Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 97%
| The Pool (2008) | "
This unassuming yet hugely ambitious undertaking reveals a filmmaker with an impressive range and depth of feeling that is only now becoming apparent." Posted Sep 5, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 77%
| Lou Reed's Berlin (2008) | "
Reed tears into the material." Posted Jul 15, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 70%
| Full Battle Rattle (2008) | "
This increasingly complicated scenario isn't scripted, peace is far from guaranteed and the line between reality and its incredible simulation has a funny way of getting blurry." Posted Jul 11, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 96%
| WALL-E (2008) | "
It can hardly be called a children's film, but a masterpiece of feature-film animation for all ages." Posted Jun 26, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 95%
| My Winnipeg (2008) | "
One comes away not with an understanding of Winnipeg as a geographical location but a state of mind, a place where sleepwalkers wander and dream and never leave home because in their hearts, they never really want to." Posted Jun 20, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 96%
| 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2008) | "
It puts current Romanian cinema firmly on the international map." Posted Jan 25, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 91%
| Still Life (2008) | "
Few of China's Sixth Generation filmmakers have turned to their country's explosive economic growth and its attendant upheavals with so sharp an eye and so heavy a heart as Jia Zhang-ke." Posted Jan 18, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 96%
| Chop Shop (2007) | "
Bahrani's willingness to expose the shameful reality of third-world conditions in the Land of Plenty while telling a crackling good story marks him as a filmmaker as important as he is accessible." Posted Feb 29, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 88%
| The Unforeseen (2007) | "
[Director Laura] Dunn's elegant, full-length debut presents a frightening and powerful argument against the kind of reckless, profit-driven land development that not only threatens natural resources, but life itself." Posted Feb 29, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 86%
| Billy The Kid (2007) | "
Jennifer Venditti's documentary profile of 15-year-old Kiss fan Billy is truly something special." Posted Dec 5, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 84%
| Protagonist (2007) | "
...an audacious and remarkably assured documentary that weaves together four seemingly unrelated portraits of four contemporary men whose very different lives follow the course of Euripidean drama." Posted Nov 30, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 93%
| The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) | "
Like Bauby's memoir, Schnabel and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood's adaptation is far from a mushy exercise in never-say-die optimism -- it's suffused with Bauby's terror and bitterness." Posted Nov 30, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 85%
| War Dance (2007) | "
Documentary filmmakers Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine found an ingenious way to tell their story in a film that is as unflinching as it is uplifting." Posted Nov 9, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 83%
| Out of the Blue (2007) | "
With his carefully controlled pacing and superb use of sound, Sarkies draws the viewer deep into the experience of a town caught completely off-guard by a kind of violence they could never have expected, and won't soon forget." Posted Oct 19, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 71%
| Lust, Caution (2007) | "
Quite rightly, this powerful, provocative film was awarded the Golden Lion for best picture at the 2007 Venice Film Festival." Posted Sep 28, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 80%
| Great World of Sound (2007) | "
One the most impressive and promising feature debuts since Richard Linklater's Slacker." Posted Sep 14, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 82%
| Exiled (2007) | "
...there's nothing predictable about the film." Posted Aug 31, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 96%
| Deep Water (2007) | "
Echoes the dark poetry of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym, men who sailed to sea in search of fortune only to encounter the abyss within themselves." Posted Aug 24, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 82%
| Manufactured Landscapes (2007) | "
Jennifer Baichwal's important, disquieting documentary offers the strongest reminder since Born Into Brothels that art can serve a crucial, consciousness raising purpose." Posted Jun 20, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 77%
| Crazy Love (2007) | "
[Director] Klores' pacing and his heart-stopping editing that give the film its punch, and his amazing and well-selected soundtrack puts an ironic polish on a love story that's far too strange to be fiction." Posted Jun 1, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 71%
| Golden Door (2007) | "
An enlightening, historically accurate look at what the ancestors of many Americans went through. At a time when another kind of immigration debate rages, it's also an important reminder of where many of us 'Americans' came from." Posted May 25, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Rotten 56%
| Zoo (2007) | "
[Interviewee Jenny Edwards'] own subsequent research into the abyss leaves her 'on the edge of understanding,' and this remarkable, haunting film will leave you feeling very much the same way." Posted Apr 27, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 83%
| Beyond the Gates (2007) | "
Caton-Jones' dramatization of an all-too-real story carries an authenticity that often makes it difficult to bear, particularly when one considers that much the same thing is now occurring in the Sudan." Posted Mar 9, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 73%
| The Decomposition of the Soul (2007) | "
This chilling 82-minute documentary about three souls destroyed by the Stasi, the notorious secret police of East Germany, puts a cold, factual gloss on what might otherwise be taken for fiction." Posted Feb 6, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 100%
| 2 or 3 Things I Know About Him (2007) | "
Malte Ludin's gripping documentary about the father he barely knew is both an extraordinary exercise in family history and an example of what Germans call Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung: 'facing the past.'" Posted Jan 26, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 78%
| The Monastery: Mr. Vig & the Nun (2006) | "
Against all odds, you'll leave this remarkable film caring quite a bit for the old coot -- surely a sign of a very good documentary" Posted Aug 31, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 67%
| 9 Star Hotel (2006) | "
Haar's powerful and terribly sad film speaks volumes, not just about life in contemporary Israel, but in the U.S. as well." Posted May 25, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 93%
| The Lives of Others (2006) | "
A disturbingly accurate depiction of a national nightmare that ultimately transcends its immediate political statement to stand as a future classic of the political-thriller genre." Posted Feb 9, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 74%
| The Dead Girl (2006) | "
The power of each individual performance is obvious, but it's easy to underestimate [director Karen] Moncrieff's subtle skill as a writer and observer of human nature." Posted Dec 29, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 71%
| Inland Empire (2006) | "
It's best to make peace with the film's essential and deliberate inscrutability... and to simply marvel at Dern's astonishing performance, which few actresses are likely to top anytime soon." Posted Dec 6, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Rotten 35%
| 3 Needles (2006) | "
Demonstrates that the transmission of HIV has become an uncontrollable global pandemic that feeds on poverty and recognizes no sexual, national or religious borders." Posted Dec 1, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 91%
| Iraq in Fragments (2006) | "
[Director] Longely's real strength lies in his ability to draw from the observances of children." Posted Nov 10, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 73%
| Flags of Our Fathers (2006) | "
This is a powerful, important and, in the end, profoundly poignant movie dedicated to the lives of men and women who fight wars and shoulder the burden of becoming 'heroes' to help the rest of us make sense of what remains incomprehensible." Posted Oct 20, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 80%
| Little Children (2006) | "
Once again, Field has crafted a grown-up movie that grabs you by the throat, drags you in and doesn't let you go until the very bitter end." Posted Oct 6, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 88%
| Mutual Appreciation (2006) | "
[Mutual Appreciation] carries a rush that has rarely been felt in a movie since the early New Wave." Posted Sep 1, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 90%
| Half Nelson (2006) | "
Even if you're sure you've had enough of indie dramas about drug addicts that all too often serve as showcases for young actors hoping to prove their chops by getting raw, make an exception for this superb drama." Posted Aug 12, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 86%
| Quinceanera (2006) | "
Not only does it offer a refreshingly different view of Latin American life from the usual gangbanging, but it sharply notes the changing fortunes of L.A. minorities -- Latino, gay or both -- and the way social changes are reflected in real estate." Posted Aug 4, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 90%
| Little Miss Sunshine (2006) | "
What makes husband-and-wife directing team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' hilarious debut such a great family film isn't that it's suitable for the whole family (it's not), but that it speaks a simple truth about what it means to be part of one." Posted Jul 26, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 93%
| The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2006) | "
It's full of humor, pathos and a deep humanism that comes as a warm blast in this age of lifeless, cinematic junk." Posted Apr 28, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 71%
| Clean (2006) | "
Hong Kong superstar Maggie Cheung gives a revelatory performance as an aspiring singer attempting to get her life back on track in Olivier Assayas' delicately rendered drama about addiction and recovery." Posted Apr 28, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 90%
| United 93 (2006) | "
... one of the most harrowing, viscerally upsetting films ever made." Posted Apr 28, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 86%
| Three Times (2006) | "
It's simply one of the most beautiful films he's made to date." Posted Apr 26, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 88%
| Sir! No Sir! (2006) | "
[An] important and compassionate film." Posted Apr 21, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 98%
| Kekexeli: Mountain Patrol (2006) | "
A fascinating film that benefits greatly from the stunning scenery of the Tibetan plateau and from a quicksand scene that will leave you gasping." Posted Apr 14, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 86%
| L'Enfant (2006) | "
Throughout this raw, often brilliant drama, the Dardennes refuse to judge these deeply flawed characters." Posted Mar 24, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 92%
| Shakespeare Behind Bars (2006) | "
Shakespeare himself couldn't have written better or more complex characters, and far from strange, by the end of this extraordinary film you couldn't imagine Shakespeare performed anywhere else." Posted Mar 10, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 81%
| Tsotsi (2006) | "
Originally set in the 1950s, Tsotsi's story was updated to the postapartheid present to prove a sharp point: For many black South Africans, little has changed." Posted Feb 24, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 61%
| Something New (2006) | "
First-time feature director Sanaa Hamri's virtually perfect romantic comedy is a marvelous mix of brains and heart that confronts serious questions about race and dating with sensitivity, humor and enormous sex appeal." Posted Feb 3, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 91%
| Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2006) | "
Hugely entertaining." Posted Jan 27, 2006 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 92%
| Fateless (2006) | "
This exceptional film features some of the most beautiful cinematography ever seen on film, in service of some of the most horrible images imaginable." Posted Jan 6, 2006 |
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