|
|
Obvious Child
(2014)
|
Arielle Bernstein
|
Obvious Child is sweetness swaddled in a dirty joke.
Posted Jun 25, 2019
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Antichrist
(2009)
|
Arielle Bernstein
|
It is frightening because it takes an unflinching look at the power and complexity of our emotional lives, a power so great that it might in fact destroy us.
Posted Jun 25, 2019
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Nymphomaniac: Volume I
(2014)
|
Arielle Bernstein
|
One of the things I love most about Nymphomaniac is its insistence on seeing sex as something that is important.
Posted Jun 25, 2019
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Only Lovers Left Alive
(2013)
|
Arielle Bernstein
|
There is something sexy about the type of languid decay we see throughout Only Lovers Left Alive...
Posted Jun 25, 2019
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Django Unchained
(2012)
|
Ade Adeniji
|
Django Unchained is a must see, full stop. At the very least, films like this are an experience.
Posted Aug 24, 2018
Edit critic review
|
|
|
12 Years a Slave
(2013)
|
Ade Adeniji
|
Birector Steve McQueen presents slavery as it happened with a camera that hangs on shots long after we're comfortable looking. The only choice is to engage with what's on screen.
Posted Aug 24, 2018
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Inglourious Basterds
(2009)
|
Matt Singer
|
The movie left me both exhilarated and frustrated. Not quite a masterpiece, it might qualify as a "messterpiece," an unwieldy, unfocused film with unforgettable moments that nearly get lost in a sea of excess.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
The Informant!
(2009)
|
Matt Singer
|
Like Soderbergh's Ocean's 11 series, The Informant! is a funny movie with no jokes.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Up in the Air
(2009)
|
Matt Singer
|
Up in the Air is sentimental, but that doesn't mean it's simplistic. In fact, the movie plays at some interesting contradictions. It is a genuinely funny movie about genuinely depressing times.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
The Hangover
(2009)
|
Matt Singer
|
In the case of The Hangover, Phillips made a decent diversion, but no classic; like its heroes you'll have a good time, then forget most of it when you wake up the following morning. It's a movie, not a film.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Watchmen
(2009)
|
Matt Singer
|
The only way to truly adhere to Alan Moore's vision of Watchmen would be to not make the movie in the first place.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
(2008)
|
Matt Singer
|
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh would play as weak sauce in any context, but it's especially disappointing coming to theaters on the heels of the similarly themed but superiorly made Adventureland.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Sugar
(2008)
|
Matt Singer
|
Sugar is worth seeing not because it invalidates baseball's meritocracy, or because it makes us feel guilty for enjoying the national pastime, but because it shows us with empathy and insight how baseball players are more than what they do on the field.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Hunger
(2008)
|
Matt Singer
|
There is very little context, because on the inside, prison has no context. There is just horror. And maybe, sometimes, in the least expected places, beauty.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Haywire
(2011)
|
Laura Bogart
|
Despite its supposed intentions about introducing a new type of action hero, Haywire just affirms old archetypes. The truly subversive version of the woman warrior can wear the dress (and like it) and be a surgeon with a shotgun.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Zero Dark Thirty
(2012)
|
Laura Bogart
|
Zero Dark Thirty doesn't indulge in breathless reveling; it's a brooding, muscular piece about obsession and vengeance.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Inside Llewyn Davis
(2013)
|
Laura Bogart
|
Inside Llewyn Davis forces its protagonist into making the choice that any working artist fears: the choice between selling out and giving up.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Sunshine Cleaning
(2008)
|
Jenni Miller
|
SunShine Cleaning is a lovely little film that's more gallows than humor.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Funny People
(2009)
|
R. Emmet Sweeney
|
Funny People is deeply personal and intriguingly abstract, a bittersweet vision of a comedian's mournful existence.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Trance
(2013)
|
Tom Meek
|
[Trance] evokes an eerie, hypnotic wonderment, consuming you and transporting you, until inevitably, the fingers snap, the eyes open, and the rapturous trance is broken.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Shame
(2011)
|
Laura Bogart
|
[Shame] evokes years of blanket forts and snow angels, spat words and fumbling reconciliation churning to the surface. This is the power of good fiction: It lets us breathe meaning into blank spaces.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
35 Shots of Rum
(2008)
|
Barry Jenkins
|
35 Shots of Rum is possibly Denis' most humanistic character study, thoughtful, endearing, and rendered with exemplary tact.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Suited
(2016)
|
Lauren Wissot
|
Suited is an eye-opening journey into the niche subject of dressing for success when you're a gender nonconforming individual.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
The Wrong Light
(2016)
|
Lauren Wissot
|
The Wrong Light is disturbing on several levels.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
(2009)
|
Ruth McCann
|
Though titled about as artfully as a Tomb Raider flick, Bad Lieutenant is possessed of a sleekness and a morbid sophistication that belie the unfortunate clunkiness of its title.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Kisses
(2008)
|
Ruth McCann
|
It's haunting and crisply vivid in parts, but definitely fuzzy around the edges.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Wonderful World
(2009)
|
Ruth McCann
|
Perhaps Wonderful World resonates with a limited, snarky audience: me and Ben. But I suspect the wonder reaches further. After all, if Ben teaches us anything, it's that we're all far less alone than we think.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
The Kids Are All Right
(2010)
|
Ruth McCann
|
Kids Are All Right doesn't need any ideological defenses. It's deeply felt, fully and properly expressed, and perhaps that's enough.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Please Give
(2010)
|
Lindsay Zoladz
|
Please Give, Holofcener's fourth film, takes well-worn notions about giving and receiving, and lingers on them long enough that they begin to wobble, as if placed under an inch of water.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Broken Embraces
(2009)
|
Jeffrey Edalatpour
|
Since her star-making turn in Volver, Cruz has evolved into a great actress, whose films the audience longs to return to: she and Almodóvar have created whole and complete worlds. Indeed, Broken Embraces mirrors our own - but brightly.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Let's Talk About the Rain
(2007)
|
Jeffrey Edalatpour
|
The arrival of Agathe Villanova is at the center of the drama in Let it Rain, and the story benefits from giving her more to do in front of the lens.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
The White Ribbon
(2009)
|
Jeffrey Edalatpour
|
The White Ribbon breathes an unholy life into the generation of children who would grow up to become the obedient soldiers and members of the Nazi party.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
(2011)
|
Jeffrey Edalatpour
|
Larsson was a natural heir to Mankell's style, but unlike his progenitor's work, both the book and film versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo lack Wallander's good heart.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
|
|
Howl
(2015)
|
Jeffrey Edalatpour
|
Howl is neither a biopic about the poem's author Allen Ginsberg, nor does it delve into any other poem in his literary oeuvre. These are the first of many missteps that the producers take.
Posted Sep 18, 2017
Edit critic review
|
Continue with Google
>
