ROTTEN TOMATOES: Emanuel Levy

EMANUEL LEVY

Agrees with the Tomatometer 88% of the time.

Biography: I belong to a small group of scholars who have juggled a dual career, as film professor (Ph.D. Columbia University) and film critic (Variety, Screen International, Financial Times). Among my eight film books are All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards, Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Indpendent Film, and the first biography of Vincente Minnelli, Hollywood's Dark Dreamer. I have served on the jury of 44 international Film Festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Taoromina, Montreal, Hawaii, and Sundance.

Publications: EmanuelLevy.Com, Screendaily, Variety

Critics' Group: Broadcast Film Critics Association, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics

Total Reviews: 3860
Total QuickRatings: 9392

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date (default)

Fresh A-	Fresh 92%	City of God (2003)	" Brazillian director Mereilles' splashy feature debut, a dynamically exciting portrait of Rio's violent gangs, immediately established himsef as an international talent to watch, and the Oscar nods only reaffirmed that status." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 31, 2009
Fresh A	Fresh 91%	Adaptation (2002)	" An impressive follow-up to Being John Malkovich, Adaptation is even more playful, amusing, metanarrative and metaphysical than Jonze's first film, plus it has Nicolas Cage in a dual role and Meryl Streep in one of her wildest turns." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 30, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 95%	35 Shots of Rum (2009)	" Offering a poignant, subtle, realistic yet poetic portrait of a father-daughter relationship, 35 Shots of Rum is another enchanting film from Claire Denis, whose work is still little known in the U.S." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 30, 2009
Fresh A	Fresh 96%	Yi Yi (2000)	" One of the best films of the decade, Yi Yi, Edward Yang's most accessible (and very last) film is a fluent, charming and precise family portrait that celebrates ordinary life with all its joys and chaos." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 29, 2009
Fresh B+	N/A	Monsieur Vincent (1948)	" Set in the 17th century, this French bio-drama, which won the 1948 Best Foreign Language Oscar, revolves around a man who devoted his life to the poor and was canonized by the church." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 24, 2009
Fresh A	Fresh 93%	Summer Hours (2009)	" A subtle, flawlessly acted, keenly observed family drama and poignant meditation on memory, identity, and history in the age of postmodernism and globalization." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 22, 2009
Fresh B-	N/A	The Great Lie (1941)	" This Edmund Goulding-Bette Davis soap opera has achieved notoriety for several reasons, a presposterous plot, Mary Astor's one and only Oscar, and catfights on the set between the two ladies!" — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 17, 2009
Fresh B-	Fresh 70%	Sherlock Holmes (2009)	" Robert Downey Jr.'s vigorously athletic, charming turn fits well into Guy Ritchie's briskly light and entertaining but not too deep conception of the iconic detective as an action star for our times." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 15, 2009
Fresh A	Fresh 100%	The Shop Around the Corner (1940)	" My favorite Christmas film, this deliciously delicate, multi-nuanced romantic comedy is one of Lubitsch's very best films, flawlessly acted by Jimmy Stewart at his peak, the sublime Margaret Sullavan, and the rest of the large ensemble." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 14, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 59%	Creation (2009)	" The timing for a movie about Darwin is right, but Amiel has chosen to depict the life of the revolutionary thinker as a domestic melodrama, and while Paul Bettany is good as the tormented scholar, Jennifer Connelly gives a stiff performance as his wife." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 13, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 83%	Avatar (2009)	" An amazing visual achievement, hampered by pedestrian narrative and cardboard characterizatons--Tim Grierson." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 11, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 50%	It's Complicated (2009)	" Three gifted actors, Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, are under-used in this verbose and predictable romantic comedy, which is essentially routine TV fare with star power and glossy production values." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 11, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 72%	Julia (2008)	" It's simply impossible to imagine Eric Zonca's Julia, a noirish thriller and sharp character study inspired by Cassavetes' Gloria, without Tilda Swinton, who dominates the film from start to finish." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 10, 2009
Fresh B	Rotten 38%	Nine (2009)	" Tackling more challenging material than Chicago, one that has cultural cache due to Fellini's seminal 81/2, Marshall relies too much on montage and melodrama, but the musical features a femme-driven cast that's truly dazzling." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 8, 2009
Rotten C-	Rotten 36%	X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)	" This clunky, silly prequel, in which every chapter represents another genre, does not even make an effort to have balance between story and spectacle, characters and special effects." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 7, 2009
Fresh B	Fresh 89%	Crazy Heart (2009)	" Though based on a novel, inevitable comparison will be made to Tender Mercies, for which Duvall (producer here) won an Oscar and Jeff Bridges may earn a nod too; despite being generic, it's enjoyable, well acted and the music both rousing and melancholy." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 4, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 76%	Invictus (2009)	" Morgan Freeman renders an understated charismatic performance, immensely contributing to Eastwood's factual inspirational tale, which among other merits serves as a tribute to the powerful role of sports and poetry in broader, divisive politics." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Dec 3, 2009
Fresh B+	Rotten 40%	The Lovely Bones (2009)	" A singular art film, Lovely Bones shows Jackson's determination to put his signature on each frame with surreal dreamlike meditation and special effects wizardry, which somehow remarkably maintain the tone of Sebold's novel about loss and mourning." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 29, 2009
Fresh b-	Rotten 50%	Armored (2009)	" Inspired by Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and countless films about seemingly perfect heists that go uproariously wrong, Armored is an unpretentious, fast-moving, action-packed thriller that delivers its generic goods unapologetically." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 26, 2009
Fresh B-	Rotten 57%	Brothers (2009)	" Sheridan's film is well directed and acted, but what could have been a powerful drama about the impact of war on family life turns into a middlebrow (allegorical) melodrama about brothers who are polar opposites, due to Benioff's conventional script." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 23, 2009
Fresh C+	Rotten 28%	The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)	" Made primarily for the fans, New Moon is not better than Twilight, though dealing with elements of vampires and werewolves mythologies makes the romantic tale slightly more interesting if also more convoluted, but main attraction remains Kristen Stewart." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 18, 2009
Fresh B-	Fresh 72%	The Blind Side (2009)	" Sandra Bullock renders a strong performance as the feisty Southern belle in this inspirational sports saga, but the film is too conventional and doesn't offer a deep look into the psychology of the players or the interracial subtext." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 17, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 72%	The Road (2009)	" This relentlessly grim drama, which is much tougher and more challenging as screen text than No Country for Old Men, deserves to be seen for the Oscar-caliber performance of Viggo Mortensen, who carries the whole film on his solid shoulders." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 16, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 94%	An Education (2009)	" Carrey Mulligan gives an astounding, Oscar-caliber performance in this touching, poignant, and precise coming-of-age tale of a young British girl who falls for an older Jewish guy, set against London in the pre-swinging era." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 13, 2009
Fresh A	N/A	The Go-Between (1971)	" Stylishly elegant and multi-nuanced, this adaptation of Hartley's novel is one of Joseph Losey's masterpieces, the third and best collaboraion with Harold Pinter, beautifuly acted by Julie Christie, Alan Bates, and Michael Redgrave." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 13, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 100%	Samson and Delilah (2009)	" Visually stunning, this impressive feature debut places an Aboriginal love on the run tale against a fascinating socio-cultural context that's little known to non-Australians." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 12, 2009
Fresh B-	Fresh 83%	Me and Orson Welles (2009)	" Zac Efron is light and slight as the protag of this intermittently insightful but not too deep tale of the audacious staging of Julius Caesar by the young Orson Welles, marvelously played by newcomer Christian McKay." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 11, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 46%	Everybody's Fine (2009)	" Under the helm and pen of Kirk Jones what was a sensitive and touching dramedy in Tornatore's 1990 film has become conventional, predictable and schmaltzy, forcing the actors, especially the estimable De Niro, to emote in a big way." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 11, 2009
Fresh A	N/A	City of Life and Death (2009)	" Must-see: This multi-dimensional chronicle of the 1937 Japanese occupation and massacre of Nanking is a masterpiece, a devastating war film of epic proportions, shot in a realistic yet also poetic style." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 8, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 82%	A Single Man (2009)	" Fashion designer Tom Ford makes a stylishly elegant debut with his effective adaptation of Isherwood's seminal, stream-of-consciousness tale of love and loss, featuring Colin Firth in a multi-nuanced, tonally perfect Oscar-caliber turn." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 6, 2009
Rotten C	Fresh 60%	Pirate Radio (2009)	" In Richard Curtis' structurally messy satire, there's a bit of everything for everybody, but it's the sound track, not the characters or tale, that is the most memorable." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 6, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 39%	2012 (2009)	" Size matters: a winter popcorn movie and guilty pleasure, this mass entertainment of mass destruction is not one coherent story but a calculated, cliche-ridden, often humorous pastiche of all the disaster movies made in Hollywood." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 6, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 44%	The Box (2009)	" The premise of this morality tale is interesting and the set-up intriguing, but after the first real, the movie falls apart and crashes under the burden of pretentious allegorical meanings." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Nov 6, 2009
Fresh B	Fresh 85%	Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)	" Barely a remake of Ferrara's superior 1992 indie, Herzog's sleazy, erratic, often silly policier is enjoyable on its own terms, and the main reason to see it is Nicolas Cage's wildly eccentric, justifiably over-the-top performance." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 30, 2009
Fresh A	Fresh 86%	Easy Rider (1969)	" The 40th anniversary DVD of the 1969 seminal road movie contains several specials, including illuminating commentary from star-director Dennis Hopper." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 29, 2009
Fresh B	Fresh 80%	Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)	" An honorable and entertaining but not particularly probing tribute, This Is It is more interesting sociologically than artistically, and it's hard to think of another work that epitomizes the new global media age in which we live." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 28, 2009
Fresh C+	Fresh 87%	The House of the Devil (2009)	" The main reasons to see this deliberately retro and derivative flick, which borrows freely from Satanic cult and babysitter-from-hell subgenres, are iconic actors Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov in their first teaming." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 27, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 90%	The Messenger (2009)	" What could have been a grim, depressing Iraq war drama of two men who deliver dreaded news becomes in Moverman's promising debut a human tale of grief and survival, balancing grave issues with humor, underlined by strong acting from Foster and Harrelson" — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 24, 2009
Fresh A	Fresh 91%	Z (1969)	" The newe October (2009) DVD contains new, remarkable interviews with director Costa Gavras and ace cinematographer Raoul Coutard." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 23, 2009
Rotten C-	Rotten 21%	Amelia (2009)	" Shallow and conventional, Amelia, yet another version of the legendary aviatrix, is a total misfire, unfolding as a narrated photo album with plot that's all turning points but no real substance, fully fleshed characters or significant issues." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 21, 2009
Fresh C+	Fresh 69%	The Last Station (2009)	" The unknown story about famed author Leo Tolstoy and his wife is intriguing, and the cast, Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren is impressive, but the film lacks dramatic momentum, visual distinction, and compelling tone, which changes from scene to scene" — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 19, 2009
Rotten D	Rotten 11%	The Stepfather (2009)	" Poorly scripted and executed, this quickie slasher remake suffers from weak casting and doesn't even exploit the sexual politics involved in a major gender change from the 1987 feature, which satirized the rigid family values and has become a classic." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 16, 2009
Rotten C-	Rotten 24%	Law Abiding Citizen (2009)	" A low point for all concerned, actors Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler, and director Gray (Italian Job), this is a silly, preposterous, sleazy and ultra-violent revenge drama pretending to say something meaningful about our faulty justice and legal systems" — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 15, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 93%	Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)	" After two flops, Anderson is back on terra ferma with a well-acted (especially Clooney), sporadically entertaining rendition of Dahl's classic, a retro-cool quirky, if also indulgent, film on which he imposes his unmistakable worldview, format and tone." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 14, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 89%	Up in the Air (2009)	" George Clooney gives his most resonant and heartfelt Oscar-caliber performance in Reitman's timely, sharply written social satire that deserves to be nominated in major Oscar categories, including Picture, Director, Actor, and two Supporting Actresses." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 13, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 37%	Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009)	" It's been awhile since such a structurally messy, poorly cut film has been released by major studio, one which can't decide what it wants to be, scary vampire horror, freakish circus saga or Freudian coming of age tale of rigid fathers and sensitive sons." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 13, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 54%	The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)	" Heslov's directing debut proves that he's a more skillful writer-producer than helmer: His anti-military satire is narratively and technically shapeless, with half of the text funny and witty and half flat and tedious." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 9, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 89%	Youth in Revolt (2010)	" In a dual role, as a quitely rebellious outsider and as his wilder alter ego, Michael Cera renders enormously charming performances that elevate this coming of age comedy way above its familiar subject and conventional secondary characters." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 8, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 73%	Where the Wild Things Are (2009)	" With this vividly imagined enchanting fable, a movie about childhood made for adults, visionary director Spike Jonze adds another eccentric, if dramatically flawed, panel to his oeuvre." — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 7, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 54%	The Boat That Rocked (2009)	" There's a bit of everything in Curtis' structurally messy, endlessly repititious comedy: nostalgia for good music, irreverent humor and sentimentality, wild deejays, virginal boy who needs to get laid, son who needs to find his father, even a lesbian cook" — EmanuelLevy.Com Posted Oct 6, 2009

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A	8 1/2Offsite
A-	In a Lonely PlaceOffsite
B+	Summer HolidayOffsite
B	Enchanted AprilOffsite
B-	Experiment PerilousOffsite
C+	Butterflies Are FreeOffsite
C	Cyrano de BergeracOffsite
C-	A Perfect GetawayOffsite
D+	The Final DestinationOffsite
D	The Ugly TruthOffsite

A	AdaptationOffsite
A	Yi YiOffsite
A	Summer HoursOffsite
A	The Shop Around the CornerOffsite
A	The Go-BetweenOffsite
A	City of Life and DeathOffsite
A	RepulsionOffsite
A	North by NorthwestOffsite
A	8 1/2Offsite
A	La PromesseOffsite

F	The ConquerorOffsite
D-	CaligulaOffsite
D-	BeautifulOffsite
D	The StepfatherOffsite
D	The SandpiperOffsite
D	The Ugly TruthOffsite
D	Doctor DolittleOffsite
D	Max PayneOffsite
D	The Love GuruOffsite
D	88 MinutesOffsite

EMANUEL LEVY

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