|
| 1. |
|
05/17/12 |
Excellent |
 "As humane as it is disturbing... documentary-mimicking drama is designed to evoke the experience of working a beat that can never become routine." |
| 2. |
|
05/17/12 |
Poor |
 "The screenwriters have to tie themselves in knots to get to a scene that actually echoes the board game... once they have, the outcome is more or less incoherent." |
| 3. |
|
05/17/12 |
Excellent |
 "If Zvyagintsev casts a quietly disgusted gaze on what has become of his country after the promise of perestroika, his vision of eternal human frailty is inescapably tragic and religious -- and brutally unforgiving." |
| 4. |
|
05/17/12 |
Weak |
 "...disappointingly limp... plays like a Merchant Ivory Production of 'Portnoy's Complaint'... the real problem with 'Hysteria' is that it's not the tiniest bit sexy." |
| 5. |
|
05/17/12 |
Fair |
 "...there's something fundamentally synthetic about 'Virginia,' which lays bare its influences without doing much to reanimate them." |
| 6. |
|
05/11/12 |
Moderate |
 "...handsome, vaguely true to the old soap opera, and inert... just kind of batty." |
| 7. |
|
05/10/12 |
Weak |
 "...doesn't deserve to be remembered as much of anything. What is watchable here is made possible by the sheer will of the gifted Moretz, who's in every scene as the precocious Luli." |
| 8. |
|
05/10/12 |
Very Good |
 "...invites us into the world of a child in more ways than one... The director scores life in suburban Japan mostly with bouncy, playful tones and quirky instrumentation." |
| 9. |
|
05/10/12 |
Moderate |
 "...the sort of well-meaning fable that's ultimately more admirable than persuasive.... All it offers is a picturesque location, likable characters and the best of intentions." |
| 10. |
|
05/10/12 |
Good |
 "...smart if outlandish... Writer/director Gerald Hustache-Mathieu keeps the viewer off balance not with dramatic shocks but with unexpected and often incongruous flourishes." |
| 11. |
|
05/10/12 |
Good |
 "...there's an underlying sweetness and ethical urgency to Goldthwait's work... Frank is on a moral mission; like every knight he has a code of honor..." |
| 12. |
|
05/10/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...isn't always completely elegant about getting its point across, but its imperfections are only human -- a quality, as Sarah eventually realizes, that can have its own appeal." |
| 13. |
|
05/04/12 |
Moderate |
 "It's difficult not to admire the film for its intentions... But its gentle, sentimental approach prevents it from ever really getting at the pain that's been swirling around this imperfect family for years." |
| 14. |
|
05/03/12 |
Good |
 "...enjoyably zingy... a caped-crusader movie can aspire to greater things. But nobody says it has to, and Joss Whedon just wants 'The Avengers' to be fun. Which it is." |
| 15. |
|
05/03/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a terrific cast reduced to beige shades of nice... It's a sweet-tempered folly in which all's well that ends well." |
| 16. |
|
05/03/12 |
Moderate |
 "...may be slick enough to reach people who aren't already familiar with such substances as 'new water,' atrazine and hexavalent chromium." |
| 17. |
|
05/03/12 |
Good |
 "...a good film clearly made with love.... But it feels at times like it's marching through a set of stories without pausing long enough to learn a lot about them..." |
| 18. |
|
05/03/12 |
Very Good |
 "...manages to turn the grimmest of grim subjects into something charming, raunchy and improbably uplifting.... the sweetness of the story proves to be kind of superhuman." |
| 19. |
|
04/27/12 |
Good |
 "...weird, endearingly messy... feels poignant and real in a way few raunch comedies are." |
| 20. |
|
04/27/12 |
Very Good |
 "...an eccentric delight. We may know little more about its antihero at the end than we did at the beginning, but the journey is more than worth the price of admission." |
