|
3.5/4
|
99%
|
A Separation (2011) |
"
Very few movies capture as convincingly as A Separation does the ways in which seemingly honorable decisions can lead to interpersonal conflict -- even disaster."
—
Denver Post
Posted Feb 10, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
95%
|
Pina (2011) |
"
Pina is a tribute of an artist by an artist, a friend to a friend. But its great genius comes from the mournful, as well as celebratory, reckoning of the performers Bausch pushed, collaborated with and inspired."
—
Denver Post
Posted Feb 3, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
45%
|
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012) |
"
If imagining a city where people open their doors (or don't) to a boy with a key and a ton of questions is sentimental ... then it is vitally, beautifully so."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jan 20, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
54%
|
The Iron Lady (2012) |
"
Often "The Iron Lady" relies on montages to get to - and plow through - historic high points."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jan 13, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
34%
|
Joyful Noise (2012) |
"
Much worse things could happen to a movie than to have these two full-figured gals hold forth. Parton's willing and able to despense the Southernisms. Latifah's fierce when she needs to be."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jan 13, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
78%
|
A Dangerous Method (2011) |
"
A Dangerous Method is well cast with Michael Fassbender as a pent-up Jung and Viggo Mortensen as Freud. Keira Knightley inhabits the fits and fury of Spielrein."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jan 6, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
97%
|
The Artist (2011) |
"
A silent movie shot in sumptuous black-and-white, no less. A silent flick made with not a jot of distancing winking, but instead born of a heady affection for a bygone, very bygone, era of filmmaking."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 23, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
76%
|
War Horse (2011) |
"
Robustly entertaining."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 23, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
63%
|
We Bought a Zoo (2011) |
"
Consider it a fine sign of emotional discipline that the movie doesn't overplay Kelly and Ben's romantic possibilites."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 23, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
87%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) |
"
Mara's Lisbeth can be brashly young and impossibly smart. It's a performance that should well serve the upcoming sequels."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 20, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
82%
|
Young Adult (2011) |
"
There's little about Mavis that makes for feel-good revelry. That's an understatement, perhaps. Yet, Theron's work feels true to Mavis' malaise -- and often, just as sad."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 16, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
60%
|
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) |
"
Downey and Law remain this presumptive franchise's draw."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 16, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
8%
|
New Year's Eve (2011) |
"
The only thing that can inspire more cynicism than a holiday's coerced emotions may be a film that both exploits and celebrates said emotions."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 9, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
22%
|
The Sitter (2011) |
"
A weirdly charming comedy that puts an irresponsible guy in charge of three unhappy kids. Who'll crumble first?"
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 9, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
75%
|
The Swell Season (2011) |
"
For Once lovers who needed a "what happened next?" epilogue, this one moves even as it chastises."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 2, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
98%
|
Le Havre (2011) |
"
'Tis the season, so the saying goes. And when it comes to Aki Kaurismäki, it holds true. The Finnish writer-director arrives bearing a gift wrapped in a contemporary immigration fable."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 2, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
84%
|
My Week with Marilyn (2011) |
"
After My Week, Monroe remains an enigma. And that isn't a failing of Williams' performance but an expression of its nuance."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 23, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
94%
|
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011) |
"
The film also provides an inspiring reminder for the young and the rest of us that there is a vital relationship between the best kind of work and passionate play."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 18, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
44%
|
Happy Feet Two (2011) |
"
Much like its Oscar-winning predecessor, the story focuses on lads and dads, though there are strong mama figures and daughters, too."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 18, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
90%
|
The Descendants (2011) |
"
[Clooney] is a movie star who can't shake (and doesn't want to, one suspects) the baggage of that good fortune, yet consistently works to blend into the ensemble for the sake of story. The Descendants gives us his most emotional work to date."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 18, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
91%
|
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) |
"
Broken into nine chapters -- one for each year -- the documentary isn't a rigorous work but a felt piece of vital, if flawed, art."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 4, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
79%
|
The Skin I Live In (2011) |
"
These are questions one is left with -- and that's not an entirely satisfying feeling. Yet it's hard not to be drawn into the story, and even more, into the gorgeous storytelling."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 4, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
90%
|
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) |
"
Durkin depicts a horror that some among us actually live, where the search for family leads to something familiar and dangerous."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 4, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
47%
|
Anonymous (2011) |
"
Audiences may chuckle. Stratfordians, prepare for conniptions."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
83%
|
Puss in Boots (2011) |
"
It would overstate matters to say Puss in Boots leaves its cat holding the bag (we had to get that in). But it also leaves its hero awaiting a richer fable, one befitting his charms and his portrayer's talents."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
61%
|
Gun Hill Road (2011) |
"
Gun Hill Road is shot through with performances at once intense and relaxed."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 21, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
92%
|
Take Shelter (2011) |
"
A work of hushed and persuasive emotional veracity."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 21, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
88%
|
Margin Call (2011) |
"
Writer-director J.C. Chandor then plunges us into a dark night of quietly nasty reckoning as it becomes clear to the firm's honchos that the calamitous risk assessments one of their own was working on might well be true."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 21, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
39%
|
The Big Year (2011) |
"
The Big Year has charms: Not a jawdropping flock of them, but a number of sweet insights and warm laughs just the same."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 14, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
59%
|
Real Steel (2011) |
"
Aas the plot proceeds from boy-meets-dad verbal sparring to an uneasy peace to the underdog-vs.- champion title bout, it becomes increasingly easy to forgive its many nicks."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 7, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
85%
|
The Ides of March (2011) |
"
As for Clooney, when he steps from behind the camera, his candidate exudes an easy, judicious authority."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 7, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
93%
|
50/50 (2011) |
"
Still, it's Gordon-Levitt's choices that continue to impress. Sure, he owned one of the most jaw-dropping sequences in last summer's blockbuster Inception. But the actor remains drawn to profoundly human-scale hurts and quiet triumphs."
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 30, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
83%
|
Circumstance (2011) |
"
[The] film is too much a wounded love story to slide into polemic."
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 30, 2011
|
|
|
24%
|
What's Your Number? (2011) |
"
This desperately seeking-laughs comedy stars Anna Faris, a comedian with a lot of quirk appeal, though little of it is on display."
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 30, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
83%
|
Dolphin Tale (2011) |
"
Plenty of ambition. But the dialogue can be tin-eared, and the comedy has a cater- to-kids quality that sells youngsters short."
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 23, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
94%
|
Moneyball (2011) |
"
Pitt, who has a producing credit, is not the sole reason this tremendous -- yet intimate -- sports tale soars over the fences. The bench is deep. And the script has a powerful but finessed swing."
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 23, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
17%
|
I Don't Know How She Does It (2011) |
"
How nice it would have been had McKenna penned a couple of those audience-addressing interludes for Richard or Jack. What would these modern, succesful men tell us of themselves?"
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 16, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
93%
|
Drive (2011) |
"
In reworking genres without quoting shamelessly, Refn proves himself his own man and a guy quite capable of taking us places we didn't even know we wanted to go."
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 16, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
84%
|
Contagion (2011) |
"
Steven Soderbergh's viral "who brung it" is a mostly style-over-substance affair."
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 9, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
72%
|
Bellflower (2011) |
"
Bellflower is weirdly gorgeous. Its intentional post-romanticism is mirrored in evocative chapter headings and ace cinematographer Joel Hodge's images (using a camera of the director's tweaking)."
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 2, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
99%
|
The Interrupters (2011) |
"
Tense, moving, and, at times brain-draining."
—
Denver Post
Posted Aug 26, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
90%
|
Attack the Block (2011) |
"
An energetic genre ride with social ambitions about race and class."
—
Denver Post
Posted Aug 26, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
92%
|
Senna (2011) |
"
A psychologically intriguing if at times too hagiographic portrait of a man who often held pole position in his profession and felt nearer to God because of it."
—
Denver Post
Posted Aug 26, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
71%
|
The Future (2011) |
"
What a strange, trippy, touching movie The Future is."
—
Denver Post
Posted Aug 19, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
95%
|
The Guard (2011) |
"
McDonagh's script is agile, darting between the ridiculous, the sage and the surprisingly sentimental. His love of language and the absurd has hints of the wisecracking Quentin Tarantino. But the story is decidedly more rooted in Ireland's loamy turf."
—
Denver Post
Posted Aug 19, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
44%
|
30 Minutes or Less (2011) |
"
This is disappointing news, given that the director of this sputter-rev-sputter ride is Ruben Fleischer and that nattering Jesse Eisenberg stars."
—
Denver Post
Posted Aug 12, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
60%
|
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie (2011) |
"
The movie makes a strong argument for the tender paradox of pop-culture adoration. It's an affection that feels wholly personal, but is shared with millions."
—
Denver Post
Posted Aug 12, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
76%
|
The Help (2011) |
"
Thanks to a talented cast -- starting with leads Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer -- the movie is often entertaining. But The Help should have been challenging too."
—
Denver Post
Posted Aug 11, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
89%
|
Crime After Crime (2011) |
"
Though rife with talking-head interviews and straightforwardly shot, the movie is quietly riveting and cumulatively galling."
—
Denver Post
Posted Aug 5, 2011
|
