|
2/4
|
74%
|
Love Is All You Need (2013) |
"
Rather than give her protagonists vivid interior lives, Bier defines them in relation to the satellite characters who circle them ..."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 3, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013) |
"
From its anxious protagonist and the battered metal sheaths he dons to save the world to the clattering, fiery mayhem that ensues with metronomic predictability, Iron Man 3 is less a movie than a final war whoop let loose before utter exhaustion sets in."
—
Washington Post
Posted May 2, 2013
|
|
3.5/4
|
98%
|
Mud (2013) |
"
The film is drenched in the humidity and salty air of a Delta summer, often recalling the musical, aphoristic cadences of Sam Shepard, who happens to appear in a supporting role."
—
Washington Post
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
80%
|
Fight Club (1999) |
"
A movie that wants to keep its audience unsettled from beginning to end."
—
Baltimore Sun
Posted Apr 22, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
68%
|
Disconnect (2013) |
"
Handsomely shot and judiciously edited, the film benefits from a superlative cast ..."
—
Washington Post
Posted Apr 19, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
77%
|
42 (2013) |
"
A stirring, straightforward and ultimately soaring portrayal of Robinson's historic entry into Major League Baseball in 1947."
—
Washington Post
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
81%
|
The Place Beyond The Pines (2013) |
"
As the sum of some admittedly imperfect parts, "The Place Beyond the Pines" still manages to cast its own haunting, sorrowful spell."
—
Washington Post
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
3.5/4
|
81%
|
From Up On Poppy Hill (2013) |
"
The story of a girl grappling with first love, the absence of her parents and the anxieties of an on-rushing future in 1963 Yokohama has all the earmarks of a Miyazaki classic."
—
Washington Post
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
92%
|
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (2013) |
"
"Free Angela and All Political Prisoners" may seem to take place in a distant past, but it resonates with improbable timeliness."
—
Washington Post
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
48%
|
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) |
"
"Olympus Has Fallen" at least possesses the frisson of timeliness amid otherwise hoary action-movie cliches."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
45%
|
On the Road (2012) |
"
Walter Salles's warm but strangely staid adaptation of a piece of literature that was never meant to be tamed as cinema."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
79%
|
Ginger & Rosa (2013) |
"
In Potter's assured, caring hands, "the personal is political" assumes newfound breadth, depth and surprising emotional poignancy."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
38%
|
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) |
"
A generic, fitfully funny mainstream comedy that doesn't nearly get the best from its name-brand players but doesn't qualify as a desecration, either."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 15, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
39%
|
The Call (2013) |
"
Can't someone come up with screenwriting software that signals when a script has made the fatal slip from hyped-up suspense to sheer ludicrousness?"
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 15, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
90%
|
Beyond The Hills (2013) |
"
An austere but subtly textured retelling of a 2005 news story in which a young woman died during an exorcism."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 15, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
65%
|
Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey (2013) |
"
As infectious as Pineda's enthusiasm is, "Don't Stop Believin' " too often relies on his inherent appeal as a film subject, rarely probing more deeply than the narrative he and his bandmates provide."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
60%
|
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) |
"
[Oz] qualifies as a cautionary tale, not about the perils of ambition and selfishness, but about the movie industry's misguided belief that it can distract the audience from a film's narrative weaknesses with little more than flash and spectacle."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 7, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
25%
|
Phantom (2013) |
"
[Its] admirable air of realism dissipates once Robinson takes viewers outside the sub, where torpedo skirmishes are staged with too-perfect CGI bombast."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 1, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
92%
|
No (2013) |
"
"No" isn't nearly as definitive or declarative as its title: It leaves viewers wondering whether they should cheer, shrug or shake their heads."
—
Washington Post
Posted Mar 1, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
The Gatekeepers (2013) |
"
A sobering but welcome dose of honesty regarding issues and events that have otherwise been shrouded in secrecy and overheated rhetoric."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 22, 2013
|
|
1.5/4
|
13%
|
Safe Haven (2013) |
"
"Safe Haven" is one of those Valentine's Day confections that satisfy your sweet tooth until you get to their weird, off-putting center."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
1.5/4
|
15%
|
A Good Day To Die Hard (2013) |
"
Both assaultive and tiresome, "A Good Day to Die Hard" barely registers on the action movie Richter scale. It goes bang, it goes boom, and then it blessedly goes away."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Amour (2012) |
"
A movie that is utterly worthy of its all-encompassing title."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 8, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013) |
"
Like a gel cap in a sip of orange juice, the psycho-pharmacological thriller Side Effects goes down easily, even if its long-term impact turns out to be barely discernible."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 7, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
20%
|
Identity Thief (2013) |
"
What a bummer."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 7, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
37%
|
Stand Up Guys (2013) |
"
The degree to which "Stand Up Guys" succeeds at all is completely dependent on Walken, who elevates everything around him by seemingly doing nothing at all."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 1, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
47%
|
Bullet to the Head (2013) |
"
Plays like such a floundering exercise in macho overcompensation that you almost feel sorry for it. Almost."
—
Washington Post
Posted Feb 1, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
95%
|
West of Memphis (2012) |
"
Happy, sad, inspiring, infuriating, right and terribly wrong, all at the same time."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jan 25, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
79%
|
Quartet (2013) |
"
"Quartet" is one of those movies that looks so effortless, it's easy to forget just how much could have gone wrong."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jan 25, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013) |
"
From the very first scenes of Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow demonstrates why she is such a formidable filmmaker, as adept with human emotion as with visceral, pulse-quickening action."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jan 10, 2013
|
|
1.5/4
|
32%
|
Gangster Squad (2013) |
"
Slick, sick, self-consciously stylish and defiantly shallow, Gangster Squad is one of those movies you can't talk about without invoking other (often better) movies."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jan 10, 2013
|
|
3.5/4
|
94%
|
The Sessions (2012) |
"
Thanks to Lewin's light but assured touch, The Sessions never wears its theological preoccupations heavily, instead allowing transcendence to creep up on the audience quietly."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jan 8, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
79%
|
Ruby Sparks (2012) |
"
Kazan winds up indulging in the very wish-fulfillment she initially sets out to deconstruct."
—
Washington Post
Posted Jan 8, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
51%
|
Promised Land (2013) |
"
Despite their Everyman appeal, Damon and Krasinski don't create much by way of emotional investment, instead becoming mirror images of their most mild-mannered, white-bread selves."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 28, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
88%
|
Django Unchained (2012) |
"
"Django Unchained" possesses an unmistakable subversive power, its playfully insurrectionist spirit perhaps the modern-day pop-culture equivalent of far more high stakes rebellions of yore."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 25, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
70%
|
Les Misérables (2012) |
"
It lives in that kinda-sorta, okay-not-great, this-worked-that-didn't in-between for which words like "better" and "worse" fall woefully short."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 25, 2012
|
|
1.5/4
|
61%
|
Jack Reacher (2012) |
"
A wildly ill-advised miscalculation, with Cruise's virtually unstoppable appeal butting uncomfortably against Reacher's alternately cocky and downright crude cynicism."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
93%
|
Barbara (2012) |
"
"Barbara" re-visits the quiet, everyday tragedies of the Iron Curtain era, when paranoia ran deep and for very good reasons."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
82%
|
Rust and Bone (2012) |
"
A movie that defies categorization, slips convenient genre boundaries, and leaves viewers feeling haunted and inspired in equal measure."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
1.5/4
|
38%
|
The Guilt Trip (2012) |
"
[A] lifeless comedy about an overbearing mother and her exasperated adult son ..."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 19, 2012
|
|
1.5/4
|
66%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) |
"
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" has finally arrived, not on wings of gossamer fancy but with a hairy-footed thud."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 14, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
38%
|
Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) |
"
Murray's spot-on portrayal of a man juggling myriad pressures and demands, from petty to momentous, marks one of the film's greatest strengths."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 14, 2012
|
|
1/4
|
4%
|
Playing for Keeps (2012) |
"
An undistinguished, impact-free watch-checker that will soon be vaguely distracting transatlantic travelers who forgot to carry on their iPads."
—
Washington Post
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
The Waiting Room (2012) |
"
Eloquently portrays the faults and limitations of the American health care system, even as it punctures some of the most toxic stereotypes surrounding it."
—
Washington Post
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
63%
|
Hitchcock (2012) |
"
There's something tonally off about the master of anxiety, neurosis and disquiet being depicted in a story this cozy."
—
Washington Post
Posted Nov 26, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
88%
|
Life of Pi (2012) |
"
"Life of Pi" both draws the audience in and encourages it to settle back, the better to enjoy its virtually nonstop display of daring, wonder and cinematic virtuosity."
—
Washington Post
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
64%
|
Anna Karenina (2012) |
"
Wright's "Anna Karenina" sings, dances and finally soars, even as its legendary heroine plunges to her most self-destructive depths. "
—
Washington Post
Posted Nov 16, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
92%
|
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) |
"
Would that every feel-good movie came by its good feelings so honestly."
—
Washington Post
Posted Nov 16, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
89%
|
A Royal Affair (2012) |
"
Even appreciated simply as a little-known chapter of European history, it proves consistently engrossing, edifying and affecting."
—
Washington Post
Posted Nov 16, 2012
|
43%
46%
95%
99%
65%
61%
