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Critics / Akiva Gottlieb
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    AKIVA GOTTLIEB

    Agrees with the Tomatometer 68% of the time.

    Biography: In late 1998, I found myself to be a nervous wreck in the wonderful city of Los Angeles. I would go to the cinema twice or so a week, (usually) wasting money, skipping homework and having to put up with my parents' doubts. I desperately needed to convey my emotions! But I couldn't, so I became a film critic instead. I gave myself a reason to see what is now 3 or 4 films per week. Critics like Michael Dequina helped me move up the ranks, and in January 2000 I started a website called Picture Show (http://pictureshow.8m.com), which I share with 3 other wonderful young critics. I also am entertainment editor and resident film critic at L.A. publication Boiling Point. I love to write, but my real aspiration is filmmaking. I am currently directing a short film called "Yellow Brick Road", starring Robert Coppola Schwartzman ("Virgin Suicides"), Max Goldblatt ("My Giant") and fellow OFCS-member Michael Dequina. I am honored to be in the OFCS.
    Favorites: Top 11 of 1999 (in no particular order)- American Beauty, The Insider, Magnolia, Run Lola Run, Fight Club, Three Seasons, The Matrix, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, Being John Malkovich, Boys Don't Cry, Eyes Wide Shut

    Publications: Apollo Guide, Film Written Magazine, rec.arts.movies.reviews, Slant Magazine, Stylus Magazine, Village Voice

    Total Reviews: 179

    LISTING OF ALL REVIEWS & ARTICLES

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    # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
    Results for All Genres
    Showing 1 - 50 of 179
    Previous | Next
    Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date (default)

    Fresh
    3.5/4

    Fresh
    93%

    Summer Hours (2009)

    " The last thing I expected from the mad genius behind Boarding Gate is a Chekhovian chamber drama whose mantra could be essentially reduced to: posterity cares." — Slant Magazine

    Posted May 8, 2009

    Fresh
    2.5/4

    Fresh
    78%

    The End of America (2008)

    " The End of America gives author and public intellectual Naomi Wolf an Inconvenient Truth-style platform to remind Americans about the Bush administration's assault on our civil liberties." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Dec 3, 2008

    Rotten
    2/4

    N/A

    Let It Rain (2008)

    " A question: If you spend an entire career chronicling power relationships among the incurably self-absorbed, is that not in itself a form of self-absorption?" — Slant Magazine

    Posted Oct 15, 2008

    Rotten
    1.5/4

    N/A

    Four Nights with Anna (2008)

    " Four Nights with Anna is one part funny ha-ha to 99 parts funny-strange." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Oct 13, 2008

    Rotten
    1/4

    Rotten
    57%

    Married Life (2008)

    " When the characters in Married Life cry out for help, the entire mise-en-scène stifles them with irony." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Oct 19, 2007

    Fresh
    3.5/4

    Fresh
    75%

    Paranoid Park (2008)

    " A fully subjective probe into the consciousness of a young man and a generous display of artistic empathy." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Oct 11, 2007

    Fresh
    3/4

    Fresh
    88%

    Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

    " Most of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead works so well as a fatalistic, post-Tarantino neo-noir that the last third's attempt to frame the drama as King Lear-level tragedy plays as an unnecessary reach." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Oct 8, 2007

    Rotten
    2/4

    Fresh
    66%

    The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007)

    " To borrow the film's vernacular, the words never stab into the soul." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Sep 26, 2007

    Rotten

    Rotten
    39%

    The Ringer (2005)

    " An uncomfortable intermingling of message movie and gross-out comedy, a sporadically funny vehicle that indicts its audience for laughing. Come on, guys. You can't have your fun and eat it too." — Village Voice

    Posted Dec 28, 2005

    Rotten

    Rotten
    44%

    Comedians of Comedy (2006)

    " Watching the quartet doing laundry, playing arcade games, or getting haircuts evokes the banality of road life far too accurately, and at 105 minutes, the film hardly leaves us wanting more." — Village Voice

    Posted Nov 8, 2005

    Fresh

    Fresh
    71%

    Loggerheads (2005)

    " Unexpectedly resonant." — Village Voice

    Posted Oct 11, 2005

    Rotten

    Rotten
    43%

    Going Shopping (2006)

    " Henry Jaglom's latest study of contemporary female obsessions among a noxious clan of West L.A. bourgeoisie is of more pathological than cinematic interest." — Village Voice

    Posted Sep 27, 2005

    Rotten

    Rotten
    17%

    Loudmouth Soup (2005)

    " Loudmouth Soup perpetuates the same shallow myths about Los Angeles that it pretends to indict." — Village Voice

    Posted Sep 20, 2005

    Fresh

    Fresh
    83%

    Campfire (2004)

    " The timelier elements of Campfire, which cleared house at Israel's Academy Awards this year, are too salient to dismiss." — Village Voice

    Posted Sep 6, 2005

    Rotten

    Rotten
    22%

    Formula 17 (2005)

    " Mark my words: There is no way an innocent like Tien and a Meat Loaf–style heartthrob like Bai could ever make a love thing happen." — Village Voice

    Posted Aug 23, 2005

    Fresh

    Fresh
    70%

    King Of The Corner (2005)

    " This is a story about the benefits of just showing up. Even at its most sentimental, Riegert's pet project possesses a lived-in integrity that nearly offsets the staleness of the material." — Village Voice

    Posted Aug 17, 2005

    Rotten

    Rotten
    31%

    Valiant (2005)

    " As education by anthropomorphism goes, Maus this ain't." — Village Voice

    Posted Aug 16, 2005

    Fresh
    2.5/4

    Rotten
    52%

    Four Brothers (2005)

    " A crackerjack B-movie." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Aug 11, 2005

    Rotten

    Fresh
    75%

    Just One Look (2005)

    " A paean to cinephilia that might goad viewers into questioning the value of film itself." — Village Voice

    Posted Jul 26, 2005

    Rotten
    2/4

    Fresh
    82%

    Hustle & Flow (2005)

    " Talent and practice isn't enough to realize your dreams. To get on MTV, sometimes you gotta shoot somebody." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Jul 13, 2005

    Rotten
    2/4

    Rotten
    56%

    Dallas 362 (2005)

    " plays more like a vanity project from a rich kid who never got to do his share of macho posturing. " — Slant Magazine

    Posted Jun 21, 2005

    Rotten

    Rotten
    38%

    Second Best (2005)

    " An ugly, amateurish film that champions mediocrity in a meta-attempt to justify its own ineptitude." — Village Voice

    Posted May 24, 2005

    Rotten
    2/4

    Fresh
    82%

    Rock School (2005)

    " There's something unsettling and downright Dickensian about Green's hard-knocks method and proprietary stance." — Slant Magazine

    Posted May 22, 2005

    Rotten

    Fresh
    61%

    Stolen Childhoods (2005)

    " As cinema, this is standard, on-the-nose PBS fluff, but it's the grade school principal's perfect guilt inducement tool for slackers who arrive late to class." — Village Voice

    Posted May 17, 2005

    Rotten
    2.5

    Rotten
    58%

    The Interpreter (2005)

    " Subversive, maybe, but hardly explosive. " — Slant Magazine

    Posted Apr 19, 2005

    Fresh

    Rotten
    39%

    Beauty Shop (2005)

    " Girls just wanna have fun, and so does the film, which recycles the requisite moralizing into a breezy, sporadically funny package." — Village Voice

    Posted Mar 29, 2005

    Fresh
    3/4

    Fresh
    71%

    Mondovino (2005)

    " A remarkably focused docu-essay." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Mar 21, 2005

    Fresh

    Rotten
    44%

    The Boys and Girl from County Clare (2005)

    " John Irvin's Miramaxy paean to Irish Ceili music gets by on infectious geniality." — Village Voice

    Posted Mar 9, 2005

    Rotten
    2/4

    Rotten
    53%

    Melinda and Melinda (2005)

    " Plays like the product of a Woody tribute act that couldn’t decide if it preferred Annie Hall or Crimes and Misdemeanors." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Feb 23, 2005

    Fresh
    3/4

    Fresh
    92%

    Cinevardaphoto (2005)

    " Varda remains a passionate gleaner of history." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Feb 16, 2005

    Rotten

    Rotten
    23%

    Uncle Nino (2003)

    " Sounds Disneyfied enough on paper, but the elderly, violin-toting hero's successful attempt to infiltrate his miscreant nephew's mall-punk garage band is too creepy to fulfill the hipness quotient." — Village Voice

    Posted Feb 8, 2005

    Rotten

    Fresh
    61%

    Swimming Upstream (2005)

    " Saddled with a ham-fistedly literal title and copious aesthetic ineptitude." — Village Voice

    Posted Feb 2, 2005

    Rotten
    1.5/4

    Fresh
    77%

    Assisted Living (2005)

    " Greenebaum never molds his inchoate elements into any clear shape." — Slant Magazine

    Posted Feb 1, 2005

    Rotten

    Rotten
    43%

    Bob, Verushka & the Pursuit of Happiness (2000)

    " While Waite's deadpan delivery eases the torture, Stigliano's micro-budget film plays like a preachy relic of the Gorbachev era." — Village Voice

    Posted Nov 16, 2004

    Fresh

    Fresh
    78%

    The Child I Never Was (2002)

    " While the serial-killer sob story subgenre rarely yields a nuanced product, Kai S. Pieck's debut feature finds a plaintive, compelling route to the pathology of 1960s German child-killer Jürgen Bartsch." — Village Voice

    Posted Oct 6, 2004

    Rotten

    Rotten
    57%

    Cowboys & Angels (2005)

    " In general, a film in which the protagonist exalts his friend on a city sidewalk, raising his arms to the sky and proclaiming, 'You've worked your magic on me, and I'll never be the same again!' should not be seen by anyone." — Village Voice

    Posted Sep 14, 2004

    Rotten

    Rotten
    5%

    The Cookout (2004)

    " The pointlessness of The Cookout exudes a modicum of charm, but the simple-minded mess still lacks the wit and moral weight of an episode of Family Matters." — Village Voice

    Posted Sep 7, 2004

    Fresh

    Fresh
    70%

    Frankie & Johnny are Married (2004)

    " Successfully amalgamates Henry Jaglom's Hollywood- home-movie aesthetic, ego-skewering satire, and a measured understanding of the kinship between love and risk." — Village Voice

    Posted Jun 8, 2004

    Rotten

    Rotten
    25%

    Off the Lip (2004)

    " This inane debut feature is based around neon-suffused stock surfing footage from a Compaq commercial, so it's a notable accomplishment that Off the Lip succeeds at being laughably highfalutin." — Village Voice

    Posted May 4, 2004

    —

    Fresh
    94%

    Before Sunset (2004)

    Click here to read article — Stylus Magazine

    Posted Apr 18, 2004

    Rotten

    Fresh
    73%

    Showboy (2004)

    " An ill-conceived, often implausible hybrid of fact and fiction." — Village Voice

    Posted Apr 6, 2004

    —

    Fresh
    89%

    The Five Obstructions (2004)

    Click here to read article — Stylus Magazine

    Posted Mar 28, 2004

    —

    Fresh
    87%

    Crimson Gold (2004)

    Click here to read article — Stylus Magazine

    Posted Feb 8, 2004

    —

    Fresh
    69%

    The Company (2003)

    Click here to read article — Stylus Magazine

    Posted Jan 11, 2004

    —

    Fresh
    77%

    Big Fish (2003)

    Click here to read article — Stylus Magazine

    Posted Nov 30, 2003

    —

    Fresh
    91%

    Shattered Glass (2003)

    Click here to read article — Stylus Magazine

    Posted Nov 9, 2003

    —

    Fresh
    71%

    Elephant (2003)

    Click here to read article — Stylus Magazine

    Posted Nov 6, 2003

    —

    Fresh
    82%

    Thirteen (2003)

    Click here to read article — Stylus Magazine

    Posted Nov 6, 2003

    —

    Fresh
    95%

    Lost in Translation (2003)

    Click here to read article — Stylus Magazine

    Posted Nov 6, 2003
    Results for All Genres
    Showing 1 - 50 of 179
    Previous | Next
     
     
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    Best to Worst Sampling

    Best to Worst Sampling

    4/4

    Boys Don't CryOffsite

    A-

    Human TrafficOffsite

    3.5/4

    The Blair Witch ProjectOffsite

    81/100

    Jason's LyricOffsite

    B+

    Wonder BoysOffsite

    3/4

    A Midsummer Night's DreamOffsite

    72/100

    Never Cry WolfOffsite

    2.5/4

    ElectionOffsite

    57/100

    Friday the 13th - Part 2Offsite

    2/4

    Stir of EchoesOffsite

    1.5/4

    Cruel IntentionsOffsite

    1/4

    The Mod SquadOffsite

    2.5

    The InterpreterOffsite

    Best Reviewed

    Best Reviewed

    4/4

    Boys Don't CryOffsite

    4/4

    Three SeasonsOffsite

    4/4

    Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down GirlOffsite

    4/4

    American BeautyOffsite

    4/4

    The MatrixOffsite

    4/4

    Run Lola RunOffsite

    4/4

    Eyes Wide ShutOffsite

    A-

    Human TrafficOffsite

    More…

    Worst Reviewed

    Worst Reviewed

    1/4

    Married LifeOffsite

    1/4

    The Mod SquadOffsite

    More…

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