|
5/5
|
98%
|
La Grande illusion (The Grand Illusion) (2012) |
"
A model of simplicity and grace, with emotional effects that move you when you least expect it, the kind of great film that only a master can pull off."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 17, 2012
|
|
5/5
|
93%
|
City of Life and Death (2011) |
"
It's a film strong enough to change your life, if you can bear to watch it at all."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 17, 2011
|
|
5/5
|
92%
|
Journal d'un curé de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest) (1951) |
"
A film that words fail."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 21, 2011
|
|
5/5
|
100%
|
Battleship Potemkin (1925) |
"
It is a knockout."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 17, 2011
|
|
5/5
|
100%
|
Last Train Home (2010) |
"
An expert, unobtrusive observer, Fan disappears inside his own film and allows us to get completely inside his subjects' lives."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 17, 2010
|
|
5/5
|
99%
|
Metropolis (1927) |
"
To see the film as the director intended, on the big screen with an original score recorded by a 60-piece orchestra, greatly enhances the reputation of a film already considered one of the icons of the silent era."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 13, 2010
|
|
5/5
|
97%
|
Ran (1985) |
"
What's remarkable about Ran is that the drama enhances the spectacle the same way the spectacle bolsters the drama. Few other directors had Kurosawa's ability to convey the intimate as well as the epic, to handle stillness as well as violence."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 5, 2010
|
|
5/5
|
91%
|
Up in the Air (2009) |
"
It's hard to think of an actor who's better at projecting the professional smoothness that's essential to make this character palatable, but Clooney turns out to be willing to take that persona further."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 4, 2009
|
|
5/5
|
92%
|
Ponyo (2009) |
"
Five minutes into this magical film you'll be making lists of the individuals of every age you can expose to the very special mixture of fantasy and folklore, adventure and affection, that make up the enchanted vision of Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 14, 2009
|
|
5/5
|
78%
|
Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin (A Woman in Berlin) (2009) |
"
[A] brutal, unforgettable film."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 7, 2009
|
|
5/5
|
98%
|
Up (2009) |
"
Rarely has any film, let alone an animated one powered by the logic of dream and fantasy, been able to move so successfully -- and so effortlessly -- through so many different kinds of cinematic territory."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 28, 2009
|
|
5/5
|
94%
|
Sugar (2008) |
"
"We put a lot of love into this," Boden said when Sugar debuted at Sundance, and this thoughtful, poignant film reflects that love and more."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 2, 2009
|
|
5/5
|
90%
|
Coraline (2009) |
"
Coraline is a remarkable feat of imagination, a magical tale with a genuinely sinister edge."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 6, 2009
|
|
5/5
|
87%
|
Un Conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale) (2008) |
"
These infuriating, involving individuals are so resolutely themselves, so sure they are right by their own lights, they exist in a world beyond anyone's judgment."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Nov 14, 2008
|
|
5/5
|
100%
|
Man on Wire (2008) |
"
They say that seeing is believing, but Man on Wire will make you doubt what your eyes are telling you -- it really will -- as you shake your head in amazement and awe."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 8, 2008
|
|
5/5
|
94%
|
The Dark Knight (2008) |
"
To see it is to understand that Nolan and his co-writer brother Jonathan saw a chance to go deeper into familiar characters and mythology, a chance to meditate on darker-than-usual themes that have implications for the way we live now."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 16, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
89%
|
The Unforeseen (2008) |
"
No one who sees this intriguing documentary will want to argue with reporter Greider when he forcefully insists, "We need a more mature regard for the future." We do indeed."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 14, 2008
|
|
5/5
|
71%
|
Yihe yuan (Summer Palace) (2006) |
"
Search out this vivid film in a theater. Don't let the sacrifices he [Director Lou Ye] made be in vain."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 29, 2008
|
|
5/5
|
100%
|
Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) |
"
A meticulous examination...Taxi is impressive."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jan 17, 2008
|
|
5/5
|
95%
|
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) |
"
It conveys unblinking and despairing emotional truth with enough intensity to leave you gasping for air."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 21, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
98%
|
The Band's Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) (2007) |
"
The Israeli film that's become celebrated for what it lacks -- enough Hebrew to contend for the best foreign language Oscar -- can now be seen and appreciated for what it has in abundance: visual wit, verbal charm and a completely droll sense of humor."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 7, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
86%
|
Starting Out in the Evening (2007) |
"
Intelligent, involving and conspicuously adult, "Starting Out in the Evening" is almost shocking in its distinctiveness, its ability to create high drama from an unlikely source."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Nov 24, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
64%
|
Dan in Real Life (2007) |
"
If what you want is a star-driven sophisticated romantic comedy that is successfully aimed at actual adults, the wait can seem like forever. Until now."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Oct 26, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
86%
|
L' Avocat de la Terreur (Terror's Advocate) (2007) |
"
Jacques Vergès is such a compelling, complex and contradictory character that if he didn't exist someone would be obliged to invent him. It is the gift of Terror's Advocate to simply present Vergès as is."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Oct 12, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
95%
|
Le Doulos (1962) |
"
A tour de force."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 7, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
75%
|
Lady Chatterley (2007) |
"
It's a special pleasure to report that the French Lady Chatterley is the most frankly sensual movie in memory."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 12, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
97%
|
Once (2007) |
"
Are you looking for a little film you can make your own, an enchanting, unpretentious blend of music and romance you can watch forever? If you do, Once is about to come into your life and make it whole."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 7, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
70%
|
The Valet (La Doublure) (2007) |
"
A complete master of cinematic farce, [director] Veber's latest venture, The Valet, makes creating deliciously funny comedy look a lot easier than it has any right to."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 19, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
87%
|
Into Great Silence (2007) |
"
Though it likely will not persuade people to join the ranks, experiencing life behind the walls has an undeniable effect. We've been allowed a glimpse of eternity. And who would not be changed by that?"
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 8, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
96%
|
Mafioso (1964) |
"
A magnificent film almost no one knows about, this hidden classic offers a wider variety of pleasures than most contemporary works can even aspire to."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jan 26, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
91%
|
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) |
"
The laconic, pitiless way Eastwood shot the violence of battle underscores what a waste it all is, underlines the futility that so many have to die because of the misguided ideology of a few in leadership positions."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 19, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
73%
|
Flags of Our Fathers (2006) |
"
his sad true story wrings you out emotionally because it's concerned with both the deaths of young men in battle and what happens when the needs of those who survive clash with what society expects and politics demands."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Oct 19, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
79%
|
Le Petit Lieutenant (2006) |
"
A quiet powerhouse of a film, an implacable, uncompromising French police drama, both old-fashioned and modern, that underlines the reasons impeccably made crime stories do so well on screen."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Oct 12, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
90%
|
Half Nelson (2006) |
"
Made with assurance, restraint and psychological acuity by director Ryan Fleck and anchored by Ryan Gosling's commanding performance, this paradigmatic American independent feature approaches recurring themes in a compelling new way."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 26, 2006
|
|
4/4
|
97%
|
L'Armée des ombres (Army in the Shadows) (1969) |
"
Masterfully made, with no detail unattended."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 12, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
100%
|
The Fallen Idol (1949) |
"
A classically well-made film that is both unexpected and exceptionally gripping."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 8, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
86%
|
L'Enfant (The Child) (2006) |
"
The exceptional thing about L'Enfant is how intensely dramatic the film makes the consequences of Bruno's choice."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 23, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
92%
|
Darwin's Nightmare (2005) |
"
It immerses you in its reality one toe at a time, until suddenly you are in over your head, gasping for air as the horror of the situation reveals itself in all its savage devastation."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 9, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
100%
|
The Big Risk (Classe tous risques) (1960) |
"
To come across Classe Tous Risques is like discovering a bottle of marvelous French wine you didn't remember you had, opening it and finding it every bit as delicious as its reputation promised."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jan 6, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
78%
|
Munich (2005) |
"
In this age of feckless and unapologetic zealotry, with leaders whose passion for extremism has led to the lamentable results we see all around us, Munich's even-handed cry for peace is not an act of equivocation but one of bravery."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 22, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
87%
|
East of Eden (1955) |
"
Not only one of Kazan's richest films and Dean's first significant role, it is also arguably the actor's best performance."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 6, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
91%
|
Ballets Russes (2005) |
"
The stories and people presented here are involving enough to enthrall anyone."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Nov 10, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
93%
|
The Squid and the Whale (2005) |
"
Acutely observed, faultlessly acted, graced with piercing emotion and unsparing honesty, it will make you laugh because you can't bear to cry."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Oct 13, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
93%
|
Good Night, And Good Luck (2005) |
"
Good Night, and Good Luck couldn't be more unlikely, more unfashionable -- or more compelling."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Oct 6, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
93%
|
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) (Lift to the Scaffold) (Frantic) (1958) |
"
A consummate entertainment rich with the romantic atmosphere of Paris in the 1950s."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 28, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
94%
|
Saraband (2003) |
"
Bergman has never been an ordinary filmmaker, and what he's given us is no genial last hurrah but rather an intensely dramatic, at times lacerating examination of life's conundrums that is exhilarating in its fearlessness and its command."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 7, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
74%
|
War of the Worlds (2005) |
"
With War of the Worlds [Spielberg] has made what is arguably one of the best 1950s science fiction films ever."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 28, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
86%
|
Howl's Moving Castle (2005) |
"
Miyazaki's gift for wonder, an ease with fantasy that makes enchantment second nature, is so great it obliterates differences in language."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 9, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
89%
|
Brothers (Brødre) (2004) |
"
Has an exact sense of emotional truth and a respect for the intricacy of character."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 12, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
95%
|
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) |
"
Brilliantly discursive, filled with intriguing detours that follow connections only the director's mind could make, Los Angeles Plays Itself, will please natives of this city more than any other."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 5, 2005
|
68%
——
98%
