|
|
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
|
|
|
83%
|
Your Sister's Sister (2012) |
"
All three performers add both tone and, when required, a fierce volume to their interplay."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jun 19, 2012
|
|
|
41%
|
Rock of Ages (2012) |
"
Rock of Ages is not a spoof, but it might as well be, given how little there is to root for."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jun 19, 2012
|
|
|
94%
|
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) |
"
We may look back on Anderson's works as we do on the boxes of Joseph Cornell -- formal troves of frippery, studded with nostalgic private jokes, that lodge inexplicably in the heart. In Moonrise Kingdom, that lodging is already under way."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 29, 2012
|
|
|
58%
|
Hysteria (2012) |
"
Hopelessly antiquated, greeting with very British giggles, and without a trace of honest curiosity, the needs of the women it seeks to honor."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 15, 2012
|
|
|
38%
|
Dark Shadows (2012) |
"
This is not so much a coherent movie as it is a long, expensive joke in search of a purpose."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 15, 2012
|
|
|
92%
|
Headhunters (2012) |
"
Clearly, there are streaks of farce in all this, as well as serious cracks in logic, and those who like their black comedy done to a crisp will happily feast on what Tyldum dishes up."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 8, 2012
|
|
|
93%
|
Marvel's The Avengers (2012) |
"
If you are a Marvel fan, then The Avengers will feel like Christmas. Thanks to the merry doings of the director, Joss Whedon, all your favorite characters are here, as shiny and as tempting as presents under the tree."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 8, 2012
|
|
|
95%
|
Marley (2012) |
"
Marley, by reminding us of the longing and the indignation from which the music leaped, does a grand job of turning the volume back up. If only it had found more time to stop and listen."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 17, 2012
|
|
|
83%
|
Comic-Con: Episode IV - A Fan's Hope (2012) |
"
What Comic-Con requires is neither fan nor foe but an anthropologist."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 17, 2012
|
|
|
62%
|
We Have a Pope (2012) |
"
What grips the movie, for all its amused glances at Swiss Guards and ceremonial pomp, is the prospect of a single soul in crisis."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 3, 2012
|
|
|
75%
|
Damsels in Distress (2012) |
"
Stillman's film casts an unaccountable spell -- a cool, thin-blooded charm."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 3, 2012
|
|
|
57%
|
Detachment (2012) |
"
The movie works, and, though it cries out against so much, you sense that the one thing it does not cry is wolf."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 13, 2012
|
|
|
79%
|
Attenberg (2012) |
"
In that isolation, and in the marooned hopelessness of the protagonists, there is a hint that normal life may have become too much to cope with, and that its rules of engagement need to be learned afresh."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 6, 2012
|
|
|
67%
|
Friends With Kids (2012) |
"
Given the title, it's remarkable how little space is granted to the offspring, who are introduced as excretory machines, sex-blocking irritants, and occasional simpering angels, but never as beings unto themselves."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 6, 2012
|
|
|
87%
|
Bullhead (2012) |
"
Some of the dialogue is overloaded, but the formidable cinematography, by Nicolas Karakatsanis, envelops us in an ever-darkening world."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 27, 2012
|
|
|
26%
|
This Means War (2012) |
"
The director is McG, who allows no motion to pass without a musical energy boost."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 21, 2012
|
|
|
56%
|
Albert Nobbs (2012) |
"
What you feel, watching Close, is not that you are watching gender being bent into new, absorbing shapes but that you might as well have stayed home and leafed through a book on Magritte."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 30, 2012
|
|
|
13%
|
W.E. (2012) |
"
What on earth is the point of a Madonna product, in any medium, if it contains not a single orgy?"
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 30, 2012
|
|
|
94%
|
Coriolanus (2011) |
"
What remains, in distilled form, is the poetry of violence and contempt-the source of the play's unfailing reputation for political threat and mischief."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 23, 2012
|
|
|
78%
|
The Hunter (2012) |
"
If you find it convenient to think of Iran more as a bad dream than as a perceptible place, this is the film for you."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 4, 2012
|
|
|
99%
|
A Separation (2011) |
"
The miracle of A Separation is that it doesn't spare any of its characters, nor does it seek to indict them. It is a democratic portrait of a theocratic world."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 4, 2012
|
|
|
95%
|
Pina (2011) |
"
The question is, What do you get from Pina that you could not get from watching the Tanztheater live? Answer: More than you could possibly believe."
—
New Yorker
Posted Dec 13, 2011
|
|
|
72%
|
Carnage (2011) |
"
Not even Polanski can find grit in its silly provocations."
—
New Yorker
Posted Dec 13, 2011
|
|
|
83%
|
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) |
"
Something in the drama has been dulled, and I was almost bored."
—
New Yorker
Posted Dec 5, 2011
|
|
|
49%
|
Sleeping Beauty (2011) |
"
To be at once earthy and ethereal is an uncommon gift. I noticed it, in Browning..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 28, 2011
|
|
|
80%
|
Shame (2011) |
"
Fassbender, who was, frankly, much sexier and more devilish in "X-Men: First Class," is required to spend much of his time staring with blank intensity into the middle distance."
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 28, 2011
|
|
|
98%
|
The Artist (2011) |
"
What Hazanavicius has wrought is damnably clever, but not cute; less like an arch conceit and more like the needle-sharp recollection of a dream."
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 20, 2011
|
|
|
89%
|
The Descendants (2011) |
"
The latest exhibit in Payne's careful dissection of the beached male, which runs from Matthew Broderick's character in "Election" to Jack Nicholson's in "About Schmidt" and Paul Giamatti's in "Sideways.""
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 20, 2011
|
|
|
77%
|
Melancholia (2011) |
"
Von Trier's latest fable is nothing without its blaze of majesty -- or, as his detractors would say, its bombast."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 31, 2011
|
|
|
69%
|
Tower Heist (2011) |
"
Toss everything you can find, starting with roughly diced plots, into the blender, press "Pulse," and pray: such appears to be the method behind "Tower Heist.""
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 31, 2011
|
|
|
90%
|
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) |
"
Like [Michael] Haneke, Durkin -- remarkably, making his first feature -- specializes not in apocalyptic grandeur but in the creak and the tinkle of the uncanny. "
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 17, 2011
|
|
|
85%
|
The Ides of March (2011) |
"
This film is full of great actors, but not enough people."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 3, 2011
|
|
|
93%
|
Drive (2011) |
"
In grabbing our attention, [Refn] diverts it from what matters. The horror lingers and seeps; the feelings are sponged away."
—
New Yorker
Posted Sep 20, 2011
|
|
|
76%
|
The Debt (2011) |
"
There is an awkward, irresoluble tension between the movie's urge to thrill and the weighty pull of the historical obligations that it seeks to assume. How much, to be blunt, should we be enjoying ourselves?"
—
New Yorker
Posted Sep 6, 2011
|
|
|
73%
|
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2011) |
"
A lively bout between bio-pic and fairy tale."
—
New Yorker
Posted Sep 6, 2011
|
|
|
81%
|
Higher Ground (2011) |
"
The crucial thing about Higher Ground is that it takes at face value the faces, many bearded, almost all beatific, that the camera surveys -- quite an achievement, given Hollywood's woeful record in the dramatizing of faith."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 30, 2011
|
|
—
|
——
|
Warren Miller's Higher Ground (2006) |
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 24, 2011
|
|
—
|
18%
|
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) |
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 24, 2011
|
|
—
|
39%
|
Due Date (2010) |
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 24, 2011
|
|
—
|
93%
|
Another Year (2010) |
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 24, 2011
|
|
—
|
75%
|
Mei loi ging chaat (Future X-Cops) (2010) |
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 24, 2011
|
|
—
|
45%
|
You yi tian (One Day) (2010) |
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 24, 2011
|
|
—
|
79%
|
Road To Nowhere (2011) |
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 24, 2011
|
|
|
92%
|
Senna (2011) |
"
It's stripped of narration, talking heads, and anything else that might threaten to slow it down."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 22, 2011
|
|
|
64%
|
Another Earth (2011) |
"
Anyone who can explain the final shot deserves a refund."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 8, 2011
|
|
|
44%
|
Cowboys & Aliens (2011) |
"
Takes itself much too seriously, with acts of brutality outnumbering the gags."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 8, 2011
|
|
|
72%
|
The Future (2011) |
"
The notion that both this movie and "Battle: Los Angeles" could come out of the same place, in the same year, is a startling tribute to the city."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 8, 2011
|
|
|
36%
|
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) |
"
The third outing for a herd of toys that should have stayed in their boxes."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jul 18, 2011
|
|
|
35%
|
Larry Crowne (2011) |
"
To pluck romantic comedy from the jaws of a social crisis is a laudable project, worthy of Preston Sturges, and it's a pity that this featherlight drama-written by Tom Hanks and Nia Vardalos, and directed by Hanks himself-should falter in its task."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jul 18, 2011
|
|
|
75%
|
The Names of Love (2011) |
"
Leclerc pays such lavish homage, in the construction of his film, to golden-age Allen; the moments at which a bewildered Arthur consults his teen-age self could have come straight out of "Annie Hall.""
—
New Yorker
Posted Jun 27, 2011
|
|
|
86%
|
Terri (2011) |
"
"Terri" works, not least because, against expectation, it is a beautiful movie to look at, with an enchanted sense of place."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jun 27, 2011
|
|
|
44%
|
Bad Teacher (2011) |
"
If you can see past the dismal sexual politics of "Bad Teacher," which I couldn't, you might applaud the gall of a film that expends so little effort in forcing us to like its central character."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jun 27, 2011
|
|
|
89%
|
The Trip (2011) |
"
The joy of this small, unimportant contest is weirdly addictive; you come out of the film as if from a concert, playing the music of false voices in your head."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jun 27, 2011
|
|
|
84%
|
The Tree of Life (2011) |
"
Amid one's exasperation, there is no mistaking Malick's unfailing ability to grab at glories on the fly."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 24, 2011
|
|
|
77%
|
Thor (2011) |
"
There is pleasure to be plundered from some of the battle scenes, especially when Thor is confronting ice monsters with blood-red eyes, and from the culture clash that resounds when he descends to present-day Earth..."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 16, 2011
|
|
|
75%
|
Everything Must Go (2011) |
"
The result is a sad suburban pastoral, a strain of film you don't see much of, or not enough; it may feel somewhat stretched, and Rush's additions to Carver barely push it past ninety minutes, but anything hectic or hasty would have spoiled the mood."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 11, 2011
|
|
|
95%
|
The Arbor (2011) |
"
Barnard's boldest move is to unveil the irresponsible chaos of the playwright's private life, and to make us wonder if the art was worth the suffering, after all."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 2, 2011
|
|
|
96%
|
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011) |
"
Herzog's voiceover is, as always, more entertaining than most film soundtracks. The film has a touch of that gray fuzz which still afflicts 3-D, but the Chauvet cave is a perfect candidate for such technology, because it stashes its secrets in a recess."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 2, 2011
|
|
|
55%
|
The Conspirator (2011) |
"
It's hard not to like McAvoy, with his glancing nervous energy, but The Conspirator rarely permits him to be anything except likable, and the script smooths out any wrinkles in the figure of Aiken."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 13, 2011
|
|
|
77%
|
In A Better World (2011) |
"
Veers perilously close to the programmatic, ever more so as the plot proceeds, and there are scenes where we seem to be observing a moral demonstration as much as a drama; yet the movie does retain grip and grace..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
|
48%
|
Super (2011) |
"
The spectacle soon wearies and repels."
—
New Yorker
Posted Apr 4, 2011
|
|
|
35%
|
Battle: Los Angeles (2011) |
"
If the talk had been surgically removed, leaving only the sights and sounds of combat, this could have been a striking, semiabstract display of aggressive energy; as it is, any viewer over twelve will go for the laughs."
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 21, 2011
|
|
|
72%
|
Paul (2011) |
"
What happened here?"
—
New Yorker
Posted Mar 15, 2011
|
|
|
85%
|
Cedar Rapids (2011) |
"
These folk are undistinguished yet distinctive, and the film, for all the familiar grind of its plotting, pays them their honest due."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 28, 2011
|
|
|
93%
|
Of Gods and Men (2011) |
"
The climax is both misty and unforgettable: a sacrifice that looks like a ghost story."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 28, 2011
|
|
|
38%
|
The Eagle (2011) |
"
The story sags in the middle, as our wanderers traipse through the highlands-not a happy environment for Tatum, who, before his journey even begins, looks all at sea in this distant age."
—
New Yorker
Posted Feb 22, 2011
|
|
|
75%
|
The Way Back (2011) |
"
The abiding sensation, at the end, is one not of fulfillment but of exhaustion."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 31, 2011
|
|
|
64%
|
Biutiful (2010) |
"
The movie's mood might well have proved unendurable were it not for the proud and sympathetic presence of Bardem."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 31, 2011
|
|
|
84%
|
The Time That Remains (2011) |
"
To keep a steady gaze, the film suggests, is not just a virtue but a form of orderly protest, when your world is breaking apart."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jan 18, 2011
|
|
|
32%
|
How Do You Know (2010) |
"
Everything looks primed for civilized amusement, but somewhere along the way the laughs dropped off, together with the question mark in the title."
—
New Yorker
Posted Dec 28, 2010
|
|
|
86%
|
Rabbit Hole (2010) |
"
With performances like these, the result is not so much an issue movie as a study of human quiddity and stubbornness under siege."
—
New Yorker
Posted Dec 28, 2010
|
|
|
88%
|
Blue Valentine (2010) |
"
Nothing out of the ordinary happens in Blue Valentine, and that, together with the vital, untrammelled performances of the two leading actors, is the root of its power."
—
New Yorker
Posted Dec 28, 2010
|
|
|
72%
|
I Love You Phillip Morris (2010) |
"
At best, I Love You Phillip Morris may be hailed as a necessary step in Hollywood's fearful crawl toward sexual evenhandedness; the film upholds the constitutional right of every gay man to be as much of a liar, a crook, and a creep as the rest of us."
—
New Yorker
Posted Dec 8, 2010
|
|
|
90%
|
The Fighter (2010) |
"
Takes a heavy swing at us, and misses."
—
New Yorker
Posted Dec 8, 2010
|
|
|
79%
|
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010) |
"
The trouble with Harry, as becomes clear from this seventh and penultimate installment, is not that we have lost the plot -- the film is as tangled and as corkscrewed as Bonham Carter's hair -- but that we are in danger of losing everything else."
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 22, 2010
|
|
|
94%
|
The King's Speech (2010) |
"
There is a kernel to this movie which feels harder and more stubborn than the pleasing, period fluff that enfolds it."
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 22, 2010
|
|
|
81%
|
Four Lions (2010) |
"
Might this not have worked better, and conjured more startled outrage, as a mock documentary on TV?"
—
New Yorker
Posted Nov 15, 2010
|
|
|
79%
|
Nowhere Boy (2010) |
"
Taylor-Wood has specialized in video installations and off-kilter portraits, and it was tempting to hope that her take on Lennon would unsettle and provoke. Instead, she stays resolutely on-kilter, as if awed into numbness by her subject."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 19, 2010
|
|
|
94%
|
Carlos (2010) |
"
The length of the scene ties in to the unhurried, forensic calm of Carlos as a whole."
—
New Yorker
Posted Oct 19, 2010
|
|
|
94%
|
The Town (2010) |
"
Affleck the movie director makes you truly, badly want his bunch of ne'er-do-wells to pull off their heists without a scratch, and you can't ask for much more than that."
—
New Yorker
Posted Sep 14, 2010
|
|
—
|
28%
|
New In Town (2009) |
—
New Yorker
Posted Sep 14, 2010
|
|
|
67%
|
Jack Goes Boating (2010) |
"
We get a scattering of those breathless hushes that, in the theatre, always make me wish I'd ordered a Scotch for the intermission. Yet there is, for all that, something impressive in the very doggedness of the project, and in Hoffman's dedication..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Sep 14, 2010
|
|
|
59%
|
Centurion (2010) |
"
The film has a resigned bitterness, hard to shake off, that feels right for the experience of tough guys, from whatever period of history, who find themselves at the tattered edge of what they take to be civilization."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 30, 2010
|
|
|
72%
|
Soul Kitchen (2010) |
"
Not to warm to this movie would be churlish, and foodies will drool on demand; I recommend the shoal of silvery fish, spitting in a wide pan and awaiting its rain of lemon."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 30, 2010
|
|
|
82%
|
Mesrine: Killer Instinct (L'instinct de mort) (2010) |
"
Performs the unlikely trick of being both taut and plotless."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 26, 2010
|
|
|
83%
|
Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (L'ennemi public n1) (2010) |
"
Performs the unlikely trick of being both taut and plotless."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 9, 2010
|
|
|
41%
|
The Expendables (2010) |
"
The Expendables is savage yet inert, and breathtakingly sleazy in its lack of imagination."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 9, 2010
|
|
|
81%
|
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) |
"
Who cares if Scott winds up with Ramona, Knives, or anyone else?"
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 9, 2010
|
|
|
69%
|
Life During Wartime (2010) |
"
[Solondz'] best to date..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 2, 2010
|
|
|
85%
|
Get Low (2010) |
"
Get Low is deftly played, and it rarely mislays its ambling charm..."
—
New Yorker
Posted Aug 2, 2010
|
|
|
93%
|
The Kids Are All Right (2010) |
"
There are not only glancing moments but whole sequences in this movie when the agony of social embarrassment makes you want to haul the characters to their feet and slap them in the chops."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jul 5, 2010
|
|
|
81%
|
I Am Love (2010) |
"
The best sex you will get all year, if that's what you crave in your moviegoing, is between Tilda Swinton and a prawn."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jun 28, 2010
|
|
|
82%
|
Solitary Man (2010) |
"
The role is so tailor-made for Douglas, who has put in years of screen time on the horizontal, that the rest of the story has to fit in around him, leaving scant room for maneuver."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jun 1, 2010
|
|
|
91%
|
The Father of My Children (Le pere de mes enfants) (2010) |
"
You could argue that the film fails to revive the harassed intensities of its first hour, but I doubt whether they could have been sustained; and what we get instead, with its stunned and glassy air, yields a slow-breathing drama of its own."
—
New Yorker
Posted Jun 1, 2010
|
|
|
43%
|
Robin Hood (2010) |
"
"And so the legend begins," the new movie tells us at the end. But it's too late."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 17, 2010
|
|
|
81%
|
Anton Chekhov's The Duel (2010) |
"
Little happens onscreen. The characters bicker, picnic, bathe, and borrow money: the usual small change of the Chekhovian deal."
—
New Yorker
Posted May 3, 2010
|
78%
——
——
85%
45%
40%
