For 4,789 reviews, this publication has graded:
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48% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.6 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 59
| Highest review score: |
Critic Score
100
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| Lowest review score: |
Critic Score
0
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 2,329 out of 4789
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Mixed: 1,771 out of 4789
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Negative: 689 out of 4789
4,789
movie reviews
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
A caustic, witty, regretful elegy for a place so transformed that it's virtually unrecognizable. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
After a start heavy on exposition, the film strings one action setpiece after another, each realized with the breathless excitement of an adventure pulp cover. It's as if Jackson set out to bring to life every fantasy of the last moment before earth gave way to space as the site of the final frontier. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
Provides one of the rare glimpses of the upper class to come out of recent Iranian cinema--the last one in memory was 1996's exquisite, Ibsen-esque melodrama "Leila"--and director Jafar Panahi (The Circle) captures it vividly through his hero's wounded obsession. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
More about well-observed moments of everyday life than it is about heightened melodrama.- Posted May 26, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
District 9 fuses science fiction mayhem and biting social commentary as well as any film since "Starship Troopers." It’s the rare alien invasion story that has the aliens running scared. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
A film so joyfully insane that it feels like Kon is overcompensating. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
Klayman captures the earlier parts of that story so compellingly that the finale's "to be continued" quality ends up playing into the film's unspoken goal: raising awareness of one man's ongoing attempts to better the world through art.- Posted Jul 25, 2012
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Reviewed by
A.A. Dowd 83
Because of its autobiographical slant, Something In The Air has been compared to Assayas’ 1994 breakthrough, "Cold Water," which gazed upon roughly the same period of the director’s life.- Posted May 1, 2013
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
It's the perfect material for Russell, who not only deals perceptively with the dizzying swings of manic depression, but makes it the fabric of a big, generous, happy-making ensemble comedy.- Posted Nov 14, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Superman argues convincingly that everyone should have the right to a good education, not just folks lucky enough to score winning numbers: It should be a birthright, not a matter of chance. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 100
It might be fair to argue that the resonances of Upstream Color are too obscure and internal — many viewers have and will be baffled by it — but it’s the type of art that inspires curiosity and obsession, like some beautiful object whose meaning remains tantalizingly out of reach.- Posted Apr 3, 2013
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
The power to provoke may not always have a smoke-to-fire relationship with greatness but with Scorsese's film, a testament of faith that leaves in the question marks, it undeniably does. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
Having the dog around raises the emotional stakes tenfold, and develops a kinship with Vittorio De Sica's Italian neo-realist classic "Umberto D.," which also revealed societal ills through a poignant dog-owner relationship -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
Even when making movies for small children, Studio Ghibli produces stories that are more emotionally sophisticated, and less philosophically polarized, than most adult fare.- Posted Feb 15, 2012
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Reviewed by
Ben Kenigsberg 91
Above all, Frances Ha is a wry and moving portrait of friendship, highlighting the way that two people who know everything about each other can nevertheless grow apart as their needs change.- Posted May 15, 2013
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
An unpredictable, often funny, always winning film, Love And Death On Long Island is filled with low-key humor and sharp observations about the state of art at the close of the millennium. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
It’s a bright, lively movie, with a vision of New York as a multicultural free-for-all, where everybody’s always looking to see what they can take from everybody else.- Posted Mar 20, 2013
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Like many social issue documentaries, Food, Inc. is better at addressing problems than offering solutions: its endorsement of organic food in particular feels a little flimsy. Nevertheless, it’s entertaining and fast-moving enough to make audiences intermittently forget they’re consuming cinematic health food. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 90
Movies can't exactly replicate the feeling of reading a book, but Jun Ichikawa's adaptation of Haruki Murakami's short story Tony Takitani comes remarkably close. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
The grand concept is really just a vehicle for a more intimate study of depression and its dangerous, shifting polarities.- Posted Nov 9, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
To an extent, Greenfield tries to have it both ways with her film: she allows us to enjoy the fantasy of being rich, while also letting us see the bastards suffer a little.- Posted Jul 11, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 100
The Turin Horse has a burnished beauty that's awe-inspiring, like a clear window into a faraway world as it dangles, and then falls, off the precipice.- Posted Feb 8, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 90
As a film composed entirely of nine continuous long takes, Nine Lives certainly qualifies as unique. But what makes it rarer and more auspicious is that it offers such a rich bounty of great roles for middle-aged women. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
The Coens direct True Grit with a light touch, but like Portis' stark, funny novel, their adventure tale shaves off none of the rough edges.- Posted Dec 22, 2010
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Attempts to look beyond the hysteria and consider exactly how and why a culture that values physical power has internalized the idea that steroid use in sports is a scourge. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
I Wish is still amply Kore-eda-esque, full of life, heart, and funny little details about daily existence, as it meanders its way toward moments of real profundity.- Posted May 9, 2012
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Critic Score 91
While it's far from easy going, The Mill And The Cross is worth attempting for its stunning visuals alone.- Posted Sep 14, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
Miss Bala toes a delicate line between exploitation movie and movie about exploitation, but that's part of what gives the film its charge - this isn't some flaccid docudrama about how the cartels are poisoning the country, it's a lively, white-knuckle thriller where any such proselytizing is reduced to implication.- Posted Jan 25, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Though it never regains the inspiration or comic density of its brilliant first 20 minutes, The Simpsons Movie keeps the laughs coming from start to finish, a feat as rare and wonderful in film as it has been through 18 years of television. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
The effect of Room 237 is intense. It’s a deep dive into the rabbit hole of semiotics, designed to train viewers to become alert to what they’re really seeing.- Posted Mar 27, 2013
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Tonally, The Band's Visit steps gingerly on the line between “sweetly humane” and “cloyingly quirky.” -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 90
Gets most of its legs from the acting and the dialogue, which has such a rhythmic grace that scenes from the movie can be played and replayed with no loss of thump. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
As always, Kurosawa masterfully controls his film's framing and sound design, and as always, the painstakingly precise mise-en-scene can feel a little overdone at times. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
A compelling, well-researched, beautifully assembled document. -
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Critic Score 83
Lorna's Silence feels like a refinement, even a repetition, of earlier themes. But the brothers are repeating themselves at such a high level that the redundancies are more than welcome. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
The result is a movie that's poignant, bittersweet, and true.- Posted Apr 18, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
The film accomplishes a remarkable feat of creative alchemy by breathing life and depth into characters that, in lesser hands, could easily have come across as grating caricatures. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
The performances are winning, the story is surprising without relying on unlikely twists, and the relationships are the richest and most nuanced since Leigh's "Secrets & Lies."- Posted Dec 28, 2010
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
It's a remote location, but Frammartino's canny eye, wry humor, and careful sense of rhythm make it feel like the best possible spot to observe the workings of the world, from ashes to ashes.- Posted Mar 31, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
Few directors are capable of marrying ideas and entertainment—one is often sacrificed for the other—but Spielberg peppers one gripping action setpiece after another with trenchant details about a near-future robbed of the most basic freedoms and privacy. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
In a masterful performance, Langella highlights Nixon's oily charm and guile. -
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Critic Score 91
Senna is considered one of motorsporting's greats, but Asif Kapadia's film also makes it clear he was a sort of artist, his talent accompanied by an unquenchable thirst for excellence and a belief that racing offered him a connection to God.- Posted Aug 10, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
Beyond The Hills has a rich understanding of the appeals and perils of religious values that provide structure and meaning to some while seeming cruel and irrational to outsiders. It’s a world within a world, and Mungiu peers from a clear window.- Posted Mar 6, 2013
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
It might just be the most poignant, moving film ever made about one man's surprisingly noble efforts to get laid.- Posted Oct 13, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 90
The glacially beautiful new documentary March Of The Penguins confirms that no computer-animated or hand-drawn penguin could ever match the curious majesty of the genuine article. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
While Jonestown lacks the power of revelation, it's a first-rate piece of journalism, as fascinating and thorough as any magazine article. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 100
The film finds a surprising amount of tenderness and humor beneath the brutality. The laughs may catch in the throat, but that's only a byproduct of City Of God's power to leave viewers breathless. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Photographic Memory is less wry and more melancholy than McElwee's earlier documentaries; it's a lot like his superb 2003 film "Bright Leaves," which was also concerned with family history and the shifting meaning of images.- Posted Oct 10, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
A Piece of Work is the antithesis of Jerry Seinfeld's engaging but superficial 2002 documentary "Comedian": where the innately private Seinfeld holds nearly everything back, Rivers loudly broadcasts the kind of fears, anxieties, and ambitions most people would do anything to hide. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
As played by Ralph Fiennes in his own cinematic adaptation of the play, Coriolanus' military genius makes him a figure of awe, but it's his near-absence of empathy that makes him terrifying.- Posted Jan 18, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
In Chéreau's hands, Gabrielle has an operatic quality that throws the repressive environment into sharp relief; the film works like a pressure cooker, seething with bottled passions that intermittently burst through with startling cruelty and violence. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 90
Murray and Jarmusch, two modern masters of minimalism, triumphantly join forces in Broken Flowers, a bittersweet tour de force about a wealthy, deeply depressed lothario. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
The film deftly sketches a sibling relationship complicated by obligation, guilt, mistrust, and, not least, an abiding love. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
So The Order Of Myths' central question remains tantalizingly unanswered: When a society respects its old-growth trees so much that they let the roots crack the sidewalks, are they being noble or ignorant? -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Like many debut features, Reprise is a foremost a statement of purpose, and in that respect, at least, Trier shows limitless promise. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
Tsai's latest, What Time Is It There?, runs his usual themes and obsessions through a whimsical premise worthy of Wong Kar-Wai, striking such an exquisite balance between humor and despair that the moods comfortably coexist, just as they do in real life. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
WQholly a Coen brothers movie, in that it’s full of exaggerated characters and comic cruelty, anchored to a way of looking at the world that seems to posit a fundamental absence of meaning. And yet there’s something sweet and even a little heartening about the movie, too. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Bale's live-wire performance typifies the many major and minor elements that elevate The Fighter from the deeply conventional sports movie it might have been into the endearingly offbeat sports movie it turns out to be.- Posted Dec 9, 2010
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Like few of his filmmaking peers, McCarthy understands and respects the power of quiet, and how a whisper can be as explosive as a shout. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Again as with Bong's earlier films, Mother is a genre exercise that honors convention, yet weaves around it whenever possible. Bong carefully turns Mother into a classic gumshoe tale, with red herrings, interrogations, and moments of sublime suspense. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Iron Man is the rare comic-book movie that makes the prospect of a sequel seem like a promise instead of a threat. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
If The Winslow Boy has a flaw, it's that Mamet's style is impeccable to a fault, too cool and remote to have much of an emotional payoff. But since few directors can even approach his level of precision, that's a very minor complaint. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 100
At bottom, Silent Light is less about faith than matters of the heart, and in Reygadas' hands, the ache is bone-deep. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 100
The film is little more than an exercise in style, but it's dazzling and mythic, a testament to the fundamental appeal of fast cars, dangerous men, and tension that squeezes like a hand to the throat.- Posted Sep 14, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
A viscerally punishing study of repression and masochism, carried out with the utmost discretion and chilling reserve. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
The larger messages about spirituality often seem forced, and it's more compelling to focus on Lee's visceral cinematic experience than on the larger, fuzzier messages Martel's story conveys about humanity's connection with God.- Posted Nov 21, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
The Case Of The Grinning Cat is a sequel of sorts to Marker's epic three-hour 1977 documentary on the decline of the left, "A Grin Without A Cat"--though this new work is both shorter and more playful. -
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Reviewed by
Sam Adams 91
Keep The Lights On feels less like a memoir than a collage made from diary scraps, evocative but not prescriptive.- Posted Sep 5, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Temple introduces viewers to Strummer the punster, Strummer the womanizer, and Strummer the poseur, whom his mates could only really talk to when no one else was around. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
What keeps the story fresh isn't so much Guadagnino's swooning sense-reveries, which sometimes flow with dreamlike wonder and sometimes just drag; instead, most of the power comes from Swinton, who always makes the most of characters imbued by passion, but straitjacketed by expectations. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
Though unabashedly manipulative in its storytelling and structure, Searching For Sugar Man ultimately earns its happy ending and buzzy, crowd-pleasing populist appeal by alchemizing trembling inner-city pain into transcendent international beauty.- Posted Jul 25, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
A florid, often lurid, completely enthralling film held in place by a disarming Portman, who rarely leaves the frame.- Posted Dec 6, 2010
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Critic Score 90
An astoundingly moving and elegiac meditation on life, love, music, and the bonds of blood. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
As always with Hong's films, Oki's Movie goes through stretches where it seems aimless and self-indulgent, followed by stretches where it's sharp, funny, and poetic.- Posted Apr 18, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Under Fresnadillo's assured direction, 28 Weeks Later blurs the line between genre entertainment and a photojournalist's shots of the next urban catastrophe. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Like many French films of its kind, Private Property remains content to simply observe a situation without tidying up the narrative, which in this case leaves some big questions unanswered. But Lafosse knows that problems that beg for a resolution sometimes don't get one. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Beware Of Mr. Baker is the life story of a man who's led one hell of a fascinating life.- Posted Nov 28, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Ron Perlman returns as the film's loveable title character, a demon gone good who's tough on the outside but tender underneath, with a soft spot for kittens, candy, and babies. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Some people might find it distasteful to make a movie about guilty rich folks who give themselves permission to splurge. Others will rightly appreciate the honesty. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Like other great pastiche artists, Gomes has created a time machine to a cinematic era that never quite existed, so it feels simultaneously borrowed and new.- Posted Dec 27, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
This is a movie about the casual ways people know each other, even when their relationships are hard to explain-or perhaps even justify.- Posted Feb 17, 2011
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
Mann takes all the instincts he learned as a Miami Vice producer and trims them of their excesses, and the result is an unsettling thriller whose detached style perfectly complements its psychological intensity. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
Malick's powerful intermingling of brutality and beauty, his signature cutaways to indigenous flora and fauna, and the gentle lyricism of his disjunctive narration and painterly images are too rich to fully register in a single viewing. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 90
In Amandla!, history doesn't just come alive--it sings, dances, and issues a passionate plea for justice and equality. The film joyously celebrates music as both a means to an end and an end unto itself. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
O’Horten feels like a waking dream. It's a film of subtle, insinuating charm, a character study about an eminently sane, reasonable man unsteadily navigating an increasingly insane, unreasonable world. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Falls short of being a great film because it lacks a certain ambition. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
The miracle of Nolan's Batman trilogy is the way it imprints those myths with the dread-soaked tenor of the times.- Posted Jul 18, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Given their reputations as feminist provocateurs, the coming together of Breillat and Argento seems natural, even inevitable, and The Last Mistress gets a charge from their feisty, uncompromising spirit. -
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Critic Score 90
A strange and thoughtful story, told in unhurried conversations and artful flashbacks. The things people keep from themselves are just as important to this mystery as the things they keep from each other, and that transforms Lone Star from a mere mystery into something much richer. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Tavernier turns a tale of courtly duty and manners into a tense, twisty drama.- Posted Apr 14, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 100
Zodiac is the rare serial-killer movie in which the psychosis stems as much from the pursuers (and the filmmaker) as the pursued. -
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Critic Score 83
Kasdan's moody tribute to cinema's dark past set a gold standard for neo-noirs that has seldom been equaled. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Though narrower in scope and lacking the first-person angle, Waste Land resembles Agnès Varda's great 2000 documentary "The Gleaners & I," particularly in its awe of tough, creative, hard-working people who live on the margins.- Posted Oct 28, 2010
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
If nothing else, Afghan Star offers a reminder of how much has changed in Afghanistan from the late ’70s--when Kabul was a secular-oriented city with co-ed universities and a thriving nightclub scene--to the rise of the Taliban. -
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Critic Score 83
Their bond lends this more or less conventional POW escape film resounding emotional depth. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
It's a gorgeously rendered marvel that pulls out all the stops to wow its viewers, but in spite of its crowd-pleasing ploys, it holds onto its integrity with a smart and surprisingly deep story. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
Uncompromising in her art, her teaching, and her professional relations, Boyd makes for a classic tough old bird of a character. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
David Gelb's documentary Jiro Dreams Of Sushi shows what a meal at Sukiyabashi Jiro is like: each morsel prepared simply and perfectly, then replaced by another as soon as the previous piece is consumed, with no repetition of courses. Once an item is gone, it doesn't come back. That's why each one has to be memorable.- Posted Mar 7, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
Though it occasionally wears its metaphors on its sleeve, Ulee's Gold should, if there's any justice, find the same thoughtful-drama-hungry audience that made "Sling Blade" a hit. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
Red Riding’s depiction of the avarice and corruption possible when regions become kingdoms unto themselves feels simultaneously cynical and true. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
The beauty of the film is how organically its themes are presented - it's a slice of life that comes about its sweeping ideas with surprising delicacy.- Posted Aug 22, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
The Ghost Writer may not go down as one of Polanski’s masterpieces, but if it does end up being his swan song, it’s the ideal denouement to a life and career of unsettling resonance. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 90
Smashing family entertainment: The whole thing is quick-witted, fast-paced, and loaded with clever sight gags and colorful, engaging supporting characters. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The Imposter strings the audience along, to get them to understand first-hand how easy it is to buy into a well-told story, even when there's no evidence to support it.- Posted Jul 11, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Terence Nance’s playfully experimental feature An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty is both stunning and stymieing — a film so effusive that it’s hard to separate its signal from its noise.- Posted Apr 24, 2013
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
It’s a film of stunning beauty and deep underlying sadness, a self-financed labor of love filled with impossibly gorgeous, oft-unclothed men and dazzling eye candy. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Resnais and Ayckbourn care primarily about observing these characters' private and public faces, who they are and who they present themselves as. To that end, they've achieved a mood of enchanting intimacy. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
By the time Feuerzeig gets to his final shot--an artful portrait of Johnston's parents, with their son looming over them like a curse--he's emerged with the most harrowing and aesthetically keen portrait of madness and artistic inspiration since "Crumb." -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
Filmed in long, quiet takes across gorgeous, all-but-empty landscapes, Mountain Patrol feels more like Gus Van Sant's "Gerry" than like the cops-and-robbers thriller its plotline suggests. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
Like the best of its forebears, Grindhouse contains thrills to keep viewers in their seats, plus moments to think about on the ride home, which will probably seem unusually fraught with peril. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
In Caesar Must Die, the characters are both actor and audience, looking at themselves through the lens of a centuries-old fictionalization of history.- Posted Feb 6, 2013
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Just as a document of the sheer physical labor that goes into covering a giant canvas with color, Gerhard Richter Painting is never less than absorbing.- Posted Mar 14, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The War Tapes falls just short of greatness, because its scope is too limited. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Porumboiu starts off making a mordant slice of life, but he gradually entwines the personal and the historical, then ends on a poignant note. The story and situation are slight, but in the best possible way. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The result is a movie that jumps all over the place, but with the ultimate intention of showing how the public's attitudes and assumptions about drugs have changed over the past half-century, guided by politicians and businessmen with a stake in misinformation.- Posted Oct 3, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The result is a movie that feels enjoyably aimless--one that invites viewers to just hang out for an hour. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Though Circo is pretty bleak, Schock doesn't skimp on the exotic wonder of a life on the road, surrounded by color and danger.- Posted Mar 31, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Louder Than A Bomb is a different kind of high-school movie, brimming with life and hope instead of social-climbing, bullying, and furtive first kisses.- Posted May 19, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 100
The affection audiences feel for A Christmas Story is related to the holiday spirit, yes, but specifically to Clark and Shepherd's awareness of how the true meaning of Christmas manifests in the real world, where a warm meal on a cold, dark day—and a surprising moment of parental grace—can ease a troubled mind. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
It's no insult to say that the fine documentary Bill Cunningham New York resembles one of those minor profiles found in The New Yorker's "Talk Of The Town" section: a slight, glancing, yet subtly wrought slice of New York life. And it seems likely that the exceedingly modest Cunningham would want it that way.- Posted Mar 17, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
At its best, Serbis is a vibrant slice of life that establishes this theater as a living organism, nurturing a society of outcasts; it's like "Ship Of Fools" with blowjobs and boil-lancings. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
Broken Embraces welds Douglas Sirk melodrama to the most gracefully unsettling elements of Alfred Hitchcock, wrapping both in the stylish, hushed elegance that’s become Almodóvar’s trademark since his mid-’90s reinvention. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
Smart in a rare way that matters greatly to good contemporary comedy: Like last year's "Flirting With Disaster," its script and direction underplay absurd situations, letting its characters amuse without showing the strains of forced wackiness. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
What Von Trier arrives at is a complex, contemporary, and deeply moving exploration of faith. -
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Critic Score 90
What's truly remarkable about Smoke Signals is the depth of the narrative, a touching tale of self-discovery. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
Jesse Eisenberg stars as a kinder, gentler version of the insufferable faux intellectual he played in "The Squid And The Whale." -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 100
Poignant and powerful, complex and melancholy, the film ends with rehearsals for yet another money-grubbing comeback tour.- Posted Jul 13, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
With juicy supporting roles for Chiwetel Ejiofor and Willem Dafoe as Washington's fellow officers, the film works best when the characters are just sitting back and shooting the breeze, which is what they're doing much of the time. Here, puzzling out a robbery is more fun than stopping it. -
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Critic Score 83
El Sicario: Room 164 is an almost laughably simple, aggressively drab-looking film, but it packs a wallop.- Posted Dec 29, 2011
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
The characters are simply rendered, but when it comes to capturing cities and scenes, the cinematography takes on the color and detail of a Mexican street mural.- Posted Feb 8, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Though The Hunter maintains the same even tone after it turns into a chase thriller, the look begins to resemble the work of William Friedkin and Walter Hill in its clean, elemental approach to action.- Posted Jan 4, 2012
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Critic Score 83
While the pace and the dour, meditative tone of Silent Souls can sometimes verge on parodically arthouse-esque, the sincerity of the film's thoughts on loss and longing, on the burdens of grief, and on reawakened awareness of existence, is always painfully heartfelt.- Posted Sep 14, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Arriving on the heels of "13 Assassins," Miike's gloriously irreverent take on the samurai action genre, Hara-Kiri seems conventional by his standards, especially in a long middle section that occasionally dips into sentimentality.- Posted Jul 19, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
For those who can’t abide conventional biopics, here’s a viable alternative: A Room And A Half, a fantastical, imaginative depiction of the life of Nobel-winning Russian poet Joseph Brodsky. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
Mangold delivers a taut modern take on a lesser classic, preserving the "High Noon" themes about doing the right thing against all odds, and injecting a more modern pacing and urgency without going overboard. His film isn't Leonard's classic, but it's a solid, genre-respecting Western in its own right. -
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Reviewed by
Mike D'Angelo 83
It plays like the kind of movie you’d stumble onto watching TCM late at night and get sucked into against your will, amazed that something you’d never heard of, with no purchase in film history, could be this absorbing.- Posted May 1, 2013
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
It does justice to a subject who made his life and death works of art.- Posted Dec 10, 2010
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 90
So much fun that its considerable worth as history and sociology seems almost incidental. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
Directing his first live-action film since 2000's "Cast Away," Robert Zemeckis paces it brilliantly, slowly ramping up the energy from hungover lethargy to coke-fueled confidence, while creating undercurrents of dread as Washington hits his stride.- Posted Oct 31, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Shine A Light pays tribute to the band's essential agelessness. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
James Brown, B.B. King, and a dazzling array of top African, Afro-Cuban, and African-American talent finally gets its own solo spotlight in Soul Power. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Well-plotted, with a strong lead performance by Michael Shannon, and a fair amount of authentic regional flavor. It isn't really meant to be a treatise on Southern life. At heart, it's a country-fried genre film, minus the peppery white gravy. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Soul Kitchen plays everything big and loud-and sometimes too doggedly conventional-but it's the rare example of a crowd-pleaser made without cynicism or calculation. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Because the movie plays on so many common fears - including fears of being in a remote house with big windows when intruders arrive - the confusion of Martha Marcy May Marlene proves effective, not sloppy.- Posted Oct 19, 2011
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Critic Score 83
Although the parts of The Unforeseen dealing with the anti-development movement are pure go-team agitprop, Dunn lends the movie a lyrical cast by combining aerial shots of the transformed countryside with the voice of Wendell Berry, reading from his poem "Sabbaths." -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
In keeping with Jóhann Jóhannsson's score - alternately ominous, triumphant, and elegiac - The Miners' Hymns plays on the broader emotions of the subject. The film is all about the mysterious world down below, how camaraderie turned to conflict, and the nagging feeling of loss.- Posted Feb 8, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Think of Not Quite Hollywood as a vividly illustrated catalogue of astonishing smut. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
Stillman's arch, clever dialogue is as strong as ever, and he conveys in every frame a genuine affection for his characters, however insipid their actions may be at times. These gifts make it easy to forgive Stillman's tendency to let his story meander, especially in Disco's second half. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
His outrageous, self-destructive journey lands him in a place just as ironic as Rupert Pupkin’s in "The King Of Comedy," but it’s haunting and mysterious, too, reflecting the dream that consumes his life.- Posted Mar 13, 2013
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 100
The film feels as beautifully calibrated as a great piece of short fiction, only with visual accents and emphases filling in for the prose. It's a relationship movie where the most important exchanges remain unspoken.- Posted Oct 24, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
Rabbit Hole is a tremendously sad movie, but it's also the furthest thing from a miserablist wallow.- Posted Dec 16, 2010
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
Only Washington stands out; he's charming, intense, and charismatic as ever. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Like everybody else in the Pusher films, Buric contemplates what it would take to leave the mob life behind. And like everybody else, he decides he wants to get better without getting well. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
Submarine is the film "Youth In Revolt" should have been, an achingly sad yet ribald account of a hyper-verbal oddball's ascent/descent into manhood.- Posted Jun 2, 2011
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
While the film doesn't dig deep, or hit particularly hard, it neatly achieves its modest goals: presenting a real-life heroine in real-life terms. A film this fictionalized rarely feels this much like fact. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 100
Part of Spielberg's skill as a filmmaker comes in choosing the right collaborators. Janusz Kaminski's gorgeous cinematography, Michael Kahn's graceful editing, Jeff Nathanson's clever script, and John Williams' score all work well in unison, but the film's masterstroke is the casting of Walken as DiCaprio's utterly decent father. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 90
Shockingly, he's (Jonathan Demme) pulled it off, replicating the original's tricky feat of investing a paranoid plot with timeliness, psychological complexity, sociopolitical acumen, and almost frightening conviction. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
Bittersweet and beautifully realized, harsh but humane, Greenberg is a self-consciously small film that nevertheless leaves an indelible mark. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
Tattoo is as much mood piece as mystery, and the mood is almost always disturbing. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Patience reveals through images and tone as well as through the interviews how Sebald yearned for restorative meaning in the places he toured, only to end up lost in thought.- Posted May 9, 2012
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Critic Score 83
It's a pleasure simply to linger in the characters' company, or at least to watch them from just far enough away to observe them without being judged in return. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Welcome To Pine Hill is a short, docu-realistic film, with very little plot and scenes that play like loose improvisations. Miller is mainly interested in the various spaces Harper inhabits, and how he inhabits them.- Posted Feb 27, 2013
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Reviewed by
Sam Adams 91
The power of Middle Of Nowhere is cumulative, conveyed in sustained tone and deepening character rather than bravura sequences or explosive confrontations.- Posted Oct 10, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
Without soft-pedaling it in the least, Bonello nonetheless mourns the passing of a time where prostitutes didn't control their destinies, but at least had each other.- Posted Nov 22, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
Though Dick focuses heavily on just a few women, The Invisible War builds to a stunning montage of victim after victim telling their story to the camera without pseudonyms or silhouettes.- Posted Jun 20, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
Emerges as something rare, an issue movie that's so honest and keenly observed that it doesn't feel like one. It earns its thesis statement through minute details and a unique grasp of a commonplace problem. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
Through quietly fiery performances by Day-Lewis and Watson, as well as novel-like depth and complexity, The Boxer not only avoids these pitfalls but emerges as a thoroughly engrossing movie. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Attack The Block turns its modest budget into a virtue by focusing on character, especially the surprisingly charged, complicated dynamic between enemies-turned-allies Whittaker and Boyega.- Posted Jul 28, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The director deserves kudos for setting her movie during such a gray, dreary Toronto winter. It couldn't have been easy to find a climate that so resembles adolescence. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Though the lightness of Bernie can get disconcerting at times, even cartoonish, Linklater approaches the story with a bemused curiosity that seems about right under the circumstances.- Posted Apr 25, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The documentary seems a little structureless and unfocused at times, as Akers moves from dramatic moment to dramatic moment, not always taking care to connect them.- Posted Jun 13, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
The film begins like a Frank Capra movie--pure-hearted idealist takes on corporate fat cats against impossible odds and triumphs--but ends like a Shakespearean tragedy. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Crude is so crammed with facts and figures that it can be a little dizzying, but what’s more important is what Berlinger records between all the talking-head interviews and vérité footage. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
The occasional missteps (some overly precious symbolism, the grimy DV look) rarely get in the way of the film’s many winces, gasps, and breathless, cringing anticipation. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
It’s a dark, grim, suffocating story that only missteps by overplaying its hand, making the larger message about prostitution increasingly overt.- Posted Apr 24, 2013
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Like his underappreciated "Haywire," Side Effects screws around in its own thriller architecture, toying with feints of structure and clever bits of misdirection, and otherwise playing the audience like a fiddle. At this point in his career, Soderbergh pulls it off with the unpracticed ease of a maestro.- Posted Feb 6, 2013
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
At times, Treeless Mountain almost feels like a fairy tale--but without the magic. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Altman and Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion is fittingly both a celebration and a winning example of the joys of collaboration. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
It thoroughly eviscerates the MPAA and makes a solid case that the culture has paid the price for its censorious practices. His (Dick's) attacks are the equivalent of shooting ducks in a barrel, but these ducks had it coming. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
If the film has a significant flaw, it's that Venditti never explains in the film how she found Billy, or why she's interested in him. Billy The Kid often plays more like an extended home movie than something intentional and artful. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Prodigal Sons comes packed with multiple hooks. Aside from the sex-change angle, the movie takes a turn when Marc---whom Reed’s parents adopted before she was born--learns that he’s the biological son of Rebecca Welles, and the grandchild of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
This is a smart, melancholy crime picture, which takes its cues from the title of the perverse old standard Christensen plays on her stereo at night: “You Always Hurt The One You Love.” -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The Bridesmaid goes slack at times, as it follows multiple Magimel family subplots, but as always, Chabrol stages everything with an elegant economy, moving the camera in short bursts that direct the eye but don't distract. Still, the movie would fail completely if not for the dynamic between the two leads. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 100
While the scenes don't always fit together thematically or tonally, each one is its own polished gem.- Posted Dec 6, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
McKinney may well be a madwoman, but Morris connects so deeply to her obsessions that the film's tone never seems exploitative or mocking.- Posted Jul 14, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
Humpday carefully raises the stakes until it hits a finale loaded with humor, tenderness, and delicious ambiguity. It’s like "Old Joy" by way of Judd Apatow. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
The artist's arresting images speak for themselves, even though now only the bystanders are left to tell his story. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
As with the Wallace & Gromit films, most of the fun is in the deft characterizations, the zippy banter, and the joyous sight gags. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Mexican writer-director Fernando Eimbcke got his start in short films and documentaries, and his first feature reveals a gift for concision: It doesn't overexert itself trying to come to big conclusions about these characters, and even the comedic scenes settle for gentle quirks over broad guffaws. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
The film is an imposing, prismatic achievement, and strongly resistant to an insta-reaction; when it’s over, Nolan still seems a few steps ahead of us. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
It's so much fun that as Tomboy moves toward its conclusion, the inevitable end of Héran's days as Mikael feels like watching someone die.- Posted Nov 16, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
While some of the trappings and even some of the plot elements could easily be called unoriginal, Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez arrange them in a fresh way, crafting an emotionally resonant, nerve-jangling experience. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
As the movie’s title implies, everything is about to change for these two. These are the last happy days before destructive modernity encroaches. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
By making the jokes more personal, Suleiman charts the process by which the concept of "home" loses its meaning.- Posted Jan 13, 2011
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
Winnie The Pooh is a storybook brought to life with intelligence, wit, and palpable affection; where so many kids' films try desperately to come off as hip and timely that they often feel tacky and instantly dated, Winnie The Pooh is bravely quiet, old-fashioned, and wry.- Posted Jul 14, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
Breaking from the Spielberg oeuvre, Munich isn't a particularly hopeful movie, but it's a fair and morally dignified one. -
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Critic Score 90
That the familiar story of the Titanic disaster is told with suspense is not as surprising as Cameron's clear-headed balance of truth and fiction, spectacle and tragedy. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
While In Darkness sticks to formula, it brings across that formula effectively.- Posted Feb 8, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
His film powerfully suggests that violent death of any kind, whether personal or state-mandated, transforms everyone in its vicinity.- Posted Nov 9, 2011
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
This is Csupo's feature directorial debut, but as creator, producer, and writer of "Rugrats" and "The Wild Thornberrys," among several other series, he's had a long career in animation, and he handles the CGI setpieces masterfully. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The pleasure of Happy People comes from watching these men go about their work, while they explain that the only way to make it in the taiga is to do and take exactly what's needed, and not get greedy.- Posted Jan 23, 2013
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
History Boys boasts a dazzling verbal cleverness--the gleeful rat-a-tat of snappy banter expertly executed--that doesn't keep it from also being deeply, exquisitely sad. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
It’s a great-looking film--and an impressive use of 3D--but ultimately, the story makes it memorable. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Though not exactly a "comedy" of manners, since it's more melancholy than funny, The Duchess Of Langeais is very much concerned with how the rules of social etiquette interfere with raw human need. -
