|
|
95%
|
Pulp Fiction (1994) |
"
The way that this picture has been so widely ravened up and drooled over verges on the disgusting. Pulp Fiction nourishes, abets, cultural slumming."
—
New Republic
Posted May 27, 2009
|
|
|
89%
|
Auf der Anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven) (On the Other Side) (2007) |
"
The care that Akin expends on his people is skimped in the structure of his screenplay."
—
New Republic
Posted Jun 29, 2008
|
|
|
37%
|
Savage Grace (2007) |
"
Unfortunately for all its assets, especially Moore, Savage Grace leaves us somewhat empty-handed."
—
New Republic
Posted May 27, 2008
|
|
|
72%
|
Infamous (2006) |
"
Why did they go ahead anyway? Did they believe that an immense Capote audience was hungering for two films about him?"
—
New Republic
Posted Nov 3, 2006
|
|
|
60%
|
Al Franken: God Spoke (2006) |
"
This film by Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus forces us to make some decisions about him. For myself, I find him generally gross, in person and in manner."
—
New Republic
Posted Oct 26, 2006
|
|
|
11%
|
All The King's Men (2006) |
"
The film isn't dreadful: it is just generally disappointing."
—
New Republic
Posted Oct 26, 2006
|
|
|
93%
|
The Departed (2006) |
"
Is Scorsese desperate? This screenplay has the scent of it, as if he is scraping for material to feed his basic filmic interests."
—
New Republic
Posted Oct 26, 2006
|
|
|
17%
|
Land of the Blind (2006) |
"
The only matter that interests is the question of Fiennes's presence in this political lesson for children."
—
New Republic
Posted Jul 10, 2006
|
|
|
91%
|
United 93 (2006) |
"
This limitation in source material has had a peculiar effect on the script. Never is there a moment of repulsive sentimentality or exploitation, but neither is Greengrass able to realize an ultimate purpose."
—
New Republic
Posted May 12, 2006
|
|
|
56%
|
The Notorious Bettie Page (2006) |
"
Harron's work here is unclear in its theme or purpose."
—
New Republic
Posted May 2, 2006
|
|
|
46%
|
The Ice Harvest (2005) |
"
Robert Benton and Harold Ramis, put on dunce caps and go stand in the corner."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 3, 2006
|
|
|
56%
|
Rosenstrasse (2004) |
"
Rosenstrasse is again only a sad reminder of the earlier von Trotta."
—
New Republic
Posted Aug 28, 2004
|
|
|
19%
|
She Hate Me (2004) |
"
Lee presumably had two ideas, one an exposé of pharmaceutical greed, the other a sex comedy: then he decided that neither one would make a film in itself and came up with the lame idea of combining them."
—
New Republic
Posted Aug 28, 2004
|
|
|
64%
|
Coffee and Cigarettes (2004) |
"
The film is a series of scenes, skits, episodes, that show two or sometimes three people smoking and sipping and conversing, usually in grungy places and usually improvising -- at least that's the intended impression."
—
New Republic
Posted Jun 13, 2004
|
|
|
90%
|
Good Bye, Lenin (2004) |
"
Combination of comedy and gravity is certainly common enough, but it requires a sure hand and perceptible intent. This screenplay has some neat touches, but it never makes up its mind."
—
New Republic
Posted Mar 21, 2004
|
|
|
89%
|
In This World (2003) |
"
In This World leaves us with little more than 'Tsk, tsk.'"
—
New Republic
Posted Oct 15, 2003
|
|
|
77%
|
Seabiscuit (2003) |
"
In the structure of his screenplay Ross has taken a risk, and he has not quite brought it off."
—
New Republic
Posted Aug 27, 2003
|
|
|
76%
|
Respiro (2003) |
"
Respiro is not completely satisfying, because its purpose is cloudy."
—
New Republic
Posted Jun 18, 2003
|
|
|
51%
|
In Praise Of Love (Éloge de l'amour) (2002) |
"
In terms of contribution to cinematic art, [Godard's] new film adds very little to what he has already given us."
—
New Republic
Posted Oct 8, 2002
|
|
|
43%
|
Les enfants du siècle (The Children of the Century) (1999) |
"
Kurys never shows why, of all the period's volatile romantic lives, Sand and Musset are worth particular attention."
—
New Republic
Posted Oct 8, 2002
|
|
|
93%
|
The Producers (1968) |
"
The star not only indulges himself gluttonously, but the director seems to be doubled up with laughter at how funny he is being through Mostel; and the film bloats into sogginess."
—
New Republic
Posted Dec 8, 2001
|
|
|
95%
|
Eternity and a Day (1999) |
"
What had been a realistic work, lyric but realistic, slides into ostentatious symbolism."
—
New Republic
Posted Oct 30, 2001
|
|
|
81%
|
Lumumba (2001) |
"
The trouble with the film is not canonization but, again, the recurrent defect in pictures about such people. The ideational data are so sketchy that it is as if we were riffling the pages of a complicated book."
—
New Republic
Posted Jun 27, 2001
|
|
|
76%
|
Moulin Rouge! (2001) |
"
The net result of all this cinematic whirling, of the "wrong" music and of the parodic plot, is that nothing at all in the film moves us."
—
New Republic
Posted Jun 7, 2001
|
|
|
58%
|
The Luzhin Defence (2001) |
"
Nabokov's novel is an internal adventure; the Gorris-Berry film is imperfect theater."
—
New Republic
Posted May 9, 2001
|
|
|
53%
|
The Golden Bowl (2000) |
"
The novel is inevitably stripped of its rich characterological garments and is left relatively naked as a clever plot -- in the basest sense 'theatrical.'"
—
New Republic
Posted May 2, 2001
|
|
|
92%
|
Memento (2000) |
"
Nolan uses the structure simply as a gimmick to refresh a stale story of revenge, crime, sex, a film noir that never gets any darker than gris."
—
New Republic
Posted Apr 11, 2001
|
|
|
82%
|
Pollock (2000) |
"
Just -- yes, just -- one more film about that perennially obdurate subject, an artist."
—
New Republic
Posted Mar 8, 2001
|
|
|
70%
|
Romeo + Juliet (1996) |
"
The result is horrifying, but it's also unsettling in its ruthlessness."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
93%
|
La Cérémonie (A Judgement in Stone) (1995) |
"
Besides the unconvincing shift of psychic gears, the picture has no theme, no resonance, no point."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
71%
|
My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) |
"
A farce-comedy, it must thrive, if it's to do so, on sparkle. But the bubbles are sparse, partly because of Roberts's low fizz level."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
86%
|
Jackie Brown (1997) |
"
The flat, self-exposing dud that fate often keeps in store for the initially overpraised."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
44%
|
Multiplicity (1996) |
"
Multiplicity exists because it's now possible for an actor to appear on screen with himself and not by means of anything so quaint as double exposure."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
45%
|
Holy Smoke! (2000) |
"
The screenplay sometimes slashes with sharp dialogue, and Campion's directing unmistakably breathes conviction. What she lacks is sufficient humor to see when she approaches the risible and sufficient perception to keep her seriousness fresh."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
93%
|
Dead Man Walking (1995) |
"
The picture is cloudy in intent."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
88%
|
American Beauty (1999) |
"
It never justifies the blatancy of its opening, and it never does anything to freshen what is only one more journey through familiar fortyish unfulfillment."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
26%
|
Anna Karenina (1997) |
"
[Rose's] screenplay is a ragbag, nothing like a tragedy in which the nemesis is Time. And his casting!"
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
60%
|
Outbreak (1995) |
"
Hoffman doesn't get the chance, or need, to act: he just does things, like Ford."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
89%
|
Trainspotting (1996) |
"
A few patches are subtitled, but the general effect is of watching an opera without having read the libretto."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
80%
|
The White Balloon (Badkonake sefid) (1995) |
"
Panahi has much the same kind of talent, a concern to make his film a kind of home for its characters, but he has not yet found [Kiarostami's] secret, how to find and hold the still point of the turning world."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
57%
|
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) |
"
I can't convey the essence of the plot because I wasn't clear about it even as it was happening."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
80%
|
He Got Game (1998) |
"
Lee is a long way from the size and scope of his best film, Do the Right Thing, but at least he is working on a subject he cares about and is doing it with polish."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
67%
|
The Rock (1996) |
"
When film more or less took over melodrama from the theater ninety years ago, it proudly provided real oceans instead of canvas waves rippled by stagehands; but the plots remained humbug ... The Rock is as ridiculous an example as one could want."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
68%
|
Analyze This (1999) |
"
It ends up a one-joke picture, with feeble variations."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
53%
|
La Tregua (The Truce) (1997) |
"
Despite all that Rosi and Turturro can do, the Levi we look at and listen to is not near the Levi we know."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
83%
|
The Ice Storm (1997) |
"
Over and over again in Austen, [Lee's] framing, his course of action, his editing suited and amplified the essence of the scene. But here everything in his directing, absolutely everything, is banal."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
61%
|
Mission Impossible (1996) |
"
The film is painful in at least one way - its waste of good actors."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
86%
|
As Good As It Gets (1997) |
"
Nicholson struggles for the core of the man but never gets it; so, in most scenes, he resorts to working his face, with grimaces and sneering smiles and lip-pursings in place of acting."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
30%
|
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) |
"
Milla Jovovich, who plays Joan, is a young woman who has been unmemorable in several pictures."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
95%
|
Touch of Evil (1958) |
"
It's a flurry of pressure-cooker baroque, an extreme example of the exhibitionistic hijinks in which Welles could sometimes indulge, apparently intensified here because he wasn't doing what he really wanted to be doing."
—
New Republic
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
67%
——
98%
