|
| 1. |
|
05/17/12 |
Weak |
 "...a one-note complaint about how mankind has gone wrong... nothing new here beyond what every conscientious liberal already knows is wrong with the world." |
| 2. |
|
05/10/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a slick entertainment with well-orchestrated chases and bloody shootouts, though its characterizations are shallow and sketchy." |
| 3. |
|
05/10/12 |
Moderate |
 "...a thin excuse for a series of distasteful soft-core sex scenes. For the audience, the sooner these voyeuristic interludes are over, the better. Ditto, this unpleasant movie." |
| 4. |
|
05/03/12 |
Very Good |
 "It can't be a film, because the acclaimed director Jafar Panahi ('The Circle,' etc.) has been ordered not to make any by the Iranian theocrats..." |
| 5. |
|
04/26/12 |
Weak |
 "There's perhaps a witty way to tell this story, but filmmaker Jannicke Systad Jacobsen hasn't found it. What's on screen is stilted and dull..." |
| 6. |
|
04/19/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...a subtle, wise, beautifully rendered tale, with exemplary scenes in the classroom between an amateur cast of savvy children and, as Monsieur Lazhar, a great actor, Mohamed Fellag." |
| 7. |
|
04/12/12 |
Very Good |
 "...a model independent film, a miniature story told with feeling and humor, and Gerwig, recently featured in bigger films ('Greenberg,' etc.) returns deftly to her origins as an indie queen." |
| 8. |
|
04/12/12 |
Weak |
 "...gets rubles for trying, but what's on screen is thin and obvious, the characters one-dimensional, the musical numbers and satire vapid." |
| 9. |
|
03/29/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...among the best films by Belgium's Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and perhaps their most religious... one of the classic international works about juvenile delinquency." |
| 10. |
|
03/15/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...deftly sprinkles wacky humor in with the melancholy, and Gianni Di Gregorio is a winning talent, both as the amusing star actor and as the film's co-writer and director." |
| 11. |
|
03/08/12 |
Very Good |
 "Credit director Marston for a persuasive look at Albanian culture, and for keeping his tense story from trailing off into bloody melodrama." |
| 12. |
|
02/23/12 |
Weak |
 "Much of the first half is annoyingly gimmicky... The second half changes tone completely... finds itself in the engrossing Congressional battle of the 1990s..." |
| 13. |
|
01/26/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...somehow the narrative, from a novella by Ireland's George Moore, never quite becomes as moving as one would wish, despite its unquestionable sincerity." |
| 14. |
|
01/19/12 |
Very Good |
 "...has echoes of Parajanov magic realism combined with a Chekhovian melancholy. It's poetic in the most muted way, a chamber road movie." |
| 15. |
|
01/05/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...a potent documentary correlative to the narrative of 'The Hurt Locker'.... the real-life story of a young marine, Sergeant Nathan Harris, who is brilliant and an inspiring leader in battle but lost and dazed on the home front..." |
| 16. |
|
12/22/11 |
Very Good |
 "...corny, sentimental, overlong, but also spectacular and at times, even stirring. Spielberg sure knows how to orchestrate a big-budget popular movie." |
| 17. |
|
12/15/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "The performances are convincing, but American audiences may find little to care about in the Gallic-specific backstage machinations of Sarkozy's ascendancy." |
| 18. |
|
12/01/11 |
Outstanding |
 "...lovely... the deserving Jury winner at the Berlin Film Festival of the Teddy Award for the Best Gay or Lesbian film." |
| 19. |
|
12/01/11 |
Very Good |
 "For this panorama of black-humor stories, Romania's finest filmmaker, Cristian Mungiu ('4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days') gathered five directors, he among them, to dramatize his short screenplays." |
| 20. |
|
12/01/11 |
Moderate |
 "Filmmaker John Landis, the master comic talent behind 'Animal House' and 'An American Werewolf in London,' falters with this rusty comeback, his first feature since 1998. Still, there are a few funny, anarchic moments..." |
