|
| 1. |
|
11/01/12 |
Moderate |
 "Although given an outlandish spin, the story appears to follow the basic arc of Chapman's life... some of the animated sequences are more inspired than others..." |
| 2. |
|
10/31/12 |
Moderate |
"...looks like something made by committee... the movie has enough weird-wild-ride brio to convince you that Graham Chapman was indeed quite a character." |
| 3. |
|
07/25/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "It is, in essence, a romantic tearjerker -- more emotionally manipulative for its jury-rigged narrative structure -- soldered to a high-heat chronicle of reckless behavior." |
| 4. |
|
06/14/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...the personal-journey material, which eventually eclipses the mildly rousing concert footage, ultimately feels a bit thin..." |
| 5. |
|
06/13/12 |
Poor |
 "Lean, nasty, and patently absurd... fancies itself a thinking man's torture-porn picture. If there is such a thing, this shrill piece of work certainly isn't it." |
| 6. |
|
06/07/12 |
Good |
 "Clayman reunites with important figures from his past, interviews quasi-celebrities who have gone public about their struggles with mental illness, and does karaoke." |
| 7. |
|
05/30/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
"...strikingly shot with impressive prison-grounds access and a basically unimpeachable power-of-music message, but it finally feels too cautious..." |
| 8. |
|
05/23/12 |
Good |
"...evidence that Bud Clayman's trust in the value of the filmmaking process ultimately outweighed the extreme difficulty he says he has making even the smallest decisions." |
| 9. |
|
05/17/12 |
Weak |
 "The variously eccentric characters and their flat Americana-kitsch backdrop never really feel like they're part of the same movie..." |
| 10. |
|
05/16/12 |
Weak |
"...a bonkers tragicomedy that blandly mocks the red-state family-values charade... Tonal stability is not the hallmark of this out-of-time fantasia..." |
| 11. |
|
05/10/12 |
Fair |
 "...might have made for more palatable viewing were it led by less of a wiseass -- Todd Grinnell does not possess charm enough to make this lout lovable." |
| 12. |
|
05/09/12 |
Good |
 "...transplants the lightly meta material from the novella to the screen with surprising success -- compared with the typical struggling-writer boilerplate..." |
| 13. |
|
05/09/12 |
Fair |
"...misses its snappy-irreverent mark... a lifestyle comedy with hard-to-buy fundamentals and a central couple you can't invest in is a dubious proposition..." |
| 14. |
|
05/02/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...doesn't shy from searching far and wide for meaning, but groups each disparate concern under the too-general 'crisis' rubric. If nothing else, this is a film only Kollek could have made." |
| 15. |
|
04/26/12 |
Fair |
 "That entering this line of work was a conscious decision for the two cash-poor young women, both dead-set on upward mobility, couldn't be more explicit..." |
| 16. |
|
04/26/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...weaves together separate-strand story lines on both sides of a Southern town-gown divide." |
| 17. |
|
04/25/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
"...effectively takes stock of its characters and their milieus... the film is a bit too strident about some of the issues at play, but it's admirably knotty nonetheless." |
| 18. |
|
04/25/12 |
Fair |
"It's entirely too much for Malgoska Szumowska to coherently flesh out in an hour and a half, especially with so much time dedicated just to the state of arousal." |
| 19. |
|
04/19/12 |
Good |
 "...the filmmakers nicely depict their animal subjects' domain through occasional teeming-forest time-lapse and sweeping views above the canopy." |
| 20. |
|
04/18/12 |
Good |
"...from a nature-doc angle, 'Chimpanzee' is impressive stuff.... the constant stream of explanation often detracts from the heart-of-the-jungle sights and sounds on display." |
