|
4/4
|
——
|
Astenicheskiy sindrom (1990) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
——
|
Mix-up Ou Meli-melo (1987) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Gosford Park (2001) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 15, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Time Out (L' Emploi du temps) (2002) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 15, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Starting Out in the Evening (2007) |
"
Much of the film's novelty derives from its characters, the sort one almost never finds in 'commercial' films -- both flawed and sympathetic -- and it keeps them vivid, ambiguous, and three-dimensional throughout."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 14, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
98%
|
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) |
"
A Hollywood entertainment that lived up to its hype."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 14, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
Out 1, Noli Me Tangere () |
"
While the actors are responsible for much of the creativity, these are the director's most obsessive works: every shot and scene is set up more as a question than an answer, hinging on the adventure and mystery of not knowing what will happen next."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 12, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
84%
|
Pierrot le Fou (Pierrot Goes Wild) (Crazy Pete) (1969) |
"
Made in 1965, this film, with its ravishing colors and beautiful 'Scope camerawork by Raoul Coutard, still looks as iconoclastic and fresh as it did when it belatedly opened in the U.S."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 9, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Do the Right Thing (1989) |
"
A powerful and persuasive look at an ethnic community and what makes it tick--funky, entertaining, packed with insight, and political in the best, most responsible sense."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 26, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
78%
|
Private Fears in Public Places (Coeurs) (2007) |
"
Resnais has always been an expressionist, using his settings and compositions to evoke the inner states of his characters. Here, tying expressionism to social critique, he becomes an improbable but unmistakable blood brother of Carl Dreyer."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 8, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Away from Her (2007) |
"
It's Christie who places this powerful love story about the cruelties of aging within hailing distance of Leo McCarey's sublime Make Way for Tomorrow."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 10, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
Offside (2006) |
"
The director shoots largely on location -- parts were filmed at Azadi Stadium during an actual match -- and mixes fiction and documentary so deftly we can't tell which is which."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 20, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
Bamako (2006) |
"
[Director] Sissako somehow manages to reconcile the passionate words of the debate and the mundane activities surrounding it, but he seems most interested in noting and even marveling at the subtle comedy of their coexistence."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 9, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
——
|
Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (2003) |
"
Ultimately [director] Burnett offers a remarkable gift: an intelligent sense of relativity. As Woodard's narration puts it, 'For a nation unable to come to terms with the legacy of slavery, Nat Turner remains a troublesome property.'"
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 23, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) |
"
Indirectly but cogently comment on our experiences of other movies. Having Japanese soldiers as heroes allows us to reconsider the didacticism we've been handed in the past."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 27, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
72%
|
Inland Empire (2006) |
"
Inland Empire is full of good and bad girls, but [Lynch] gives this obsession an interesting spin by having most of them played by the same actress."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 26, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) |
"
Unlike most horror movies, this chiller gives equal prominence to reality and fantasy, though the reality is far more frightening."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 29, 2006
|
|
4/4
|
98%
|
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) |
"
[It] remains one of the most intelligent, handsome, and influential of all war epics."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 13, 2006
|
|
4/4
|
90%
|
Half Nelson (2006) |
"
One might also argue that a crack addict couldn't be responsible enough to be a good teacher, but he's the most believable protagonist in any American movie I've seen this year."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Sep 15, 2006
|
|
4/4
|
74%
|
The Illusionist (2006) |
"
A lush piece of romanticism -- a tale of enchantment set in turn-of-the-century Vienna."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 18, 2006
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Zui hao de shi guang (Three Times) (2005) |
"
Seen in isolation, the first episode has the most satisfying plot and the last the least. But the film's achievement lies mostly in the beautifully articulated similarities and differences among the three."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 23, 2006
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2006) |
"
All this edginess, combined with the grandeur and sweep of a classic western, demonstrates that Jones clearly knows how to tell a story -- and how to confound us at the same time."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 4, 2006
|
|
4/4
|
70%
|
The River (He liu) (1997) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 22, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
87%
|
A History of Violence (2005) |
"
Cronenberg isn't engaging in parody or irony. Nor is he nihilistically pandering to our worst impulses: the filmmaking is too measured and too intelligent. He implicitly respects us and our responses, even when those responses are silly or disturbing."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 1, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
71%
|
The World (Shijie) (2005) |
"
Flawed only by its abrupt and stylistically awkward ending, The World is a tragic, visionary work."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 29, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
53%
|
Yes (2005) |
"
Overturns some of the usual assumptions about what movies can and should do."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 9, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
50%
|
Blush (Hong fen) (1996) |
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 16, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Howl's Moving Castle (2005) |
"
Miyazaki, now in his mid-60s, has a refreshing and persuasive way of relating youth to old age and callowness to wisdom. Rather than presenting them succeeding each other and fighting for supremacy, he shows them coexisting peacefully."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 11, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
75%
|
Not on the Lips (2004) |
"
I can't think of another French movie that's given me as much pleasure in years."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 18, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
The Heart of the World (2001) |
"
Conjures up a universe so vast and wacky that anyone can get lost in it."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 16, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
Million Dollar Baby (2004) |
"
The performances of the three leads are perfect, so we don't care that we don't know what lies right outside the Hit Pit."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 27, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) |
"
It qualifies as film criticism on the highest level -- analytical, transformative, and political."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 6, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
The Last Emperor (1987) |
"
It's a tribute to the film's intelligence and its feeling for dialectics that it views both the Forbidden City and the detention center as prisons, and that when Pu Yi winds up as a gardener there's a sense of gain as well as loss."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 20, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
The Corporation (2004) |
"
A highly entertaining and instructive look at a subject that's rarely discussed in detail."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 23, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
Before Sunset (2004) |
"
Having seen Before Sunset twice, and Before Sunrise again in between, I can't say which film is better. Both seem to fulfill an ambition Jean-Luc Godard expressed in the 60s -- to achieve 'the definitive by chance.'"
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 3, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
78%
|
The Saddest Music in the World (2004) |
"
Maddin has reached a new expressive plateau."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 14, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Crimson Gold (2004) |
"
It's the singular presence of Hussein Emadeddin -- a nonprofessional like all the other actors Panahi has used in his films -- that gives the film much of its soul and mystery."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 23, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004) |
"
[Kaufman] clearly surpasses himself."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 21, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
70%
|
Elephant (2003) |
"
Startling and brilliant."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 7, 2003
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
In the Mirror of Maya Deren (2003) |
"
It does such a terrific job of showing us what Deren was like that it makes even the notion of a biopic about her seem unnecessary, if not ridiculous."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 1, 2003
|
|
4/4
|
79%
|
Pistol Opera (2001) |
"
I couldn't give a fully coherent synopsis of Pistol Opera if my life depended on it, but it's still the most fun new movie I've seen since Mulholland Drive and Waking Life (both also 2001)."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 22, 2003
|
|
4/4
|
97%
|
Capturing the Friedmans (2003) |
"
As an investigation into the psychology and processes of witch-hunts, Capturing the Friedmans is one of the most valuable film documents we've had since Carl Dreyer's 1943 Day of Wrath."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 13, 2003
|
|
4/4
|
97%
|
Killer of Sheep: The Charles Burnett Collection (2007) |
"
It shouldn't be missed."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 28, 2003
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Stevie (2003) |
"
One might conclude that the enormous value of a film like Stevie lies in its ability to take us places we'd probably never go otherwise -- not merely as guilty liberals, but as thinking individuals who want to learn something about the world we inhabit."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 28, 2003
|
|
4/4
|
78%
|
25th Hour (2003) |
"
Lee and his cast are so adept at getting us acquainted with Monty and these other people that we wind up feeling like we've known them for years."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 18, 2003
|
|
4/4
|
89%
|
Far From Heaven (2003) |
"
Though less obviously a tour de force than many flashier recent art films, such as Alexander Sokurov's one-take feature Russian Ark, it's no less impressive as a technical achievement."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 29, 2002
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
I'm Going Home (2001) |
"
The kind of quiet masterpiece that fully registers only after you've seen it."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 15, 2002
|
|
4/4
|
51%
|
In Praise Of Love (Éloge de l'amour) (2002) |
"
The trick when watching Godard is to catch the pitch of his poetics, savor the pleasure of his sounds and images, and ponder the historical, philosophical, and ethical issues that intersect with them."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 15, 2002
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich (2000) |
"
It's the best single piece of Tarkovsky criticism I know of, clarifying the overall coherence of his oeuvre while leaving all the principal mysteries in the films intact."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 9, 2002
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
Haut Bas Fragile (Up, Down, Fragile) (1995) |
"
I think one could argue that Up Down Fragile not only tells us a lot about what utopia would feel like, it also tells us a little about how it would be organized."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 30, 2001
|
67%
——
98%
