|
| 1. |
|
05/09/13 |
Moderate |
 "...much funnier and weirder in theory than in practice.... lost itself in the balancing act between flirting with the nonsensical and refusing to give up the safety of the literal." |
| 2. |
|
05/01/13 |
Poor |
 "...excruciatingly conventional... it all just gives the alienating feel of inside jokes that you miss in the off chance you're not part of the professional magic business." |
| 3. |
|
04/25/13 |
Very Good |
 "...manages to capture that delightful moment when a person who's normally just a function is finally acknowledged as a person with something to say." |
| 4. |
|
04/23/13 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "The dialogue sometimes rings forced, and the narrative too episodic, even rushed in its desire to establish its point.... Seidl simply goes through the motions..." |
| 5. |
|
04/02/13 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...feels pleasurable and purposeful when it doesn't try so hard, like a teenager, to prove its authenticity." |
| 6. |
|
03/29/13 |
Moderate |
 "The narrative sequences feel almost soap opera-like when compared to the unspeakable sadness, and the gravitas, conveyed by Parra's lyrics and rhythm." |
| 7. |
|
03/21/13 |
Moderate |
 "...peppers its conventional storyline with inside jokes about Los Angeles that are so good, and actually funny, precisely because it may take an Angelino to get them." |
| 8. |
|
03/15/13 |
Outstanding |
 "...a raw, sophisticated, and stomach-turning look at what it means to be a young woman in Serbia, what it means to be a woman tout court." |
| 9. |
|
03/09/13 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...an exposé of how the financial structures that make businesses possible in America seem to conspire against genuine good will and non-self-serving ambition..." |
| 10. |
|
02/28/13 |
Poor |
 "...feels like a 130-minute video-game cutscene in which lots of savage Arabs die under the might of Western weaponry... a dull piece of Orientalist rubbish..." |
| 11. |
|
02/13/13 |
Weak |
 "...the passive-aggressive manners of cosmopolitan denizens don't lend themselves to very gripping drama.... We never buy the pseudo-spontaneity of its characters..." |
| 12. |
|
02/06/13 |
Moderate |
 "...at two hours and 15 minutes, it grows old, aimless, and thin -- as though director Matt Boyd himself was too comfortable in the safe familiarity of the surface..." |
| 13. |
|
01/24/13 |
Very Good |
 "The film is at its finest as a catalogue of Yossi's unspoken ache, less so when it begins to flirt with the clichés of the love story..." |
| 14. |
|
01/09/13 |
Moderate |
 "Without a consistent stylistic playfulness to match the histrionic scenarios, the action often feels just plain silly." |
| 15. |
|
12/12/12 |
Very Good |
 "...the film's most redeeming quality is that it isn't so quick to neuter its queer characters into a package-friendly 'gay couple' aesthetic a la 'Modern Family.' " |
| 16. |
|
12/07/12 |
Poor |
 "The film fails because, though it means to deal with questions of intimacy, it's shot using the lifeless aesthetic conventionality of a bad television drama..." |
| 17. |
|
11/28/12 |
Poor |
 "...the film feels, much like its protagonist's persona, fake.... it never gives its main character a chance to go beyond what we expect her to be." |
| 18. |
|
11/27/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "There's a cinematic attempt at restitution, at a piecing together that's bound to always fail, yet never fails to produce some other unaccounted-for meaning, or feeling." |
| 19. |
|
11/14/12 |
Moderate |
 "...while Julio Medem's film remains inside the lovers' heads from beginning to end, Youssef isn't as consistent in her approach to the impossibility of love." |
| 20. |
|
11/06/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "There's a limit to its understatedness... the film keeps going back to more predictable American tropes of narrative twists and revealed secrets." |
