R. Kurt Osenlund

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Slant Magazine
For 76 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 44% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 50% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 10.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

R. Kurt Osenlund's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 55
Highest review score: 100 Dear White People
Lowest review score: 0 Jobs
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 76
  3. Negative: 19 out of 76
76 movie reviews
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    • 59 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Miss You Already
    It winningly reflects how to utilize quiet understandings and, yes, very loud laughter.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Bare
    Dianna Agron, suddenly inspired to let go, proves the perfect on-the-prowl foil to Paz de la Huerta's free spirit.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Grandma
    Writer-director Paul Weitz's proudly boisterous star vehicle for Lily Tomlin has about as many ambitions as it does delusions.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Magic Mike XXL
    Magic Mike XXL isn't so much a lesser movie than Magic Mike as it is a looser one.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 88 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The D Train
    The film uses its male-on-male boundary-leaping to give the shopworn man-boy narrative a refresh.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Of Horses and Men
    On one hand, the film is surely a celebration of a land's distinct creatures and the people who live among them, but on the other, it's a culture's biting auto-critique.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Fifty Shades of Grey
    Jamie Dornan somehow manages to render his sculpted beauty moot, which throws a major wrench in the gears for a film dependent on eroticism.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Into the Woods
    This PG-rated romp is, refreshingly, less notable for its happily-ever-afters than its oh-no-they-didn'ts.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Unbroken
    The film's chief misstep is taking its title too literally, and ultimately depicting Louie as an indestructible, and thus largely inhuman, superhero.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
    It places regurgitated ideas into the mouths of gifted actors, then drops them amid a kooky story that plays like an elaborate distraction from what little the film actually has to say.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    One Chance
    David Frankel crams his story with predictable developments, yet he matches his subject in spirit, pushing something into the spotlight that, however unlikely, elicits irresistible glee.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Saint Laurent
    No matter how much Bertrand Bonello varies his split screens, triptychs, and geometric screen divisions, he forgets that one of the most fashionable virtues is knowing when to leave.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Foxcatcher
    Of Bennett Miller's many directorial feats, his canniest is his depiction of the precariousness of bonds, and how those bonds can shift, drastically yet almost imperceptibly.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Frank
    The film boldly raises the unanswerable question of whether it's better for an artist to safely isolate his work or tweak it a bit so as to share it with the world.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Child of God
    James Franco's general aesthetic is ugly and ambling, not so much because of its brownish-gray monochrome, but because it registers like the jerky result of a college kid wielding a DV cam.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Dear White People
    Like the movie itself, every character is a beautiful swirl of contradictions.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 38 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Maleficent
    We may have all wanted to know the story behind those famed horns, but the mystery was far preferable to having Maleficent de-fanged and de-clawed in the process.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Non-Stop
    The latest collaboration between director Jaume Collet-Serra and star Liam Neeson is made with far more care and visual detail than you might expect.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 25 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Pompeii
    Shockingly, the violent release of smoke, fire, and meteoric debris is positioned more as a climactic afterthought than as the main attraction.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Endless Love
    Shana Feste's film seems blissfully unaware that great fights require truly substantial conflicts.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The LEGO Movie
    All told, there's an ageless warmth to The LEGO Movie akin to that of the LEGO brand itself.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 38 R. Kurt Osenlund
    That Awkward Moment
    Its obsession with male genitalia, or, more specifically, penis receptacles, is emblematic of its overall aura of male entitlement and its consideration of women as prizes to be lanced.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
    In keeping his actors on his sober-yet-buoyant plane, Kenneth Branagh presents a convincing romance that doesn't stall the film's brisk clip.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box
    The film gradually reveals a lot of unsavory motives, which ultimately deflate the buoyant virtues on which the film had blithely coasted.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
    A once-precious franchise's weakest installment, which forgets these adventures' magic was never conjured by bells and whistles.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Out of the Furnace
    What this movie finally boils down to is a deceptively simple tale of two brothers, and of being one's brother's keeper, and of seeking justice on the crudest of fronts.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Frozen
    The film's empowering themes of feminine strengths and bonds eventually flourish in novel fashion.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Book Thief
    Books themselves become the story's key symbol, representing the past and future, loss and possibility, of a place that's ground zero for some of history's darkest days.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Thor: The Dark World
    Superhero movies aren't going anywhere, nor is their standard, on-to-the-next-fight structure, so it's heartening to see a gem that grandly and amusingly fills in the blanks.
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