|
| 1. |
|
05/09/12 |
Fair |
 "...never finds its own groove, alternating between high-school dramedy and overworked-single-mom narratives without ever really becoming a mother-and-daughter story until the closing scenes." |
| 2. |
|
04/11/12 |
Fair |
 "...mediocre... seems assembled from autopilot thriller material, with most of the dull dialogue devoted to plugging potential plot holes rather than anything resembling logic." |
| 3. |
|
01/03/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...tries to graft some moments of 'Amelie'-like whimsy, romance and gentle comedy onto what's essentially a chaste and slow-moving melodrama." |
| 4. |
|
08/31/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...writer/director Jean-Marc Vallee's fourth feature is another dense, decades-spanning tale that lets a cherry-picked soundtrack and impressive visual sequences do the heavy lifting.... never quite coalesces..." |
| 5. |
|
08/15/11 |
Good |
 "An Algerian immigrant faces a steep learning curve when he's hired as a substitute teacher in Montreal.... it's actually refreshing for a drama about education to look at different sides of an issue without necessarily imposing a moral high ground." |
| 6. |
|
08/08/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "A smooth, intriguing opening and a predictable but emotionally satisfying home stretch bookend helmer Morten Tyldum's otherwise by-the-numbers Norwegian thriller..." |
| 7. |
|
07/18/11 |
Excellent |
 "Achieves an emotional honesty.... filmed with supreme confidence, offers an unapologetically sentimental story stripped to its emotional core." |
| 8. |
|
06/29/11 |
Good |
 "...may not be the brainiest of actioners, but Luc Besson's latest thriller is a pretty good time.... Zoe Saldana exudes sexiness but also generates a certain amount of sympathy." |
| 9. |
|
06/06/11 |
Very Good |
 "...writer/director Philipp Stoelzl and fellow screenwriters Christoph Mueller and Alexander Dydyna expertly alternate romance, humor and drama without losing their grip on the characters and their dilemmas." |
| 10. |
|
05/19/11 |
Moderate |
 "Maccarone tries to paint a picture of the artist's personality rather than make a straightforward and chronological biography, but a little more contextual information might have made the pic a whole lot more accessible." |
| 11. |
|
05/18/11 |
Excellent |
 "...confident and beautifully crafted... adds a contempo finish and pays homage to the French New Wave, adapting the suicide-themed novel that also inspired Louis Malle's 'The Fire Within.' " |
| 12. |
|
05/18/11 |
Good |
 "Neither an involving, deeply human story, like such Peter Morgan-penned political dramas as 'The Deal' and 'The Queen,' nor a bombastic and more cerebral exploration of a politico's life and reach, a la Paolo Sorrentino's 'Il Divo'..." |
| 13. |
|
05/14/11 |
Good |
 "What sets 'War' apart from other countless disease-of-the-week movies is that it tells its heartfelt story in a lively and energetic style." |
| 14. |
|
05/12/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...most successful in several impressive individual moments... [but] individual story threads are shortchanged and some narrative inroads barely developed.... features terrific, naturalistic perfs..." |
| 15. |
|
03/27/11 |
Good |
 "The provincial cleaning lady of a heartless high-finance whiz from Paris puts more than just the apartment in order in 'My Piece of the Pie'... Though the setup sounds cliche, the storytelling is polished enough to keep auds hooked and occasionally surprised..." |
| 16. |
|
03/13/11 |
Good |
 "...a subversive and strange little film noir... combines wildly disparate elements, including a voiceover from beyond the grave, an oddly patterned detective story and an offbeat sense of humor." |
| 17. |
|
03/13/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a stylized combo of action and drama... based on a 1994 story that foreshadowed 9/11, in which Islamic terrorists hijacked a plane from Algeria and planned to fly it into the Eiffel Tower." |
| 18. |
|
02/15/11 |
Good |
 "Breezy... [a] '60s-set tale of an uptight, unhappily married Paris stockbroker, who rediscovers his joie de vivre after he gets to know the raucous Spanish maids who live upstairs..." |
| 19. |
|
02/14/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Though the story is told and edited in a way that too often obscures rather than enhances its central tragedy, much is compensated by a career-defining, powerfully physical lead perf by Matthias Schoenaerts and ace lensing by local widescreen wiz Nicolas Karakatsanis." |
| 20. |
|
02/11/11 |
Good |
 "A 10-year-old French girl with a Jean Seberg 'do decides to pass for a boy when she moves to a new neighborhood.... explores the intricacy and many contradictions of budding female sexuality..." |
