Critics » Peter Brunette » Fresh

Peter Brunette

Agrees with the Tomatometer 76% of the time.

Biography:
Besides being a weekly film critic and contributing editor at Film.com, Peter Brunette was Professor of English and Film Studies at George Mason University. He wrote or edited six books on film, including Roberto Rossellini, the definitive study in English of this director's films (Oxford University Press, 1987; republished University of California Press, 1996); Screen/Play: Derrida and Film Theory (Princeton University Press, 1990; co-authored with David Wills); a co-edited book (with David Wills) on visual theory published by Cambridge University Press in 1994, entitled Deconstruction and the Visual Arts: Art, Media, Architecture; and a book on Francois Truffaut's film "Shoot the Piano Player" (Rutgers, 1993). Cambridge University Press published his book The Films of Michelangelo Antonioni in 1998 and, in 1999, his edited book, Martin Scorsese: Interviews, was published by the University of Mississippi Press. He was also general editor of the Mississippi interview series; some seven books have already been published in this series, and twenty more are contracted for. He was also general editor of a film book series at Indiana University Press; two titles have been published in the last two years. At the time of his death in June of 2010, he was working on books on Luchino Visconti and Wong Kar-Wai. During the past several years, he served on panels at the Palm Springs Film Festival in California, the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, and at the Rotterdam Film Festival in Holland. He was director of the Film and Media Studies program at George Mason University and was also active in the GMU Cultural Studies program. He was one of the first two internet critics to be elected to membership in the National Society of Film Critics. Brunette has also written for film periodicals like Film Quarterly and Sight & Sound, and was the U.S. correspondent for the Italian journal Filmcritica. He also wrote regularly for The New York Times Arts & Leisure section and The Boston Globe. He was artistic director of the Key Sunday Cinema Club, which has branches in six cities.
Publications:
Film.com , Hollywood Reporter , Screen International , Screendaily
Total Reviews:
112
Location:
Washington D.C.

Best Reviewed Films

Showing 1 - 50 of 103
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
73% I Killed My Mother (J'ai tue ma mere) (2010) " Uneven but funny and audacious adolescent comedy from a talented beginner." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Jul 6, 2010
81% Panique au village (A Town Called Panic) (2009) " There's really very little to say about this film beyond that it's absolutely brilliant." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Mar 26, 2010
80% The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada) (2010) " The film is gorgeously shot and contains a plethora of haunting images..." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Feb 2, 2010
—— The Korean Wedding Chest (Die koreanische Hochzeitstruhe) (2009) " Tenderly observed personal documentary on Korean wedding customs." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 12, 2009
79% Max Manus (2010) " Solid and convincing, if pedestrian, World War II story that has its moments." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Sep 17, 2009
84% Whip It (2009) " Some old material given a delightful new grrrl-power twist." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Sep 15, 2009
55% The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) " A shocking yet stately and powerful plea for women's rights." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Jun 26, 2009
85% The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band) (2009) " It's clear that this portrait of a sick society is meant to explain, at least partially, the horrendous war that breaks out at the very end of the film, and the fascism that quickly followed in its wake." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 22, 2009
90% Army of Crime (L'Armée du Crime) (2010) " Though it drags here and there and is a bit flat in places, the film is solidly made and for the most part quite involving." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 18, 2009
48% Antichrist (2009) " Visually gorgeous to a fault and teeming with grandiose if often fascinating ideas that overwhelm the modest story that serves as their vehicle, this may be the least artistically successful film von Trier has ever made." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 18, 2009
97% A Prophet (Un prophete) (2010) " French master Jacques Audiard has challenged the thus-far mostly middling Cannes competition with a powerful prison drama that's an old-fashioned Bildungsroman in in-your-face, intensely realistic disguise." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 16, 2009
33% Ne Te Retourne Pas (Don't Look Back) (2009) " "Don't Look Back" begins promisingly. Seemingly obsessed with surfaces, the camera restlessly searches for hints and clues among the fragments we see, even before we know there's a mystery." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 15, 2009
46% Management (2009) " The plot doesn't always make sense, and when it does it's often pretty predictable, but when all is said and done, this romantic comedy starring the ultracute Steve Zahn and Jennifer Aniston ultimately delivers the goods." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 12, 2009
77% Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys) (2008) " Patience will be required to appreciate this brilliant, gorgeously visual film." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Nov 4, 2008
86% Le Silence de Lorna (The Silence of Lorna) (Lorna's Silence) (2008) " A worthwhile, if less powerful offering from the Belgian masters of slice-of-life filmmaking." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 18, 2008
92% Il Divo (2009) " At long last in this year's Cannes Competition, a film on a serious subject that nevertheless consistently entertains and often makes you laugh out loud." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 18, 2008
68% Plus Tard (One Day You'll Understand) (Later) (2008) " Once again, veteran Israeli director Amos Gitai has made a subtle yet powerful and moving film on an aspect of Jewish experience." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 3, 2008
65% What Doesn't Kill You (2008) " We've all seen this film before -- two hoodlum friends from the tough, violent streets of South Boston trying to cope with the lure of easy money and the offsetting threat of jail time -- but we've never seen it this well done." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Sep 15, 2008
94% Slumdog Millionaire (2008) " A solidly entertaining and energizing film." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Sep 11, 2008
67% Che: Part One (The Argentine) (2009) " All in all, it's a highly worthwhile, professionally accomplished project, but in its obsessive devotion to precise documentation, the film forgets to inspire." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 29, 2008
89% Auf der Anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven) (On the Other Side) (2007) " Fatih Akin's new film, once it comes together at the end and finally defeats the shagginess of his script, is a solid if uneven piece of work." — Screen International
Posted May 24, 2007
83% Import/Export (2006) " It's the very unremitting nature of the vision that forces us to confront an unpalatable truth and in that, many willing to go along may find a strange sort of comfort." — Screen International
Posted May 23, 2007
76% Moulin Rouge! (2001) " Consistently witty and entertaining." — Film.com
Posted May 17, 2001
90% Eureka (Yûreka) (2001) " It's more an experience than anything else, and if you're looking for a transformative, redemptive one yourself, at the moment you can't do any better than go to see this film." — Film.com
Posted May 3, 2001
96% With A Friend Like Harry (2001) " A quiet delight." — Film.com
Posted Apr 19, 2001
58% The Luzhin Defence (2001) " Gorris's recreation of the period setting is scrupulous and fresh." — Film.com
Posted Apr 19, 2001
93% The Circle (Dayereh) (2001) " One of the most courageous, hard-hitting films I've seen in a long time." — Film.com
Posted Apr 12, 2001
92% The Gleaners and I (2001) " A superb example of the genre of the self-expressive documentary." — Film.com
Posted Apr 4, 2001
92% Amores Perros (2001) " Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch) is a great new film from Mexico that proves that somebody, somewhere, is still making upsetting, enthralling movies." — Film.com
Posted Mar 29, 2001
92% Memento (2000) " Probably the most devilishly fascinating movie I've seen in months, if not years." — Film.com
Posted Mar 15, 2001
75% Me You Them (2001) " A quiet film, certainly, but it's filled with small touches that manage to get deeply under your skin by the time the final credits roll." — Film.com
Posted Mar 9, 2001
88% Fa Yeung Nin Wa (In the Mood for Love) (2001) " A sublime tone poem that shows what cinema is capable of when it tries to do more than just tell a story." — Film.com
Posted Feb 1, 2001
85% Faithless (2001) " It makes us realize, suddenly, and with immense regret, what the rest of contemporary cinema so sorely lacks." — Film.com
Posted Jan 25, 2001
75% Before Night Falls (2001) " One of the best films I've seen all year." — Film.com
Posted Dec 21, 2000
82% Pollock (2000) " It's almost like Pollock has come back from the dead and that we're watching a recently made documentary instead of a fiction film." — Film.com
Posted Dec 14, 2000
97% Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo hu cang long) (2001) " A terrific movie." — Film.com
Posted Dec 7, 2000
88% Titanic (in 3D) (2012) " The disaster is definitely worth the wait." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
68% Marius and Jeannette (2006) " All in all, it's a very sweet, quiet, ultra-laidback movie, but it may ultimately be just too quiet for Americans, on whom the in-jokes and local flavor will be lost." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
63% Saving Grace (2000) " Saving Grace has a charm that keeps you involved throughout." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
61% Arlington Road (1999) " An imaginative action film!" — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
87% Liberty Heights (1999) " Delivers the emotional goods." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
98% All About My Mother (Todo Sobre Mi Madre) (1999) " Nothing short of a triumph." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
67% American Psycho (2000) " Harron's adaptation of Ellis's novel is brilliant, probably better than the book itself." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
88% American Beauty (1999) " Hilarious, slightly sick, and super-edgy." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
85% Billy Elliot (2000) " Billy Elliot is a feel-good movie that you don't have to feel bad about feeling good about." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
56% Mumford (1999) " It's witty, entertaining, often funny as hell and even, at times, surprisingly wise about the human condition." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
100% The Sweet Hereafter (1997) " a new moral urgency seems to invigorate this film" — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
74% Dark City (1998) " Dark City ... contains more philosophical and cinematic ideas in ten minutes than the last ten films I've seen put together." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
78% Requiem for a Dream (2000) " This is like no other film you've ever seen." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
77% Eyes Wide Shut (1999) " It's the most brilliant, most glamorous, yet subtlest movie about sexual desire and sexual jealousy." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
Showing 1 - 50 of 103
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