|
| 1. |
|
05/16/12 |
Poor |
 "...a tedious, clumsy diddle, constantly reminding viewers how much progress has been made since the Victorian era." |
| 2. |
|
05/16/12 |
Good |
 "The protracted section with the sour, loud middle-age blind man and his family is uneven, yet viewers can grow only so irritable when a dog (or series of dogs) as magnificent as this one is on-screen." |
| 3. |
|
05/09/12 |
Poor |
 "...unconvincing, flawed matriarch Eva Mendes and junior showboat Cierra Ramirez appear to be acting in entirely different movies." |
| 4. |
|
04/25/12 |
Weak |
 "There is exactly one unexpected moment in the otherwise drearily predictable movie... The rest is much like the doughnuts that Violet uses in a research experiment: stale and not good for you." |
| 5. |
|
04/25/12 |
Weak |
 "...commits the usual sins of the embalmed literary biopic. The rage of the delicate artist against bourgeois convention is telegraphed... it's sincere, amateurish, and misguided." |
| 6. |
|
04/18/12 |
Weak |
 "The handsome pooch is the only appealing aspect of the latest tale of privileged boomer pulse-taking from Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote the script with his wife, Meg..." |
| 7. |
|
04/18/12 |
Very Good |
 "Thoroughly researched and packed with phenomenal archival footage... a rousing tribute to a mesmerizing performer that forgoes blind hero worship." |
| 8. |
|
04/18/12 |
Weak |
 "...bloated with plot thickets propelled by depressing heterosexual-coupling stratagems and counterattacks that would make even Sun Tzu weep with exhaustion..." |
| 9. |
|
04/11/12 |
Poor |
 "When the truth (or believability) isn't being stretched, everything else -- character details, sudden new sources of income -- is kept vague." |
| 10. |
|
04/11/12 |
Good |
 "...it's filled not just with corpses but also the living dead.... Often drolly, coolly morbid, 'Post Mortem' also operates just as effectively in a more nakedly direct register." |
| 11. |
|
04/11/12 |
Moderate |
 "Impersonally directed by cinéma du look pioneer Luc Besson... written by first-timer Rebecca Frayn, whose script has all the elegance and nuance of Google Translate." |
| 12. |
|
04/05/12 |
Good |
 "...a hopeful portrait of a crusader, now inadvertently a record of a bygone era: Mohamed Nasheed was forced to leave office February 7, the result of a coup by loyalists to Nasheed's predecessor..." |
| 13. |
|
04/04/12 |
Moderate |
 "The original Latin title of Moretti's tragicomedy, a soft send-up of the Catholic Church, is 'Habemus Papam.' The 'am' in the second word should be chopped off." |
| 14. |
|
04/04/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...it is too many films in one: a man-against-nature thriller; a mystery... a family drama centering on a loner's transformation to protective paternal figure." |
| 15. |
|
03/28/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...jokey pseudo-provocation.... Systad Jacobsen, working with a cast of mostly first-time actors, reveals her strengths with the more fully conceived supporting characters." |
| 16. |
|
03/21/12 |
Excellent |
 "Director Joachim Trier proves to be unparalleled in exposing the foibles and delusions of all the sad young literary men." |
| 17. |
|
03/21/12 |
Good |
 "Like the pacing of the novel, the film, even at almost two and a half hours, moves briskly, continuously drawing us in." |
| 18. |
|
03/14/12 |
Good |
 "...empathic... features excellent young actors, particularly Allison Torem... there are several moments that impressively upend cliché, especially among the flawed adults in the high school seniors' lives..." |
| 19. |
|
03/14/12 |
Weak |
 "With her ponytail and toggle coat, Audrey Tautou, playing workaholic widow Nathalie, gives off a sexless, cutie-pie charm -- not as aggressively as she did in 'Amélie,' but still gratingly." |
| 20. |
|
03/14/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...announces its cynicism from the start.... packs in more references to dicks and dick-sucking than 20 'Manhunt' profiles." |
