|
4/4
|
100%
|
This Is Not a Film (2012) |
"
It's a cry from the heart of an artist compelled to create, tell stories and respond to hostile, confounding realities."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 18, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Monsieur Lazhar (2012) |
"
"Monsieur Lazhar" is good. Really good."
—
Washington Post
Posted Apr 27, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
70%
|
Margaret (2011) |
"
Ambitious, affecting, unwieldy and haunting, it's an eccentric, densely atmospheric, morally hyper-aware masterpiece..."
—
Washington Post
Posted Apr 27, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
The Kid with a Bike (2012) |
"
Cyril is one of the most inspiringly resilient, self-aware young characters to arrive on-screen in recent memory..."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 30, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Pariah (2011) |
"
"Pariah" feels a lot like life, at its most confusing, contradictory and exhilarating."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jan 6, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
89%
|
The Descendants (2011) |
"
A tough, tender, observant, exquisitely nuanced portrait of mixed emotions at their most confounding and profound -- all at play within a deliciously damp, un-touristy Hawaii that's at once lush and lovely to look at."
—
Washington Post
Posted Nov 18, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
Take Shelter (2011) |
"
Taut, unsettling, haunting and powerful, "Take Shelter" stars Michael Shannon in a shattering performance as a man caught up in forces beyond his control."
—
Washington Post
Posted Oct 14, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
Moneyball (2011) |
"
Like a cold beer under a bluebird sky; like a flawless line drive on a warm summer's day; like a long, languorous seventh-inning stretch - "Moneyball" satisfies."
—
Washington Post
Posted Sep 23, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
Drive (2011) |
"
Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn neatly manage the hat trick of paying homage to those wheelmen of yore while reinvigorating the genre with style, smarts and flashes of wit."
—
Washington Post
Posted Sep 16, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Win Win (2011) |
"
The rare, humanist beauty of Win Win is that none of its characters is a caricature, none of its plot twists a blatant play for tears or laughs, none of its appeal based on some mythical lowest common denominator."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jul 28, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Of Gods and Men (2011) |
"
Beauvois takes his time limning the daily rhythms of the monastery, lingering on its most lyrical and sensuous moments, so that when violence finally reaches its gates the effect is all the more chilling."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jul 28, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
84%
|
Beginners (2011) |
"
You know you're in the hands of a superbly gifted filmmaker when he can pull off a talking dog."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jun 10, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
Meek's Cutoff (2011) |
"
A mesmerizing cinematic journey that is often as arduous and spare as the lives of its hard-bitten protagonists."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 20, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
Nostalgia for the Light (2011) |
"
The filmmaker's masterpiece, an exquisitely filmed, poetically written meditation on how past and present fuse in humanity's most unresolved questions."
—
Washington Post
Posted Apr 22, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
90%
|
Nuremberg (2010) |
"
More than 60 years after it was made, Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today arrives in American theaters as something of a minor miracle."
—
Washington Post
Posted Oct 8, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
The Social Network (2010) |
"
What looks on paper like a static series of dead-end conversations comes to life as a vital, engaging, even urgent parable for our age."
—
Washington Post
Posted Oct 1, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
84%
|
The Princess and the Frog (2009) |
"
You can exhale now: The Princess and the Frog is a triumph on every one of the myriad levels it has been asked to succeed on."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 11, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Up in the Air (2009) |
"
Up in the Air is a timeless movie that's utterly of its time -- a movie of humor, heart and mind."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 4, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009) |
"
Surely qualifies as the most painful, poetic and improbably beautiful film of the year."
—
Washington Post
Posted Nov 13, 2009
|
|
5/5
|
91%
|
Y Tu Mamá También (2001) |
"
Part travelogue, part road picture, part meditation on class, mortality and intimacy, this extraordinary little movie might be the perfect harbinger of summer, as astute as it is steamy."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jun 1, 2002
|
|
5/5
|
73%
|
The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste) (2001) |
"
Seems less like a fictional story than a tour through Freud's forgotten files."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 24, 2002
|
|
5/5
|
93%
|
About a Boy (2002) |
"
A hip, whip-smart entertainment."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 17, 2002
|
|
4.5/5
|
92%
|
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001) |
"
The rare and wondrous nonfiction film that transcends its subject to become a thing of beauty in itself, a slice of pop-cultural history that shimmers with life."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 3, 2002
|
|
4.5/5
|
89%
|
Baran (2002) |
"
Further solidifies [Majidi's] growing reputation as one of the cinema's most gifted humanist filmmakers."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 3, 2002
|
|
4.5/5
|
82%
|
The Rookie (2002) |
"
A rarity to be cheered: a smart, engaging family film that stands firmly in the best of the Disney tradition."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 29, 2002
|
|
4.5/5
|
95%
|
Monsoon Wedding (2002) |
"
Provides a visually dazzling and deeply affectionate glimpse of the tensions and traditions that animate much of modern Indian life."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 8, 2002
|
|
4.5/5
|
79%
|
Iris (2001) |
"
Not just a fitting document of a life brilliantly lived but a vibrant, almost palpitating piece of cinema."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 15, 2002
|
|
3.5/4
|
85%
|
Declaration of War (2012) |
"
True to its title, "Declaration of War" is a visceral, forthright visit to the front lines of battle, where superhuman courage is called for as life-or-death skirmishes turn into a long slog of survival."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 23, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
92%
|
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2011) |
"
Uses Soviet-era lies to uncover buried truths about its subject."
—
Washington Post
Posted Oct 7, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
93%
|
50/50 (2011) |
"
"50/50" takes the hackneyed convention of illness-driven melodrama and reinvigorates it with honesty, clear-eyed compassion and unsentimental wit."
—
Washington Post
Posted Sep 30, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
92%
|
Senna (2011) |
"
What makes "Senna" essential viewing is the propulsive education it provides in one of the world's most popular sports, and the introduction it provides to an extraordinary athlete and human being."
—
Washington Post
Posted Aug 19, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
94%
|
The Woodmans (2011) |
"
The Woodmans tells the compelling, if slightly disturbing, story of a family coming to grips with love, ego, resentment and loss."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jul 28, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
89%
|
The Trip (2011) |
"
Have you ever been trapped in the back seat of a car while the old married couple up front bickers and banters for hours? It's either sheer torture or, if the couple happens to be Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, wildly entertaining."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jun 17, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
96%
|
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011) |
"
To call "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" a great movie isn't just an understatement, it's a wildly inaccurate way to describe an experience that, in its immersive sensory pleasures and climactic journey of discovery, more closely resembles an ecstatic trance."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 6, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
72%
|
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) |
"
A smart, stylish thriller that melds science fiction, romance and Hitchcock-ian intrigue with surprising ease."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 4, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
88%
|
Even the Rain (Meme La Pluie) (2011) |
"
Telling an old story in a new way and infusing what might have been a dry political polemic with poetry, passion and unlikely warmth."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 25, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
91%
|
The Fighter (2010) |
"
A tough, bare-knuckled, compassionate meditation on every family's rope-a-dope between tribal bonds and self-definition. Both, it turns out, are worth going to the mat for."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 17, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
95%
|
The King's Speech (2010) |
"
Go! Enjoy!"
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 17, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
87%
|
Black Swan (2010) |
"
For every moment of exquisite grace, Aronofsky compensates with a shot of bruised toes mercilessly cracking, or someone taking a pair of scissors to the sole of a pink toe shoe."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 3, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
93%
|
127 Hours (2010) |
"
It's a movie worth seeing, even when it's barely watchable."
—
Washington Post
Posted Nov 12, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
98%
|
Inside Job (2010) |
"
Inside Job traces the history of the crisis and its implications with exceptional lucidity, rigor and righteous indignation."
—
Washington Post
Posted Oct 22, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
86%
|
Get Low (2010) |
"
It affords Duvall a terrific role, harking back to his screen debut as one of literature's great loners, Boo Radley."
—
Washington Post
Posted Aug 13, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
86%
|
Inception (2010) |
"
Inception is that rare film that can be enjoyed on superficial and progressively deeper levels, a feat that uncannily mimics the mind-bending journey its protagonist takes."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jul 16, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
95%
|
No One Knows About Persian Cats (Les Chats Persans) (2010) |
"
Ghobadi has emerged as a filmmaker whose gift for poetic realism was only equaled by an unerring sense of precisely when and how to break the viewer's heart."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 14, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
87%
|
Please Give (2010) |
"
Please Give is one of those movies that can be enjoyed simply for its funny portraits of human foibles and fumbling grasps at intimacy -- but it's also deceivingly profound."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 14, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
97%
|
A Prophet (Un prophete) (2010) |
"
Although these aren't characters with whom filmgoers will have an instinctive rooting interest, Rahim and Arestrup imbue them with fascinating nuances and, in Rahim's case, surprising vulnerability."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 12, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
96%
|
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009) |
"
It pulses with the suspense and momentum of a sleek thriller -- a wily caper flick that just happens to revolve around one of the most crucial chapters in recent American history."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 12, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
90%
|
Fish Tank (2010) |
"
Jarvis, whom the director reportedly discovered at an Essex train station, is nothing less than a revelation in a performance that is tender, spiky and utterly fearless in its physical and emotional range."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 5, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
77%
|
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) |
"
Sharp, lively, funny and ultimately sobering film."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jun 21, 2002
|
|
4/5
|
92%
|
Minority Report (2002) |
"
Has a good time with the gadgetry and gizmos of the future."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jun 21, 2002
|
67%
——
98%
