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winner777 login My love of movie scoundrels has been sorely tested this year. When I was young, I daydreamed of exotic heists, slick con artists and lovable crooks I’d seen on screen. For most of my moviegoing life, I’ve been a sucker for larceny done well. Most of us are, probably. Related Articles Movies | ‘Nightbitch’ review: Amy Adams goes feral in a cautionary tale of love and parental imbalance Movies | Weekend things to do: A hidden gem for dinner in Fort Lauderdale, Larry David, new holiday cocktails Movies | Review: Angelina Jolie glides through ‘Maria’ like an iceberg, but a chilly Callas isn’t enough Movies | ‘Sweethearts’ review: Breakup-focused romcom is largely engaging Movies | Making ‘Queer’ required openness. Daniel Craig was ready But now it’s late 2024. Mood is wrong. In the real world, in America, it’s scoundrel time all the time. Maybe Charles Dickens was right. In “American Notes for General Circulation” (1842), the English literary superstar chronicled his travels and detected a widespread, peculiarly American “love of ‘smart’ dealing” across the land. In business and in politics, Dickens observed, slavish admiration of the con men among them “gilds over many a swindle and gross breach of trust.” And here we are. It’ll pass, this scoundrel reprieve of mine. In fact it just did. All it took was thinking about the conspicuous, roguish outlier on my best-of-2024 list: “Challengers.” It’s what this year needed and didn’t know it: a tricky story of lying, duplicitous weasels on and off the court. The best films this year showed me things I hadn’t seen, following familiar character dynamics into fresh territory. Some were more visually distinctive than others; all made eloquent cases for how, and where, their stories unfolded. “All We Imagine as Light,” recently at the Gene Siskel Film Center, works like a poem, or a sustained exhalation of breath, in its simply designed narrative of three Mumbai hospital workers. Fluid, subtly political, filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s achievement is very nearly perfect. So is cowriter-director RaMell Ross’ adaptation of the Colson Whitehead novel “The Nickel Boys,” arriving in Chicago-area theaters on Jan. 3, 2025. “Nickel Boys,” the film, loses the “the” in Whitehead’s title but gains an astonishingly realized visual perspective. If Ross never makes another movie, he’ll have an American masterpiece to his credit. The following top 10 movies of 2024 are in alphabetical order. Both a mosaic of urban ebb and flow, and a delicate revelation of character, director and writer Payal Kapadia’s Mumbai story is hypnotic, patient and in its more traditional story progression, a second feature every bit as good as Kapadia’s first, 2021’s “A Night of Knowing Nothing.” Mikey Madison gives one of the year’s funniest, saddest, truest performances as a Brooklyn exotic dancer who takes a shine to the gangly son of a Russian oligarch, and he to her. Their transactional courtship and dizzying Vegas marriage, followed by violently escalating complications, add up to filmmaker Sean Baker’s triumph, capped by an ending full of exquisite mysteries of the human heart. As played by Adrien Brody, the title character is a visionary architect and Hungarian Jewish emigre arriving in America in 1947 after the Holocaust. (That said, the title refers to more than one character.) His patron, and his nemesis, is the Philadelphia blueblood industrialist played by Guy Pearce. Director/co-writer Brady Corbet’s thrillingly ambitious epic, imperfect but loaded with rewarding risks, was shot mostly in widescreen VistaVision. Worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find. Opens in Chicago-area theaters on Jan. 10, 2025. Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor play games with each other, on the tennis court and in beds, while director Luca Guadagnino builds to a match-point climax that can’t possibly work, and doesn’t quite — but I saw the thing twice anyway. In Bucharest, production assistant Angela zigzags around the city interviewing people for her employer’s workplace safety video. If that sounds less than promising, even for a deadpan Romanian slice-of-life tragicomedy, go ahead and make the mistake of skipping this one. llinca Manolache is terrific as Angela. Like “Do Not Expect Too Much,” director Agnieszka Holland’s harrowing slice of recent history was a 2023 release, making it to Chicago in early 2024. Set along the densely forested Poland/Belarus border, this is a model of well-dramatized fiction honoring what refugees have always known: the fully justified, ever-present fear of the unknown. A quiet marvel of a feature debut from writer-director Annie Baker, this is a mother/daughter tale rich in ambiguities and wry humor, set in a lovely, slightly forlorn corner of rural Massachusetts. Julianne Nicholson, never better; Zoe Ziegler as young, hawk-eyed Lacy, equally memorable. I love this year’s nicest surprise. The premise: A teenager’s future 39-year-old self appears to her, magically, via a strong dose of mushrooms. The surprise: Writer-director Megan Park gradually deepens her scenario and sticks a powerfully emotional landing. Wonderful work from Aubrey Plaza, Maisy Stella, Maria Dizzia and everybody, really. From the horrific true story of a Florida reform school and its decades of abuse, neglect and enraging injustice toward its Black residents, novelist Colson Whitehead’s fictionalized novel makes a remarkable jump to the screen thanks to co-writer/director RaMell Ross’s feature debut. Cousins, not as close as they once were, reunite for a Holocaust heritage tour in Poland and their own search for their late grandmother’s childhood home. They’re the rootless Benji (Kieran Culkin) and tightly sprung David (Jesse Eisenberg, who wrote and directed). Small but very sure, this movie’s themes of genocidal trauma and Jewish legacy support the narrative every step of the way. Culkin is marvelous; so is the perpetually undervalued Eisenberg. To the above, I’ll add 10 more runners-up, again in alphabetical order: “Blink Twice,” directed by Zoe Kravitz. “Conclave,” directed by Edward Berger. “Dune: Part Two ,” directed by Denis Villeneuve. “Good One ,” directed by India Donaldson. “Hit Man,” directed by Richard Linklater. “Joker: Folie a Deux,” directed by Todd Phillips. “Nosferatu,” directed by Robert Eggers, opens in Chicago-area theaters on Dec. 25. “The Outrun,” directed by Nora Fingscheidt. “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” directed by Johan Grimonprez. “Tuesday,” directed by Daina O. Pusić. Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

Tube drivers are handed inflation-busting pay hikes - after Sadiq Khan caved in to union barons' demands to stop London Underground strikesBrazilian congressional committee votes for bill to ban abortionAmritsar: Recent violent incidents in Amritsar, including attacks on political figures and explosions near police stations, have raised concerns among security experts about potential unrest in Punjab. On Nov 24, police seized a suspicious bomb-like object outside Ajnala police station. It was followed by a bomb blast at an abandoned police post in Gurbaksh Nagar on Nov 29. This was followed by Wednesday’s attack on SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal . Just 13 hours later, a suspected explosion took place at the holy city’s Majithia police post. Amritsar and Tarn Taran had remained the epicentre of militancy during the 1980s and 1990s. “Is this not the commencement of something grave, perhaps even militancy? How else do militants operate? They have started functioning in a manner similar to the early 1980s, beginning with the murder of Lala Jagat Narayan on Sep 9, 1981,” said a retired police officer, who served across Punjab during the days of militancy. The failure of law and order in the border city of Amritsar, coupled with indifferent police and security agencies, posed a substantial risk to the state’s security, he said. “If authorities continue to neglect their responsibilities and are not decisive, consequences could be severe,” he added. He said the attacks on a police post and police station suggested a calculated attempt to undermine law enforcement and create an atmosphere of fear and instability. He said with a weakened SAD, traditional panthic (Sikh) segment of Punjab’s population was finding itself lacking a formidable leader, such as late Parkash Singh Badal or Gurcharan Singh Tohra. “Sukhbir has not been able to fill this leadership vacuum. On the other hand, SAD itself is not only weak, but also a divided house. This lack of cohesive leadership is paving the way for anti-national Khalistani elements to re-emerge,” he observed. According to panthic observers, Akalis have positioned themselves as defenders of Punjab’s interests, particularly in context of managing Sikh identity and autonomy. The surge in violence plays into this narrative, as the party might seek to project itself as the sole party capable of controlling the influence of anti-national elements in Punjab. We also published the following articles recently Man opens fire at SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal at Golden Temple in Amritsar A man fired shots at Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal at the Golden Temple entrance in Amritsar. Badal, performing seva due to a religious punishment, escaped unharmed. Police swiftly apprehended the shooter, Narayan Singh Chaura, but the motive remains unclear. 'Wash utensils, clean bathrooms': Why Sikh high priests have punished SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Punjab deputy CM, performed public penance at the Golden Temple after being declared guilty of religious misconduct. He carried a spear and wore a placard displaying Gurbani verses. The punishment, pronounced by Sikh high priests, relates to decisions made during SAD's rule from 2007-2017, including the handling of sacrilege incidents and pardoning Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Attack on former Punjab deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal shows rise of radical fringe A pro-Khalistan extremist attempted to assassinate Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal outside the Golden Temple. An alert police officer and a volunteer thwarted the attack, pushing the gunman's hand as he fired. Badal was unharmed. The incident highlights rising radical extremism within the Sikh diaspora, fueled by online propaganda and support from Pakistan-based terrorist groups. Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . Don't miss daily games like Crossword , Sudoku , and Mini Crossword .

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NoneDENVER (AP) — Amid renewed interest in the triggered in part by a new Netflix documentary, police in Boulder, Colorado, refuted assertions this week that there is viable evidence and leads about the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old girl that they are not pursuing. JonBenet Ramsey, who competed in beauty pageants, was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in the college town of Boulder the day after Christmas in 1996. Her body was found several hours after her mother called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note had been left behind. The details of the crime and video footage of JonBenet competing in pageants propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the United States. The police comments came as part of their annual update on the investigation, a month before the 28th anniversary of JonBenet’s killing. Police said they released it a little earlier due to the increased attention on the case, apparently referring to the three-part Netflix series “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey.” In a video statement, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said the department welcomes news coverage and documentaries about the killing of JonBenet, who would have been 34 this year, as a way to generate possible new leads. He said the department is committed to solving the case but needs to be careful about what it shares about the investigation to protect a possible future prosecution. “What I can tell you though, is we have thoroughly investigated multiple people as suspects throughout the years and we continue to be open-minded about what occurred as we investigate the tips that come into detectives,” he said. The Netflix documentary focuses on the mistakes made by police and the “media circus” surrounding the case. JonBenet was bludgeoned and strangled. Her death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever prosecuted. Police were widely criticized for mishandling the early investigation into her death amid speculation that her family was responsible. However, a prosecutor cleared her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, and brother Burke in 2008 based on new DNA evidence from JonBenet’s clothing that pointed to the involvement of an “unexplained third party” in her slaying. The announcement by former district attorney Mary Lacy came two years after Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. Lacy called the Ramseys “victims of this crime.” John Ramsey has continued to speak out for the case to be solved. In 2022, he supported an online petition asking Colorado’s governor to intervene in the investigation by putting an outside agency in charge of DNA testing in the case. In the Netflix documentary, he said he has been for several items that have not been prepared for DNA testing to be tested and for other items to be retested. He said the results should be put through a genealogy database. In recent years, investigators have identified suspects in unsolved cases by comparing DNA profiles from crime scenes and to DNA testing results shared online by people researching their family trees. In 2021, police said in their annual update that help solve the case, and in 2022 noted that some evidence could be “consumed” if DNA testing is done on it. Last year, police said they convened a panel of outside experts to review the investigation to give recommendations and determine if updated technologies or forensic testing might produce new leads. In the latest update, Redfearn said that review had ended but that police continue to work through and evaluate a “lengthy list of recommendations” from the panel.