|
| 1. |
|
01/07/11 |
Very Good |
 "...its oppressive monotony evokes the dissolution of a marriage shockingly well.... the bad vibes just keep rippling." |
| 2. |
|
12/22/10 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...amusing and impressive as it is, the film is an arm's-length experience without much emotional power." |
| 3. |
|
12/10/10 |
Very Good |
 "...messiness has an upside. It gives the characters room and the movie texture, so when it does get you, you're good and got." |
| 4. |
|
12/03/10 |
Poor |
 "You could have a great time laughing at it and it's goofy Freudian cliches, if only it weren't so bludgeoning.... no more complex or enlivening than a cheap hack-'em-up director's vision..." |
| 5. |
|
11/23/10 |
Moderate |
 "...brash and manic and sexy, then grim and weepy... one of the few romantic movies in the past few years with strong and insightful satirical undertones." |
| 6. |
|
11/19/10 |
Fair |
 "The film's feel is paranoid and post-apocalyptic, and it's no wonder the central trio's well of affectionate banter has run dry." |
| 7. |
|
11/05/10 |
Weak |
 "Boyle is a panderer par excellence.... in his work we're rarely left with much beyond the fading memory of sensations..." |
| 8. |
|
11/05/10 |
Weak |
 "...has a premise so tired I'm bored even recounting it... a formula mismatched buddy comedy that goes nowhere you haven't been." |
| 9. |
|
10/29/10 |
Weak |
 "The only thing of interest is Noomi Rapace, and only in the last half hour, once she's hauled herself out of her hospital bed." |
| 10. |
|
10/15/10 |
Weak |
 "...too mawkish and lame to make a decent ghost story, too contrived to tell us anything enlightening about how to live in the shadow of death." |
| 11. |
|
10/08/10 |
Moderate |
 "...set on the border between funny and discomfiting.... too tidy and often too cute. What saves it is the directors' soft sell." |
| 12. |
|
10/08/10 |
Very Good |
 "...has the fullness of an 18th-century novel... But in place of Hardy's pathos is a perverse little smile that's blessedly contagious." |
| 13. |
|
10/01/10 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Only singer Justin Timberlake comes through with a nuanced performance... My larger problem is that Fincher's worldview is so sour and curdled." |
| 14. |
|
09/24/10 |
Fair |
 "The film suggests that Stone wants to go beyond melodrama... But this unwieldy movie crumbles under the weight of those laudable ambitions." |
| 15. |
|
09/17/10 |
Excellent |
 "...a great story of isolation, deception and finally connection in our strange new Internet-oriented world." |
| 16. |
|
09/14/10 |
Outstanding |
 "Lixin Fan shot the movie himself, and his images are absolutely ravishing.... gorgeous... lively as well as deep... heartbreaking yet doesn't wallow in depression." |
| 17. |
|
09/10/10 |
Good |
 "...very entertaining... feels more to me like 'performance art.' I think under all of the outlandish antics, there's an emotional truth." |
| 18. |
|
09/01/10 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...if at the screening I attended someone had giggled in the wrong place, it would have opened the floodgates... But the silence held, and the movie cast a spell." |
| 19. |
|
08/27/10 |
Very Good |
 "Jean-Francois Richet's juiced-up style seems steeped in rollicking American pictures like 'Goodfellas'.... most enjoyable as a classic, French-style character study..." |
| 20. |
|
08/12/10 |
Moderate |
 "...a mix of the deadpan and the outlandish... At first, the crazy-quilt inventiveness of Wright's movie is elating.... But it runs down." |
