A.A. Dowd Movie Reviews & Previews

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A.A. Dowd

Agrees with the Tomatometer 68% of the time.

Publications:: Time Out Chicago , Time Out New York

Total Reviews:: 65

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Showing 1 - 50 of 65

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
D	25%	No One Lives (2013)	" Most fatally, No One Lives neglects to provide a rooting interest. Great horror movies engender sympathy for the lambs being led to the slaughter." — AV Club Posted May 9, 2013
A-	96%	Stories We Tell (2013)	" An investigative mystery, a real-life soap opera, and-most compellingly, perhaps-a searching "interrogation" (the director's word) of the hows and whys of storytelling itself." — AV Club Posted May 9, 2013
B+	81%	Something in the Air (2013)	" The film often plays like a nostalgic doodle, gliding aimlessly from one classic-rock-scored encounter to another. But then, that meandering quality is part of the appeal ..." — AV Club Posted May 2, 2013
C+	77%	Iron Man 3 (2013)	" It's hard not to wish Downey were sparring with his costumed comrades again, instead of trading barbs with the far-less-colorful cast members-old and new-of this busy, sporadically diverting sequel." — AV Club Posted May 2, 2013
5/5	98%	Taxi Driver (1976)	" What strikes you aren't just the iconic moments, but the little ones." — Time Out Chicago Posted Apr 29, 2013
C	33%	The Numbers Station (2013)	" Cusack and Akerman scramble down a series of dimly lit, identical-looking passageways. The setting is as ill-defined as the characters." — AV Club Posted Apr 25, 2013
3/5	79%	Ginger & Rosa (2013)	" Whether it's memoir or personalized fiction, Ginger & Rosa displays a shrewd understanding of late adolescence-a time when every emotional slight lands like an atom bomb." — Time Out Chicago Posted Mar 21, 2013
2/5	69%	The Croods (2013)	" The latest advances in computer animation have been applied to a truly primitive comedy-Ice Age recast with a family of nattering Neanderthals." — Time Out Chicago Posted Mar 21, 2013
3/5	90%	Caesar Must Die (2013)	" The problem with the film, which somewhat inexplicably won the Golden Bear at Berlin last year, is that it scarcely transcends the basic novelty of its premise." — Time Out Chicago Posted Mar 21, 2013
3/5	43%	Admission (2013)	" Thank goodness for Fey, who lends this sitcom soap a credible emotional center." — Time Out Chicago Posted Mar 21, 2013
4/5	92%	No (2013)	" Stirring as a celebration of voter empowerment, No may also inspire pangs of wistful nostalgia." — Time Out Chicago Posted Mar 10, 2013
3/5	67%	Stoker (2013)	" You may be dazzled or exasperated by this flurry of stylistic excess. You probably won't be bored." — Time Out Chicago Posted Mar 1, 2013
1/5	26%	21 And Over (2013)	" The real problem with 21 and Over is that it swipes most of its material from better movies." — Time Out Chicago Posted Mar 1, 2013
3/5	45%	Beautiful Creatures (2013)	" If we must have supernatural high-school romances, can they all be as relatively painless as Beautiful Creatures?" — Time Out Chicago Posted Feb 18, 2013
1/5	15%	A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)	" Director John Moore, the anonymous hack at the helm, stages car chases and gun fights with messy imprecision." — Time Out Chicago Posted Feb 18, 2013
3/5	60%	John Dies at the End (2013)	" More arch than amusing, John Dies at the End may exhaust your patience for everything-but-the-kitchen-sink "storytelling." Still, there's something endearing about its relentless barrage of gonzo happenings." — Time Out Chicago Posted Feb 9, 2013
2/5	80%	Warm Bodies (2013)	" Good luck ascribing a clear satirical agenda to Jonathan Levine's tonally uneven zomcom, which suffers an identity crisis nearly as severe as its protagonist's." — Time Out Chicago Posted Feb 1, 2013
2/5	95%	West of Memphis (2012)	" The new film is largely a recap of the older ones, with more celebrity testimonials and fewer Metallica songs but little fresh insight into the miscarriage of justice it chronicles." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 25, 2013
1/5	6%	A Haunted House (2013)	" You know a fright-flick craze is in danger of running its course when Marlon Wayans comes along to broadly, belatedly spoof it." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 25, 2013
3/5	30%	Broken City (2013)	" A political thriller that's never quite as smart as you wish it were." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 25, 2013
4/5	89%	Consuming Spirits (2012)	" Even if one grows impatient with the film's dovetailing tales of small-town desperation, it's hard to tire of its visual execution." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 25, 2013
2/5	32%	Gangster Squad (2013)	" A shallow, star-studded amalgam of every Los Angeles cops-and-crooks drama you've ever seen." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 10, 2013
1/5	19%	Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)	" When making a sequel to a beloved genre classic, it's generally unwise to include clips of the masterpiece you're attempting to live up to." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 10, 2013
5/5	93%	Amour (2012)	" The most brutally honest picture ever made about growing old and wasting away." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 10, 2013
4/5	95%	Sister (2012)	" For fans of Ursula Meier's last movie, the strikingly offbeat domestic drama Home, this act of auteur-on-auteur emulation may feel like a comedown. Yet it's still stirring work." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 9, 2013
3/5	76%	Premium Rush (2012)	" Want more from a late-summer joyride than slides, wheelies and bunny hops? Get a load of Shannon, dementedly inspired, trying out an oddball accent and Richard Widmark giggle." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 8, 2013
4/5	92%	The Cabin in the Woods (2012)	" A fiendishly clever genre Rubik's Cube that demonstrates, if nothing else, how much Fangoria fare benefits from the wicked wit of a real writer." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 8, 2013
2/5	88%	Starlet (2012)	" No amount of strong acting, however, can entirely compensate for the dramatic conveniences or every shrill appearance by Jane's cartoonishly despicable roommates." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 8, 2013
4/5	82%	Goon (2012)	" A disarmingly sweet descendant of the blood-on-the-ice classic Slap Shot." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 8, 2013
4/5	90%	Bernie (2012)	" Part of the film's pleasure lies in watching its spirit of poky Southern amiability give way to true-crime insanity." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 8, 2013
4/5	100%	How to Survive a Plague (2012)	" Plague offers an instructive lesson for Occupy-era rabble-rousers: Only when coupled with a knowledge base will your sound and fury signify anything." — Time Out Chicago Posted Jan 7, 2013
1/5	18%	Parental Guidance (2012)	" It's hard to say what's worse: the sneering disdain for modern child-rearing tactics or the hacky generation-clash humor." — Time Out Chicago Posted Dec 25, 2012
1/5	81%	The Impossible (2012)	" A sentimental slog that encourages us to celebrate the survival of European tourists while turning a blind eye to the deaths of thousands of others." — Time Out Chicago Posted Dec 25, 2012
3/5	52%	This is 40 (2012)	" What lingers are the stormy tête-à-têtes between Rudd and Mann -- a couple with whom we'd gladly celebrate the big 4-0." — Time Out Chicago Posted Dec 20, 2012
2/5	66%	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)	" To gaze upon the film, like Frodo staring into that prophetic magic orb, is to be shaken by a dark vision of cinema's future." — Time Out Chicago Posted Dec 13, 2012
2/5	74%	Rise of the Guardians (2012)	" A few colorful details aside, Rise of the Guardians goes light on the type of wide-eyed wonder it purports to champion." — Time Out Chicago Posted Nov 22, 2012
3/5	88%	Life of Pi (2012)	" Most admirably, Life of Pi resists turning its remarkably realistic, digitally created feline into a friend or pet." — Time Out Chicago Posted Nov 22, 2012
1/5	63%	Hitchcock (2012)	" A True Hollywood Story so cheeky and thin it makes My Week with Marilyn seem substantial." — Time Out Chicago Posted Nov 22, 2012
3/5	84%	Bestiaire (2012)	" Bestiaire accommodates multiple readings, allowing its audience to project theories about spectatorship and captivity onto its silent beasts of burden." — Time Out Chicago Posted Nov 15, 2012
3/5	68%	This Must Be The Place (2012)	" Adjust to the Oscar winner's deadpan cartoon impersonation, and you may get on the wavelength of this quirkfest." — Time Out Chicago Posted Nov 15, 2012
2/5	64%	Anna Karenina (2012)	" The conceptual gimmickry eclipses everything else, including a typically sharp script from Tom Stoppard and the earnest efforts of well-dressed Brits playing well-dressed Russians." — Time Out Chicago Posted Nov 15, 2012
	70%	The Loneliest Planet (2012)	" A relationship drama as radically bifurcated as Tropical Malady and as trenchantly insightful as Everyone Else." — Time Out Chicago Posted Nov 9, 2012
	90%	Holy Motors (2012)	" Some day, an editor is going to put together a highlight reel of Denis Lavant's greatest performances. Will most of it be scenes from Holy Motors?" — Time Out Chicago Posted Nov 9, 2012
2/5	68%	Cloud Atlas (2012)	" Basically a three-hour montage, Cloud Atlas neutralizes involvement in its dovetailing dramas by treating every character as a point in some quasi-spiritual game of connect-the-dots." — Time Out Chicago Posted Oct 25, 2012
	98%	Brooklyn Castle (2012)	" Among the team's racially diverse roster, four leaders emerge; sticking doggedly to the competition-doc template, Dellamaggiore traces their parallel paths to the finals." — Time Out Chicago Posted Oct 15, 2012
3/5	82%	Seven Psychopaths (2012)	" This is what Adaptation might've looked like had Charlie Kaufman been hired to pen a flippantly nihilistic wiseguy saga instead of an unfilmable ode to orchids." — Time Out Chicago Posted Oct 12, 2012
1/5	11%	House at the End of the Street (2012)	" Shockingly uneventful, this horror film marks time until dropping its big, dumb reveal." — Time Out New York Posted Sep 25, 2012
4/5	77%	The Color Wheel (2012)	" Alex Ross Perry's The Color Wheel begins as a scrappy, antagonistically funny road comedy and ends as something altogether stranger." — Time Out Chicago Posted Sep 14, 2012
2/5	22%	The Words (2012)	" By the time a grizzled Jeremy Irons saunters in, ready to dole out a comeuppance, perceptive viewers will have mentally flipped to the last page." — Time Out New York Posted Sep 4, 2012

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