|
| 21. |
|
11/02/12 |
Moderate |
 "...lacks the creepy immediacy of even the most misbegotten of the found-footage genre... it might have a point, but it has no dramatic structure or sense of suspense." |
| 22. |
|
11/02/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...haunting.... The movie captures a kind of tragedy of self. Who, really, are you under the X-ray of pressure and can that person be overlooked or forgiven?" |
| 23. |
|
11/02/12 |
Very Good |
 "...ought to be seen to be believed, on the largest screen you can find... a vehicular picaresque that deserves a permanent parking spot in the Lynch-Cronenberg garage." |
| 24. |
|
11/02/12 |
Very Good |
 "...feels like an event, one whose like we might not see at the movies anytime soon: a real-live star working at the height of his everything." |
| 25. |
|
10/26/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "You do feel for Kate -- Winstead is an inarguably warm actor. She's just not doing the sort of work that transcends the movie's shortcomings." |
| 26. |
|
10/26/12 |
Moderate |
 "You have to really believe in messianic innocence and by-the-numbers screenwriting... the film's a kind of success. Come for the surfing. Stay for the sainthood." |
| 27. |
|
10/26/12 |
Very Good |
 "...it must be seen purely as a work of political commentary, as allegorical melodrama.... Lévy takes her own shamelessness so seriously that we do, too." |
| 28. |
|
10/20/12 |
Moderate |
 "Same conceit, new home.... Installment four, which actually appears to be following installment two, has a few more special effects than its predecessors..." |
| 29. |
|
10/19/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...forceful in its delicacy... Its realism curves outward into melodrama, the classical kind that relies on the power of imagery, symbolism, and circumstance to wreck you." |
| 30. |
|
10/19/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Mortality lurks politely, as it tends to in movies like this... The comedy veers from wacky and overwritten to truly, beautifully sad..." |
| 31. |
|
10/19/12 |
Weak |
 "...it's greedy to want thematic ambition from a movie this badly made. Two minutes of even competent camerawork during the climactic showdown is asking too much." |
| 32. |
|
10/12/12 |
Moderate |
 "I didn't hate this movie. The first one was far worse -- mercifully, the cast and director have all been replaced... For some, this is a ridiculous movie. For others, it's scripture." |
| 33. |
|
10/12/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "What Sachs does that distinguishes his movie is strip away the stress and the drama and the wildness. But the movie over-blurs the line between plain and plaintive." |
| 34. |
|
10/12/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...aspires to be some kind of self-conscious amalgam of 'In Cold Blood' and 'The Shining.' It doesn't happen even though Hawke is ready, willing, and able..." |
| 35. |
|
10/12/12 |
Very Good |
 "I don't mean the movie's full of McGuffins and red herrings, although there are those. I mean, the case is just a complete afterthought. That's how horny the movie is." |
| 36. |
|
10/12/12 |
Very Good |
 "You spend more than half of this film waiting for the line separating rationality from sanity to stop moving, and it never really does. That's an achievement." |
| 37. |
|
10/12/12 |
Very Good |
 "As a director, Pollack and Pakula are pretty much where Affleck is: a smart, talented classicist who's good with actors and the rhythms of storytelling..." |
| 38. |
|
10/05/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...a discreetly dramatic 77-minute microcosm through which you can appreciate different facets of the country's mood. It's all here..." |
| 39. |
|
10/05/12 |
Moderate |
 "...its righteousness wears you down... It's as if Heineman and Froemke think that we won't know where they stand unless they're telling us every five minutes." |
| 40. |
|
10/05/12 |
Moderate |
 "The absurdity grows like mold in the dank, dark of seriousness. So it's fun for some of the right reasons, but mostly for the wrong ones... The revenge has lost all its fantasy." |
