For 4,782 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: 2,324 out of 4782
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Mixed: 1,769 out of 4782
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Negative: 689 out of 4782
4,782
movie reviews
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
In The Loop floats above its chaotic world on wave after wave of beautifully profane dialogue. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 75
This is no more a kids’ movie for kids than "Where The Wild Things Are"; it’s a film strictly for Wes Anderson fans of all ages. By now, they should know who they are. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
Effective as a drama as it spirals Golbahari deeper into her nightmarish world, Osama is similarly powerful as a fictionalized account of the Taliban's obscene wish for a world where the stringent enforcement of religious laws took the place of instinctual human kindness. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
Gripping action and vulnerable heroes writ large. It boldly goes somewhere different and makes it hard to leave the film not hoping for a return voyage soon. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Though Chop Shop is an American film, it feels more like an Iranian movie or the Dardenne Brothers’ "Rosetta"; Bahrani introduces something like a plot point in the late-going, but he mostly focuses, to riveting effect, on how his young hero hustles and claws through everyday life. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
What makes Raising Victor Vargas so special, beyond its irresistible charisma, is how Sollett and his cast capture the thrill of first love. -
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Critic Score 91
More than a class full of convincing child actors and a genuinely affecting performance by Fellag, Falardeau offers a film as believably wrenching, and finally cathartic, as the grieving process itself.- Posted Apr 12, 2012
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 90
Like all Burton's best work, it takes place in a distorted, vividly colored, meticulously crafted world where whimsy and gleeful ghoulishness mix freely. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
To an equal extent, Project Nim shows the human capacity for cruelty and narcissism as well as compassion and selflessness.- Posted Jul 7, 2011
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 75
Demme’s excitement for Young and his music is evident throughout, and the songs fit comfortably in the unvarnished setting. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 100
The filmmakers smartly counter heavy drama with goofy comedy, mining a rich vein of humor in the juxtaposition of the mundane and the superheroic. Maguire and Molina excel at opposite ends of the moral spectrum, but the film is stolen once again by J.K. Simmons. -
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Critic Score 70
When We Were Kings is an energetic, passionate documentary of this event, and a revelation for people who only know Ali as an ex-champ with Parkinson's and Foreman as a Care Bear. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
It's a film assembled from moments out of time, destined forever to weigh down the boy at their center. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
It's also representative of Pina's major flaw: the inability of artists to get out of their own way.- Posted Dec 22, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Animal Kingdom joins in the tradition of brutally unsentimental Australian crime dramas like "The Boys," in which the stakes are low, except to the people staring down the barrel of a gun. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
It's a complex fusion of film history and personal history, filled with dazzling embellishments and unabashed sentiment about the glories of cinema.- Posted Nov 22, 2011
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
Were he only trying to remark on that world's creepiness, Cronenberg would still succeed brilliantly, if coldly, but his sympathy makes the film. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
Despite years of imitators, sequels (some great, some not so), and edited-for-television broadcasts, Alien has lost none of its power, and the big screen only intensifies its impact. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
Gordon's feature directorial debut mostly stops being about video-game obsession and turns into a film about what it takes to make it in America. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
Raimi’s new film feels distinctly unburdened and fun, happily frolicking in its own pulp silliness. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The Day He Arrives is a talky movie, full of long, boozy scenes and cosmic coincidences - and in that it echoes Allen, as well as Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, and the best of British kitchen-sink drama.- Posted Apr 18, 2012
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 75
However crafted their stories may have become, and however reluctantly they participate, their sacrifice will be appreciated by history, and by the next generation of voyeurs as well.- Posted Jan 2, 2013
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Like the best crime stories, this one isn't about how the bad guys live, it's about how WE live. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 75
What Up In The Air lacks in surprises--apart from an elusive final scene--it compensates for by conveying the pleasures of living from landing to landing, and the terror of floating away. -
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Critic Score 67
The problem with U2 3D is that the U2 part is rarely as thrilling as the 3D part. -
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Critic Score 100
The numerous, extended revival scenes are amazing, with Duvall a dynamo of divine energy and devout dedication. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 100
The film succeeds by expertly melding the two stages of Tarantino's career. The rambling Tarantino of "Jackie Brown" and "Pulp Fiction" is evident in every lovingly crafted and delivered monologue, each leisurely paced scene and long take. The more action-oriented, fight-intensive Tarantino reappears in the viscerally exciting bursts of ultra-violence that punctuate the stretches of dialogue. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
The issue may be polarizing, but Vera Drake resonates with such seriousness and truth that it transcends the narrow limitations of polemic. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
On a deeper level, Haneke tries to reach for political allegory on the French-Algerian War, but the film functions best as a perfectly calibrated thriller, perhaps his most accessible to date. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 100
If nothing else, the film puts the lie to the notion that an abortion could ever be frivolous or lightly considered. On that point, everyone in Lake Of Fire agrees, whether they acknowledge the other side or not. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Anyone who enjoys overpowering cinematic sensation and watching people do a job will be predisposed to like Leviathan, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s avant-garde documentary about life aboard a commercial fishing vessel. Leviathan is an immersive experience, plunging viewers into darkness and chaos, amid a rush of vivid color and rapid movement.- Posted Feb 27, 2013
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
The film might have been more powerful, not to mention fair, if the nuns believed they were doing right; only on movie night, when McEwan sees herself in Ingrid Bergman in "The Bells Of St. Mary's," does Mullan grant her so much as the delusion of rectitude. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 67
Tyson can be brutal with himself, but Toback's fawning documentary lets him off easy. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Herzog also finds extraordinary beauty in what Dorrington is trying to accomplish: Like Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his boat, Dorrington wants to float around the natural world in a reverie, and when he finally does, he experiences a connection with Plage that's genuinely transcendent. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
Trouble The Water is infuriating in its depiction of helpless Americans getting left behind, and uplifting in the way it shows the Roberts putting their lives together, but it's also frustrating, because it lacks some focus. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 100
Burton brings his signature visual style, and a pair of stock players for his stars, into this film adaptation, but he wisely follows Sondheim's lead, letting the music and spirit of the original piece show the way. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Witherspoon's broad, obsessive comic performance is bound to get the most attention, but Broderick does the best work of his career, finding an affecting spot between the all-purpose defiance of Ferris Bueller and the put-upon foil of his recent work. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
What's most valuable about Side By Side is how comprehensive it is in documenting how the art form changed.- Posted Aug 29, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
O'Toole is frail and probably won't make many more movies. So Venus is pitched partly as a fond farewell to a beloved artist, and his whole beautiful generation. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
At times, Goldsworthy's philosophy edges into fuzzy New Age-isms, but with an ever-widening gulf separating humans from their environment, his work demonstrates the enlightening pleasures of reconnecting. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Copti and Shani show characters of different backgrounds interacting peacefully as individuals, then show how those characters subtly change when their affiliation with a group becomes an issue. And always the threat of violence looms. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
Worse still, all that introspection adds up to a disappointingly shallow accumulation of regrets and life lessons, none of them surprising. After the adrenaline rush, 127 Hours turns to vapor.- Posted Nov 4, 2010
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
The story starts at a low boil and quickly heats up, but the problem with Tell No One--a common problem with contemporary pulp literature--is that at some point, all the narrative's intriguing questions resolve with prosaic answers, delivered in long, convoluted speeches by people wielding guns. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
The result is one beautiful movie-and no less so for making a strong case that beauty is a lie.- Posted Dec 25, 2010
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 67
While the film will likely stick with viewers, it's ultimately a tossup what they'll remember most: the stunning buildup, or the massive letdown.- Posted Apr 21, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 100
There's a suffocating air to The Deep Blue Sea that makes it harder to access than other period romances of its kind, but Davies aligns himself wholly with Hester.- Posted Mar 21, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Handsomely produced and photographed, which alone distinguishes it from the guerrilla standards of its cut-rate peers, Enron succeeds most by simply making a complex situation graspable, a tall order when the perpetrators are masters of grand-scale deception. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
It could all be done much more efficiently, but any other approach would lose Tsai's unique mix of stone-faced comedy and dewy-eyed lyricism. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
The cheetah is the star in Duma, and no one directs animals more convincingly than Ballard, who knows better than anyone how to integrate patchwork nature shots into narrative action. Too bad the two-legged talking animals aren't as compelling this time out. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
Fiennes is the perfect John Le Carré hero: reserved and sophisticated, possessing the driest of wits, yet deceptively passionate in a way that people never really anticipate from him. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
It takes enormous skill to pull off such a high-wire act without diminishing the gravity of the situation, but Bong and his first-rate cast are up to the task. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Instead of hitting all the usual beats, Sugar just moseys in a mostly delightful way. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
There's a kind of dry tastefulness about The Wind That Shakes The Barley's historical recreations, even when Loach is staging rapes and executions. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
Most importantly, the director, script, and cast (rounded out by Judi Dench and well-placed imports Donald Sutherland and Jena Malone) all recognize that Austen is about much more than pretty costumes and knowing looks. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 60
Settles into pleasant monotony and repetition, without any narrative arc or purpose. Seasoned bird-watchers, however, may find that the sensory overload leaves them close to spiritual nirvana. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 80
It's an unflinchingly raw and honest look at a family splitting apart, and it seldom strikes an unconvincing or inauthentic note. Though it surveys rocky adolescent emotional terrain from the safe distance of adulthood, The Squid And The Whale still resonates with the sting of a fresh wound. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Though tagged as the director's bid for commercial success, School Of Rock is as philosophical in its own way as "Slacker" or "Waking Life." It was made by people who not only know the music well enough to create magnificent flowcharts around it, but also understand how a simple, soul-stirring rock song can seem revolutionary. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 75
It's well-acted and filled with striking compositions, but director Mira Nair has trouble with a different kind of balance. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Hunger may be criticized for being willfully arty, or for reducing a complex political situation to a broadly allegorical vision of martyrdom, but it's never less than visually stunning. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Yet in his despair, there's something Kudlow misses, and it's what makes Anvil! as moving as it is hilarious. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
Make no mistake: The Trip is a fine, funny movie. But there's no reason why it couldn't have been even finer and funnier.- Posted Jun 9, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
With shades of Carrie, Harry's magical powers and adolescent angst make a combustible fusion, taking on frightening, vengeful implications that Cuarón honors by refusing to airbrush the shadowy regions of fantasy. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
In a heartbreaking, scene-stealing performance, Wilkinson plays his bipolar character's manic delirium as a heightened form of awareness, a life-affirming source of moral clarity in a cloudy and corrupt world. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 80
Downfall's overstuffed melodrama juggles countless subplots and a small army of characters who manage to make an impression in spite of limited screen time. -
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Critic Score 83
It's a sweetly queasy film that suggests the spirit that sustains us, the demons we hide from the world, and the monsters that prey upon us in the dark might all be variations on the same beast. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 100
Though it's dominated by two people walking and talking, after a point it's as difficult to parse what's real and what's constructed in Certified Copy as it is in the home stretch of "Inception" (although "Before Sunset" and Roberto Rossellini's "Journey To Italy" provide closer models).- Posted Mar 10, 2011
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Critic Score 75
The love, jealousy, and stubborn pride of the relationship between Ashkenazi and Bar-Aba is the heart of the film, and that makes the deliberately uncertain note of the ending particularly frustrating.- Posted Mar 7, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 75
That's a lot for any film to unpack, and "The Last King Of Scotland" director Kevin MacDonald deserves a lot of credit simply for keeping the narrative coherent.- Posted Apr 18, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 100
Haneke’s latest is essentially an inquiry into the roots of a certain kind of evil. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
At its heart, Touching The Void contends with the physical and spiritual dilemma of facing the unknown and overcoming paralyzing fear in order to emerge reborn on the other side. But the film's appeal is even more fundamental than that: It's just one of those stories that catches the breath, no matter how often it's told. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 90
Driven by Dominique's personal magnetism, The Agronomist is a haunting, inspirational valentine to free speech and human resilience. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 100
It may be painful at times, but Rachel Getting Married sure is one heck of a party. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
Kaurismäki has a narrow vision, disarming and sweet, yet utterly predictable, and there's little distinction between the films he's directing today and the films he directed 30 years ago. They have the wrong kind of timelessness.- Posted Oct 19, 2011
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 75
Days Of Glory isn't subtle in its exploration of the racial politics of warfare, but its grim, cynical portrayal of young men considered worthy enough to die for a foreign country, yet unworthy of being treated as equals, proves bluntly powerful. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
Pawlikowski's off-balance compositions and affection for odd close-ups suggest the influence of Wong Kar-Wai, but the film's low-key observational spirit owes as much to Mike Leigh. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
For as long as director and co-writer Jacques Audiard focuses on the central relationship, his stylish film stays on steady footing. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 70
What it became is essentially one long free-fall from destitution to despair. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
In its dramatic shift from the real to the allegorical, the ending of Andrey Zvyagintsev's auspicious debut feature The Return is likely to leave many viewers scratching their heads. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 100
The film's capes and cowls suggest one genre, but it's a metropolis-sized tragedy at heart. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Mysteries Of Lisbon is an odd kind of epic: It's digressive and even trifling at times, and though a large cast wanders through the frame, the individual scenes tend to be focused on just two or three people, having winding conversations about political intrigue and affairs of the heart.- Posted Aug 3, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
If the role brings her more recognition and work, all the better, but Leo certainly isn't lobbying for it. She doesn't show off. She just does what she's always done: Reveals a character for who she is, nothing more, nothing less. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
A daring and immediate debut feature for Koshashvili, Late Marriage could lead two likeminded people to opposite conclusions, and that may be its greatest strength. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 70
The film is a bit of a slog, but in the end, it's a slog worth taking, thanks to a strange, moving ending that reduces the samurai era's codes of warfare, class, and honor down to two men meeting face to face. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
Though its heroine's mysterious seizures and blackouts are terrifying in the way they undermine her quest for self-determination, Requiem isn't a horror movie so much as a thwarted coming-of-age story, like "Carrie" without the bloody reckoning. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
The body means different things for each of them, and Ceylan's mesmerizing existential drama takes its time establishing the players and bringing their inner lives into focus. It's cinema as autopsy.- Posted Jan 4, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Like a lot of folk tales, Ten Canoes peters out into something more prosaic than profound, but it flows like water, and has a deceptively gentle pull that proves hard to escape. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
An impeccable minimalist drama that's tailored specifically to Devos' expressive capabilities, which say more than the sparse dialogue. -
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Critic Score 80
Both simplifies and brings into focus the already simple and effective thriller. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Chabrol handles the upended family dynamic beautifully until the final third, when a wildly implausible sequence of events lessens the suspense just as he should be turning the screws. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Abortion, incest, infidelity, revenge, and hockey collide at a fever pitch, juxtaposed with such frantic energy that they're pushed to the level of high comedy, funniest at its most dramatic. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 75
An engaging thriller done in the Cronenberg style is still worth anyone's time. And this one boasts memorable turns from Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Vincent Cassel. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Arijon's choice to film the survivors returning to the Andes with their children pays huge dividends, leading to an ending that puts the real meaning of their ordeal in moving terms. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Stunning you-are-there account of a grand swindle in the making. Were the coup not such an outrageous and chilling affront to democracy, their documentary would be a gut-busting comedy along the lines of Woody Allen's "Bananas." -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
Ed Harris and William Hurt deliver inspired turns as the villains. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 80
The film's heart and soul belong to O'Hara and to Levy, whose folk-music burnout has the shell-shocked expression of someone who's been to hell and never quite made it back. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
Meaney’s Flintstone-ian brute makes a terrific foil to Sheen’s prissy arrogance, but the other supporting players don’t make much of an impression. Ditto for this slice of history itself, though mileage may vary for soccer fans. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
It comes off as calculatedly irreverent at times, and its Wes Anderson-isms are too precious by half, but its sweetness is genuine and next-to-impossible to resist. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
The film sprawls across two decades and 127 minutes, but there isn't a memorable image in it. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 100
It's an emotionally claustrophobic drama, played with frayed nerves and raw emotions, and it serves as an unrelenting glimpse into relationship hell. It could easily have devolved into sweaty, pretentious melodrama or ersatz John Cassavetes if Cianfrance and his actors didn't maintain perfect control over the material.- Posted Dec 28, 2010
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
On a production of this magnitude, few actors have the presence to assert themselves above the cacophony, but Crowe carries the film with the rare combination of charisma and brute masculinity that has made him a star. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Wajda makes the murders look horrific and jangled, like something out of "Hostel," then ends Katyn with extended darkness and silence, allowing the audience to mourn for the death of a nation. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Denis brings it all together for a genuinely shocking finale, unexpected, yet in keeping with the film's consuming madness.- Posted Dec 14, 2010
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
McCarthy's characters make for good company even in their story's awkward patches, and in a film so unabashedly about the value of friendship, good company goes a long way. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 58
The film feels oddly slack and inert, livened only by testimony better suited to another forum. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Doing some of his best work in years, Ewan McGregor plays Mills' alter ego as a prickly, not altogether noble loner in his late 30s who initially doesn't take the news of his father's coming-out well.- Posted Jun 2, 2011
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
It’s a studied movie that gives itself over to bursts of intensity, and between them sometimes threatens to become as spellbound by its subjects as they become with each other. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
A remarkably nuanced, ever-evolving performance (María Onetto). -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
Through Sorrentino's lens, Andreotti's chief lieutenants are made to look like Reservoir Dogs, with Andreotti as a calm, tight-lipped, upper-crust analog to Lawrence Tierney. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
In that way, Jarvis is a lot like Arnold: an artist who knows the steps, but doesn't yet have all the moves. -
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Critic Score 83
The result is the most unexpectedly riotous comedy in years — one with more bite than usual.- Posted Feb 13, 2013
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Berger also shows a dark wit and a faith in old-fashioned melodrama that puts Blancanieves more in the camp of Pedro Almodóvar than Guy Maddin’s golden-age pastiches. (And aside from being silent and a period piece, the movie has almost nothing in common with "The Artist.")- Posted Mar 27, 2013
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Touring his father's magnificent structures, Nathaniel shows signs of coming around to his mother's point of view, and of realizing that Kahn's towering contributions to art and humanity perhaps exceed (if not altogether excuse) his shortcomings as a father, a husband, and a lover. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
Everything an action-comedy should be. It achieves through parody what most films in the genre can't accomplish straight. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
A clever, exceedingly wonky procedural about a undercover cop (Dragos Bucur) who quietly refuses to do what he's told. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
In an unusually subtle performance by a child actor, Kacey Mottet Klein stars as a crafty ragamuffin.- Posted Oct 3, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 91
Tarantino simply isn't a good enough performer for his presence to be anything but a distraction in a rip-roaring crowd-pleaser this consistently great.- Posted Dec 26, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 91
Skyfall doesn't forget it has to be an exciting spy film above all, but from its first scene, it ratchets up the drama in ways that have little to do with action.- Posted Nov 7, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
Thoroughly realized characters and relationships and Solondz's masterful ability to switch the tone from comic to tragic within the same scene help make Happiness a better film than it might have been otherwise. Much better, in fact. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
Now an invaluable time capsule, the film has to transcend its own conceptual messiness. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 70
That makes it hard to watch "Billy Elliot" director Stephen Daldry's adaptation without thinking of the one Almodóvar might have made -- which surely would have been warmer, less self-consciously tony, and less relentlessly arid than the one that did get made. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
So polished that it might pass for a scripted narrative feature, but that's not a bad thing. They found a remarkable spokesman in Bolivian teenager Basilio Vargas, and while his cogent, organized descriptions of his life, beliefs, history, and ambitions sometimes seem too calculated, at least they're calculated to communicate efficiently and appealingly. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Describing the early stages of their sexual attraction, Bachardy sums up the whole outrageously fortunate arc of his life. "It was exactly what the boy wanted," Bachardy says. "And he flourished." -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Mostly though, the movie feeds off Rourke, who plays a genuinely decent guy who never lets his dawning self-awareness interfere with his responsibility to give the fans a show. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
A hypnotic 80-minute drift through nocturnal New Orleans that seeks more to pick up on bits of culture and atmosphere than to tell any stories. They blow up the conventions of documentary realism to capture the city's soul, a much more abstract, elusive undertaking.- Posted Dec 5, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Everything here is pitched relentlessly toward uplift, but at least that uplift is genuine, the product of one visionary's indomitable will and a musical universe he brought into existence through vision, dedication, and plenty of stubborn hard work.- Posted Sep 28, 2011
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Critic Score 100
Writer/director Neil LaBute has taken the gender-issues film into uncharted, almost inhuman territory with this malevolently perfect exploration of male cruelty. -
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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
Tasha Robinson 75
The connections and the meaning aren't immediately apparent, and viewers are given plenty of time to find their own patterns and invent their own associations. Then, in its final half-hour, it pulls all the threads together, and a breathtaking bigger picture finally comes into focus.- Posted Dec 12, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 70
Geller and Goldfine have assembled a vital historical document, covering a cultural era now mostly lost, corrupted imperceptibly but permanently when fledgling ballerinas started dreaming about Broadway and Hollywood instead of Swan Lake. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 80
Whenever it hits its stride, it's a well-acted, vividly executed, full-speed-ahead special-effects extravaganza that puts as much bang as possible into every remaining scene. -
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Critic Score 75
The film portrays the dizzying divide between war and recovery eloquently enough that those choices seem like intrusions instead of connections, a misstep in what's otherwise a devastating profile of a soldier.- Posted Feb 13, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
Though the film is too slick and heavy-handed in its pro-integration sloganeering, and it's burdened by Travolta's ill-conceived star turn, its infectious high spirits and catchy tunes still pack one hell of a sugar rush. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
A truly scary horror film, something akin to a lost art these days. -
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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
Noel Murray 75
In its overt attempts to balance high-spirited spy adventure with more realistic acting and actio--conveying the realities of government-sponsored murde--Casino Royale is a step in the right direction for the Bond franchise. But it's a small, tentative step. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 67
An unassuming wisp of a movie, Midnight In Paris finds Woody Allen penning a love letter to the City Of Lights, albeit one whose sentiments could easily fit on a postcard.- Posted May 19, 2011
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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 80
The family's few lines of dialogue are so integral to advancing the story that they may well have been scripted, but it's not that important whether The Story Of The Weeping Camel is more fiction than objective ethnography. If anything, the contrast between what's real and what may have been faked only adds to the tension between the natural world and encroaching modernism. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
Jeff Malmberg's documentary Marwencol is at its best when it focuses on Hogancamp's little world, and lets the artist walk the viewer through his town's increasingly dense mythology. -
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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
Noel Murray 50
The World's dull weave of frustrated romances and worker exploitation is far too obvious, and Jia can only relieve the tedium so many times. -
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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 80
In accounting for Almodóvar's identity as an artist and a man, Bad Education comes together like a bold and far-reaching summation of his career to date. -
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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 75
A sort of distracted, freewheeling form of inquiry and observation drives Encounters At The End Of The World, a loosely constructed documentary that seems to have been made on a whim. -
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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
Noel Murray 80
The value of Shake Hands With The Devil is in Dallaire's detailed recollections of what he observed: the anatomy of a mass murder. -
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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
Noel Murray 80
The documentary was shot on film, and Moormann's snappy editing and subtly moving camera match the energy of the jump-blues and roots-rock that Dowd loved. -
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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 60
The drama loses shape before it really develops, but the sense of place--all wood paneling and animal knick-knacks--and the memorable performances keep it worth watching. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
Concerns feelings that can't be expressed, relationships that can't flower, and connections that are impossible to bridge. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
"I knew the children here had something to say," Goldberg says in voiceover early in the film. That statement may sound slightly maudlin, but the film that follows is anything but. -
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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
Scott Tobias 75
A sampler of novella-length films set in three different time periods and starring the same two actors, Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times resembles one of those delicate trios served at fine restaurants, each a fresh interpretation of a common ingredient. -
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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
Tasha Robinson 75
Heiskanen plays her layers beautifully, alternately revealing a talented artist stymied by poverty and marital problems, and a woman fiercely devoted to family first. -
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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
Nathan Rabin 70
Thankfully, it boasts a story that doesn't require a surplus of style to be compelling. -
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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
Noel Murray 80
The movie winds its way artfully from a straight animal study to something more profound. It's hard to shake the film's astonishing final thoughts and shots, as Bittner nervously contemplates parrot eggs while hawks circle overhead. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
Bielinsky's debut is a fine con picture, but at its best, it achieves even more, presenting the profession as a lifestyle with almost existential ramifications. -
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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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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
Can't help but be deeply engrossing, as it taps into a highly charged atmosphere that one parent dubs "a different form of child abuse." -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
Where Noyce could easily have given Branagh a mustache and tilted the film toward old-fashioned melodrama, he leans on tactics that are less obvious and more effective. -
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Critic Score 80
While the cinematography is gorgeous and the script extremely sharp, Central Station owes much of its strength to its two mismatched leads. -
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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
Noel Murray 70
Has its share of look-at-these-cute-old-commies laughs… But Gabbert mostly avoids making her subjects into hobbling punch lines, or even turning them into one-dimensional heroes. -
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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
Tasha Robinson 80
Miyazaki's animated adaptation of Jones' book is a charming and thoroughly absorbing treat. -
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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
Nathan Rabin 80
It's a film hopelessly in thrall to the thrill of big-wave surfing, and for all its rambling shapelessness, it conveys that excitement in an infectious, conspiratorial manner. -
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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
Tasha Robinson 50
This might be pleasant to watch, in a floaty '70s-movie kind of way, if not for the film's groaning 168-minute length and abrupt thudder of an ending. -
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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
Scott Tobias 70
Kudlácek rounds up a who's-who of experimental filmmakers, Haitian artists, dance choreographers, archivists, and programmers, all of whom reflect intelligently (though dryly) on Deren's importance in underground cinema. -
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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
Noel Murray 75
Has about a dozen layers of in-joke, and up to the eighth or ninth layer, they mostly work. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 70
Where "Quiz Show" elevated its story to the level of Shakespearean tragedy, Clooney's film is too lightweight to reach such tragic heights. In part, it's too short--at 90 minutes, including musical interludes and lengthy monologues taken whole-cloth from the historical record, Good Night breezes by effortlessly when it really needs time and space to build up to appropriately epic dimensions. -
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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
Noel Murray 75
On its own merits, though, West Of Memphis is a well-assembled, well-argued documentary that shows how America's advocacy model of trial law can lead to government representatives spinning stories they know are probably untrue, then using their authority to stand strong against any alternate theory, no matter how many millions of people believe it.- Posted Dec 26, 2012
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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. -
