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DAVID DENBY Movie Reviews

David Denby
157 reviews, averaging 63.4% positive

 

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Date
Rating
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1.
Lockout (2012)
New Yorker
04/30/12 Poor "...unwittingly funny... Movies this bad need to be revered in public places. Go see it in a mall, and try to sneak a beer or two in with you."
2. 04/30/12 Very Good "...takes physical comedy to levels of intricacy not seen since silent movies. The bodies get pretzelled together, limbs and heads intertwined, the three men working as a unit."
3. 04/30/12 Very Good "...leisurely, episodic but pungent, densely populated, consistently funny, and in the Apatovian spirit, foulmouthed yet tenderhearted."
4.
Bernie (2012)
New Yorker
04/30/12 Good "...an odd movie -- mild in tone and circumspect, yet darkly funny... a smart movie, with a mordant satirical edge, but Linklater almost falls victim to his own sense of authenticity."
5. 04/30/12 Very Good "...an emotional adventure guided by superb craftsmanship... the encounters with India are soulful and momentous..."
6. 04/09/12 Outstanding "...remarkable... The echoes of this intricately wrought movie go on forever... nothing has exploded on the screen in recent years as violently as that mad quarrel in a tiny room - a room that is Israel itself."
7.
Monsieur Lazhar
New Yorker
04/09/12 Good (Not Great) "...intelligent and sensitively made... [but] the movie is so discreet and respectful that, outside the classroom, within whose walls the glory of French literature and language triumph, it never quite comes to life."
8.
Bully (2012)
New Yorker
03/26/12 Very Good "...moving... At times, the movie becomes a wistful idyll of rural American childhood under threat. Violence hangs in the air."
9. 03/26/12 Weak "I certainly have no quarrel with the casting.... But the rest of 'The Hunger Games' is pretty much a disaster -- disjointed, muffled, and even, at times, boring.... an evasive, baffling, unexciting production..."
10. 03/19/12 Excellent "...a sombre and powerful movie.... Rachel Weisz is extremely moving.... It's stern and noble, very much in the Rattigan spirit."
11.
John Carter
New Yorker
03/19/12 Poor "...too many battles, too many creatures, too many redundant episodes.... we don't care who the hero is, because he seems too dreamy to care much himself."
12. 02/27/12 Moderate "...moderately enjoyable, in its exhausting way."
13. 02/27/12 Very Good "...often funny and stirring, but as you are watching you know what the game will lead to; dictatorships are not known for their sense of humor."
14. 02/27/12 Good "...as broad and obvious as 'Wanderlust' is, it's often very funny."
15. 02/06/12 Outstanding "...wrenching... you feel the constriction and the disgust of the life below, but director Agnieszka Holland, pacing the film well, knows when to come up for air."
16. 02/06/12 Good (Not Great) "...a mildly experimental commercial film, and, for the most part, it's loose-limbed fun... [until] it becomes a cautionary tale..."
17. 01/23/12 Good (Not Great) "...has no greater ambition than to engage our dreams of behaving badly."
18.
Haywire (2012)
New Yorker
01/23/12 Good (Not Great) "...a divertissement; it's lightweight and almost meaningless except for the fights, which are extraordinarily violent."
19. 01/23/12 Moderate "Normally, Wiseman finds humanity in people we're reluctant to look at. This time, he shows us gorgeous people, but never gets beneath the surface. [He] seems to have found a paragon but lost his sense of humor and proportion."
20. 01/09/12 Moderate "At the craft level, the movie is skillful. Yet whimsy and sentimentality blight whatever is good in it."

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