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| 1. |
|
02/02/11 |
Good |
 "Nitpicky enough to please film-history nerds but lively in a way that should tickle the merely curious... deftly traces the lineage of cheapjack, self-distributed cinematic slop to the enduring indie boom." |
| 2. |
|
02/09/11 |
Very Good |
 "...as brave as it is squirmy, but there's a mitigating tenderness here... Bryan Poyser's rhythm is as economically fluid as his narrative is blunt, and the cast is fearlessly in tune..." |
| 3. |
|
02/16/11 |
Very Good |
 "...assured... delicately underplayed scenes interspersed with doc-style question-and-answer exchanges, while initially jarring, achieve maximum cumulative impact..." |
| 4. |
|
02/23/11 |
Poor |
 "...uses race as cheap window dressing for easily digestible bromides and a conclusion as foregone as a Family Circus panel... does a rotten job of preaching to the choir." |
| 5. |
|
02/24/11 |
Poor |
"Despite its predictability, visual blandness and guileless middle-class pandering (the poor may always be with us, but they're generally out of sight here), 'The Grace Card' at least resists proselytizing..." |
| 6. |
|
03/02/11 |
Very Good |
 "Tender irony and dark humor abound... Israeli director Eran Riklis's understated grasp of his story's wider implications pays rich dividends." |
| 7. |
|
03/09/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a good time, even if Gutierrez lacks the narrative and syntactical muscle to pull off the sex-positive Tarantino-esque farce he seems to be after." |
| 8. |
|
03/09/11 |
Very Good |
 "...an inventive indie thriller from 'Murderball' co-director Dana Adam Shapiro.... a crafty, heartfelt, and surprisingly sound affirmation of getting hitched." |
| 9. |
|
03/09/11 |
Good |
 "...a fairly nuanced meditation on the subjectivity of blind faith and its attendant brutality... works as a worthy companion piece to last year's 'Valhalla Rising'..." |
| 10. |
|
03/10/11 |
Very Good |
"...reveals how respect for the humanity of others is a tenuously organic process." |
| 11. |
|
03/10/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
"...gooey-centered heroine embodies the porn industry rather than transcends it, and ultimately plays as that hoariest of Hollywood whores -- the kind with a heart of gold." |
| 12. |
|
03/10/11 |
Good |
"...enough sword-and-sorcery hoo-ha to please the 'Lord of the Rings' demographic... it repeatedly shifts our allegiance from Christians to pagans..." |
| 13. |
|
03/16/11 |
Weak |
 "As devoid of spontaneity as a D.A.'s defense strategy... convoluted and completely predictable... At least McConaughey is game..." |
| 14. |
|
03/16/11 |
Very Good |
 "...absorbing... slyly raises the question of whether Cunningham's self-deprivation and single-minded focus on surface aesthetics have taken an unacknowledged toll." |
| 15. |
|
03/16/11 |
Weak |
 "...practically derailed by several tension-relieving but perplexingly John Hughes-esque comic flourishes and a generally dowdy visual palette." |
| 16. |
|
03/17/11 |
Weak |
"...largely undercut by uninspired direction, car-commercial art direction and a lack of grit that makes the hidebound nature of the genre stand out like an episode of 'Matlock' on HBO." |
| 17. |
|
03/17/11 |
Very Good |
"Shapiro floats sly observations on the benignly predatory wedding industry and the subverted misogyny lurking behind affluent males' knee-jerk anti-matrimonialism." |
| 18. |
|
03/17/11 |
Weak |
"...adaptation of Somalian supermodel Waris Dirie's 1998 autobiography only narrowly escapes PSA purgatory." |
| 19. |
|
03/24/11 |
Very Good |
"...doggedly shadows the chipper octogenarian, foregrounding the modest lifestyle and quietly radical work ethic that have made him as much a hero as an anomaly." |
| 20. |
|
03/30/11 |
Weak |
 "Virtually every documentary cliché from the past decade finds its way into this account of director Joe Cross's weight-loss odyssey, a retread-reversal of 'Super Size Me' right down to the cheesy animation." |
