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| 1. |
|
02/25/12 |
Fair |
 "...ultra-slick variation on the well-established 'Love, Actually' formula is at heart an elaborate showcase for thespian eye-candy." |
| 2. |
|
09/26/11 |
Fair |
 "Corny, calculating... stuffed chock full of hard-knock life lessons that owe much more to the conventions of the screen than the tough realities of social deprivation and of the severely handicapped." |
| 3. |
|
09/23/11 |
Fair |
 "3D swashbuckler wields a disappointingly blunt sword.... there's an unmistakable and frustrating 'end of part one' mood to the final sequence, though making this ending so open and sequel-ready may turn out to be over-optimistic." |
| 4. |
|
09/10/11 |
Very Good |
 "...wonderfully off-beat... this is in many ways Greta Gerwig's show: She's pitch-perfect here, infuriating and irresistible as a woman genuinely determined to influence world history by inventing a new dance-craze." |
| 5. |
|
09/09/11 |
Fair |
 "Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jessica Chastain provide further evidence that they're essentially character-players rather than fledgling movie stars..." |
| 6. |
|
09/06/11 |
Poor |
 "Suspenseless, uninvolving and underdeveloped... about as scary and menacing as the harmless lepidoptera in the film's title." |
| 7. |
|
09/05/11 |
Good |
 "Based on actual people and events... a bittersweet, unmistakably heartfelt look at ties between people who aren't blood relations but who have in effect a mother/son bond." |
| 8. |
|
09/04/11 |
Very Good |
 "...a fascinating documentary examining the current state of the world's oldest profession... a non-exploitative eye-opener." |
| 9. |
|
08/31/11 |
Fair |
 "There's probably a decent enough film lurking somewhere in this overlong, overcomplicated, double-pronged, supernatural-tinged tale of amour fou, but it's frustratingly absent from [writer/director/editor Jean-Marc Vallée's] final cut." |
| 10. |
|
07/28/11 |
Outstanding |
 "An outstanding Russian drama of fractured families, money and quiet desperation... stands out by harking back to classic noir thrillers." |
| 11. |
|
02/28/11 |
Weak |
 "...tedious... two actors perform in what could be a porno movie, or perhaps a misguided art-movie with porno elements.... Swanberg repeatedly punctures the mood with shots of himself pondering the editing process." |
| 12. |
|
02/28/11 |
Weak |
 "A tedious double-whammy of scrappy, mid-length, no-budget indie movies on the navel-gazing theme of scrappy, no-budget, indie-moviemaking.... Swanberg's choppy cutting between different layers of film-within-film yields diminishing rewards." |
| 13. |
|
02/17/11 |
Good |
 "The life and times and current plight of incarcerated Russian oil-billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky are given a thorough examination... an accessible behind-the-headlines documentary..." |
| 14. |
|
02/09/11 |
Fair |
 "If ever a film cried out for the 3D treatment, it's 'The Mill & the Cross,' an ambitious but frustratingly flat attempt to explore, analyze and dramatize a masterpiece of 16th-century art." |
| 15. |
|
11/01/10 |
Good |
 "...has its share of hokey, corny moments but has sufficient charm, largely thanks to Hernán Mauricio Ocampo, to ensure it never tiptoes into dangerously mawkish, over-sentimental terrain." |
| 16. |
|
10/14/10 |
Outstanding |
 "...breathtakingly impressive.... Scattered with moments of genuine transcendence, it steadily builds in emotional impact and never comes across as any kind of over-rarefied intellectual exercise." |
| 17. |
|
02/15/10 |
Moderate |
 "...so-so... the bland title and featureless Milan settings fit a picture that's content to competently and unimaginatively traverse exceedingly familiar terrain." |
| 18. |
|
11/16/09 |
Good |
 "...as a whole isn't without its faults, but there's enough here to detain admirers of contemporary Euro art-cinema - particularly those who want to be challenged but not too excessively shaken." |
| 19. |
|
11/16/09 |
Moderate |
 "...a glacier-paced experimental independent feature that downplays narrative development in favor of elemental atmospherics with intriguing but ultimately frustrating results." |
| 20. |
|
02/24/09 |
Weak |
 "Talky analysis of modern-day relationships and insecurities can't quite shake its self-satisfied air of modish inconsequentiality.... likely to mainly inspire exasperated 'so what?' reactions..." |
