|
5/5
|
94%
|
The Secret World of Arrietty (2012) |
"
It's one of few animated fairy tales to genuinely transport the audience into their world and, in the process, let us see our own with fresh awe and respect."
—
Time Out New York
Posted Feb 14, 2012
|
|
A
|
93%
|
The Tillman Story (2010) |
"
The Tillman Story puts the lie that the cover-up of his death was the result of a series of errors firmly in the ground at last."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Sep 2, 2010
|
|
A
|
92%
|
Solntse (The Sun) (2005) |
"
The Sun took four years to reach American theaters, but the long delay hasn't diminished the force of Sokurov's experimentation."
—
AV Club
Posted Nov 19, 2009
|
|
A
|
100%
|
Aruitemo Aruitemo (Still Walking) (2008) |
"
Hirokazu Kore-Eda's home drama Still Walking is a master class in doing much with little."
—
AV Club
Posted Aug 27, 2009
|
|
5/5
|
96%
|
Romántico (2006) |
"
The movie's interests tend more toward the personal than the political. Cultural differences notwithstanding, Sánchez is the archetype of the overachieving dad, sacrificing his present to provide for his family's future."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jan 11, 2007
|
|
A-
|
96%
|
The Kid with a Bike (2012) |
"
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne make great movies with such regularity they can be easy to overlook, but The Kid With a Bike puts just enough spin on the Dardennes' formula to let you feel their worth anew."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted May 3, 2012
|
|
A-
|
79%
|
The Deep Blue Sea (2012) |
"
Terence Davies doesn't make movies so much as he makes moods, languorous explorations of time and space that coalesce like a cloud of fragrant smoke."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted May 3, 2012
|
|
A-
|
99%
|
A Separation (2011) |
"
The characters are deliberately ordinary, but their stories take on the weight of myth."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Jan 31, 2012
|
|
A-
|
72%
|
Carnage (2011) |
"
Drives home an oft-observed truth with wit and style. It's thin, but then so is a knife between your ribs."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Jan 12, 2012
|
|
A-
|
77%
|
War Horse (2011) |
"
War Horse is not a movie that tries to cover its tracks, but when it works, you're more than willing to be led by the hand. "
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Dec 23, 2011
|
|
A-
|
81%
|
The Skin I Live In (2011) |
"
The Skin I Live In feels like the culmination of a process, and perhaps the beginning of something new."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Nov 3, 2011
|
|
A-
|
79%
|
Blank City (2011) |
"
Above all, the film is a poignant valentine to an era when artists could afford to live and work on the island of Manhattan, and the cultural ferment goosed by their low-rent lifestyle. "
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 16, 2011
|
|
A-
|
85%
|
The Tree of Life (2011) |
"
Sections of Malick's expansive, fitfully brilliant, occasionally sloppy film are so powerful that you can only gaze up at the screen in wordless awe."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Jun 16, 2011
|
|
A-
|
81%
|
Four Lions (2010) |
"
The jihadis' absurdity is rooted in real life, but Morris doesn't trivialize the danger they represent. "
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Nov 6, 2010
|
|
A-
|
96%
|
Samson and Delilah (2010) |
"
Pitched somewhere between City Of God and the Dardenne brothers, Samson And Delilah is unsparing in its brutal vision of the world."
—
AV Club
Posted Oct 14, 2010
|
|
A-
|
81%
|
Catfish (2010) |
"
The movie itself is an invasion of privacy, as the constant sparring between the filmmakers and their increasingly reluctant subject reminds us."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Sep 24, 2010
|
|
A-
|
99%
|
Metropolis (1927) |
"
Kino's The Complete Metropolis contains nearly a hundred instances of restored footage, ranging from brief reaction shots to entire sequences."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 22, 2010
|
|
A-
|
89%
|
Alle Anderen (Everyone Else) (2010) |
"
Feels less like voyeurism than symbiosis, merging spectator and spectacle until the boundary between them starts to dissolve. "
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Jul 14, 2010
|
|
A-
|
92%
|
Dogtooth (Kynodontas) (2010) |
"
Giorgos Lanthimos' sublimely unsettling parable begins with an outlandish idea and follows it through with devastating logic."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Jul 9, 2010
|
|
A-
|
92%
|
Vincere (2010) |
"
Vincere's images are indelible, if oddly romantic, as dangerously seductive as Il Duce himself."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Apr 23, 2010
|
|
A-
|
74%
|
The Exploding Girl (2010) |
"
Gray's limpid compositions draw plangent stillness from urban darkness, counterpointing but not unbalancing his actors' understated naturalism."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Apr 23, 2010
|
|
A-
|
100%
|
Rashômon (Rashomon) (In the Woods) (1951) |
"
Akira Kurosawa's four-way account of a man's murder has become so associated with its central device %u2014 not to mention its myriad offshoots %u2014 that it requires an effort to see it only for itself."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Nov 19, 2009
|
|
A-
|
89%
|
A Serious Man (2009) |
"
A stylized, slow-speed farce, the movie is frequently absurd and occasionally silly, but it also touches on profound moral and spiritual quandaries, the kinds of things the Coens would never be caught dead addressing directly."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Oct 2, 2009
|
|
A-
|
62%
|
Brideshead Revisited (2008) |
"
It's rare to find a work that explores issues of faith without veering into religious fundamentalism or militant atheism, which is reason enough to revisit Brideshead one more time."
—
AV Club
Posted Jul 24, 2008
|
|
4.5/5
|
65%
|
Wondrous Oblivion (2006) |
"
For all its bright-hued nostalgia (the cricket greens are practically incandescent), Wondrous Oblivion edges up to hard truths, most powerfully expressed in Lindo's towering performance."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 30, 2006
|
|
3.5/4
|
44%
|
Happy Feet Two (2011) |
"
It's familiar enough not to spook fans of the (highly profitable) first, but Happy Feet Two branches out beyond prefab coming-of-age stories and gimmicky pop-song set pieces."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Nov 17, 2011
|
|
B+
|
92%
|
Headhunters (2012) |
"
Headhunters' title rapidly turns literal, and what seemed like a lightweight heist thriller careens into a bloody-minded game of cat and mouse."
—
AV Club
Posted Apr 26, 2012
|
|
B+
|
83%
|
Last Days Here (2012) |
"
The fact that Last Days Here cares more about Liebling's personal redemption than his professional triumph is ultimately a saving grace, a telling demonstration of the film's well-ordered priorities."
—
AV Club
Posted Mar 1, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
100%
|
Come Back, Africa () |
"
Come Back, Africa is a work of amazing grace-and a forgotten treasure."
—
Time Out New York
Posted Jan 24, 2012
|
|
B+
|
75%
|
The Adventures of Tintin (2011) |
"
The virtual world allows Spielberg to devise shots that never seem to end, tracking down impromptu zip lines as if the camera had wings. It's a gimmick, to be sure, but a glorious one."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Dec 23, 2011
|
|
B+
|
87%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) |
"
The movie feels like a cartoon, brilliantly achieved but utterly shallow."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Dec 23, 2011
|
|
B+
|
91%
|
Into The Abyss (2011) |
"
The title Into the Abyss could serve for any of Werner Herzog's documentaries, but this portrait of death row inmate Michael Perry is perhaps the least Herzogian film in his nonfiction catalogue."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Nov 24, 2011
|
|
B+
|
89%
|
The Descendants (2011) |
"
Payne's exploring new territory, but it also feels like he's holding himself back, attempting to evolve through repression. "
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Nov 17, 2011
|
|
B+
|
77%
|
Melancholia (2011) |
"
A coolly fatalistic reconciliation that not only accepts but embraces Von Trier's mental illness. "
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Nov 11, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
95%
|
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2011) |
"
Our hero's prominence sets up a stellar conclusion that retroactively questions both the first movie and its substantial audience."
—
Time Out New York
Posted Nov 8, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
80%
|
Pianomania (2011) |
"
When sitting through this detail-heavy documentary, nonaficionados may feel like they're watching paint dry, albeit in the company of an artist who savors each and every shade."
—
Time Out New York
Posted Nov 1, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
77%
|
The Other F Word (2011) |
"
Nevins's portrait of how a nihilistic movement fostered such nurturing family men resonates beyond its rebels-with-a-cause novelty."
—
Time Out New York
Posted Nov 1, 2011
|
|
B+
|
90%
|
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) |
"
Almost opaque in its refusal to reveal its characters' inner lives, but Olsen's quiet, controlled performance is spellbinding even as it resists easy explanations."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Oct 27, 2011
|
|
B+
|
95%
|
Paul Goodman Changed My Life (2011) |
"
Perhaps it's a tribute to the breadth of Goodman's life that even after 90 minutes, it feels as if we've just scratched the surface."
—
AV Club
Posted Oct 20, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
70%
|
Oranges And Sunshine (2011) |
"
The movie belongs to Hugo Weaving and David Wenham, both playing what one newspaper dubs "the lost children of the Empire," men broken by the appalling conditions that met them in their new homeland."
—
Time Out New York
Posted Oct 18, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
90%
|
I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive (2011) |
"
Focuses, unsurprisingly, on family ties, although the kind you'll find here are more likely to choke than comfort."
—
Time Out New York
Posted Aug 31, 2011
|
|
B+
|
86%
|
Terri (2011) |
"
A compressed parable of the teenage years, sometimes dazzling in its emotional sweep and yet another reason to keep a close eye on Jacobs."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Aug 4, 2011
|
|
B+
|
63%
|
In a Glass Cage (Tras el cristal) (1989) |
"
As creepy as they come, leaving a lingering chill that only time can warm"
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 10, 2011
|
|
B+
|
77%
|
The Innkeepers (2012) |
"
West's most assured film yet, a slow-burning creeper that pays off in spades. "
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Jul 10, 2011
|
|
B+
|
97%
|
Rapt (2011) |
"
While the back-and-forth between various parties grows tiresome through repetition, Rapt rallies with a lengthy epilogue in which the aftermath of Attal's ordeal proves more draining than the physical privation that preceded it."
—
AV Club
Posted Jul 7, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
87%
|
Submarine (2011) |
"
Submarine may not be epic cinema, but in a modest way, it's close to perfection."
—
Time Out New York
Posted Jun 1, 2011
|
|
B+
|
88%
|
Even the Rain (Meme La Pluie) (2011) |
"
There's a rueful, knowing quality to the moments when Bernal's character puts the film above all else, blinded to the fact that his pursuit jeopardizes the ideals he means to enshrine."
—
AV Club
Posted Feb 17, 2011
|
|
B+
|
86%
|
Carancho (2011) |
"
Even when tackling more mainstream fare, Trapero does it with integrity..."
—
AV Club
Posted Feb 10, 2011
|
|
B+
|
88%
|
Blue Valentine (2010) |
"
Cianfrance prizes verisimilitude over insight, which means the movie gives you a lot to feel but not much to think about, but it's still quietly devastating. "
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Jan 14, 2011
|
|
B+
|
71%
|
Somewhere (2010) |
"
The atmosphere Sofia Coppola creates in her fourth feature is so lovely, it's a shame when it's roiled by the encroachment of plot."
—
Philadelphia City Paper
Posted Jan 14, 2011
|
67%
——
98%
