|
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013) |
"
The trouble is that, as the plot quickens, any cleverness withdraws, to make way for the firecrackers of the climax. That is not Black's forte, and his movie duly slumps into a mess."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 6, 2013
|
|
|
80%
|
Something in the Air (2013) |
"
The whole film, though it kicks off with a riot and a firebombing, soon acquires a listless and guttering air ..."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 6, 2013
|
|
|
56%
|
Oblivion (2013) |
"
Feels ever more grounded and stuck ..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 29, 2013
|
|
|
87%
|
In the House (2013) |
"
The result is endlessly playful, although the rules of the game, in Ozon's hands, could hardly be graver, and what can be at stake, in the act of storytelling, has seldom been more elegantly sketched."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 29, 2013
|
|
|
87%
|
X2: X-Men United (2003) |
"
The plotting seems dangerously self-interested, being concerned almost exclusively with the survival of the mutants themselves, and, behind the succulent effects, the tone is oddly hectoring."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 15, 2013
|
|
|
96%
|
Blancanieves (2013) |
"
As if bewitched, the legend of Snow White is transferred to Seville in the early twentieth century and transformed into high melodrama."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 8, 2013
|
|
|
68%
|
Trance (2013) |
"
The only perceptible purpose of the story is to pay homage to Dawson, and rightly so; her character is a rare blend of she-devil and sculptured deity, rising above the follies of mere men."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 8, 2013
|
|
|
95%
|
The Return (Vozvrashcheniye) (2003) |
"
Zvyagintsev gets formidable concentration from his youthful actors, and his storytelling moves with the simplicity -- calm, chiselled, and suggestive -- of a fable."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 27, 2013
|
|
|
95%
|
Popiól i diament (Ashes and Diamonds) (1958) |
"
Only Wajda, though, could muster such a mood, with everyone feeding on smoke and booze, and the assembled company, at the end, dancing to a cracked polonaise."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 26, 2013
|
|
|
66%
|
Spring Breakers (2013) |
"
The film stands, overall, as one of the director's richer provocations ..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 25, 2013
|
|
|
79%
|
Reality (2013) |
"
The opening shot guides us into the absurd merriment of a wedding party, while the ending is lit with a mystifying sense of wonder."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 25, 2013
|
|
|
81%
|
It's All True (1993) |
"
It would never have been one of [Welles'] major works, but the swiftness and urgency with which the tale is told, and the potent composition of even the most simple scenes, reveal the touch of the master."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 12, 2013
|
|
|
95%
|
Touch of Evil (1958) |
"
[Welles'] scenes with brothel-keeper Marlene Dietrich have nothing to do with the plot and everything to do with the rotting heart of this amazing fable: the apotheosis of pulp."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 12, 2013
|
|
|
94%
|
Journal d'un curé de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest) (1951) |
"
The chance to see Robert Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest... should not be passed up; it is an enterprise of great pith and moment in the history of cinema."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 5, 2013
|
|
|
100%
|
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) |
"
The film could have sunk beneath this symbolic burden, yet it is lightened by the speed and precision of Bresson's art; he could derive more from one pair of hands than most directors can from two hours of blood and guts."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 5, 2013
|
|
|
96%
|
L'Argent (1983) |
"
Bresson -- who was eighty-two years old when the film came out, and clearly in no mood for mellowing -- frames the acts of wickedness, both great and small, with a terrifying calm."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 5, 2013
|
|
|
97%
|
Kumonosu Jô (Throne of Blood) (Macbeth) (1957) |
"
No stage production could match Kurosawa's Birnam Wood, and, in his final framing of the hero -- a human hedgehog, stuck with arrows -- he conjures a tragedy not laden with grandeur but pierced, like a dream, by the absurd."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 4, 2013
|
|
|
84%
|
The English Patient (1996) |
"
The triumph of the film lies not just in the force and range of the performances, but in Minghella's creation of an intimate epic: vast landscapes mingle with the minute details of desire, and the combination is transfixing."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 24, 2013
|
|
|
81%
|
Braveheart (1995) |
"
The political argument that ensues is pretty dull, but the battle scenes are the loudest and most convincing in years: Gibson has learned from Kurosawa in lending a clarifying thrust to what is, essentially, chaos."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 24, 2013
|
|
|
87%
|
Chicago (2002) |
"
The film has punch, but it never really conveys the delicious, redeeming sense that life can be lived on the hoof."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 24, 2013
|
|
|
77%
|
A Beautiful Mind (2001) |
"
Crowe pulls out the stops, but he looks too bullish and controlled for such a pitiable victim."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 24, 2013
|
|
|
71%
|
Forrest Gump (1994) |
"
Warm, wise, and wearisome as hell."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 20, 2013
|
|
|
59%
|
The Last Stand (2013) |
"
Schwarzenegger can still hold the screen, but these days he grinds through his one-liners like a truck driver taking a steep hill ..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 4, 2013
|
|
|
61%
|
Jack Reacher (2012) |
"
There is a dogged leanness to Reacher's pursuit that lifts his adventures from the generic rut ..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 21, 2013
|
|
|
32%
|
Gangster Squad (2013) |
"
Some of the clothes and makeup feel as glossy as paint, but, those aside, we seem to browsing through a display of secondhand goods."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 21, 2013
|
|
|
69%
|
Not Fade Away (2012) |
"
The movie is a psalm to those who, far from pursuing the path of the Rolling Stones, stayed trapped under a rock."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 7, 2013
|
|
|
93%
|
Barbara (2012) |
"
[Leaves] you drained and horrified."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 7, 2013
|
|
|
70%
|
Les Misérables (2012) |
"
Fans of the original production, no doubt, will eat the movie up, and good luck to them. I screamed a scream as time went by."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 4, 2013
|
|
|
93%
|
Amour (2012) |
"
There have been many invasions in Haneke's work, and there is indeed an attempted break-in at the start of this film, but nothing compares with the looming approach of mortality."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 4, 2013
|
|
|
88%
|
Django Unchained (2012) |
"
Django Unchained has mislaid its melancholy, and its bitter wit, and become a raucous romp. It is a tribute to the spaghetti Western, cooked al dente, then cooked a while more, and finally sauced to death."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 4, 2013
|
|
|
66%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) |
"
On balance, honor has been done to Tolkien, not least in the famous riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum, and some of the exploits to come will surely lighten the load."
—
New Yorker
Posted Dec 10, 2012
|
|
|
82%
|
Rust and Bone (2012) |
"
The better the director, however, the more that melodrama is recast as romantic destiny, and Jacques Audiard... brings such drive to Rust and Bone that you barely hear the whirrings of contrivance."
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 28, 2012
|
|
|
76%
|
Killing Them Softly (2012) |
"
One of the best things in the movie is a conversation between Pitt and Jenkins, on a torrential day, seated in a nondescript car beneath a bridge."
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 28, 2012
|
|
|
64%
|
Anna Karenina (2012) |
"
The metaphorical force of this conceit-insisting on the artifice of the social world that frowns on rapture-is not hard to grasp, but its frailty unsettles some of the actors."
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 26, 2012
|
|
|
89%
|
Lincoln (2012) |
"
The true tussle of the movie, however, is between the Spielberg who, like a cinematic Sandburg, is drawn aloft toward legend and the Spielberg who is tugged down by Kushner's intricate screenplay toward documentary grit."
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 15, 2012
|
|
|
68%
|
This Must Be The Place (2012) |
"
This Must Be the Place is dazzling to behold."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 25, 2012
|
|
|
68%
|
Cloud Atlas (2012) |
"
he best thing about Cloud Atlas is that it could, and should, turn into a properly divisive film... but one has to ask: does it allow for immersion? Even as we applaud the dramatic machinery, are we being kept emotionally at bay?"
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 25, 2012
|
|
|
82%
|
GoldenEye (1995) |
"
Brosnan, however, looks set to stay. He'll never recapture the amused cool of the young Sean Connery, but he does overcome the handicap of looking like a humorless male model."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 23, 2012
|
|
|
63%
|
Sinister (2012) |
"
Sinister is a joyless ride, and its frights are too contrived to be surprising, yet somewhere, stashed in the attic, is a much less foolish film with Hawke at its heart."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 10, 2012
|
|
|
96%
|
Argo (2012) |
"
Clever, taut, and restrained."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 10, 2012
|
|
|
100%
|
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (2012) |
"
Its portrait of a loner and his lusts comes up frighteningly fresh, and the whole conceit would collapse without the muscular, rousing presence of Gian Maria Volonté in the central role."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 1, 2012
|
|
|
93%
|
Looper (2012) |
"
The reasoning behind all this may not reward prolonged inspection, but Johnson is smart enough to press onward with his plot, leaving us with neither the time nor the desire to linger over the logic ..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 1, 2012
|
|
|
86%
|
The Master (2012) |
"
On reflection, and despite these cavils, we should bow to The Master, because it gives us so much to revere, starting with the image that opens the film and recurs right up to the end."
—
New Yorker
Posted Sep 11, 2012
|
|
|
67%
|
Lawless (2012) |
"
The center of narrative gravity is hard to locate; for whom are we rooting, and does anything really ripple outward from this nasty local fight?"
—
New Yorker
Posted Sep 3, 2012
|
|
|
77%
|
Killer Joe (2012) |
"
That everything should go wrong is no surprise, but the wrong turns are taken so viciously -- Gershon, in particular, is appallingly treated, in closeup -- that they lead the film, adapted from the play by Tracy Letts, to the brink of abusive farce."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 6, 2012
|
|
|
79%
|
Klown (2012) |
"
Its deliberate aversion to good taste is the biggest gag of all, and the source of its claim to infamy; yet running beneath the grossness, and the calamitous bonhomie, is a quiet streak of despair."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 6, 2012
|
|
|
87%
|
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) |
"
The story is dense, overlong, and studded with references that will make sense only to those intimate with Nolan's previous excursions into Batmanhood."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jul 30, 2012
|
|
|
78%
|
Take This Waltz (2012) |
"
Your best option, perhaps, is to zone out from the implausible kinks in the setup... This will leave you free to savor the compositions and the melted-candy color schemes."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jul 2, 2012
|
|
|
73%
|
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) |
"
The idea that to be rendered superhuman is neither some sombre moral privilege nor a queasy Faustian temptation but a prelude to ungovernable slapstick might be just what the genre needs."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jul 2, 2012
|
47%
33%
94%
99%
65%
61%
