diablo Cody, and Alloway has cloned her signature style of wittily ratatat, long-acrylic-nails-on-a-keyboard dialogue with eerie, devotional precision. For younger viewers looking for more of this kind of film (fans of Scream Queens, for example), FORBIDDEN FRUITS will likely be a light, gossipy sugar rush. Older viewers nostalgic for this particular flavor of Teavana tea will almost certainly feel the same way.

On a technical level, this movie is admittedly in need of, like, a major makeover. Unlike the glittery Claire ’s-a-like charm bracelets its protagonists take as their talismans, FORBIDDEN FRUITS certainly isn’t pretty to look at, even on the unabashedly kitschy terms it openly embraces. While the props and costumes shine like the rhinestones the characters drop like acid, the shooting style is bizarrely perfunctory for such a surface-loving genre. The color grading is the same grey sludge that’s vexed audiences for years, a fact made more actively infuriating by the lovingly pastel teen-girl source material being drawn upon here. 

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Its plotting is similarly paper-thin, its twists as obviously, blaringly signposted as the path from Sephora to Forever 21 on a mall directory. YOU ARE HERE: A Free People clone at a mall in Texas. Three young, fabulously dressed women, all named after fruits, run it like a private kingdom, using witchcraft to keep their (fr)enemies in line and their hair looking fabulous. Pumpkin, their latest She’s All That-style project, ingratiates herself with the resident queen bee, Apple (a note-perfectly bitchy Lili Reinhart), only to sew drama in the coven. Spells are cast, Olive Gardens are visited, butterfly clips are traded, gossip and one-liners are hurled – and blood is eventually spilled. On Wednesdays, we secretly fuck guys in sporting goods changing rooms. You get it.

If this stock plot appeals, you’ll have a lot of fun with FORBIDDEN FRUITS. If it doesn’t, skip it. Highlights include Victoria Pedretti as Cherry, the Bubbles to Apple’s Blossom, who brings more soul to her sweet, simple Southern belle with a troubled past than she has to. Alexandra Shipp is game as Fig, the ambitious one who just wants to go to grad school and maybe even text her love interest in words instead of the emojis Apple mandates for all boy-related interaction. The soundtrack is appropriately bitchin’. Most of the jokes land with a pleasantly chummy wink. As a witch movie (a subject I’ve personally spent years investigating), there’s not a lot going on here. “Our magic isn’t some WitchTok ripoff fluffy bunny bullshit,” Cherry tells Pumpkin during her initiation ceremony. It is. But it’s still a pleasure to see women playing in this particular teen-girl-black-comedy garden. As Apple puts it, “Women who don’t have a garden won’t grow. What did that one bitch say? ‘A room of one’s own’?”

See FORBIDDEN FRUITS in limited theaters beginning March 27.

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‘Sparks’ Review: Elsie Fisher Headlines an Exhilaratingly Fresh and Affecting Queer Teen Indie

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‘Sparks’ Review: Elsie Fisher Headlines an Exhilaratingly Fresh and Affecting Queer Teen Indie

In the hot, dry climate of Northwest Nevada, a mother drops off her daughter in town, urging her not to come home anytime soon. Cleo (Elsie Fisher) looks away as her mom gives her an unearned dressing-down, cruelly reminding her that she is not above her surroundings. She waits until her mother has already driven away before she responds with futile adolescent anger.

Cleo is effectively on her own for the rest of the film, with her mother never once appearing. Even when Cleo goes missing later in the film, the audience is never formally introduced to her mother. Instead, first-time director Fergus Campbell drops us directly into Cleo’s world — no parents, no rules and every authority figure is obscured, like the unintelligible adults in Peanuts cartoons. From the film’s hand-painted opening title sequence to the occasional intrusion of illustrations throughout the story, Sparks is the kind of microbudget indie that film festivals were made to showcase. Every frame is crafted with care and love for the cinematic form.

Sparks

The Bottom Line

What indie film festivals were made for.

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Venue: SXSW Film Festival (Narrative Spotlight)
Cast: Elsie Fisher, Charlie Foster, Madison Hu, Denny Mcauliffe, Thomas Deen Baker, Julia D’Angelo, Marshall John Simon, Race Cooper, Simon Downes Toney
Director/Writer: Fergus Campbell

1 hour 16 minutes

When a book on Jean-Luc Godard pops out of a cigarette machine, Cleo knows where she wants to go. She immediately disappears into the fantasy of 1960s Paris, a place she sees as the birth of a truer form of cinema, outside of American conventions. Luckily for her, she’s soon introduced to “The Crop,” a group of rebellious teenagers who believe the local reservoir is a time portal. The group’s de facto leader, Antoine (Charlie Foster), is just as enamored of Paris in the 1960s, despite knowing nothing of the French New Wave. Once he meets Cleo, he’s instantly obsessed with her, driving a wedge between him and his best friend and secret lover, Max (Denny Mcauliffe).

The rest of the group is much more chill, fascinated by the idea of time travel but content where they are. The original “Crop” includes the emotional Antoine, brutally honest Max, goofy Trip (Simon Downes Toney), laid back Kane (Thomas Deen Baker) and soft-spoken Casazza (Julia D’Angelo). Then there’s Odette (Madison Hu), who is secretly in love with Cleo, but mostly keeps it to herself. It’s Odette who introduces Cleo to “The Crop” and sets the story into motion.

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With its queer love triangle and multiple scenes of “Crop” boys hooking up with each other, Sparks feels like a modern successor to the early films of Gregg Araki. Nowhere and Totally F***ed Up easily come to mind as we watch the kids party in the empty parking lot they call home, supplied with beer acquired with fake IDs. Similar to more recent indies like Kate Beecroft’s East of Wall and Luke Gilford’s National Anthem, Sparks blends classical rural imagery with a more ethnically and socially diverse worldview. Watching these films has been exciting, as they breathe new life into American independent cinema.

Campbell’s script has both stylized and naturalistic dialogue, giving us a group of teens who feel painfully real in their inconsistency. When Cleo goes missing, it’s unclear whether she actually time-traveled or is simply having a mental health crisis. It could go either way.

Foster gives a star-making performance as Antoine, an idealistic faux beatnik who can’t seem to accept that the object of his affection is just as clueless as he is. Fisher, who broke out in Bo Burnham’s directorial debut Eighth Grade, is the heart of Sparks, once again playing a girl who is struggling more than she lets on. Like many young women, she puts on a brave face, hoping her confidence will take her wherever she needs to go.

At a slim 76 minutes, Sparks pulls you in tight and never lets go, every frame bursting with teen angst and longing. It’s the kind of film that inspires young people to tell small, meaningful stories outside of the Hollywood machine. This critic hopes Sparks is seen by every teenager who needs it. Fergus Campbell has made something very special; I can’t wait to see what he does next.

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