|
| 1. |
|
05/17/13 |
Very Good |
 "...rich and earthy.... Even when it feels like it's drifting off to sea, the director finds a way to keep the movie - and its audience - exactly where he wants them." |
| 2. |
|
05/17/13 |
Moderate |
 "Shannon is an overpowering actor, and in this film, the best that he can do is wrestle the movie around him to a stalemate." |
| 3. |
|
05/10/13 |
Very Good |
 "The Philippine thriller has a ruthlessness rarely attempted by its North American counterparts.... The filmmaking is calibrated to heighten the grimness and despair..." |
| 4. |
|
04/26/13 |
Moderate |
 "It's always difficult in this sort of movie to toggle between the pressing demands of narrative and the weightless delight of set pieces..." |
| 5. |
|
04/19/13 |
Very Good |
 "...there's a winning confidence to the filmmaking -- Dupieux favours nervy close-ups and blurred foregrounds -- and some real soul in Jack Plotnick's performance." |
| 6. |
|
04/12/13 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...handsomely mounted.... but Gilles Bourdos's film is more conventional than its mould-breaking subjects deserve." |
| 7. |
|
02/22/13 |
Weak |
 "...a series of palpably false scares and cribs scenes and plot beats from similar movies... utterly superficial... it's hard to imagine anybody getting the message." |
| 8. |
|
01/19/13 |
Moderate |
 "...barely meets the minimum generic requirements, and thus comes off as pretentious for presuming to hover so airily above them." |
| 9. |
|
10/19/12 |
Poor |
 "Stripped down to his undershirt or brandishing an assault rifle, Tyler Perry looks both incongruous and ridiculous - an icon out of water.... a dismal attempt." |
| 10. |
|
10/12/12 |
Very Good |
 "...gently affecting... Sumell is a sympathetic figure but also thorny and idiosyncratic... conventionally produced, but it does right by its two uncommon subjects." |
| 11. |
|
10/05/12 |
Weak |
 "...piles on so many pointed tableaux of a technologically routinized society that it begins to resemble an inexorable machine itself - and this is not a compliment." |
| 12. |
|
09/28/12 |
Very Good |
 "If the word-paintings are often amusingly glib, White's puppets and sculptural pieces have an enchanted quality." |
| 13. |
|
08/31/12 |
Poor |
 "...the 'Paranormal Activity' films prove that it's possible to generate tension.... By contrast, this thriller merely feels innocuous: Nothing to fear here." |
| 14. |
|
08/24/12 |
Very Good |
 "Like the place it describes, 'Darwin' is ultimately fairly self-contained in its effects.... It's a modest work about a minor place - and no less impressive for that." |
| 15. |
|
08/10/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...it's arguable that Anders Danielsen Lie's true co-star is Oslo itself, which is filled with beautiful people and photographed in warm, summery tones..." |
| 16. |
|
08/10/12 |
Outstanding |
 "Credit goes to the actors for giving almost as good as they get in seriously demanding roles, and to Friedkin for having what it takes - to bring things thundering home." |
| 17. |
|
04/27/12 |
Very Good |
 "...even its most rousing passages are tempered by a sense of loss. Rather than simply enshrining its underdog heroes' efforts, it considers their cost." |
| 18. |
|
08/27/09 |
Weak |
 "...a melodramatic lather of anguished breakups, cross-caste hookups and looming violence, shot in a ragged blur of super 16mm... The only real notes of authenticity are struck by the actors, and even then, only on the distaff side." |
