Rotten
| Fresh 70%
| Bruno (2009) | "
The fallacy that Baron Cohen’s comedy is politically pertinent derives from its pandering to Lefty biases." — New York Press Posted Jul 8, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 92%
| Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009) | "
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg is really a lament for contemporary Jewish comedy’s loss of ethnic confidence. Kempner’s nostalgia becomes irrefutable in those faded images of Berg’s beaming face and discreet intelligence." — New York Press Posted Jul 8, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 81%
| Humpday (2009) | "
Humpday typifies the low-level indie film where characters talk out silly ideas they don’t believe in anyway, just the pop confusion in their heads." — New York Press Posted Jul 8, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 84%
| Tony Manero (2009) | "
Cinephilia -- the smart-about-movies concept about the love of film -- has been so distorted in contemporary movie culture that it has led to the repugnant Chilean film Tony Manero." — New York Press Posted Jul 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 66%
| Public Enemies (2009) | "
Mann not only lacks the narrative efficiency of old genre filmmaking, Public Enemies’ look inspires the opposite of movie love." — New York Press Posted Jul 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 97%
| The Hurt Locker (2009) | "
So far, the best fiction films about the Iraq War are Nick Bloomfield’s Battle for Haditha, Irwin Winkler’s Home of the Brave and John Moore’s allegorical Flight of the Phoenix remake. It’s sufficient praise to say The Hurt Locker joins that short list." — New York Press Posted Jun 24, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 19%
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) | "
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is more proof [Bay] has a great eye for scale and a gift for visceral amazement." — New York Press Posted Jun 24, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 78%
| The Hangover (2009) | "
Rising-star Bradley Cooper and gang represent the dirtbag element that has become acceptable in contemporary comedy." — New York Press Posted Jun 17, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 46%
| The Proposal (2009) | "
Every scene between Bullock and Reynolds only suggests how fine they might be in good circumstances." — New York Press Posted Jun 17, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 46%
| Whatever Works (2009) | "
Ten years after his great expectoration of bile in Deconstructing Harry, Woody Allen comes up with Whatever Works -- the most shameless, cynically titled Hollywood con job since the days of Billy Wilder." — New York Press Posted Jun 17, 2009 |
Fresh
| N/A | Raging Sun, Raging Sky (2009) | "
[Director] Hernández further develops his ideas on form, romanticism and spirituality. His images are beautiful and intriguing enough to win the popular audience he deserves." — New York Press Posted Jun 10, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 50%
| The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) | "
Pelham 123 exploits urban anxiety without relief or understanding. Using exacerbation as entertainment, it is simply an I HATE NY ad." — New York Press Posted Jun 10, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 62%
| Tetro (2009) | "
Clearly, Coppola needs to re-read O’Neill and stop trying to be Soderbergh." — New York Press Posted Jun 10, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 92%
| Séraphine (2008) | "
Next to Demme’s expressionism and Troell’s realism, Provost’s good film is banal." — New York Press Posted Jun 3, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 66%
| Away We Go (2009) | "
Away We Go is as calculated as any summer tentpole blockbuster." — New York Press Posted Jun 3, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 28%
| Land of the Lost (2009) | "
Land of the Lost sheds its TV-formula origins as a 1970s network series and becomes glib fun." — New York Press Posted Jun 3, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 65%
| Zabriskie Point (1970) | "
Almost 40 years later, Zabriskie Point exists to teach us more exact and sensitive perceptions about a cultural moment that its original audience was too close to appropriately observe." — New York Press Posted May 27, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 27%
| Dance Flick (2009) | "
It isn’t highbrow -- or encumbered by scruples -- but the Wayanses retain their vulgar, adolescent derision of sex, class and race. In this bow down to Hollywood millennium, their irreverence is almost subversive." — New York Press Posted May 27, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 97%
| Up (2009) | "
All this deflated cinema and Pixarism mischaracterizes what good animation can be (as in Coraline, Monster House, Chicken Little, Teacher’s Pet, The Iron Giant). Up’s aesthetic failure stems from its emotional letdown." — New York Press Posted May 27, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 50%
| Easy Virtue (2009) | "
[Elliott] tends toward camp, yet respects Coward’s light sentiment (and pays homage to Ealing Studios’ genteel tradition)." — New York Press Posted May 20, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 58%
| The Girlfriend Experience (2009) | "
It’s a millennial dirge for people who don’t know the spiritual/materialist crisis Godard predicted in Nouvelle Vague." — New York Press Posted May 20, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 32%
| Terminator Salvation (2009) | "
McG’s boyish sensationalism is inoffensive, justified by paying attention to how Wright preserves an unlikely human essence. Worthington is a find." — New York Press Posted May 20, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 37%
| Angels & Demons (2009) | "
This overwrought chase/final-countdown movie is as banal as the genre comes. It’s not a well-made action film; it’s just expensively made." — New York Press Posted May 13, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 93%
| Summer Hours (2009) | "
For André Téchiné and Patrice Chéreau, who have specialized in probing/expansive family melodramas, Summer Hours would be a trifle. For Olivier Assayas, it’s almost a masterpiece." — New York Press Posted May 13, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 18%
| Next Day Air (2009) | "
Filmgoers who think outside the artmovie box will discover that the artful and enjoyable Next Day Air offers an episode of 21st-century black American life that August Wilson never got to." — New York Press Posted May 13, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 76%
| Outrage (2009) | "
By Republican-bashing on big topics like gay marriage and AIDS-funding, [director Kirby] Dick avoids exploring ideas. Outrage diminishes crucial, non-partisan gay-identity issues of fear, guilt and self-acceptance." — New York Press Posted May 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 36%
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) | "
Each CGI set piece erases distance, space, weight, gravity and wit. It’s empty, soulless action -- visual noise." — New York Press Posted May 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 95%
| Star Trek (2009) | "
This Star Trek sells cuteness, sentimentality and explosive F/X as if Starship Troopers, Minority Report, Mission to Mars or even Blade Runner or The Matrix (all visionary standard-setters) never happened." — New York Press Posted May 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 18%
| Obsessed (2009) | "
Even as junk, Obsessed isn’t kick-ass enough. The wind-up to Sharon’s explosion takes too long, and director Steve Shill can’t stage a real donnybrook." — New York Press Posted Apr 29, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 92%
| Revanche (2009) | "
Through intelligent formalism, [director] Spielmann crafts a penetrating perception of the world and human experience." — New York Press Posted Apr 29, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 33%
| The Limits of Control (2009) | "
Jim Jarmsuch has been responsible for many of the dullest hours ever spent at the movies. His new The Limits of Control is no different." — New York Press Posted Apr 29, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 41%
| Fighting (2009) | "
Too bad the boxing blueprint doesn’t provide Montiel the profound insight of Walter Hill’s Hard Times and Undisputed which perfectly combined class, ethnicity and existentialism into the two best boxing movies ever made." — New York Press Posted Apr 22, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 86%
| Tyson (2009) | "
Tyson is a mirror portrait that gets under our skin. Through film, [Director James] Toback achieves what even his mentor Norman Mailer’s magnificent writing on boxing was never able to accomplish." — New York Press Posted Apr 22, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 55%
| The Soloist (2009) | "
An artistic failure from conception, it’s British director Joe 'Steadicam' Wright’s torrent of self-righteousness equal to the frequently referenced Hurricane Katrina." — New York Press Posted Apr 22, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 100%
| Leon Morin, Priest (1961) | "
This extraordinary drama doesn’t just play games with sexual disorientation and philosophical argument; it’s also implicitly about life turned upside down." — New York Press Posted Apr 15, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 92%
| Every Little Step (2009) | "
Reality TV has squandered the great impulse toward cultural-political exploration by turning democracy and the documentary into bread and circuses. This tragedy defeats Every Little Step, the first doc to chronicle A Chorus Line’s creation" — New York Press Posted Apr 15, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 85%
| State of Play (2009) | "
If instances of dishonesty, cover-ups and heroic loners seem at all surprising, then you haven’t watched TV in the past 30 years -- or the BBC series where State of Play originated." — New York Press Posted Apr 15, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 51%
| Observe and Report (2009) | "
Violence in the unimaginatively titled Observe and Report is loud and blunt -- making it the ugliest, most hate-filled comedy since Borat." — New York Press Posted Apr 8, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 98%
| Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) | "
After 1984’s heavy-metal satire This Is Spinal Tap started the mockumentary craze, most documentary makers pandered to audiences through sarcasm and propaganda. But the true-life heavy-metal Anvil finally -- beautifully -- restores the genre." — New York Press Posted Apr 8, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 28%
| Fast & Furious (2009) | "
Director Justin Lin doesn’t have the love of design that made the 2001 The Fast and the Furious a deliriously beautiful noir." — New York Press Posted Apr 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 88%
| Adventureland (2009) | "
Adventureland adds appreciable humanity to the genre, improving the adolescent egotism inflected by Dazed and Confused and the vulgar excesses of Superbad." — New York Press Posted Apr 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 93%
| Sugar (2009) | "
Such indie banality -- linked to liberal message-mongering -- proves Fleck-Boden go into a slump long before rookie Miguel." — New York Press Posted Apr 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 72%
| Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) | "
Just because digital 3-D technology is improving doesn’t mean animated movies are getting better." — New York Press Posted Mar 25, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 97%
| Hearts and Minds (1975) | "
Davis’ visual argument overwhelms rationality.This was the beginning of Red/Blue antagonism -- turning benighted patriotism against an opponent’s humanity." — New York Press Posted Mar 25, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 68%
| Guest of Cindy Sherman (2009) | "
Paul H-O might have exposed “dealers” who were agents, publicists, protectors -- the real movers and shakers of the culture industry -- but his romantic wounds get in the way." — New York Press Posted Mar 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 77%
| Valentino: the Last Emperor (2009) | "
A genuine Felliniesque procession of the rich, powerful and over-awed." — New York Press Posted Mar 18, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 82%
| I Love You, Man (2009) | "
From its snarky title on down, everything about I Love You, Man ignores the complexities of male identity." — New York Press Posted Mar 18, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 66%
| Duplicity (2009) | "
Duplicity should have been titled Venality." — New York Press Posted Mar 18, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 90%
| Hunger (2008) | "
As prison-movie machismo, Walter Hill’s Undisputed is better; as visual art, Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments is superior." — New York Press Posted Mar 18, 2009 |
Fresh
| N/A | The Girl on the Train (2009) | "
It’s a love story from the uniquely expansive -- and inquiring -- point of view that makes Téchiné France’s most fascinating contemporary filmmaker." — New York Press Posted Mar 11, 2009 |
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