|
| 1. |
|
03/04/13 |
Outstanding |
 "At two and a half hours, this movie is hardly a quick-fire, but Mungiu has already mastered the long haul, and, within it, the long single take." |
| 2. |
|
02/18/13 |
Outstanding |
 "...thoroughly deserves its Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.... a meaty addition to Bernal's work in 'Amores Perros,' 'Y Tu Mamá También,' and 'Bad Education.' " |
| 3. |
|
12/31/12 |
Outstanding |
 "It was a masterstroke to cast Emmanuelle Riva... There have been many invasions in Haneke's work, but nothing compares with the looming approach of mortality." |
| 4. |
|
09/10/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...casts a spell as bewitching, but also as controlled, as anything that the writer and director, Paul Thomas Anderson, has wrought before.... gives us so much to revere..." |
| 5. |
|
05/28/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...for every note of provable precision, a more fanciful detail flutters past.... Anderson's great gift is to catch the generations as they intersect..." |
| 6. |
|
03/12/12 |
Outstanding |
 "The real reason to see 'The Kid with a Bike' is that it offers something changelessly rare and difficult: a credible portrait of goodness." |
| 7. |
|
12/12/11 |
Outstanding |
 "You can trawl through cinema and find few more beautiful, more unforced, or more fleeting representations of the bourn between the living and the dead." |
| 8. |
|
11/14/11 |
Outstanding |
 "...a crowd-pleaser that makes you glad to be part of the crowd.... damnably clever... less like an arch conceit and more like the needle-sharp recollection of a dream." |
| 9. |
|
08/22/11 |
Outstanding |
 "You could argue that the film is too wrenching a departure for an actress as earthy as Farmiga, but that, I suspect, is why she took the risk -- daring herself..." |
| 10. |
|
04/13/09 |
Outstanding |
 "The most stirring release of the year thus far... the emotion that swept the cinema, at the climax, seemed unanimous, binding, and true..." |
| 11. |
|
05/13/13 |
Outstanding |
 "...finds a dazzling and difficult poise, between obfuscation and epiphany.... Seldom has our modern taste for the confessional mode been so smartly explored..." |
| 12. |
|
01/28/13 |
Outstanding |
 "...it is not easy to describe, and its impact is even harder to account for... it feels, like Shakespeare's play, at once ancient and dangerously new." |
| 13. |
|
01/16/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...the task that Fiennes has set himself is to liberate the story from the theatrical while preserving the dramatic bite. In that, he succeeds, with brio..." |
| 14. |
|
01/02/12 |
Outstanding |
 "The miracle of 'A Separation' is that it doesn't spare any of its characters, nor does it seek to indict them. It is a democratic portrait of a theocratic world." |
| 15. |
|
11/14/11 |
Outstanding |
 "This is fairly fresh terrain for Clooney." |
| 16. |
|
01/10/11 |
Outstanding |
 "Suleiman's secret: he makes smoke without fire... suffering is so scrupulous, and so mercifully free of histrionics, that it crosses the battle line of the argument." |
| 17. |
|
12/27/10 |
Outstanding |
 "Nothing out of the ordinary happens, and that, together with the vital, untrammelled performances of the two leading actors, is the root of its power." |
| 18. |
|
06/21/10 |
Outstanding |
 "...cogent, lavish, and formidable enough... Director Luca Guadagnino is a pleasure lover, but, more important, he loves his characters for their own pursuit of pleasure..." |
| 19. |
|
04/27/09 |
Outstanding |
 "...beneath the dark surface of caricature lies a heightened and vivifying truth, as potent as fortified wine. Consume with great caution, and with joy." |
| 20. |
|
02/16/09 |
Outstanding |
 "...a beautiful movie.... what is most impressive about Garrone is his refusal to let his style be bulldozed by the runaway violence of his subject." |
