Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 48%
| Nativity! () | "
CBeebies if Ronnie Corbett was artistic director; filmmaking by committee, if that committee were made up of the esteemed members of Coventry City Council and chaired by Lenny Henry." — Time Out Posted Nov 27, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 77%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
It may come across like a self-satisfied madcap bauble, but that titular exclamation mark is the key that unlocks the myriad subtextual delights of Soderbergh’s timely latest." — Time Out Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 97%
| Tulpan (2008) | "
Dvortsevoy exhibits the storytelling composure and technical proficiency of a veteran, while his keen eye for a pastoral poetic flourish places ‘Tulpan’ firmly among the year’s most endearing cinematic experiences." — Time Out Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 43%
| Lala Pipo - A Lot of People () | "
Insipid and puerile to the frame." — Time Out Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 100%
| Tales from the Golden Age (2009) | "
It’s a frustrating case of individual triumph cancelling out collective cohesion in this sporadically enjoyable, if tonally mismatched, anthology of five short films." — Time Out Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 91%
| Love Exposure () | "
A swooning, often riotously funny melodrama charged with a refreshingly perverse undertow." — Time Out Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 80%
| Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) | "
Utterly engaging from beginning to end." — Time Out Posted Oct 28, 2009 |
Fresh 5/5
| Fresh 87%
| Johnny Mad Dog (2008) | "
The film sees war as a deadener of moral and physical inhibition, a paradoxical state where there are no winners or losers, just the living and the dead. Stunning." — Time Out Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 26%
| The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009) | "
A throng of outrageous supporting characters do little to salvage this stalled effort." — Time Out Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 47%
| Ong Bak 2 (2009) | "
Over-directed and under-written trash." — Time Out Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 94%
| Katalin Varga (2009) | "
A film of remarkable assurance and intensity." — Time Out Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
Director Ruben Fleischer has his eyes trained on the comic jugular, and he attains an astronomical laugh count from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernickat’s fizzing, pop-savvy script." — Time Out Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 100%
| Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (2009) | "
It remains an emotive, sensuous and visually arresting work despite the unnecessary tinkering." — Time Out Posted Oct 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 58%
| Vinyan (2008) | "
A menacing pseudo-horror thriller with arty aspirations." — Time Out Posted Oct 4, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 28%
| Fame (2009) | "
This film makes even the most gaudy of Saturday night TV talent contests look like Dostoyevsky in comparison." — Time Out Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 59%
| Creation (2009) | "
Don’t expect anything too radical from this infuriatingly soft yet still pleasantly subdued and poignant screen adaptation of Randal Keynes’s book ‘Annie’s Box’" — Time Out Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 40%
| Born in 68 () | "
A politically naïve and protracted slice of dewy-eyed nostalgia." — Time Out Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Rotten 36%
| Je Veux Voir (2009) | "
There’s no denying that this is a single-note film, but it’s a note of considerable emotional clout." — Time Out Posted Sep 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 38%
| Passchendaele (2008) | "
As a director, Gross paints in big, emotive strokes, and though his dialogue often feels too tied to historical fact, this old-fashioned, patriotic war movie has its heart in the right place." — Time Out Posted Sep 4, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 92%
| Mesrine: Part 2 - Public Enemy #1 (2009) | "
Unlike its more lively predecessor, this is more interested in dissecting the criminal mindset." — Time Out Posted Aug 29, 2009 |
Fresh 4/6
| Fresh 76%
| Afterschool (2009) | "
The film has a lot to say about the effect of technology on teenage interaction, how schools repress individuality and how sexual awakening causes, rather than relieves, teenage angst." — Time Out Posted Aug 21, 2009 |
Fresh 5/5
| Fresh 100%
| The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) | "
A luminous musical about dreams, romance and destiny which lovingly reworks the classic Hollywood ‘putting on a show’ template into an essay on the emotional rollercoaster ride that is movie-going." — Time Out Posted Aug 14, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 79%
| Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2009) | "
Cassel injects a jolt of wild energy and ambiguity into what could easily have been another flatulent, apologist gangster epic." — Time Out Posted Aug 7, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 86%
| Rumba (2008) | "
This charming, affectionately crafted and gleefully unfashionable comic miniature from writing/directing troupe Abel, Gordon and Romy slips down a treat." — Time Out Posted Jul 31, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 16%
| Crossing Over (2009) | "
Any one of these stories, if properly fleshed out and shorn of contrivance, would have made for a perfectly serviceable film. Instead, we have lots of hysterical little bits of nothing much." — Time Out Posted Jul 31, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 98%
| Once Upon a Time in the West (1969) | "
‘Once Upon a Time…’ now looks like an over-cooked mess of style, metaphor and reference." — Time Out Posted Jul 24, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 43%
| The Proposal (2009) | "
They may as well have called this one ‘Mis-Matched Sham Wedding Comedy #57513’ for all the effort it makes to shake new life out of a tattered genre." — Time Out Posted Jul 24, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 88%
| Frozen River (2008) | "
Occasionally marred by contrivance and a crude internal logic that doesn’t bear close scrutiny, ‘Frozen River’ works best as a knuckle-gnawing, blue-collar genre thriller." — Time Out Posted Jul 17, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 71%
| Ichi () | "
With its hokey, flashback-heavy plotting, unadventurous camera use and a clutch of cloyingly earnest performances, it comes across like an irony-free, mid-season episode of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’." — Time Out Posted Jul 10, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 91%
| Cloud 9 (2009) | "
Poignant, lightly philosophical and beautifully performed." — Time Out Posted Jul 10, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 72%
| Sunshine Cleaning (2009) | "
Jeffs makes a good fist of the direction and Blunt proves that she can do comedy, but it’s Adams’s comforting, charismatic central turn which really gives the film its lift." — Time Out Posted Jul 3, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 53%
| Embodiment of Evil (2008) | "
It may tickle a type of hardened horror connoisseur, but most will want a shower after seeing it." — Time Out Posted Jul 3, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 64%
| The Disappeared (2008) | "
Johnny Kervorkian sets up the film nicely, but by the end, your worst fears are realised when it climaxes in the most anodyne way possible." — Time Out Posted Jun 19, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 11%
| Beyond the Fire (2009) | "
As well-intentioned as it is deathly dull, this moody, London-set indie attempts to fuse a sprawling, right-on social agenda with a tenderly wrought mismatched romance and doesn’t manage to say anything interesting about either." — Time Out Posted Jun 19, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Rotten 50%
| Soi Cowboy (2009) | "
Here is an artist who has gone back to the drawing board and pared down his act to deliver a stark and complex humanist message with technical brio and a broad knowledge of cinema, demonstrating real poise and originality." — Time Out Posted Jun 12, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 100%
| This Sporting Life (1963) | "
The film is raw and confident, but it’s a little shallow, too." — Time Out Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 93%
| Sugar (2009) | "
In ‘Sugar’, the pair skilfully dismantle the timeworn themes, characters and story patterns of the conventional sports movie and then reassemble them as a rich, socially astute realist drama." — Time Out Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 86%
| Max Manus (2008) | "
Though not without its moments, this latest tale of wartime derring-do rarely dares to enter uncharted territory." — Time Out Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 100%
| The Hide (2009) | "
It’s all given a much-needed shot of credibility by the strength of the writing and the subtlety of the directing. Losey is a talent to watch, and ‘The Hide’ makes for one hell of a Hollywood calling card." — Time Out Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Fresh 5/6
| Fresh 79%
| Sleep Furiously (2008) | "
This is as fully formed and unique a debut movie as you could ever hope to see." — Time Out Posted May 29, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Fresh 68%
| Fermat's Room (2008) | "
The maths element of the film, which on the surface is its USP, feels like dressing on a taut but tawdry genre thriller." — Time Out Posted May 29, 2009 |
Fresh 5/5
| Fresh 82%
| Pierrot Le Fou (1965) | "
A wild-eyed, everything-in-the-pot cross-processing of artistic, cinematic, political and personal concerns, where the story stutters, splinters and infuriates its way to an explosive finale." — Time Out Posted May 22, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 89%
| Everlasting Moments (2009) | "
Troell’s film meshes scenes of high drama and silent contemplation while the milky, sepia-toned Super16 photography lends the images an exquisite, tactile quality." — Time Out Posted May 22, 2009 |
Fresh 5/6
| Fresh 90%
| Momma's Man (2008) | "
Awkward pauses and gestures and moments of self-examination give it a rich texture. It’s a lovely work, sad and funny. A melancomedy, if you will." — Time Out Posted May 8, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Rotten 57%
| Delta (2008) | "
Mundruczó generates a moderate amount of intrigue from the build-up but stubbornly resists handling his themes in any direct and digestible fashion." — Time Out Posted May 8, 2009 |
Fresh 3/6
| Rotten 44%
| Hannah Montana The Movie (2009) | "
While Cyrus’s droll performance (Miley’s not Billy Ray’s) deserves better material, this is still amply entertaining." — Time Out Posted May 1, 2009 |
Rotten 1/6
| Rotten 0%
| City Rats (2009) | "
It’s a terrible film, so blithely wrong-headed in its execution that some scenes are quite entertaining in an ‘is this really happening?’ kind of way." — Time Out Posted Apr 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/6
| Fresh 90%
| The Grocer's Son (2008) | "
It’s a small, well-rounded movie that you’d be hard pressed to find fault with, achieving its modest goals with subtle aplomb while whipping up humour and empathy from Antoine’s rapport with his doddery clientele." — Time Out Posted Apr 24, 2009 |
Fresh 4/6
| Fresh 86%
| Before I Forget (2008) | "
Writer-director-actor Jacques Nolot (below) delivers a bold, searching and open-hearted turn as the subject of this confessional study of life as an elderly gay gent in the French capital." — Time Out Posted Apr 17, 2009 |
Fresh 4/6
| Fresh 98%
| Let the Right One In (2008) | "
This bruised and brilliant fairy tale is one of the year’s true originals." — Time Out Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
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