|
|
——
|
Bank Shot (1974) |
"
The best thing about the film is Harry Stradling Jr.'s super photography - but that's scarcely enticement to see a really minor Scott vehicle."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 23, 2010
|
|
|
82%
|
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) |
"
Director Peter Hunt manages to inject some life into this 1969 exercise with a wonderful ski chase, but otherwise the film is a bore."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 13, 2008
|
|
|
75%
|
Charlotte's Web (1973) |
"
It preserves some of the form and language of White's original but fattens and sweetens his lean and pungent prose with songs by Richard and Robert Sherman."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Sep 9, 2008
|
|
|
88%
|
Fantastic Planet (1973) |
"
The film has a flat quality that cannot entirely be overcome by the sensational animation and the obvious good intentions of its creators."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Sep 9, 2008
|
|
|
63%
|
The Way We Were (1973) |
"
A for effort; C for execution."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 26, 2008
|
|
|
90%
|
Monty Python's And Now for Something Completely Different (1972) |
"
Fans will have most of it memorized by now."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 14, 2008
|
|
|
57%
|
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) |
"
The music quickly becomes monotonous, and the operatic dialogue is silly right from the start."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 19, 2008
|
|
|
75%
|
A Man and a Woman (1966) |
"
It's full of misty romps in the meadows, rain-soaked windshields, assorted puppies and lambs, and a 'bittersweet' theme song that drones incessantly on the sound track."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 15, 2008
|
|
|
79%
|
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) |
"
Stanley Kramer strikes out again with this elephantine 1963 attempt at uproarious comedy."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 7, 2007
|
|
|
87%
|
Brief Encounter (1945) |
"
Rarely rises above the level of the old women's magazines."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 6, 2007
|
|
|
89%
|
Viskningar och Rop (Cries and Whispers) (1972) |
"
The much-vaunted color symbolism is so obvious as to be almost charming in its simplicity, and the gothic ambience never really resonates."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 1, 2007
|
|
|
38%
|
The Great Gatsby (1974) |
"
Director Jack Clayton seems overawed by the opulence of the production as well as by the mythic presence of Fitzgerald -- and the result is a film of shimmering surface brilliance and almost complete lack of focus or substance."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 26, 2007
|
|
|
92%
|
The Parallax View (1974) |
"
For my taste the suspenseful set pieces go on much too long, and the message -- that right-wing conspiracy is built into the American political and corporate structure -- is overstated."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 7, 2007
|
|
|
68%
|
Rollerball (1975) |
"
Lifeless, uninspired, and crammed with enough hints of intellectual consistency to give the socially conscious critical establishment shivers of excitement."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 5, 2007
|
|
|
71%
|
Soylent Green (1973) |
"
Uneven and slightly muddled futuristic horror story -- not really science fiction, more like an antipollution PSA gone berserk."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 5, 2007
|
|
|
67%
|
The Stepford Wives (1975) |
"
Overlong and underdeveloped, this flimsy Bryan Forbes horror story (1975) would probably have made a decent television movie; but on the big screen and stretched to nearly two hours, it sags badly."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 5, 2007
|
|
|
29%
|
Myra Breckinridge (1970) |
"
Raquel Welch's big chance is snatched away by Sarne's careless and unprofessional direction, and Rex Reed's self-parody is much too pat and easy."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 3, 2002
|
|
|
59%
|
Siddhartha (1973) |
"
Unless you are fully into the subtleties of Hinduism, you are likely to find it rather flat and lethargic."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 2, 2002
|
|
|
88%
|
Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) (1968) |
"
This 1967 effort is one of Bergman's most outlandish, with its pack of ghouls and its heavy suggestions of exhibitionism, necrophilia, and homosexuality -- a magnificent failure."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
64%
|
The Odessa File (1974) |
"
The surprises increasingly fail to surprise."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
88%
|
In Cold Blood (1967) |
"
An uneasy mixture of facile Freudianism and 40s expressionism."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
88%
|
Conrack (1974) |
"
It misses by less than a mile, but it misses."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
60%
|
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) |
"
It isn't very witty - although it's supposed to be - and it isn't really satire, in the sense of Singin' in the Rain or The Band Wagon."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
94%
|
Scener ur ett äktenskap (Scenes from a Marriage) (1973) |
"
Bergman's screenplay leaves nothing to the imagination and turns the film into a windy soap opera most of the time; what might have been a masterpiece in the TV original (although I doubt it) becomes in its truncated form mostly elegant mush."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
58%
|
The Drowning Pool (1975) |
"
An interminable drag."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
|
|
100%
|
Ikiru (Doomed) (Living) (To Live) (1956) |
"
Akira Kurosawa's greatest film."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 27, 2009
|
|
|
100%
|
The Dark Corner (1946) |
"
A pretty good thriller."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 3, 2009
|
|
|
100%
|
Chinatown (1974) |
"
Polanski's film suggests that the rules of the game are written in some strange, untranslatable language, and that everyone's an alien and, ultimately, a victim."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 27, 2009
|
|
|
90%
|
The Women (1939) |
"
[Cukor is] at his best with a cast that includes Rosalind Russell, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Hedda Hopper, Ruth Hussey, Paulette Goddard, and Joan Fontaine."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Sep 11, 2008
|
|
|
90%
|
Pat and Mike (1952) |
"
The best of the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn cycle."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 4, 2008
|
|
|
94%
|
Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) (1930) |
"
The first film collaboration between Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich, this reeks with decay and sexuality."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 28, 2008
|
|
|
79%
|
Richard III (1956) |
"
Laurence Olivier's classic rendition (1956) of Shakespeare's total villain contains one of his most engaging performances and reveals some of his best spatial manipulation of action."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 9, 2008
|
|
|
100%
|
The Big Heat (2001) |
"
Brutal, atmospheric, and exciting -- highly recommended."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 9, 2008
|
|
|
100%
|
The Killers (1946) |
"
An example of film noir at its most expressive."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 8, 2008
|
|
|
89%
|
Blazing Saddles (1974) |
"
One of the funniest awful movies ever made."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 2, 2008
|
|
|
91%
|
California Split (1974) |
"
Robert Altman's masterful 1974 study of the psychology of the compulsive gambler."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 25, 2008
|
|
|
92%
|
The Quiet Man (1952) |
"
John Ford's 1952 Oscar winner is a tribute to an Ireland that exists only in the imaginations of songwriters and poets like Ford."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 11, 2008
|
|
|
67%
|
Toute Une Vie (And Now My Love) (1974) |
"
If Lelouch's sensibilities are too flimsy to substantiate his quasi-epic ambitions, the film nevertheless offers some cozy comforts and more than a few inside filmmaking jokes."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 15, 2008
|
|
|
100%
|
Top Hat (1935) |
"
This 1935 musical finds Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at the top of their form."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 11, 2008
|
|
|
——
|
Lady Windermere's Fan (1925) |
"
One of Ernst Lubitsch's greatest accomplishments."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 11, 2008
|
|
|
97%
|
Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) (1945) |
"
It runs 187 minutes, and it's worth every one of them."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 9, 2008
|
|
|
100%
|
A Raisin in the Sun (1961) |
"
It does have enough gritty insights and (for the time) strikingly accurate production details to keep the level of interest up."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 13, 2007
|
|
|
100%
|
Oliver Twist (1951) |
"
Alec Guinness as the master pickpocket Fagin is the high point of David Lean's 1948 version of the Dickens classic."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 6, 2007
|
|
|
100%
|
Great Expectations (1947) |
"
The graveyard scene is still a shocker, the details are still astonishingly well assembled, and the performances are wonderful."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 6, 2007
|
|
|
94%
|
Pygmalion (1938) |
"
A marvelous 1938 adaptation of the Shaw classic."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 6, 2007
|
|
|
90%
|
The Day of the Jackal (1973) |
"
It's a polished and exciting thriller, mercifully unburdened with heavy political/philosophical digressions."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 1, 2007
|
|
|
92%
|
The Last Detail (1973) |
"
A tough-talking, sparely directed effort by Hal Ashby, with an immaculate performance by Jack Nicholson."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 31, 2007
|
|
|
100%
|
The Adversary (Pratidwandi) (Siddharta and the City) (2007) |
"
Ray's incredible warmth and superbly understated visual style can charm even those (like me) who don't find his films particularly compelling."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 24, 2007
|
|
|
93%
|
Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St. Matthew) (1964) |
"
Pasolini uses a complex but seemingly stark and simple visual style, and he evokes wonderful performances from nonprofessionals Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, and Marcello Morante."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 23, 2007
|
|
|
84%
|
Mildred Pierce (1945) |
"
The archetypal Joan Crawford movie."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 17, 2007
|
66%
——
96%
