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| 1. |
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05/13/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...authentically twentysomething circa the 2010s: part entrepreneurial, part self-loathing, and thoroughly bewildered.... contrapuntalism is Perry's way of rhyming form with contemporary human drama." |
| 2. |
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04/13/12 |
Very Good |
 "...contains some of the most Lubitschian of filmic content in recent memory, even if it lacks the director's most prized stylistic paradox -- namely, his delicate frankness." |
| 3. |
|
04/09/12 |
Moderate |
 "More of an LP supplement than a documentary proper... The title of the movie refers not to the formation of the Punch Brothers per se, but to the road from putative ingenuity to (implied) market acceptance." |
| 4. |
|
03/07/12 |
Very Good |
 "Rife with rhythmic, haunting meditations on violence and misogyny, the cinema of Nina Menkes has often been described as feminist, but it's more playfully situated in the tradition of fringe auteurs..." |
| 5. |
|
02/01/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Director Laura Israel arranges this material with a transparent agenda... whatever the legitimate arguments 'Windfall' makes against the industry it targets, [the city of] Meredith's feuding becomes just as inaccessible as the windmills that incite it." |
| 6. |
|
01/18/12 |
Very Good |
 "What Freidrichs has accomplished is a portrait of unknowability.... Rather than observing pride amid declining fortunes, we're witnesses to a surprisingly monotone 80 minutes of thumping unease." |
| 7. |
|
01/10/12 |
Weak |
 "...winds up looking a bit like a plodding advertisement for a product that no one but you, and a few very select others, can afford.... Oh, the things that money can buy." |
| 8. |
|
12/12/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...patiently unspools... After the film tethers its narrative to the class action suit against Big Five Tobacco, it can't help but totter into anti-climax." |
| 9. |
|
12/08/11 |
Moderate |
 "There's a winking, spritely nature to this ridiculous content, but it's rendered impossible to follow by a lack of meaningful relationships that might transcend the film's multiple threads.... the demonic-looking carousels and likeable performances deserve less confused parody." |
| 10. |
|
11/22/11 |
Moderate |
 "...the testimonies [director Johanna Demetrakas] assembles do attempt to consolidate [the points of view] with [Tibetan philosopher Chögyam Trungpa's] spiritual objectives -- confusingly and poorly." |
| 11. |
|
11/13/11 |
Moderate |
 "The lack of intimate residue left behind by the couple creates cinematic problems that are exacerbated by the movie's general incompetence." |
| 12. |
|
10/31/11 |
Very Good |
 "...a gentle portrait of aural genius... follows Steinway & Sons' chief technician, Stefan Knüpfer, through a series of piano repairs and calibrations during the months, hours, and seconds leading up to star recitals in the famed Vienna Concert House." |
| 13. |
|
10/06/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...exposes a crucial social dialectic without affixing a relatable, if reductive, human face to the center.... an illustration of the many arbitrary limitations of our judicial system." |
| 14. |
|
09/25/11 |
Moderate |
 "...a curious blend of teacher-appreciation mandate and recruitment video -- though it's not always clear at whom the narration's gravely spoken factoids are directed.... aside from the sprinkling of these PowerPoint-like diversions, 'American Teacher' rather shamelessly vies for our pity." |
| 15. |
|
09/11/11 |
Moderate |
 "A nearly two-hour assembly of quasi-biographical fluff... feels pitifully lifeless and inhuman." |
| 16. |
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09/04/11 |
Weak |
 "...essentially a series of multiplex-ready clichés adorning a weakly scandalous premise.... feels like a half-hearted deviation from the otherwise aggressive fidelity to Hollywood plug-and-play-isms. Broadness this indolent hardly even stirs one to antipathy." |
| 17. |
|
08/30/11 |
Moderate |
 "...ultimately clunks by without arousing much interest in Justin Duerr or even, incredibly, the lambasting of 'hellion Jews.' " |
| 18. |
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08/21/11 |
Weak |
 "...maddeningly blunt and syrupy... third-world documentary filmmaking at its most exploitatively surface-groping.... maybe Bangladesh's tears aren't entirely useless after all: They put America's financial frowny face vaguely into perspective." |
| 19. |
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08/16/11 |
Very Good |
 "...while the film has the plaintive spirit of a humanitarian portrait, directors Lynn True, Nelson Walker, and Tsering Perlo have more valuably developed a time capsule of rural Asian idiosyncrasy." |
| 20. |
|
08/11/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "A sun-stroked profile of kook assemblage in a small, dry, ex-mining community at the outskirts of Death Valley.... doesn't so much flesh out its subjects as slowly tear their Band-Aids off after administering some putatively good-natured noogies." |
