|
|
96%
|
The King and I (1956) |
"
Typically overproduced."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 10, 2012
|
|
|
100%
|
Stagecoach (1939) |
"
Its virtues remain intact."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 10, 2012
|
|
|
98%
|
La Grande illusion (The Grand Illusion) (1937) |
"
It's an excellent film, with Renoir's usual looping line and deft shifts of tone, though today the balance of critical opinion has shifted in favor of the greater darkness and filigree of The Rules of the Game."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 8, 2012
|
|
|
100%
|
The Love Parade (1929) |
"
Made before the production code was inflicted, the film is rife with Lubitschian innuendo."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 3, 2012
|
|
|
46%
|
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1955) |
"
The film is the quintessence of a certain kind of 50s schlock."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 31, 2012
|
|
|
80%
|
The Citadel (1936) |
"
Though it has Vidor's favorite theme of personal rebirth and his enduring country/city dichotomy, it lacks his usual fire."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 31, 2012
|
|
|
67%
|
Anchors Aweigh (1945) |
"
Tepid and slow."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 31, 2012
|
|
|
83%
|
One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937) |
"
Universal survived the Depression thanks to Boris Karloff and Deanna Durbin, the latter horror being a reedy-voiced child star who infected a number of late 30s musicals before creeping puberty ended her career. This is one of her more tolerable vehicles."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 31, 2012
|
|
|
56%
|
The Turning Point (1977) |
"
For a film ostensibly dedicated to physical grace, Ross's images are unforgivably clumsy."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 30, 2012
|
|
|
65%
|
Ironweed (1987) |
"
Watching "Ironweed" is like having a large, metal object lodged in your brain for 2 1/2 hours. It hurts."
—
Chicago Tribune
Posted Dec 19, 2011
|
|
|
98%
|
Das Boot (The Boat) (1981) |
"
The film has no qualities beyond its formal polish."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 9, 2011
|
|
|
100%
|
Night of the Demon (Curse of the Demon) (Haunted) (1958) |
"
Intelligent, delicate, and actually frightening."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 17, 2011
|
|
|
94%
|
Island of Lost Souls (The Island of Dr. Moreau) (1933) |
"
It's a grand, hokey chiller, dripping with sex and sadism and photographed in dense, Sternbergian shadows by the great cinematographer Karl Struss."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 17, 2011
|
|
|
94%
|
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1999) |
"
All in all, a very creditable film."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 8, 2011
|
|
|
98%
|
Forbidden Planet (2000) |
"
An engaging 1956 science fiction gloss of Shakespeare's Tempest."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 26, 2011
|
|
|
94%
|
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) |
"
Harper Lee's child's-eye view of southern bigotry gains something in its translation to the screen by Robert Mulligan, who knows exactly where to place the camera to catch a child's subjective experience."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 25, 2011
|
|
|
100%
|
Jalsaghar (The Music Room) (1958) |
"
Ray's social insight is not dimmed by treating his subject in this distant, allegorical manner; if anything it's intensified by the closer focus he's able to train on his characters."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 19, 2011
|
|
|
61%
|
Dune (1984) |
"
The problem is that the imagery isn't rooted in any story impulse, and so its power dissipates quickly."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 18, 2011
|
|
|
92%
|
Pale Rider (1985) |
"
Though the metaphysical overtones of the screenplay are sometimes awkwardly handled and Eastwood's direction of actors (other than himself) is occasionally uncertain, this was one of the better American films of 1985."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 27, 2011
|
|
|
89%
|
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) |
"
You have to admire the craft and assurance of the thing even as its artificiality hits you in the face."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 27, 2011
|
|
|
97%
|
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) |
"
Hopelessly violent but exceedingly well made."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 25, 2011
|
|
|
100%
|
Angst Essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) (1974) |
"
This 1974 film stands as one of Fassbinder's sturdiest achievements, posed between the low-budget funkiness of his early features and the mannerism of his late period."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 25, 2011
|
|
|
78%
|
The Thing (1982) |
"
Carpenter's direction is slow, dark, and stately; he seems to be aiming for an enveloping, novelistic kind of effect, but all he gets is heaviness."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 25, 2011
|
|
|
89%
|
Once Upon a Time in America (1984) |
"
Every gesture is immediate, and every gesture seems eternal."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 12, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
La hora de los hornos: Notas y testimonios sobre el neocolonialismo, la violencia y la liberación (1971) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 5, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Waiting for Fidel (2004) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
House for Swap (Se permuta) () |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Le Mystère Koumiko (The Koumiko Mystery) () |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Kharij (The Case Is Closed) () |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Xica da Silva (Xica) (1993) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Akaler Sandhane (In Search of Famine) () |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
De Man die zijn haar kort liet knippen (1966) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Les Favoris de la lune (Favourites of the Moon) () |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Manthan () |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Sambizanga () |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
El Chacal de Nahueltoro (Jackal of Nahueltoro) (1969) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Los Dos Mundos de Angelita (The Two Worlds of Angelita) (1982) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
A Sense of Loss () |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Return of the Soldier (2005) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
|
——
|
Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino (Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano) (1977) |
"
The relentlessly pretty cinematography suggests an urge for precious self-deception on Mikhalkov's part as strong as any of his characters'."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Bye Bye Brasil () |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
|
95%
|
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) |
"
Silly, sophomoric, and slapped together -- but would you want it any other way?"
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 29, 2011
|
|
|
56%
|
Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood (1973) |
"
Fairly creaky."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 23, 2011
|
|
|
64%
|
The Mirror Crack'd (1980) |
"
For all her prolificacy, Agatha Christie relied too often on one particular plot twist, and as soon as you recognize her old favorite here, the film loses all interest."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 23, 2011
|
|
|
69%
|
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) |
"
The cast packs enough sexual ambiguity to satisfy the most rabid Williams fan (not to mention a screenplay by Gore Vidal), but Mankiewicz leaves much of the innuendo unexplored -- thankfully, perhaps."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 23, 2011
|
|
|
47%
|
Butterfield 8 (1960) |
"
It's just about as awful as you'd expect, despite the presence of two first-class screenwriter."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 23, 2011
|
|
|
93%
|
Father of the Bride (1950) |
"
This ostensibly lighthearted film about Spencer Tracy's Kafkaesque attempts to bring off his daughter's wedding is one of the bleakest films of a bleak decade."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 23, 2011
|
|
|
87%
|
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1976) |
"
A slick and reasonably funny comedy."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 21, 2011
|
|
|
49%
|
Top Gun (1986) |
"
Every moment is hyped for maximum visual and visceral impact, but Scott doesn't display the slightest bit of interest (or belief) in the actual characters and situations."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 8, 2011
|
