Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 17%
| Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) | "
This live-action adaptation of Hiroyuki Kitakubo’s popular anime one-off from 2000 appears to have been made by a company of finches tweeting, 'Cheap…cheap.'" — Time Out New York Posted Jul 8, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 100%
| Bye Bye Birdie (1963) | "
For all its annoyances -- and there are many -- the film somehow sears its way into the mind’s eye." — Time Out New York Posted Jul 1, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 66%
| Public Enemies (2009) | "
It might sound damning to say that the film resembles a bullet-riddled carcass just barely clinging to life, but it’s exactly this ephemeral sensation, which Mann sustains for the entire two hours plus, that distinguishes Public Enemies." — Time Out New York Posted Jul 1, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 56%
| The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) | "
It’s a big ol’ wallow in unpleasantness, a film that relies on simplistically patriarchal antagonists and vague, wet-willie cries for intervention." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 25, 2009 |
Fresh 5/5
| Fresh 63%
| 10 Rillington Place (1971) | "
As infamous serial murderer John Reginald Christie, Richard Attenborough is just exaggerated enough to remain credible." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 25, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 97%
| The Hurt Locker (2009) | "
Director Kathryn Bigelow, doing her run-’n’-gun best, doesn’t mine traditional suspense so much as impart a queasy feeling of monotony." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 100%
| Brighton Rock (1947) | "
The future Lord Dickie’s sinister stylings are what linger, especially the vitriolic audio recording he makes for his betrothed, done as if damnation were the most casual of enterprises." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 17, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 80%
| $9.99 (2009) | "
Animation is so often used for frivolous flights of fancy that it’s something of a shock to see it employed in the service of a tale that emphasizes human foible and mortality." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 17, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 73%
| Sunshine Cleaning (2009) | "
Best to take a page from Rose's métier and bleach this one fully out of sight and mind." — Time Out Sydney Posted Jun 12, 2009 |
Rotten 3/6
| Fresh 81%
| Sex Positive (2009) | "
The film is founded on shaky, near-exploitative ground, something mirrored in the agitated handheld camerawork by Alex Bergman and in Berkowitz’s offhand comment about the good this film could do in encouraging safe sex." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 10, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Fresh 80%
| Le combat dans lile (1962) | "
Ah, well. It sure looks purty." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 10, 2009 |
Fresh 4/6
| Fresh 62%
| Tetro (2009) | "
Much like Tetro and Bennie in the film’s final scene, Coppola has been swallowed whole by darkness and yet attained a necessary clarity that may otherwise have evaded him. It could be said, strangely enough, that the abyss was never so enlightening." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 10, 2009 |
Fresh 4/6
| Fresh 94%
| 24 City (2009) | "
Jia is one of the guiding lights of the sixth generation of Chinese filmmakers, and 24 City is a potent exploration of his constant theme -- the tectonic shifts that occur as the old gives way to the new." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 3, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Fresh 66%
| Away We Go (2009) | "
Away We Go in brief: the endless promise of profundity trampled by dime-store psychologizing." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 3, 2009 |
Fresh 4/6
| Fresh 100%
| Munyurangabo (2009) | "
Chekhov’s principle of drama is in full effect, but what’s remarkable about this film is how it slowly steers its way from portent to poetry." — Time Out New York Posted May 28, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Fresh 87%
| O'Horten (2009) | "
A preciously deadpan comedy that never lays claim to its own distinct identity; it’s cinema as a mass-manufactured snow globe." — Time Out New York Posted May 14, 2009 |
Fresh 3/6
| Fresh 83%
| Jerichow (2009) | "
This is an expertly constructed thriller that never rises above the trappings of its genre." — Time Out New York Posted May 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3/6
| Rotten 37%
| Angels & Demons (2009) | "
How dark the con of Ron that he can so vividly simulate thought in what is truly an intellect-free enterprise." — Time Out New York Posted May 13, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 80%
| Audience Of One (2009) | "
It's a product of a dangerous sort of tunnel vision that afflicts a number of documentarians these days." — Slant Magazine Posted May 8, 2009 |
Rotten 3/6
| Fresh 82%
| The Window (2008) | "
This rather trite visualization is made all the more banal by comparison with the many ravishing images Sorin and cinematographer Julián Apezteguia capture in the movie proper." — Time Out New York Posted May 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Fresh 75%
| Adoration (2009) | "
The time-jumping narrative and self-consciously somnambulant mood undermine the writer-director’s zeitgeist-inspired thesis." — Time Out New York Posted May 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Rotten 46%
| Battle for Terra (2009) | "
Doe-eyed earnestness dulls every edge, and Eden-like naïveté reigns supreme." — Time Out New York Posted May 1, 2009 |
Fresh 4/6
| Rotten 33%
| The Limits of Control (2009) | "
Jim Jarmusch's latest - his best since Dead Man (1995) - practically begs for dissection and analysis, but it's better, perhaps, to read the film's many repeated symbols, sayings and actions as mood enhancers rather than intellect stimulators" — Time Out New York Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Fresh 86%
| Easy Rider (1969) | "
A film important to and influential in the flower-power late ’60s, Easy Rider now seems like a narcissistic hodgepodge of travelogue and passion play." — Time Out New York Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Rotten 3/6
| Fresh 86%
| Tyson (2009) | "
The mostly first-person documentary Tyson isn’t a dud, exactly, but it does feel like a missed opportunity." — Time Out New York Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
Fresh 5/6
| Fresh 100%
| Viridiana (1961) | "
For Luis Buñuel, impiety is a genetic trait and an essential facet of his art. That his work also lifts the spirit -- imparting a delirious sensation of the divine—is a most welcome incongruity, one exemplified by his prizewinning 1961 effort, Viridiana." — Time Out New York Posted Apr 22, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Fresh 92%
| Every Little Step (2009) | "
There’s a terribly interesting story behind the creation of the musical phenom A Chorus Line, but don’t look to this confused and often self-congratulatory documentary to tell it." — Time Out New York Posted Apr 16, 2009 |
Fresh 5/6
| Fresh 93%
| Oblivion (2008) | "
This astonishing documentary takes a contemplative look at Peru’s recent political history via members of the service and street classes who reside in the capital city of Lima." — Time Out New York Posted Apr 15, 2009 |
Fresh 5/6
| Fresh 100%
| Leon Morin, Priest (1961) | "
It’s a giddy bit of blasphemy to see Jean-Paul Belmondo dressed in priest’s garb." — Time Out New York Posted Apr 15, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Fresh 75%
| The Country Teacher (2009) | "
If great movies resulted purely from wizardly technical displays, then Czech writer-director Bohdan Sláma’s The Country Teacher would be a masterpiece to give Béla Tarr pause." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Fresh 72%
| Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) | "
MvA is mostly a brainless parade of half-baked gags, punctuated by the occasional fourth-wall-breaking effect. Only those who desire a paddleball to the kisser or a face full of Mothra snot need apply." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/6
| Rotten 35%
| The Edge of Love (2009) | "
It’s all declarative surface, and director John Maybury treats the proceedings like a Josef von Sternberg wet dream, at once elegant, campy and desiccated." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 18, 2009 |
Rotten 3/6
| Fresh 66%
| Duplicity (2009) | "
Duplicity does indeed bend and buckle under the weight of many a final-reel revelation, though it never entirely collapses." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 18, 2009 |
Rotten 1/6
| Fresh 73%
| Sunshine Cleaning (2009) | "
Best to take a page from Rose’s métier and bleach this one fully out of sight and mind." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 11, 2009 |
Rotten 3/6
| Fresh 89%
| Z (1969) | "
This concession to cheap psychological realism still manages to stand out and stick in the craw." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 11, 2009 |
Fresh 4/6
| Fresh 95%
| Fados (2009) | "
Carlos Saura’s documentary on the Portuguese musical tradition of fado is an inviting and immersive experience, the third piece of a song-and-dance triptych that also includes Flamenco (1995) and Tango (1998)." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3/6
| Fresh 60%
| Frontier of Dawn (2009) | "
Garrel père reunites with Garrel fils for this frequently tedious rumination on rabid passion that still manages to linger in the mind." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 4, 2009 |
Fresh 5/6
| Fresh 100%
| Leave Her to Heaven (1945) | "
A 'film noir in color' and a masterpiece of post-WWII American cinema." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 4, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 78%
| The American Soldier (1970) | "
As Billy Wilder turned a crumbling Berlin into a slapstick, satirical playground in One, Two, Three, so Fassbinder offers up The American Soldier's Munich as a monochrome city of sadness." — House Next Door Posted Jan 28, 2009 |
Fresh
| N/A | Le Vent de la Nuit (1999) | "
'That' Garrel film at last." — House Next Door Posted Jan 16, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 100%
| Made in U.S.A. (1966) | "
The foreground drama ends on a query, while the Gallic hills and highways stretch to eternity. FIN." — House Next Door Posted Jan 14, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 60%
| The New World (2005) | "
If I think I'm mostly going to keep coming back to [the 172-minute] cut (and I do hope, someday soon, for a Mr. Arkadin-like 3-cuts comparative DVD set) it's because it feels most fully realized." — House Next Door Posted Jan 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 78%
| Doubt (2008) | "
[The play is] a shallow work easily interpreted, and Shanley's own film version is no different in the low bar it aims for and ultimately attains." — House Next Door Posted Dec 21, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 94%
| Milk (2008) | "
Bad art serves no one, but the reach for significance is often enough to proffer a pat-on-the-back and an affirmative nod, as if 'attempt' and 'achievement' were suddenly synonymous terms of action." — UGO Posted Nov 26, 2008 |
Fresh
| Rotten 57%
| Special (2008) | "
Take[s] a page from the cartoonist Bill Watterson, who noted of the tiger protagonist in his great Calvin & Hobbes, 'The nature of [the character's] reality doesn't interest me, and each story goes out of its way to avoid resolving the issue.'" — House Next Door Posted Nov 21, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 67%
| Synecdoche, New York (2008) | "
...though the headless chickens dance." — UGO Posted Oct 23, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 72%
| Fear(s) of the Dark (2008) | "
Casts a decidedly uneven spell." — UGO Posted Oct 23, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 78%
| Burn After Reading (2008) | "
It's surely old-hat by now to note the writer/directors' pervasive condescension and smugness, a criticism I don't think always holds true, especially when the Brothers more fully explore, e.g. The Man Who Wasn't There, their no less ubiquitous spi" — UGO Posted Oct 22, 2008 |
Rotten
| Rotten 48%
| Bottle Shock (2008) | "
In light of all its swooping and swishing helicopter shots of the sun-dappled Napa Valley, [it] might as well have been photographed from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise." — UGO Posted Oct 22, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 77%
| Baghead (2008) | "
An extended navel gaze." — UGO Posted Oct 22, 2008 |
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