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American Evil review

Bradley Cooper in a worthy but unwieldy drama

Reviews
By Matt Glasby published 8 February 2012

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As recently as 1975, Native American children were forced to attend boarding schools that forbade them speaking their own language among other, even more heinous, abuses.

Investigating the effects of these state-sponsored crimes on a community, Georgina Lightning’s 2008 sins-of-the-fathers drama stars Windtalkers ’ Adam Beach as an earnest police officer, and a pre- Hangover Bradley Cooper as an unlikely geologist, but it stumbles somewhat in the telling.

Glossy and distanced when it wants to be raw and direct, its worthiness runs deeper than any dramatic interest, and you feel there are better films to be made about this darkest of chapters.

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Matt Glasby
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Freelance Writer

Matt Glasby is a freelance film and TV journalist. You can find his work on Total Film - in print and online - as well as at publications like the Radio Times, Channel 4, DVD REview, Flicks, GQ, Hotdog, Little White Lies, and SFX, among others. He is also the author of several novels, including The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film and Britpop Cinema: From Trainspotting To This Is England.

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