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
Keith Phipps 10
Tough to respect a documentary that doesn't play fair. Anyone interested in the subject would be better off spending Life And Debt's torturous 80-minute running time with a good article on the topic. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 40
Perhaps the worst thing that could be said about Better Luck Tomorrow is that, on a slow night, it's easy to imagine these delinquents wanting to rent a film just like it. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 70
For neophyte cinephiles, A Decade Under The Influence should serve as a lively primer on a seminal film era, but its reverent tone is antithetical to the rule-breaking spirit it celebrates. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 70
In this long, slow fall from grace, unceremonious nudity and half-hearted sex begin to look like a mockery of a paradise lost. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 40
Forster's movie doesn't want to grow up, but it doesn't seem to understand childhood, either. For a film about the life-affirming power of imagination, Finding Neverland displays precious little of its own. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
In truth, Haywire is simply a delivery system for ass-kickings, calibrated to the specific talents of Gina Carano, a former mixed-martial-arts star and American Gladiator whose fists (and feet) of fury can rattle skulls and cave in chests.- Posted Jan 18, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
Jellyfish is the kind of film that will ring true for some viewers, while striking others as too slight and precious. -
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Reviewed by
Sam Adams 83
Yaron Zilberman's first feature has a solid structure, but as with a piece of music, the way it's played makes all the difference. His principal actors aren't great at faking their instrumental prowess, but they're perfectly in tune with each other, playing artists who've postponed life's decisions in the name of pursuing their craft.- Posted Oct 31, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
Mostly it's just a good yarn, with attractive picture-postcard vistas and an agreeable strain of light humor. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
For all its aloof indirectness, The Flower Of Evil wants little more than to sling another arrow at the bourgeoisie, something Chabrol has done with greater flair on many other occasions. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
It's important for the film to establish the concentration camp as a hell on earth from the start, but Schlöndorff has more in mind than creating another reminder of the inhumanity of fascism. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 42
The sequel remains visually beautiful and strikingly designed, but otherwise, it's a surprise in all the wrong ways.- Posted May 26, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
The Ides Of March goes down easily, with a sophisticated bustle and a strong third act twist to test the hero's mettle. But it all feels a bit inconsequential - perhaps by design.- Posted Sep 10, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
When the goal is simply to be as faithful as possible to the material - as if a movie were a marriage, and a rights contract the vow - the best result is a skillful abridgment, one that hits all the important marks without losing anything egregious. And as abridgments go, they don't get much more skillful than this one.- Posted Mar 21, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
The film feels like an earnest retread over old territory, albeit one that intermittently comes to life thanks to an amazing cast, expressive cinematography by French master Eric Gautier (Irma Vep), and Montiel's obviously heartfelt sentiments. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 50
Well-intentioned and exceedingly nice, Watermarks aspires to warm the soul, but succeeds only in numbing the mind. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 75
Skips right past depressing on its way to apocalyptic. -
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Critic Score 91
The film is also an earnest, big-hearted ode to friends as support and salvation, and to the talismanic quality a favorite song, treasured hang-out, or shared tradition can take on for a teenager.- Posted Sep 19, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
Even without the fine psychological shading, Garcia's story is a doozy.- Posted Nov 16, 2011
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Reviewed by
Ben Kenigsberg 42
The relentless contrast of banality with horror seems to be Wheatley’s signature move, and like his "Kill List" (2011), Sightseers can claim a sizable fan base, especially in its native U.K. But the humor here, ironically, doesn’t travel well.- Posted May 8, 2013
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 67
The emotions of soul music are irresistibly universal. The same is true of soul-music clichés. Based on a true story, The Sapphires tells the tale of four ambitious young Aboriginal girls from Australia who come of age performing before American serviceman in 1968 Vietnam. And yet the film is afflicted by a curious lack of cultural specificity.- Posted Mar 20, 2013
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 60
Garden State coasts on this considerable charm until it hits a brick wall in its final segments. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
It's a film where the feelings and experiences of young people are highly specific in detail, yet fundamentally universal and timeless.- Posted Jul 21, 2011
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 70
With dialogue as spare as its harsh landscapes, the film is so tonally dry that it makes Aki Kaurismäki look like the Farrelly brothers--it begins at a snail's pace before speeding up to a turtle's drowsy crawl. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
Brothers isn't nearly as haunting and singular as "Last Days," because the faux-documentary format too closely mirrors the Behind The Music trajectory of a thousand other rock-band flameouts. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 75
Though it grows silly and sentimental, Funeral scores enough big laughs to make its shortcomings eminently forgivable. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 90
A Trojan horse of a teen comedy that balanced lowbrow gags with subtle humor, genuine insight—Crowe spent a year undercover as a high-school student—and pathos. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
Working from Chantal Thomas' novel, Jacquot doesn't entirely scrape the gloss off this love triangle, which plays neither as a florid bodice-ripper nor as emotionally complex as it might have been. It stays on the surface, but at least that surface is gorgeous.- Posted Jul 11, 2012
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Critic Score 67
Larger Than Life provides a look back at a time of show business and stardom that no longer exists.- Posted Jan 18, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
Amid all this metafictional hoopla lies the real heart of the movie, a tentative romance between Ferrell and a tax-withholding baker played with adorable prickliness by Maggie Gyllenhaal. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 67
It's a postcard-lovely movie that, in spite of its best intentions, ends up feeling a little touristy. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
Even though I'm not sure I understand what Stillman was going for minute-to-minute, I was swept away by how original Damsels is, and how funny.- Posted Apr 1, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 67
It's a tender, but sometimes untended, portrait of the artist as a young man-and occasionally as a young asshole-that's handsome, dutiful, and finally, a little dull. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 60
Director Jon Favreau, who dipped profitably into family entertainment with 2003's "Elf," effectively recreates the illustrative universe of a good children's book, but he's stuck with a story that noisily grinds its gears. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
The men are fuzzily defined and the film feels incomplete. The devil may be in the details, but for the first time, Anderson's obsession with them has caused him to lose sight of the bigger picture. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 67
The film, lacking narration or much explanation of the character, is an outsider's version rather than his own. It's intriguing, but almost always frustrating.- Posted Jan 13, 2011
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 50
It all feels formal and unreal, the product of high ritual. But it also feels like one of the few rituals they're playing out entirely for themselves rather than for the sake of Rønde's neatly packaged modern fairy tale. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
Over The Hedge stands out as genuinely witty and even a little barbed. Its chipper, sneering outsider's look at suburban sprawl and conformity isn't going to change the world, but it's still self-aware enough to be reasonably smart. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 58
By recounting Abbas' ordeal as an endless inarticulate monologue, The Prisoner reduces it to a dull anecdote--timely and relevant, perhaps, but an anecdote all the same. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 60
Aided by raw, committed performances from her two leads, Goldbacher makes them tough company for themselves and anyone else around them, on or off the screen. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 50
A voyeuristic look at voyeurs, Cinemania never seems sure whether it's a comedy or a tragedy. Instead, the film just seems intent on depicting its subjects as lovable kooks, a reductive portrayal that does little to acknowledge the desperation and loneliness that permeates every frame. -
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Critic Score 75
Light as a bubble, Hipsters suggests that age may catch up with everyone, but that there will always be people fighting against the current of conformity, even if they only express it via how they wear their hair.- Posted Feb 22, 2012
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Critic Score 80
It all adds up to a compelling, deftly executed film that thoughtfully examines the actions and motivations that draw people together, directing their uneasy relationships. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 60
Mostly though, The Goebbels Experiment proves that historical figures have the worst perspective on themselves. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 75
Carlos Cuaron's otherwise terrific new comedy Rudo Y Cursi barely survives its third-act "Goodfellas" descent into seedy coke-and-crime drama. -
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- Posted Dec 1, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
The problem with Kawasaki's Rose is that the theme is far more compelling than the movie.- Posted Nov 25, 2010
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 58
At best, it angrily demands to be rechristened This Is It! Too often, however, an incredulous This Is It? seems more apt. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
Neither pro- nor anti-war; it’s a somber study of perpetually unsettled lives. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 75
It's all so uneasily compelling and quietly moving, it might be too much to ask her to sustain it through the conclusion.- Posted Dec 22, 2010
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Critic Score 80
The film offers plenty of powerful impressionism to make up for its lack of a coherent statement. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Smith delights in these offbeat personalities and their jerry-rigged accoutrements, but the real joy in the film comes from the happy interaction between the subjects and their creations. -
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Critic Score 83
Most people wouldn't expect a film that's inherently about death (and, to a lesser extent, the Holocaust) to be uplifting, but the gentle, tender documentary In Heaven, Underground ultimately achieves it.- Posted Nov 16, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
A little too neat, and self-consciously vague at the end. But it's fascinating to observe and try to interpret François' mysterious smile as she eyes her boss. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
Once again, Dumont cycles through the pet themes of films like "L'Humanité" and "Twentynine Palms," but their repetition is beginning to seem like shtick. -
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Reviewed by
Sam Adams 83
It’s hard to imagine a more potent symbol of good intentions gone to seed than the decrepit Buenos Aires building that gives White Elephant its title.- Posted Mar 27, 2013
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 91
The Future's main characters are, undeniably, dopes. But July and Linklater turn their ineptitude into a funny running joke, which becomes surprisingly affecting in the second half.- Posted Jul 28, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 58
The historical backdrop is fascinating and an important part of this story, but there’s a pervasive sense that director Philipp Stölzl and his screenwriters soft-pedal it as much as possible in order to exalt their heroes. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Workingman's Death's primary pleasures are aesthetic. Glawogger is an extraordinarily elegant filmmaker with a photographer's eye for striking compositions. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
Once In A Lifetime is less a proper documentary than an extended VH1 Behind The Music episode, but there's only a little bit wrong with that. -
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Reviewed by
Sam Adams 67
The film makes a convincing argument that, in spite of some recent setbacks, movements for democratic change are alive and well, but it glosses over the problems that arise once the people have to implement the power they've seized.- Posted Oct 10, 2012
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 75
The setup is rote, almost insulting, but it's smarter than it looks: Once the pieces are in place, Kazan's script reveals a deeper game.- Posted Jul 25, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
The kids are great, but when they graduate from Rock School, will the valedictorian be the next Jimmy Page, or the technically proficient lead guitarist of a Led Zeppelin cover band? -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Like a proper action sequel, it's bigger, louder, and sillier than its predecessors, but it's more streamlined, too, smartly dumping the tired underground racing angle in favor of a crisp, hugely satisfying "Ocean's Eleven"-style heist movie.- Posted Apr 28, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
Ozon's disappointing new film Time To Leave is his "The Flower Of My Secret," a Douglas Sirk-inspired weepie about a terminal cancer victim making amends, but it's a little too sentimental and square even by his recent standards. -
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- Posted Mar 3, 2011
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 67
Though The Eclipse travels a sleepy route to a shrug of anticlimax, it’s refreshing to see a film acknowledge that life and love don’t end at 50, even in the outsized shadow of a soulmate’s death. -
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Critic Score 75
While the sum of Kill List comes across as less than its parts, it offers some strikingly nightmarish imagery and a feel that's reminiscent of an earlier, grittier era, yet at times sharply contemporary.- Posted Feb 1, 2012
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 60
Doesn't pretend to be objective, and the film derives much of its power from the way it invites audiences to look at the rapper's life and times through his own soulful, animated eyes. It doesn't always succeed, and there are times when it feels terribly strained. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 60
For people who are Minutemen fans and movie buffs, We Jam Econo is kind of a mixed blessing. Watt and Hurley tell the Minutemen story well, but Irwin relies too much on corroborating interviews from punk vets like Flea and Ian MacKaye, who talk about how great the band was without offering much fresh insight. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 50
Loach becomes his own pale imitator with Looking For Eric, a wispy little comedy that uses fantasy to gloss over even the darkest and most intractable problems. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Bones Brigade is surprisingly emotional and inspirational too, as these now-grown men look back on the days when they were competitive, easily bruised kids, drawn to Peralta's calming, avuncular presence.- Posted Nov 2, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 42
The politics of Stone's 9/11 movie lean right, if they lean any way at all. Mostly, the film sits up straight and just wants to be loved by all. There are more controversial Hallmark cards. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 60
The Take tells a compelling story of courageous, industrious people, but it begs for a second act. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 50
More disappointingly, the entire cast seems less committed than they were the first time out. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 67
It's a heartbreaking tale, a sliver of a tragic history still unfolding, but one that Braun largely leaves others to document. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 70
It's an emotionally chilly movie with a blank, inexpressive protagonist, but it gains cumulative force en route to a viscerally moving climax. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 58
The shooting of the movie-within-a-movie offers the brightest moments in Son Of Rambow, a testament to the innocence of the boys' creative impulse and the sheer unlikely pleasure of their friendship. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 50
Only when it wraps up all its loose ends with a feel-good sitcom conclusion does it finally reveal itself: It's an interesting failure rendered all the more disappointing for veering so close to success. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 70
In spite of clunky effects and often extraordinarily ugly video footage, Game Over works very well just as a sports doc. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
Baratz’s apparent willingness to accept everything at face value papers over some of the more troubling aspects of Tenzin’s mission, but Unmistaken Child allows the mysteries of the process to be preserved without judgment. -
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Critic Score 50
Displays, in all its discomfort and occasional fruitfulness, the trouble inherent in aesthetics by committee. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 70
T3, while far from a classic, is an overachieving, mercenary sequel that's short on thrills, but surprisingly long on laughs and surprises. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 60
The writer-director's overthinking on the matter is part of what's wrong with her debut film, which is sensitively shot, deeply felt, and dry as dirt. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 60
It's all too easy to dismiss the characters' troubles as entirely of their own making. But the cast's fearless, evocative performances help a great deal. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 50
Two movies in one. That’s one more movie than it needs to be. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
Few directors are as "extreme" as Miike, but ironically, his entry in Three... Extremes is the least explicit; its suggestive tale of envy and guilt resembles Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" more than Miike's usual six-per-year gorefests. -
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Critic Score 58
The movie too often equates drama with volume, and agita with authenticity. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 70
Mostly, it's just a pleasure to watch Keaton and Nicholson learning new steps in an old dance, stumbling to grab at happiness before it's too late. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 58
The paltry amount of live performances is a crime. In some ways, Smith singing "Gloria" live would've been all the context anyone would ever need. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
The thinking behind Grey's casting, with its obvious sex-industry connections, lends the film a degree of verisimilitude, but it really pays off in a cameo by film critic Glenn Kenny, who brings a hilariously sleazy theatricality to the role of an "escort critic" who expects graft for his reviews. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 58
As in the more successful "Land Of The Dead," Romero makes an admirable attempt to update his beloved franchise for contemporary audiences. But this time out, his heavy-handed intellectual concerns get in the way of a perfectly good fright flick. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 67
In its superior first half, Yossi sustains a mood of wistful longing and inexorable loneliness as its directionless protagonist lumbers through a grey, joyless existence, but the film threatens to turn into a gay Israeli version of "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" once Knoller finds his impossibly gorgeous, persistent dream man.- Posted Jan 24, 2013
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
It's only human to feel gripped, enraged, and even moved by the events depicted in Innocent Voices, a true account of one boy's experience in the crossfire of El Salvador's long, bloody civil war. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 91
Afterschool wears its many influences on its sleeve, but it’s very much a movie of the moment. The passing of time and the evolution of technology may give it an expiration date, but more likely, Campos’ film stands to be an essential document of what it was like to be a young person in the late ’00s. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 70
It may boil down to little more than a minor variation on Four Weddings' formula, but it's an interesting and entertaining one. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 40
Never becomes more than a just-acceptable kiddie time-filler. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
Caetano's blunt, deterministic ending underlines the point too neatly, but in dignifying an outcast whose life is treated as anonymous and disposable, he puts a human face on a national tragedy. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 50
Kinnear's mesmerizing performance comes close to redeeming Auto Focus, suggesting depths the film never gets around to exposing, but Schrader's alternately flat and histrionic storytelling sends the film hurtling beyond redemption. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
While most literary adaptations look flat and pretty, the fine performances here set Emma apart. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
The scenes between Gelber and Blair are the strongest in Dark Horse, because they form a bond not out of shared interests or passion, but a weary kind of compromise.- Posted Jun 6, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
It's a crude, angry battering ram of a film, much more concerned with counter-messaging than aesthetics, but it gets the job done.- Posted May 30, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 10
It's... directed by Andy Tennant ("It Takes Two") with all the flair of an episode of "7th Heaven", making it that much more worth avoiding. -
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Reviewed by
Mike D'Angelo 75
The cast is immensely appealing, the heist is ingenious, and the collision of hardscrabble working-class kids and Sideways-style alcohol snobs generates steady laughs, though somewhat predictable ones.- Posted Apr 10, 2013
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 75
While Seven Psychopaths sometimes hits the philosophical shallows, its pleasures still run deep.- Posted Oct 10, 2012
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Critic Score 75
The film is as much music-video collection as crime drama: The interludes in which the songs swell into voluptuous prominence balance out a tale of crime and redemption so spare, it's almost abstract.- Posted Jun 30, 2011
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 40
At times, Innocence feels like a clip show of Oshii projects past. But the effect proves more dulling than warmly familiar. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 50
Working with non-professional actors, Seidl emphasizes their ordinariness to the point of cartoonish ridicule, putting them in scenarios either banal, perverse, or both at the same time. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 60
Unfortunately, Russell paces the film as if trying to demonstrate what eternity feels like. When the plot begs to move forward, the film keeps lingering over friendly fawns and long walks through the forest. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
It's a winning comedy, though some of Pecker's jokes inspire silence and some scenes are awkwardly staged. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 80
Steamboy adds a touch of innocent wonder to the formula through Ray's eyes, resulting in Otomo's most human film to date, but humanity rarely seems to be among Otomo's priorities. His films seem far more concerned with the spectacle he manages like no one else in animation. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 75
Boogie Man doesn't delve too deep into its subject's private life, beyond some cheap psychology positing his brother's horrible early death as the root of his winner-takes-all philosophy. But then, Atwater's work was his life. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
The Informant! chooses to earn its exclamation point with giggles as well as shock, and the results are thoroughly entertaining. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 75
As befits a heartfelt ode to working-class values, Diggers puts in lots of hard, honest work that finally pays off in a wholly predictable yet unexpectedly moving conclusion. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
The Woman With The 5 Elephants isn't flawless; as articulate and fascinating as Geier could be, she was also dry at times. But Jendreyko cleverly parcels out her personal history, and he isn't afraid to break up the talkiness with long silences and luminous images.- Posted Jul 21, 2011
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 70
Like the rest of the film, Beckham's climax is surprisingly satisfying, however, in large part because director Gurinder Chadha films the competing big game and big fat Indian wedding of Nagra's sister with equivalently bursting levels of color, panache, and verve. -
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Critic Score 90
The acting, mostly by a bunch of unknowns, is equally fresh and funny, and Ritchie keeps the movie moving faster than you can say, "bludgeoned to death by a 15-inch black rubber dildo." -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
This sort of film lives or dies by its promise of bullet-dodging, stylishly clad women throwing themselves into impossible feats of daring, and when the time comes for action, Yuen displays a rare gift. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 70
As a morality play, it's a one-sided contest, because the question of whether power corrupts is never a question at all. As a queasily thrilling tour of a dirty little corner of the world, however, Trapero's film offers a memorable ride. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 67
For all its surface dazzle, The Prestige shares with this year's earlier "The Illusionist" a certain core hollowness. Maybe that's a natural consequence of even the best magic shows: You can't help but feel duped. -
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Critic Score 75
King Kelly is a broad indictment of the emptier side of self-documentation and a more nuanced one of the Internet as a source of affirmation.- Posted Nov 28, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
Any 15-minute stretch of Double Take proves as enlightening as any other--more like a museum installation than a movie. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 50
That seems to be one of the main theses of Unforgivable: that nothing is as dramatic as it appears, and presuming otherwise means risking unnecessary trouble and pain.- Posted Jun 27, 2012
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 75
The results are scattershot but entertaining, and occasionally eye-opening.- Posted Apr 21, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
While Family Law is well-shot, it's not spectacularly well-shot, or involving in any conventional cinematic way. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 75
As an acting showcase that builds to some unexpectedly moving moments, Elegy has much to recommend it. Had Coixet found better ways to connect those moments, she might have REALLY had something to rival what Roth does on the page. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 75
It’s a brisk, bright, winning effort, even though it already looks sadly out of touch with the times. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
In digging deeper into the stories behind the junk--many of which involve the drug problems, legal problems, custody battles, cycles of abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorders of Mosher’s own family--October Country veers awfully close to exploitation. -
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Reviewed by
Sam Adams 83
If anyone's likely to have trouble with Carancho, it's fans of Trapero's previous films, who won't be able to help noticing the sizeable step he's taken toward conventionality.- Posted Feb 10, 2011
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 75
Project provides an unmistakably one-sided view of rap as God's gift to the poor, angry, black, and young, but given the beating rap has taken in the press lately (please Oprah, don't hurt 'em!), the film's pro-rap cheerleading couldn't be more timely or necessary. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
Theirs is a well-worn story that may not need to be told, but they do tell it well. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 75
The film's merry, enthusiastic tone--set largely by Robert De Niro, playing a giddy transvestite sky-pirate to the hilt--is hard to beat. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
A superb portrait of a band and an industry in flux. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 60
Unlike so many "Seven" followers, it makes its missteps memorably, and offers a variety of stylistic rewards by way of compensation. -
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Critic Score 50
The trouble is that while Chaiken's community is nuanced, it's not exactly a warm, inviting place to spend time. It's dingy and dismal, and though not exactly humorless, Margarita Happy Hour misses many chances to be funny, at times when a laugh or two would open the picture up. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
When the crazy comes, it's pretty good crazy. Ferrell is in full-on brazen redneck mode, doing a variation on his "Saturday Night Live" George W. Bush impression. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
Between their bickering, Grønkjær's offscreen prompting, and the sappy, ubiquitous soundtrack, The Monastery is like the opposite of "Into Great Silence." -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 75
For the most part, it manages to balance laughs, genuinely rousing moments, and a fully packed agenda into something fleet enough to keep running under the weight of its rich ambitions.- Posted Jul 21, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
In Curran's hands, what might have seemed like a "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" redux gets cut into avant-garde pieces, with experimental inserts, sound effects, and wrinkles in time that add to an uneasy mood. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Though it's compelling enough as soap opera, American Teen digs deeply into why kids grudgingly accept the roles they've been given and the brutal consequences that come with straying outside the lines. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Margot has a kitchen-sink realism that's genuinely unsettling, like a John Cassavetes movie populated by the hyper-articulate. If nothing else, Baumbach deserves credit for refusing to cozy up to the audience. -
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Reviewed by
Sam Adams 83
While it's fascinating to observe the workings of the mammoth apparatus grafted onto an intensely personal decision, the movie's heart is the moments that take place in private (meaning, in this case, in front of only one camera).- Posted May 30, 2012
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Reviewed by
Mike D'Angelo 58
Ace cinematographer Mark Ping Bing Lee (In The Mood For Love) does a superb job of creating an Impressionist look, especially when shooting exteriors, but the film’s loveliness is skin-deep.- Posted Mar 27, 2013
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 58
Vaughn opts for comic-book bigness—big fights, big laugh lines, big explosions—but without a Spider-Man or Batman at the front of the action, Kick-Ass’s heroes and villains look smaller-than-life in a larger-than-life world. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
The sense of enervation that creeps into the movie's second half is bothersome mainly because The Snowtown Murders is often brilliant in its depiction of the mundanity of evil.- Posted Feb 29, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 50
Huffman intermittently rescues Transamerica from bathos with her brusque wit, swatting away the victimization elements that figure into most films about transsexuals. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 20
Despite her healthy fan base, Notorious C.H.O. looks like the dead-end to a limited repertoire. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Most fan-docs are fairly remedial, but Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt And The Magnetic Fields is more sophisticated than the norm, in keeping with its subject.- Posted Oct 28, 2010
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
Because Paris, Je T'Aime's episodes are so short, the duds don't stick around long enough to grate much. But the good ones also don't get to explore their assigned Parisian spaces as much as they could. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 42
For all its florid pretensions and epic length, the film's overwrought take on its subject's not-so-rosy life leaves behind no lasting insight. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 91
It's an ambitious premise and a risky approach, but Cahill and his cast execute it beautifully.- Posted Jul 21, 2011
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Critic Score 67
There's something admirable to this austerity and the way it insists viewers start by engaging with Kiefer's large-scale constructions, wordless explorations of which bookend the film.- Posted Aug 10, 2011
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Critic Score 67
That dedicated wryness makes the endless twists and betrayals easier to process-these are awful people, but it's sure a lot of fun to watch them fight it out.- Posted Feb 29, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
He's Premium Rush's villain, but Shannon doesn't attempt anything like the austere derangement of a Hans Gruber type, even though he specializes in playing terrifying nutjobs. Instead, he's a buffoon of the first order, and his hapless tomfoolery sets the tone for a light, fast, frequently hilarious 90 minutes.- Posted Aug 22, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
It accumulates weight as it goes along, ultimately becoming as thoughtful and emotionally involving as it is beautiful to behold. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
Played with black humor that never gets in the way of the horror, Natali’s film cleverly exploits Dren’s uncanny semi-humanity. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 70
Ice Cube serves as the film's solid moral center, with a dizzying variety of supporting characters in his orbit. A refreshingly class-conscious comedy-drama that refuses to talk down to its audience, Barbershop tackles serious issues. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
The rare sequel that magnifies the scope of the original without diminishing the fun. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 60
It's all innocuous, forgettable fun, but it's firmly aimed at those who find underwear endlessly funny. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 75
Well-acted and artfully (though conventionally) made, The Way Back tells a compelling story, regardless of whether it's based on truth or a fabrication.- Posted Jan 20, 2011
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 70
Narrows as it goes, and Browne doesn't do enough with the idea of a corporate takeover of a grassroots recreational activity, but Weber's antics and his colleagues' reactions make for fine drama all on their own. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 60
By the film's halfway point, the subplots have all started to head in the most obvious directions imaginable, which is too bad, since they all have real potential. Ferrera's story of spending the summer as an out-of-place ethnic element in the milk-white suburbs stays interesting the longest, in large part thanks to her performance. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 83
Yes, it's fundamentally business as usual, but it's the best kind of business as usual, and it finds everyone working in top form. Abrams imports and enlarges "Alias'" smooth, stylish, yet remarkably visceral approach to action, and the actors pack a satisfying amount of drama into the moments between action scenes. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 58
As with all of Philibert's work, Nénette is impeccably composed and admirably disciplined, but his patient observation can't unlock the mysteries of an animal that's grown more introspective and likely less expressive over time.- Posted Dec 22, 2010
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Reviewed by
Sam Adams 58
At least Black Butterflies gets the tortured-soul part right.- Posted Feb 29, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 50
Perhaps the film will connect with those attuned to the Quays' allusive wavelength, much as a dog responds to a whistle. Others won't hear a thing. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
Davis and company do get at the odd mix of middle-class lifestyle and cheerful doom-saying that defines the mainstream apocalypticons. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 67
Throughout its first two acts, Bandslam is charming, sweet, and funny enough to merit inclusion in the upper echelon of teen comedies. Then comes a third act weighed down with arbitrary romantic conflicts, leaden melodrama, and a tiresome subplot. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
A powerful documentary about a squad of Army grunts patrolling the Iraqi city of Fallujah in late 2004. -
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Reviewed by
Mike D'Angelo 67
What comes across most strongly is the genuine, overpowering love these two women have for each other, even when they’re in direct competition.- Posted May 8, 2013
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Critic Score 75
Though the film reaches a seemingly artificial either/or scenario with regard to the competitive puzzling, its conclusion is pleasing and not at all pat, a portrait of a woman who's learned she deserves to keep some things for herself.- Posted May 26, 2011
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
Some of the points seem too easy, some of the revelations practically announce themselves in advance, and there's never any sense of excitement or suspense as to where the whole thing is heading. But it still works, most of the time. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 70
The film lacks the discipline to stay on point all the time, but Fey and director Mark S. Waters (Freaky Friday) have fun with offbeat throwaway touches. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 50
The Amazing Spider-Man, helmed by "(500) Days Of Summer" director Marc Webb, doesn't put its own stamp on the material, which feels warmed-over in ways that don't help.- Posted Jul 2, 2012
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 50
Theoretically, the "Bring It On" model can be applied to any remotely performative art. All it takes is a certain level of sass, some eye-catching performance showcases, and a plot where a talented outsider livens up a moribund group with some fresh ideas. Pitch Perfect slaps that stencil onto college a cappella singing groups, with a smattering of success.- Posted Sep 26, 2012
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 60
Panayotopoulou's background in photography shows in the way she lets her chiaroscuro lighting mirror her characters' emotions. It also shows in the still-life quality that Hard Goodbyes never quite gets beyond. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
For the most part, it's too dry and quirky to connect. Still, those gags are something.- Posted Feb 22, 2012
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
The value of No Impact Man, a compelling and suitably exasperating documentary about one family’s attempt to not harm the environment for a year, is that it forces viewers to reflect on their own casual consumption and waste. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
When We Leave is a film without villains. Instead, it features a set of circumstances that inevitably and needlessly spin out of control.- Posted Jan 27, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 83
Taylor and Frankel go too broad when they try for comic relief - and the on-the-nose soundtrack is borderline criminal - but Hope Springs handles marriage and advanced-age sexuality with a refreshing, down-to-earth candor. In today's Hollywood, that counts as radical.- Posted Aug 8, 2012
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Catfish is absolutely riveting, and even nerve-wracking as Joost and the Schulmans get progressively closer to learning more about their "friends." -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 75
While I Am Legend is reasonably absorbing, it can be difficult to focus on the film that actually made it to the screen, instead of the many versions that didn't. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 70
The story told by e-dreams is inherently compelling, full of dark humor drawn from a deep well of hubris and historical irony, but the film would be a lot sharper had the filmmakers not fallen under Park's charismatic cyber-spell. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 90
Though glazed in chilly surfaces -- the Kubrickian spaces, Cliff Martinez's gorgeous ambient score, the elliptical editing rhythms of Soderbergh's recent work, particularly "The Limey" -- the film contains a surprising depth of feeling within its egg-shaped head. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 70
In fact, the best an artist like Bowery can hope for is that he'll provide fodder for a documentary this solid. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 80
As the film goes along, themes and even lines of dialogue resurface, and Jarmusch's comic sensibilities grow more assured. -
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 60
Tying The Knot's central point remains insistently stated. It would be hard for anyone to watch it and still think of the demand for same-sex marriage as a mere passing fancy. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 70
Garcia's far-more-info-than-tainment style seems a little staid, but Future Of Food's clear, intelligent journalism and rich cinematography help take the edges off the immense brick of data Garcia lobs through the window of America's biotech industry. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 67
The Wild Blue Yonder has a small message to deliver about the importance of ecological conservation, but mostly, it's an excuse to cut together mesmerizing undersea and outer-space photography while a hypnotic soundtrack drones on. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 58
It takes more than just the ominous tread of Nazi boots to infuse gravitas into this well-intentioned but dreary look at the female mind and body during wartime. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
Buried is as much about dropped calls, getting sent to voicemail, and being openly lied to by our institutions as it about being buried alive by terrorists. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 75
To a degree, the dynamic between Brosnan and Cooper resembles Aaron Eckhart and Matt Malloy's relationship from "In The Company Of Men." -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 83
Mostly, though, the pleasure of The Love We Make comes from watching one of the most famous musicians in the world looking totally chill, whether he's rehearsing with his band or casually chatting with Bill Clinton.- Posted Nov 9, 2011
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 83
Attempts to address grief frankly, gently, and without didacticism, and it largely succeeds. -
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Reviewed by
Nathan Rabin 83
Sometimes feels like an all-time classic short film stretched to feature length, but it’s blissfully short, and it peaks at the end with a groovy cartoon during the closing credits. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 75
The movie is at its best when it’s at its smallest: when Ganalon quietly watches Colon coax a dying young man into vomiting up his “curse,” or when Ganalon is getting laughed out of his classroom because he has a burrito in his lunchbox instead of a sandwich.- Posted Feb 20, 2013
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Reviewed by
Sam Adams 67
Though it might be unreasonable to expect Karel and Manera to succeed where others have failed, simply punting on the amount of autobiography in Roth’s novels seems like a cheat. Sticking to what’s on the page pays off, especially with regard to Roth’s undervalued late novels, but also means he has them just where he wants them.- Posted Mar 13, 2013
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Reviewed by
Keith Phipps 67
The film is much more intriguing in its dread-inducing opening half, when Moll's assured direction keeps suggesting that something horrible will be happening soon, then, when it does, that something even more horrifying may follow. -
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Reviewed by
Tasha Robinson 50
Sijie mostly adapts his own work dryly and literally—the footage of the Chinese mountainside is breathtaking, but it's the only thing in the film with much depth. -
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Critic Score 67
The ending, which offers a hint of relief, is unfiltered, frankly unbelievable melodrama, but something grimmer and more measured would be intolerable after everything that comes before.- Posted Jul 14, 2011
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Though some of Slaughter Rule's conclusions are overly tidy, the film's powerful meditation on masculinity gets much of its credibility and punch from the two leads, especially Morse, a reliable character actor who sinks his teeth into a role with heavy physical and psychological demands. -
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Reviewed by
Noel Murray 50
As documentary moviemaking, though, Ellis and Mueller's work falls a little flat. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 80
Dramatically leaps through time, covering months or sometimes years in the span of a single cut. The effect is jarring and exhilarating, but it also bucks the common idea that relationships deepen over time. -
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Reviewed by
Scott Tobias 50
The best possible feeling that 11:14 could leave behind is that Marcks has pulled off something clever, but just bringing the puzzle pieces together isn't that impressive a feat. As "Memento" proves, it's the big picture that really counts. -
