|
| 1. |
|
05/10/12 |
Good |
 "...there's an underlying sweetness and ethical urgency to Goldthwait's work... Frank is on a moral mission; like every knight he has a code of honor..." |
| 2. |
|
05/03/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a terrific cast reduced to beige shades of nice... It's a sweet-tempered folly in which all's well that ends well." |
| 3. |
|
04/26/12 |
Excellent |
 "...a sympathetic but probing account of the rise, fall and rebirth of a movement that defined the early character of the fledgling state of Israel." |
| 4. |
|
04/19/12 |
Weak |
 "Kasdan has assembled a cast of fine actors, assigned each of them a single personality trait to complicate their fundamental decency, and instructed them to work it to death." |
| 5. |
|
04/12/12 |
Fair |
 "Besson handles evil with crude efficiency, but he's completely out of his depth with the nuances of character, motivation and flawed connection required by a realist movie." |
| 6. |
|
03/15/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "As a study in how a man learns to become a parent to himself and to others, 'Detachment' may grip your soul. But its end-state despair about our cities and our schools feels inflated, showy and quite possibly beside the point." |
| 7. |
|
03/08/12 |
Good |
 "...the crisply sweet banter and the halting intimacy that grows between two shy people with a common goal more than make up for a wildly implausible plot." |
| 8. |
|
02/28/12 |
Excellent |
 "...an exhilarating evocation of how art is stubbornly made, and arbitrary authority put in its place, under the most confining conditions." |
| 9. |
|
02/23/12 |
Very Good |
 "...[an] ecstatically candy-colored romp... sweetly jubilant..." |
| 10. |
|
02/16/12 |
Very Good |
 "...a straight-ahead, underprivileged-teen drama... Packed with teachable moments and a mostly non-pro cast..." |
| 11. |
|
02/09/12 |
Good |
 "...visceral... Holland slathers on the melodrama... Still, she is far from dewy-eyed about the persistence of the human capacity for evil..." |
| 12. |
|
02/02/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...settles for an amiable communitarianism chased down by a PG group-hug finale. But when the excitement is over, everyone goes back to being very much the compromised souls they were before." |
| 13. |
|
01/26/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...though it's certainly moving, it suffers from a frantically overproduced desperation to hold what the filmmakers seem to fear will be our wavering attention." |
| 14. |
|
01/12/12 |
Weak |
 "Long on hero worship and woefully short on insight... oozes good intentions.... Laden with craggy heroic prototypes, 'Lula' hauls us through its subject's early years in a parade of dogged cause-and-effect vignettes." |
| 15. |
|
01/04/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...ravishingly atmospheric... about the entanglement of life's big-ticket dramas with the red tape that comes with getting through the day.... it's the distractions and elisions, not the official stories, that carry the existential weight of the days of our lives." |
| 16. |
|
12/29/11 |
Outstanding |
 "...a vital first feature... a tender, sporadically goofy, yet candid examination of emergent identity.... the finest coming-of-age movie I've seen in years..." |
| 17. |
|
12/23/11 |
Good |
 "...warm and likable... blessed with a fine ensemble cast." |
| 18. |
|
12/22/11 |
Very Good |
 "Intentionally or not, it has all the ingredients of a child's fable: It's an action adventure edged with grief for a loss so terrible, only signs and portents will serve to comprehend and contain it." |
| 19. |
|
12/08/11 |
Outstanding |
 "The screenplay, by Peter Straughan and his late wife Bridget O'Connor, is debonair. Director Tomas Alfredson's mastery of tone and ambiance is flawless." |
| 20. |
|
12/01/11 |
Very Good |
 "...a docu-thriller of enormous narrative flair and visual smarts. It's a perfect fit for the blend of Greek tragedy, spaghetti Western and judicial farce that defines business and politics in the New Russia." |
