|
| 1. |
|
03/21/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...almost finds a middle ground... It's both chamber drama and experimental found-footage film.... eventually approaches overkill in the montage-heavy climax." |
| 2. |
|
03/22/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
"The ticking clock effectively set, Ferrara's characters essentially make the worst of it.... they fall back on the stale running dramas of their lives..." |
| 3. |
|
05/12/11 |
Weak |
 "Film's rep was bolstered when a Spanish judge levied child-porn charges against the head of the Sitges Film Festival for showing the movie. The version opening in the States has been edited..." |
| 4. |
|
05/11/11 |
Weak |
"...the sickest film ever... does have glimmers of comic relief, mostly via crazed filmmaker Vukmir, who -- even as his star has nearly beaten him to death -- lets the cameras roll and cheers him on: 'That's the cinema!' " |
| 5. |
|
07/25/12 |
Very Good |
 "A valuable primer on how an artist becomes an enemy of the (closed) state he works in, 'Never Sorry' is unexpectedly substantive as a character study." |
| 6. |
|
08/02/12 |
Very Good |
"Klayman champions Ai while politely revealing that he's not a saint; in fact, his gluttonous human appetites (for food, for women) border on self-destructive." |
| 7. |
|
11/03/11 |
Very Good |
 "...a wrenching dissection of the madness of real-world storytelling, the destructive potential of the cinema-influenced narratives we play out as coping mechanisms." |
| 8. |
|
05/20/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...challenges the audience to bear witness to something they've never seen on screen before: a realistically slow death, and all the unpleasantness it entails..." |
| 9. |
|
12/08/10 |
Excellent |
 "...a fascinating posthumous documentary on the writer/actor/monologist... both an invaluable portfolio of Gray's talent, and a tribute rendered in the style of its subject." |
| 10. |
|
12/09/10 |
Excellent |
"Eschewing traditional documentary devices like intertitles and talking heads allows Gray to tell his own story more or less chronologically, mostly via his own work..." |
| 11. |
|
07/20/11 |
Weak |
 "...it becomes clear that Marling's primary -- if potentially unconscious -- subject is the politics and mechanics of beauty as a tool of manipulation." |
| 12. |
|
07/21/11 |
Weak |
"Handheld, grainy and underlit... routinely so ugly that Brit Marling's extravagant, appropriately otherworldly beauty functions as its most impressive special effect." |
| 13. |
|
12/30/10 |
Poor |
 "The further the characters are etched, the harder it becomes to figure out with whom Leigh intends us to identify..." |
| 14. |
|
12/29/10 |
Poor |
"...full of highly exaggerated performances that intermittently tip into caricature... openly invited me to revile each and every one of its characters..." |
| 15. |
|
10/10/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...the kind of quality adult film that really shouldn't be an endangered species, and a love letter from Affleck to the industry that made him..." |
| 16. |
|
10/11/12 |
Outstanding |
"...a 'gritty' historical drama overwhelmed by its love of Hollywood as an inventor of imaginary narratives with real consequences..." |
| 17. |
|
11/03/11 |
Good |
 "...its ideal viewer will come in with the information necessary to fill in its many blanks.... Swanberg's actors are like objects whose movements through the frame are meant to enact variations on themes." |
| 18. |
|
03/31/11 |
Weak |
 "...attempts to romanticize Arthur and Naomi's shared childlike naïveté and chaste affection..." |
| 19. |
|
04/06/11 |
Weak |
"...rebuilt to suit slinky British sleaze-comedian Russell Brand, whose constant nattering rarely transcends throat-clearing improv." |
| 20. |
|
11/03/11 |
Very Good |
 "...swings from dry comedy to allegorical musical numbers to unabashed sentimentality on a soundtrack of French chanteuse pop and the tape-deck post-punk of Suicide." |
