|
| 1. |
|
04/24/12 |
Very Good |
 "...a fascinating introduction to a movement scrambling to adjust enough to guarantee a future, without severing all ties to its principled past." |
| 2. |
|
04/20/12 |
Weak |
 "...falls well short of compelling, either as a coming-of-age film, a satire or a romance.... quite old-school, at its core a conventional uninspired fantasy of love conquering all." |
| 3. |
|
03/02/12 |
Moderate |
 "...a series of related sketches, maintains a laconic, deadpan tone that's a nice break from the usual high-volume comedy. But it simply offers endless variations on the same joke." |
| 4. |
|
01/20/12 |
Moderate |
 "...a conventional melodrama.... If there was any intent to assess America at the end of the Carter era, it's hard to see: Rubik's Cubes and Reagan masks never become more than crude cultural markers." |
| 5. |
|
10/28/11 |
Excellent |
 "...remarkable.... Dzogchen Buddhist master Chogyal Namkhai Norbu is an engaging, charismatic figure; by the end, [his son] Yeshi is finding his own footing, able to relate to a young, wired-in audience." |
| 6. |
|
10/21/11 |
Very Good |
 "...that rare artifact, a snapshot of a major industrial shift on its way to a tipping point.... a slick, enjoyable valentine to a retooling industry." |
| 7. |
|
10/14/11 |
Moderate |
 "Most of the acting is weak... the direction is woozy or absent.... Still, the film advances the 'let's put on a show' genre into a grim and hopeless direction, just right for hard times. In different hands 'Happy Life' might become a decent movie. Maybe it's best thought of as a demo." |
| 8. |
|
09/16/11 |
Good |
 "...a well-reported history of the Camp David talks, the events that led to them, and the difficult negotiations that followed to forge the peace treaty that was signed the next spring." |
| 9. |
|
09/15/11 |
Very Good |
 "Like a mint pressing in a bargain bin, 'Sound It Out' is a rare find. Sweet." |
| 10. |
|
09/14/11 |
Excellent |
 "...casts a transfixing spell... a lush and hypnotic examination of a painter's work and the times in which he lived... an extended contemplation of the creative process itself." |
| 11. |
|
09/09/11 |
Poor |
 "...devolves into a tangle of dithering story lines. The film could really have used some better-focused, more believable scripting. Perhaps for Mr. Levesque's next project one of the 'WWE SmackDown' writers will have some free time." |
| 12. |
|
09/09/11 |
Good |
 "...offers everything we expect from an ensemble romantic comedy: charming meet-cutes; whimsical situations; the feverish urgency of young professionals, urban or otherwise." |
| 13. |
|
08/26/11 |
Fair |
 "...frustratingly uneven... In a way, the film's amateurish qualities reflect the outsider quirks that may have made Mr. Markopolos so dismissible." |
| 14. |
|
07/29/11 |
Weak |
 "...the script, written by Ms. Yong Mun Chee, feels mostly by the numbers.... It fails to deliver a single story worth caring about. Instead of arrestingly tangled fates, we get the cinematic equivalent of a blind date." |
| 15. |
|
05/06/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...elevated by the touches of neorealist style in its small-bore focus and its soundtrack of classical compositions and Italian music from the 12th and 13th centuries.... offers a quiet haven for meaningful meditation." |
| 16. |
|
04/22/11 |
Poor |
 "The acting is inauthentic and unconvincing; then again, the story by Chad Waterhouse lurches from cliché to cliché and the direction, shared by Mr. Waterhouse and Ankush Kohli, seems incapable of building to a payoff." |
| 17. |
|
09/24/10 |
Very Good |
 "...a cogent 98-minute investigative chronicle... an indispensable part of any history of New Orleans before, during and after Katrina." |
| 18. |
|
05/14/10 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a rough-edged first film... In the end, the film has more than a few moments that linger: like slivovitz, it sneaks up on you." |
| 19. |
|
05/12/10 |
Good |
 "...low-key and gently touches on issues not usually found in sports comedies: hard times, fragmented families, reverse discrimination. It's the situations that are comical, not the characters.... the film's conclusion is unexpected and sweet." |
| 20. |
|
05/12/10 |
Very Good |
 "...the director, Brian Hill, has traveled the planet to assemble portraits of citizens who are thinking globally and acting locally.... never less than stunning... If anything, this affable call to environmental arms has little patience for those who say that the problems are too large..." |
