|
| 1. |
|
05/10/12 |
Moderate |
 "Even the one-liners grow lame, with Alice Cooper gender jokes that seem transcribed from a '72 Bob Hope cue card..." |
| 2. |
|
04/25/12 |
Weak |
 "...an uncertainly antic case history that never achieves pathos, only shticky (Jack) Black farce.... from small-town satire to cheap laugh-at-the-rubes cartoonishness... surprisingly shapeless..." |
| 3. |
|
04/24/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...overcomes its juggling of multiple nonfiction narratives through director Jennifer Baichwal's capture of fleeting, significant moments rather than via her often unwieldy ambition." |
| 4. |
|
03/29/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...soon the tale twists into a haunted family history, and the comic fillips the director calls his 'joy buzzers' partly recede to expose a starker -- and more remote -- case of cinema therapy." |
| 5. |
|
03/26/12 |
Moderate |
 "Antony Cordier keeps his cast looking good, clothed or not, but his take on the deeper meaning of their characters' grasp for new happiness veers between moralistic and blank." |
| 6. |
|
03/19/12 |
Very Good |
 "...the scrupulously retrospective filmmaker Terence Davies may surprise skeptics who'd see this material as a confirmation of his fustiness.... manages enough reinvention..." |
| 7. |
|
03/11/12 |
Poor |
 "...enigmatically billed as a 'Tony Kaye talkie,' but the director's trademark shrillness renders its dialogue in all-caps hysteria. Conversation is neglected in favor of speechifying..." |
| 8. |
|
03/09/12 |
Poor |
 "...so fatally mild and uncertain that it's impossible to know whether the rod-and-reel foiling of a murder was meant as a gag or derring-do." |
| 9. |
|
02/29/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...doesn't flinch from the sad spectacle of doom metal singer Bobby Liebling at his nadir, but you will.... a story that rather bracingly puts dignity within his grasp." |
| 10. |
|
02/26/12 |
Weak |
 "An otherwise bland stew of postmenopausal-male sexual lethargy... early-retiree Roman everyman (director and co-writer Gianni Di Gregorio) is characterized by sexless suspension." |
| 11. |
|
02/19/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a successful if mild attempt to re-employ tools that have fallen into disuse, from Jacques Tati's long-shot street tableaus to Jerry Lewis's scenes of quietly mounting chaos and surreal chases." |
| 12. |
|
01/23/12 |
Very Good |
 "Unusually successful in synchronizing the ethos and oeuvre of its protagonist, British architect Norman Foster, with its own visual strategies and rhythms... the rare documentary that lionizes an accomplished figure without tipping into hagiography." |
| 13. |
|
01/19/12 |
Moderate |
 "...too small to contain Channing's legacy... foolishly pads its footage with dullards like Barbara Walters and impressionist Rich Little instead of keeping the big-eyed, satchel-mouthed pixie at its center." |
| 14. |
|
01/16/12 |
Moderate |
 "...this dishonest, flailing attempt at working both sides of war-film aesthetics goes a long way in accounting for its status as South Korea's Academy Award submission." |
| 15. |
|
12/06/11 |
Moderate |
 "...the vendettas of 'Knuckle' are compared to a clash of armies... our lasting sympathy is only engaged by the whooping pre-adolescent boys running and sparring around the fringes of these Traveller bloodlettings..." |
| 16. |
|
12/04/11 |
Very Good |
 "...stays sprightly for nearly 90 minutes of state-of-the-art escapism... the animated equivalent of a rollicking Indy adventure while honoring Hergé's buoyant myth." |
| 17. |
|
11/19/11 |
Very Good |
 "...finally irresistible... supplies one of the year's biggest laughs with a Cee Lo Green cover that victoriously plays chicken with the movie's PG rating." |
| 18. |
|
11/09/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "With six protagonists serving as a cross-section of Tehran's youthful population, director Hossein Keshavarz's 'Dog Sweat' is a somber, minor-keyed debut feature about the daily manifestations of oppression in contemporary Iran." |
| 19. |
|
11/05/11 |
Outstanding |
 "...thoroughly shaped by Herzog's humanist passion and attention to emotional details.... laments the fallout from cold-blooded carnage with a keen, meditative strength." |
| 20. |
|
10/31/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a sufficiently thoughtful primer on the uncertain future of cities that it can be forgiven for ending with a glamour shot of Brooklyn's infamous G train, which to New Yorkers threatens a future of delayed or absent gratification." |
