| 1. |
|
10/23/09 |
Moderate |
"...bland and dull. If serious, hard-core vampire movies for adults are the equivalent of spicy bloody marys, think of this as a watered-down Shirley Temple." |
| 2. |
|
10/23/09 |
Outstanding |
"Michael Sheen's note-perfect reprise of Clough has gone beyond mere imitation and into the realm of inspired representation." |
| 3. |
|
09/25/09 |
Excellent |
"British filmmaker Shane Meadows shows how to make less do more; how to make a movie evoke things you'd swear were beyond its means." |
| 4. |
|
09/18/09 |
Very Good |
"...stylistically breezy but deeply sincere... a thoughtful, well-researched argument for alternative energy.... They have a point about getting us involved." |
| 5. |
|
09/18/09 |
Moderate |
"...feels like a prolonged campfire conversation, filled with weathered, measured talk about holistic thinking and finding a new perspective." |
| 6. |
|
09/04/09 |
Poor |
"...a coming-of-rage summer saga. But without any sizzle.... a story that wants to celebrate quirkiness and individuality in the face of Eisenhower-era conformity, but ends up doing the opposite." |
| 7. |
|
08/21/09 |
Very Good |
"Although the music and drama are overcooked at times and the second half turns darker by the minute, it's hard to resist its underlying humanism." |
| 8. |
|
08/14/09 |
Moderate |
"...the tone (along with the heavy-handed music) is occasionally off-putting, the message -- at least, the facts about the fish -- is harder to shrug off." |
| 9. |
|
08/07/09 |
Very Good |
"...an eye-opener, not only for those who thought the Down Under movie industry amounted to 'Crocodile Dundee' but also for the artier crowd that remembers smarter films of the 1970s." |
| 10. |
|
07/31/09 |
Very Good |
"...uses a mixture of real and fictional footage to revisit Burma's brutal reprisals against its own people in 2007.... poignantly subtle..." |
| 11. |
|
07/17/09 |
Outstanding |
"Finally, a romance that understands we mark our lives by our scrapes with love, and our defeats, rather than simply white-wedding-cake success." |
| 12. |
|
06/12/09 |
Poor |
"With just a few tweaks, 'The Merry Gentleman' could have made a wickedly funny parody of the over-earnest, lyrically hard-edged indie movie. But it's too late for do-overs." |
| 13. |
|
06/05/09 |
Excellent |
"...a comedy that belches mightily -- and amusingly -- in the direction of all those romcoms that seem underwritten by bridal magazines.... it's the male un-romcom." |
| 14. |
|
05/08/09 |
Outstanding |
"...though this confess-u-mentary tells us much about Tyson, it reveals infinitely more about our own internal contradictions." |
| 15. |
|
04/03/09 |
Excellent |
"Part of the thrill is our inviolate confidence that these stars aren't going to die. We know they're as safe behind the wheel as we would be playing the video-game version." |
| 16. |
|
03/27/09 |
Excellent |
"Jan Troell makes films in the European art form of the 1960s and early 1970s.... an old master who patiently accumulates episodic detail and seeks a portrait-like purity in his images." |
| 17. |
|
02/06/09 |
Good (Not Great) |
"...an engaging spectacle more than a connective drama. We enjoy the surface design, but we're never so caught up in the story that we lose our awareness of it. Form and content never blur." |