|
| 1. |
|
05/11/12 |
Moderate |
 "...handsome, vaguely true to the old soap opera, and inert... just kind of batty." |
| 2. |
|
05/03/12 |
Good |
 "...enjoyably zingy... a caped-crusader movie can aspire to greater things. But nobody says it has to, and Joss Whedon just wants 'The Avengers' to be fun. Which it is." |
| 3. |
|
04/27/12 |
Very Good |
 "...has some fairly grisly violence, but also considerable humor and the sort of intricate, thought-through storytelling you'd expect from Hitchcock or the Coen brothers." |
| 4. |
|
04/20/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...takes time-honored stand-up material and turns it into something pleasantly sitcom-ish... it's sort of a two-hour infomercial, but a decently amusing one." |
| 5. |
|
04/13/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...enormously engaging... Fellag, a comedian and himself an exile from Algeria, makes Lazhar both a sensitive and an amusing figure. And the kids are just terrific..." |
| 6. |
|
03/29/12 |
Excellent |
 "...a wrenching, intensely moral film, and so potentially useful to children who are either being bullied, or doing the bullying..." |
| 7. |
|
03/22/12 |
Good |
 "...doesn't actually have a lot to say about the social issues it brings up.... Still, the pacing is brisk, its stakes as high as stakes get..." |
| 8. |
|
03/03/12 |
Very Good |
 "It's easy to imagine the story turning precious in the wrong hands, but Weitz and his cast spin it just right..." |
| 9. |
|
02/17/12 |
Excellent |
 "...almost startlingly delicate and calm.... may be too gentle and meditative to be the studio's breakout hit in this country, but it's another sweet advance, and further evidence that the Ghibli secret must soon out." |
| 10. |
|
02/09/12 |
Outstanding |
 "The picture's real achievement is the warmth it brings to the music that animates the lives of these afro-Cuban characters." |
| 11. |
|
02/02/12 |
Very Good |
 "Candles and cobwebs, cries from the marsh, fog machines on overdrive, a secluded manse stuffed to the rafters with eerily threatening Victoriana... there's a reason they're time-honored." |
| 12. |
|
01/20/12 |
Good |
 "There's nothing here to surprise the Broadway devotees who will be this film's prime (and possibly only) audience.... The lady was -- and remains -- a pro, still glowin', crowin', goin' strong." |
| 13. |
|
12/29/11 |
Outstanding |
 "...when you consider how heavily censored filmmakers are in Iran, director Asghar Farhadi's accomplishment starts to seem downright astonishing.... a film that captures the drama and suspense of real life as urgently as any picture released this year." |
| 14. |
|
12/21/11 |
Excellent |
 "The joy Spielberg brings to the film's action is contagious.... If you're gonna capture motion, might as well cram in a lot of it..." |
| 15. |
|
12/21/11 |
Good |
 "Cameron Crowe lays on the charm with a trowel.... Damon proves amiable and appealing.... The movie deals thoughtfully with loss and family dynamics..." |
| 16. |
|
12/15/11 |
Moderate |
 "...you're always aware that you're watching filmed theater -- a scripted pressure-cooker where playability is being allowed to trump plausibility..." |
| 17. |
|
12/09/11 |
Very Good |
 "...the film's bluntness doesn't diminish the power of the nature-versus-nurture questions.... Or of Swinton's harrowing portrait of parental guilt." |
| 18. |
|
12/09/11 |
Good |
 "...at times like a mashup of styles and genres -- part curdled rom-com, part psycho-prom-queen flick, with a little 'Revenge of the Nerds' thrown in." |
| 19. |
|
11/25/11 |
Outstanding |
 "Silent black-and-white movies are not coming back, but this one is such a rewarding labor of love by all the artists involved that it just might make you wish they could." |
| 20. |
|
11/22/11 |
Very Good |
 "...the film rests firmly on the shoulders of its central icon, and Williams, though she doesn't really resemble Monroe in either voice or visage, is pretty splendid at conjuring her." |
