|
4/4
|
85%
|
The Tree of Life (2011) |
"
What a transcendent achievement."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jun 10, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
Poetry (2011) |
"
Now is the time to bestow on yourself the gift of one of the most, well, poetic films of 2010. And by "poetic," we mean rich with soulful pauses that are at once visual and aural and deeply observant of the dance of routine and quiet surprise."
—
Denver Post
Posted Mar 4, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
The King's Speech (2010) |
"
It is an intelligent, winning drama fit for a king -- and the rest of us. And this year, there were far too few of those coming from Hollywood."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 25, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
The Social Network (2010) |
"
The Social Network shares creative DNA with a handful of classic, zeitgeist-savvy films like Network and All the President's Men, as well as more recent fare such as The Insider and Michael Clayton."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 1, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Inception (2010) |
"
Inception is a boldly constructed wonder with plenty of -- as one character describes it -- "paradoxical architecture." "
—
Denver Post
Posted Jul 16, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Red Riding Trilogy () |
"
Red Riding Trilogy, with its remarkable performances, its brilliantly constructed puzzle, its dispiriting cycles of violence, isn't an easy ride. But it is an exhilarating one."
—
Denver Post
Posted Mar 5, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Up in the Air (2009) |
"
From taxi to touchdown, Reitman knows how to get us to the next destination."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 11, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009) |
"
Mo'Nique plunges headfirst into a moral abyss that makes her frightening."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 20, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
87%
|
(500) Days of Summer (2009) |
"
This movie has flighty warmth. It makes delirious use of one of Hall & Oates' boppiest tunes. It has a bluebird of happiness, for crying out loud."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jul 24, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Waltz with Bashir (2008) |
"
It is powerful because this work of art also provides such a cautionary tale about the psychic burdens young soldiers carry deep inside them decades after they've laid down their weapons."
—
Denver Post
Posted Feb 6, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
72%
|
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) |
"
There's leisure to the storytelling, a splendor that captures the movie's celebratory but also melancholy ideas about our time on this mortal coil."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 30, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
64%
|
Marley & Me (2008) |
"
Marley & Me turns out to be the best -- and truest -- film about humans and our animals to arrive onscreen in a dog's age."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 29, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Milk (2008) |
"
At the heart of this eloquent portrait of a cultural catalyst is Penn's profoundly human, and possibly finest, performance."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 26, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
The Dark Knight (2008) |
"
Watching The Dark Knight is like gazing into a mirror on a waning moon night: chilling and mesmerizing."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jul 18, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
There Will Be Blood (2007) |
"
If [Day-Lewis] does not win the Academy Award for this protean portrayal, it will be because he's won before. Or because his gift, his discipline, is so daunting it can be confounding."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jan 4, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
74%
|
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) |
"
The film is a triumph of empathy."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 26, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) (2007) |
"
The film is a triumph of empathy."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 26, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Juno (2007) |
"
Juno is unerring, compassionate and funny as heck."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 14, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
No Country for Old Men (2007) |
"
This movie is that stunning."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 16, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
89%
|
Eastern Promises (2007) |
"
...Eastern Promises is as honorable an entertainment as it is a humbling work of art."
—
Denver Post
Posted Sep 21, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
97%
|
Killer of Sheep: The Charles Burnett Collection (2007) |
"
So sad. So lovely. So profound."
—
Denver Post
Posted Apr 20, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
83%
|
Grindhouse (2007) |
"
One word, however, comes immediately to mind: Fun."
—
Denver Post
Posted Apr 9, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) |
"
Ofelia, you break our hearts. But you also restore our confidence in human decency."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jan 19, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
72%
|
Stranger Than Fiction (2006) |
"
Will Ferrell delivers a moving and surprisingly delicate -- though not so surprisingly funny -- turn as the lonesome bureaucrat bedeviled by a voice only he hears."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 10, 2006
|
|
4/4
|
87%
|
Brokeback Mountain (2005) |
"
Like these indelible cowboys, you, too, may find it impossible not to succumb to the powerful, quiet greatness that is Brokeback Mountain."
—
Denver Post
Posted Dec 20, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
82%
|
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) |
"
Is it sweet? Sure. But Charlie is so much richer than that."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jul 15, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
Million Dollar Baby (2004) |
"
Confident, powerful, a thing of deceptively effortless beauty, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby shifts its weight in the late rounds -- having seduced us with a gritty underdog tale -- and delivers a body blow."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jan 7, 2005
|
|
4/4
|
56%
|
The Polar Express (2004) |
"
Polar Express honors its source, then exceeds it."
—
Denver Post
Posted Nov 10, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
Kill Bill, Volume 2 (2004) |
"
In Kill Bill - Vol. 2, cool has rediscovered its medium. It has found its master."
—
Denver Post
Posted Apr 16, 2004
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
L' Homme du Train (The Man on the Train) (2003) |
"
It is a perfected fable flashing across a screen."
—
Denver Post
Posted Jun 6, 2003
|
|
4/4
|
98%
|
Finding Nemo (2003) |
"
An exquisitely touching saga about a father tracking down his lost son."
—
Denver Post
Posted May 30, 2003
|
|
3.5/4
|
93%
|
Marvel's The Avengers (2012) |
"
It's two-plus hours of visual brawn, unexpected heartbeats and welcome humor."
—
Denver Post
Posted May 3, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
67%
|
To the Arctic (2012) |
"
Yes, it's a classy affair, but the 40-minute doc's at-times-nerve-wracking power comes from the subjects who put a furry face on the ongoing and daunting issue of climate change."
—
Denver Post
Posted Apr 20, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
87%
|
Bully (2012) |
"
Bully" is smart and compassionate about the pain of its wounded subjects and the frustration felt by their parents, seemingly abandoned by the system. What the powerful film lacks is insight into bullying."
—
Denver Post
Posted Apr 13, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
91%
|
Footnote (2012) |
"
Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar's tale of two Talmudic scholars set in present-day Jerusalem, while not exactly side-splitting, is quietly riotous. And, yes, the guffaws are bittersweet."
—
Denver Post
Posted Apr 6, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
85%
|
The Hunger Games (2012) |
"
Ross moves between action and human drama with nimble awareness of the weight of the issues coursing through the story of fascism, propaganda, and, yes, adolescence under the weight of the world."
—
Denver Post
Posted Mar 22, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
95%
|
Undefeated (2012) |
"
[A] winning documentary."
—
Denver Post
Posted Mar 16, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
90%
|
In Darkness (2012) |
"
The chiseled Furmann gives Mundek a savvy, even moral, brawn. As Paulina, Maria Schrader makes an argument for gentle yet pragmatic maternalism."
—
Denver Post
Posted Mar 2, 2012
|
|
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
|
94%
|
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
|
47%
|
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
|
|
3.5/4
|
98%
|
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
|
77%
|
War Horse (2011) |
"
Robustly entertaining."
—
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
|
|
3.5/4
|
99%
|
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
|
|
3.5/4
|
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
|
89%
|
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
|
|
3.5/4
|
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
|
|
3.5/4
|
92%
|
Take Shelter (2011) |
"
A work of hushed and persuasive emotional veracity."
—
Denver Post
Posted Oct 21, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
89%
|
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
|
68%
——
98%
