|
4/4
|
87%
|
Bernie (2012) |
"
It allows director Richard Linklater to explore his own roots while telling a remarkable real-life story, something too crazy for anyone to make up."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted May 17, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
79%
|
The Deep Blue Sea (2012) |
"
Rachel Weisz - in what has to be the performance of her career, and there have been lots of good ones - plays an intelligent woman in the grip of a lust that's too big to handle or suppress. She can either ride the tiger or be devoured."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Mar 29, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
——
|
Napoleon (1997) |
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Mar 27, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
Napoléon (1929) |
"
The experience it provides - at times, akin to taking a drug - is unlike anything I've ever experienced in a movie theater."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Mar 26, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
90%
|
In Darkness (2012) |
"
One might think that years and years of seeing Holocaust movies would create an immunity, a point at which you can feel no more. But in fact, it works the other way."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Feb 23, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
87%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) |
"
The Swedish version was originally made for television and seen in installments. Fincher's movie is 158 minutes and meant to be seen in one shot - and that's precisely how those 158 minutes go by, in a shot."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Dec 19, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
80%
|
Young Adult (2011) |
"
A dark comedy that confirms Diablo Cody as a screenwriter of importance, eliminates the last shred of doubt that Jason Reitman is a major director and gives Charlize Theron her best showcase since "Monster.""
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Dec 8, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
98%
|
The Artist (2011) |
"
In many ways - in all ways - "The Artist" is a profound achievement."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Dec 1, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
83%
|
My Week with Marilyn (2011) |
"
To have Marilyn Monroe kiss you and say that she loves you (whether or not she means it) -- imagine what that would mean in a man's life, not only in 1956, but decades after that, when he's middle-aged or old."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Nov 22, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
74%
|
Like Crazy (2011) |
"
A romantic drama that makes other romantic films look obvious and calculated in comparison."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Nov 3, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
48%
|
Man From Nowhere (2010) |
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
36%
|
In Time (2011) |
"
Not for one moment does Niccol compromise this serious sci-fi world, and yet he hits all the marks for crowd-pleasing mass entertainment: "In Time" never stops moving."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
67%
|
Love Crime (2011) |
"
I'm already looking for an excuse to see it again."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Sep 8, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
43%
|
You yi tian (One Day) (2010) |
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Aug 19, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
36%
|
One Day (2011) |
"
"One Day" is a beautiful movie, but beautiful in a way that life often is, not movies."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Aug 18, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Point Blank (2011) |
"
All right, this is how to make a thriller: Start with a situation of astonishing difficulty and emotional weight. Then multiply. And keep piling on."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Aug 11, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
74%
|
The Names of Love (2011) |
"
Forestier's performance is a tour de force of comic acting, maintaining astonishing alertness and energy from shot to shot and scene to scene."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jul 28, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
——
|
The Third Reich (2011) |
"
It's one of the best glimpses into this period that I've seen."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jun 16, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
89%
|
The Trip (2011) |
"
It's two guys traveling, eating and talking. Doesn't sound like much. But it's terrific."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jun 16, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
69%
|
Bride Flight (2011) |
"
Bride Flight gives a panoramic sweep of lives as they're lived, as there is a lot of beauty in it."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jun 9, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
82%
|
Super 8 (2011) |
"
The result is a sci-fi monster movie that keeps its sense of fun and humanity. It's a valentine to a classically American genre -- the B-movie -- and a nostalgic look back on a more innocent time."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jun 9, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
The Tree of Life (2011) |
"
"The Tree of Life" is at times trying and perplexing, but it also contains some of the most psychologically insightful and ecstatic filmmaking imaginable."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jun 2, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Midnight in Paris (2011) |
"
A movie that's loving and wistful and often hysterically funny."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted May 26, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Source Code (2011) |
"
A thriller that takes a science fiction premise and uses it, not for the sake of splashy effects, but as a doorway into the human soul."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Mar 31, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
72%
|
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) |
"
Easily one of the best American love stories of the past year."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Mar 3, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
We Were Here (2011) |
"
There is no turning away from the screen."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Feb 24, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
88%
|
Blue Valentine (2010) |
"
What do we expect of a spouse? "Blue Valentine" makes us ask that question."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jan 7, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
69%
|
Hadewijch (2010) |
"
Dumont, as if trying to make sure nobody wants to see his movie, named it after a female Flemish poet from the 13th century, but - please read the rest of this sentence - the movie is set in modern times."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Dec 31, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
37%
|
Burlesque (2010) |
"
It's big, perfectly cast and entertaining in every way, but more than that it feels like a generous public event. See it with other people. See it with a crowd."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Nov 24, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
32%
|
For Colored Girls (2010) |
"
Shows a mastery of tone, a capacity to elicit strong performances and also to bring out different colors within those performances so that, when it all comes together, it's not the same note sounding over and over. This is smart, lovely work."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Nov 4, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
98%
|
Inside Job (2010) |
"
There's such a thing as smart angry, and such a thing as stupid angry, and after seeing Inside Job, audiences will be smart angry."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Oct 21, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
46%
|
Hereafter (2010) |
"
Eastwood's directorial output, from Mystic River on, constitutes the 21st century's first cinematic marvel, and Hereafter is among the best things he has ever done."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Oct 21, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
The Social Network (2010) |
"
The writing is strong, and the drama -- the drama of betrayal -- is ever present."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Sep 30, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
82%
|
Mademoiselle Chambon (2010) |
"
Mademoiselle Chambon is about love in midlife, about two souls meeting, and how that can be the most beautiful thing in the world but also the most inconvenient."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Sep 10, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
The Tillman Story (2010) |
"
Could you imagine how difficult it must have been to pore over records containing the brutal facts of your son's death?"
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Sep 2, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
52%
|
Going the Distance (2010) |
"
Captures the harshness and the sweetness of our time."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Sep 2, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
——
|
Mesrine (1984) |
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Aug 27, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
82%
|
Mesrine: Killer Instinct (L'instinct de mort) (2010) |
"
The screenplay, by Richet and Abdel Raouf Dafri, is a superb work of condensation, amplification and imagination."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Aug 27, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
62%
|
The Lottery (2010) |
"
You look at all these beautiful kids, with all the potential in the world, and every expectation for a great life, and you know that at most one-sixth of them will come out of the room with a fighting chance. That shouldn't be."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jul 22, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
76%
|
Let it Rain (Parlez-moi de la pluie) (2010) |
"
It's graceful in presenting its ideas, and what emerges is not a polemic but a kind of snapshot of modern-day concerns."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jul 15, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
The Kids Are All Right (2010) |
"
It's a movie about basic things, about the meaning of family and the vulnerability of families, with the suggestion that the ones most subject to bombardment are the families least protected by custom and tradition."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jul 8, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
99%
|
Toy Story 3 (2010) |
"
The story mixes comedy, drama and action with impressive skill, except this is beyond skill -- this is inspired."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jun 17, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work (2010) |
"
It's one of the best documentaries ever made about show business, about what it really consists of and what it demands."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jun 10, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
73%
|
Get Him to the Greek (2010) |
"
So comically fertile and yet so grounded in the reality of its characters that it's really a kind of marvel."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jun 3, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
76%
|
Kick-Ass (2010) |
"
It brings together several popular strains of contemporary moviemaking and combines them into one big, shameless, audacious, compulsively watchable, irresistibly likable piece of pure entertainment."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Apr 15, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
84%
|
The Ghost Writer (2010) |
"
Polanski infuses the action with the quality of a waking nightmare. He has the capacity to take a simple shot of a ship coming into harbor and give it a feeling of foreboding."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Feb 26, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009) |
"
In another time and culture, a story on this scale would deserve an opera."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Feb 18, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band) (2009) |
"
Haneke's success in maintaining tension is especially impressive in that he does it despite a loose narrative and the necessity of juggling a dozen characters."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Jan 14, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
Me and Orson Welles (2009) |
"
I forgot that I was looking at an actor. I really believed I was looking at Welles."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Dec 11, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
La Nana (The Maid) (2009) |
"
With a few brushstrokes, Sebastian Silva communicates the complicated social and moral dynamic involved in having a live-in maid."
—
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Nov 12, 2009
|
63%
——
97%
