|
| 1. |
|
10/15/10 |
Moderate |
 "These days young Romanian directors seem to be indulging in a frenzied round of macho competition: How long can we baffle and bore the audience before we deliver the goods?... offers a subtle social critique that is diminished because we've expended so much effort figuring out what the hell was going on." |
| 2. |
|
10/15/10 |
Good |
 "...a delightful, sexy, and often audacious crowd-pleaser, though at times gratingly cute... so French, that most international audiences will be completely baffled by its very specific topical references." |
| 3. |
|
10/15/10 |
Fair |
 "...all over the place and (purposely) impossible to follow... Godard films are much less fun to actually watch than they are to argue about afterward." |
| 4. |
|
10/15/10 |
Good |
 "...heartfelt yet very modest... Director Haroun is uninterested in big war scenes and is best at evoking the little details of life... his camera techniques aren't flashy, but rather quietly powerful..." |
| 5. |
|
10/15/10 |
Weak |
 "...visuals aren't everything, of course, and despite some semi-surprising twists near the end, 'Red Hill' is weighed down and finally destroyed by too many cliches and a lack of clarity about what's being attempted." |
| 6. |
|
10/14/10 |
Excellent |
 "It's all based on music -- raw, elemental and percussive -- out of which genuine laughs are wrung from beginning to end.... 'Sound of Noise' may be small in scope, but, in terms of imagination, it's huge." |
| 7. |
|
10/14/10 |
Good |
 "It's gorgeously shot, and the weight of the Iranian present can be palpably felt, but for most viewers this will not be enough.... it's impeccable on a purely formal level." |
| 8. |
|
10/14/10 |
Good |
 "...informative... surprisingly dramatic.... [but] director-screenwriter Andrei Ucija offers not a single word of explanatory voiceover over its three-hour running time, an unfortunate aesthetic decision..." |
| 9. |
|
10/14/10 |
Very Good |
 "The film's very brilliance is what proves so disappointing, because it promises so much more than it ever delivers. It ends up being a psychological study with no psyche to study." |
| 10. |
|
05/17/10 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...militantly superficial and revels overmuch in its campy gay sensibility, but it is sporadically fun if not taken too seriously." |
| 11. |
|
05/13/10 |
Moderate |
 "...vintage De Oliveira... but it's a vintage that may have passed its prime.... an art film of the purest, most hothouse variety... The only thing that's missing in this ultra-formalist exercise is any sense of real, breathing life." |
| 12. |
|
02/16/10 |
Poor |
 "...virtually every aspect of this misbegotten film misfires.... people talk, or are artificially interrogated by the unseen interviewer, and all that results is banality." |
| 13. |
|
09/24/09 |
Good |
 "...emotional manipulation of the audience is constant and obvious.... [but] director Bruce Beresford knows exactly what he is doing at every moment, and most viewers will be more than happy to go along for the ride." |
| 14. |
|
09/23/09 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "We watch with bated (or bored) breath for 78 minutes as crazy people sing crazily, destroy furniture, smash dolls' heads with hammers, tap dance, power wash wheel chairs, eat pancakes with dishwashing liquid on them... and so on." |
| 15. |
|
09/18/09 |
Good |
 "A visually and aurally gorgeous film that will be too violent for some and too slow for others." |
| 16. |
|
09/16/09 |
Good |
 "What 'Manus' has going for it is two things: the almost Hollywood-level slickness of its high production values and the profound depth of Max's despondency at the end of the film... always engaging..." |
| 17. |
|
09/16/09 |
Outstanding |
 "With her remarkable debut as a director, Drew Barrymore proves that she is just as perky, quirky and talented behind the camera as in front of it." |
| 18. |
|
05/22/09 |
Poor |
 "It goes without saying that the film is violent, but its obsessive emphasis on sex and drugs -- to the point that most viewers are going to feel utterly bludgeoned by both -- makes it virtually unwatchable..." |
| 19. |
|
05/22/09 |
Outstanding |
 "There's really very little to say about this film beyond that it's absolutely brilliant." |
| 20. |
|
05/21/09 |
Outstanding |
 "...comes with an uncompromising moral point-of-view attached.... a superb cinematic work and an appropriately serious one..." |
