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| 1. |
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05/08/12 |
Outstanding |
 " 'Bonsái' understands the orgasmic appeal of old bulky tomes... It knows how entangled the will to know is with the will to make love.... to touch the lover's body, and listen to what it has to say." |
| 2. |
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05/03/12 |
Poor |
 "...director Anne Renton turns the film into an anodyne tale of family-centered acceptance that's neither comical when it wants to be nor touching when it strivers for pathos." |
| 3. |
|
04/25/12 |
Moderate |
 "...more concerned with exposing the linear history of the resilient company, and singing its praises, than with allowing us to absorb its importance visually." |
| 4. |
|
04/21/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...a beautiful tale of alienation, solitude, and existential anxiety, respecting very basic rules of European cinema of the best kind... unfolds with the unhurriedness of real time." |
| 5. |
|
04/18/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a perfectly fun date movie for West Hollywood gays and their yogi fag hags, who are sure to scream in unison 'That is so us!'... The film can feel both refreshingly honest and embarrassingly Lifetime movie-like." |
| 6. |
|
04/12/12 |
Poor |
 "...wants us to believe its message is one of female independence and empowerment, which it seems to equate to a woman's willingness to pay any price for her horniness..." |
| 7. |
|
03/29/12 |
Very Good |
 "A series of slow-moving takes propelled by the gusty winds of its serene coastal landscapes... portrays the unlikely relationship between two very bored people.... has a consistent documentary-like hyper-realist style..." |
| 8. |
|
03/29/12 |
Very Good |
 "...a remarkably well-edited and authentic piece of filmmaking that's both exhilaratingly fun (think a less self-indulgent, and definitely less queer 'Kaboom') and socially conscious -- to a limit." |
| 9. |
|
03/15/12 |
Very Good |
 "...a lovely little film that follows what fleeting moments of uncertainty do to a Baptist community in South Carolina.... explores the general dynamic of deceit of American suburbia par excellence..." |
| 10. |
|
03/13/12 |
Poor |
 "...its humor is built on the reiteration of the notion that Mexicans are helplessly uncivilized (the women are hot bimbos, the men are ignorant beasts) in dire need for a blue-eyed American to come save them from themselves." |
| 11. |
|
03/07/12 |
Moderate |
 "...tries so hard to keep up with the quirkiness and theatricality of its subjects that it ends up canceling them out." |
| 12. |
|
02/17/12 |
Very Good |
 "...can feel deceivingly soap-opera-ish at times, but its lightheartedness and overtly traditional narrative structure become a smart strategy for crafting what is ultimately a very nuanced political critique of capital." |
| 13. |
|
02/15/12 |
Weak |
 "While 'Love' can be a feast for the eyes, it all seems obnoxiously contained by a need to arrive at the most sentimental conclusions possible. It's also neither very thought-provoking nor very fun." |
| 14. |
|
02/08/12 |
Weak |
 "The most interesting moments are when it allows for Shakespeare to simply haunt the film as opposed to taking it over so blatantly..." |
| 15. |
|
01/24/12 |
Poor |
 "The film wants to be some sort of non-puritan (queer?) version of 'Before Sunrise, Before Sunset,' or 'Lost in Translation,' but its screenplay is too wordy to be able to feign inspired originality..." |
| 16. |
|
01/21/12 |
Moderate |
 "The tension between the amateurish interviewer and the star interviewees who either school the filmmaker, roll their eyes, or belittle him gives 'Ultrasuede' a layer of authenticity that its otherwise formulaic structure and storytelling fail to find." |
| 17. |
|
12/13/11 |
Weak |
 "...what begins as a puzzling situation with rather competent dialogue soon founders into a formulaic denouement." |
| 18. |
|
12/11/11 |
Very Good |
 "Madonna handles this film like a masterful aesthetician. The absolutely enthralling soundtrack patches everything together along with the grainy handheld close-ups..." |
| 19. |
|
12/01/11 |
Poor |
 "...so inept at developing itself as a film that it hands in all of its devices to the soundtrack itself and becomes a music video. Offensive." |
| 20. |
|
11/14/11 |
Outstanding |
 "...one of those little big films whose simplicity and concision suggest the excess of meaning that language (cinematic or otherwise) could never account for.... The film's ideas brew effortlessly before our eyes, as if it were too invested in its characters' experiences to worry about 'selling' us its story or 'teaching' us its messages." |
