Ben Sachs Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Ben Sachs

Ben Sachs

Agrees with the Tomatometer 66% of the time.

Publications:: Chicago Reader

Total Reviews:: 171

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 171

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T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
88%	Hava Nagila: The Movie (2013)	" Thankfully there are enough eloquent talking heads to keep this watchable." — Chicago Reader Posted May 3, 2013
8%	The Big Wedding (2013)	" Barring a few off-color jokes, though, the movie feels like a Carol Burnett sketch dragged out to feature length. " — Chicago Reader Posted May 3, 2013
76%	Kon Tiki (2013)	" The characters don't register as much more than genre archetypes, but that doesn't spoil the fun, since the filmmakers re-create the journey in such vivid detail." — Chicago Reader Posted May 3, 2013
83%	Graceland (2013)	" The film feels increasingly exploitative as it becomes more overtly political, illustrating various forms of injustice with blunt, sensationalistic imagery." — Chicago Reader Posted May 3, 2013
44%	Habibi Rasak Kharban (Habibi) (2012)	" This American-Palestinian coproduction paints a vivid picture of daily life in the occupied territories, though it's fairly heavy-handed as drama. " — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 25, 2013
56%	Eddie The Sleepwalking Cannibal (2013)	" This deliberately tasteless horror-comedy might appeal to gore hounds and fans of gross-out humor; but as with many films that strive for cult status, any potential exploitation-movie pleasures are overwhelmed by an air of smug self-awareness." — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 25, 2013
73%	Violeta Went to Heaven (2013)	" The formulaic storytelling has the unfortunate effect of making her extraordinary story feel familiar, though Wood's impressionistic style is a refreshing antidote to the portentousness one comes to expect from movies like this. " — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 25, 2013
46%	Pain & Gain (2013)	" Bay is no Paul Verhoeven, but he's coming from a similar place here, purposely amplifying the ugliest qualities of American culture." — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 25, 2013
75%	No Place On Earth (2013)	" The movie is engaging but appallingly superficial when it considers the larger history of the Holocaust." — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 18, 2013
68%	Disconnect (2013)	" This dour would-be art movie posits that social media might be alienating people from each other rather than bringing them together. (Spoiler alert: the title is a metaphor.)" — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 11, 2013
91%	Gimme The Loot (2013)	" Small but bursting with energy." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 28, 2013
81%	From Up On Poppy Hill (2013)	" The film maintains an optimistic tone without succumbing to nostalgia, and as always with Studio Ghibli, the company Miyazaki cofounded in the 80s, the hand-drawn animation is gorgeous." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 28, 2013
79%	Ginger & Rosa (2013)	" Like Terence Davies's work, this is less about storytelling than immersing viewers in the minute details of an era -- what one of the film's characters describes as "the poetry of confinement."" — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 22, 2013
96%	War Witch (2013)	" Canadian writer-director Kim Nguyen spent nearly a decade researching this docudrama about child soldiers in Africa, and the film feels as authoritative as a first-hand account." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 22, 2013
82%	In the Fog ()	" Director Sergei Loznitsa often employs dreamy, intricately choreographed long-takes reminiscent of Russian filmmakers Andrei Tarkovsky, Aleksei Guerman, and Aleksandr Sokurov." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 14, 2013
——	Paradies: Glaube (Paradise: Faith) ()	" Even at his most thematically reductive, Ulrich Seidl exhibits one of the richest pictorial sensibilities in contemporary movies." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 14, 2013
79%	You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet! (Vous n'avez encore rien vu) ()	" Alain Resnais reflects on some lifelong themes, and though this drama is characteristically eerie, it also conveys a calm that's rare in his work." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 14, 2013
38%	The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)	" Occasionally amusing but instantly forgettable." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 14, 2013
92%	The Gatekeepers (2013)	" Ultimately the movie feels evasive, and its flashy, digitally animated re-creations of military surveillance footage unpleasantly evoke the Call of Duty video games." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 8, 2013
70%	Somebody Up There Likes Me (2013)	" Bob Byington's imaginative indie comedy recalls some of Richard Lester's 60s films in its freewheeling narrative structure and cartoonish sight gags, though the humor is more often peculiar than laugh-out-loud funny." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 7, 2013
88%	Yossi (2013)	" Eytan Fox depicts modern gay life and contemporary Tel Aviv with sympathy and knowing insight, and he excels at creating casual rapport among actors; yet in film after film he undermines these gifts with hamfisted melodramatic plotting." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 7, 2013
70%	Bless Me, Ultima (2013)	" Aassured, sensitive, and commendably unpretentious." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 7, 2013
60%	Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)	" Sam Raimi brings the jokey, adolescent sensibility of his Drag Me to Hell to this lavish Wizard of Oz prequel, and the result is as unshapely as that premise would suggest." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 7, 2013
——	Toata lumea din familia noastra (Everybody in Our Family) ()	" Obscure as the character's motives may be, Jude grounds the action in the sort of claustrophobic, intricately realized settings that have become a hallmark of Romanian cinema." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 28, 2013
80%	North Sea Texas (2012)	" This debut feature by noted short-film director Bavo Defurne emphasizes ambiance over storytelling, but that ambiance is so flavorsome you might not mind." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 15, 2013
15%	A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)	" Unnecessary but not unwatchable, this maintains a brisk pace as it moves through the familiar action set pieces, most of them decently orchestrated." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 14, 2013
——	Karayuki-san, The Making Of A Prostitute (1975)	" Imamura's warm onscreen rapport with Zendo (whom he dotes on as if she were his own mother) anticipates the humanism of his late masterpieces The Eel (1997) and Dr. Akagi (1998)." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 5, 2013
4%	Movie 43 (2013)	" Despite all the gross-out humor, the most offensive thing about this is the lazy filmmaking; every shot feels like a first take, and the haphazard editing precludes any comic timing." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 4, 2013
14%	Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)	" There isn't much to this beyond the poorly staged, rapidly edited violence; the witches, all but devoid of backstory, are basically canvasses for cartoon splatter." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 4, 2013
79%	Quartet (2013)	" The premise may sound insufferable, but this light comedy about a nursing home for retired classical musicians isn't half-bad." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 24, 2013
70%	Sexy Baby (2012)	" This raises more issues than it can possibly consider in depth, but the filmmakers' ambition is admirable, as is their refusal to draw simple conclusions about any of the subjects." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 22, 2013
95%	West of Memphis (2012)	" Less an investigative report than a portrait of the community that forms around an ongoing court case, this conveys a patient understanding of the intricacies of law and human behavior that may be termed Kieslowskian." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 17, 2013
36%	LUV (2013)	" his contains plenty of incidental pleasures, including some vibrant images of contemporary Baltimore and fun character turns from Charles S. Dutton, Danny Glover, and Dennis Haysbert." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 17, 2013
87%	Somewhere Between (2012)	" There's not much interpersonal drama here, and the little that materializes gets promptly resolved." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 10, 2013
94%	The Secret World of Arrietty (2012)	" [The film] pulses with feeling for childhood and nature and develops a surprising amount of suspense considering it takes place around a single suburban home." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 7, 2013
85%	Chronicle (2012)	" As pulp sci-fi this Fox release is pretty good, but it's also commendable for its sensitive depiction of adolescent behavior." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 7, 2013
18%	Parental Guidance (2012)	" This grating family comedy resembles a sitcom in its flat lighting, patronizing music cues, and frames supplying little visual information apart from the actors' mugging faces." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 3, 2013
81%	The Impossible (2012)	" A Saw movie for middlebrows." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 21, 2012
61%	Jack Reacher (2012)	" This is brisk, attention-grabbing, and generally unpretentious -- basically an old noir programmer inflated to blockbuster proportions." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 21, 2012
47%	Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D (2012)	" This big-screen vehicle for the popular performance troupe would be more bearable if the exhibitors passed out earplugs along with the 3-D glasses." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 21, 2012
66%	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)	" Little about the storytelling suggests a beating heart beneath the visuals; once the journey has begun, the characters find themselves in life-threatening danger with stupefying regularity." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 13, 2012
88%	Starlet (2012)	" This is confident, engrossing storytelling, and the actors are terrific." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 6, 2012
73%	Generation P (2012)	" Viktor Ginzburg keeps this lively by trying out a new effect (commercial parodies, CGI, rapid montage) in nearly every scene. Not all of them work, but the overall energy is hard to resist." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 6, 2012
82%	Fat Kid Rules the World (2012)	" The depiction of high school band life rings true at every turn, bringing a sense of authenticity to the familiar teenage drama." — Chicago Reader Posted Nov 29, 2012
88%	Life of Pi (2012)	" Ang Lee's signature style -- tasteful, measured, and devoid of personality -- translates surprisingly well to 3-D." — Chicago Reader Posted Nov 21, 2012
82%	Two Years at Sea (2012)	" The first feature-length effort by noted experimental filmmaker Ben Rivers demonstrates such mastery of the image that it's worth seeing for the textures alone." — Chicago Reader Posted Nov 21, 2012
50%	Vulgaria (2012)	" True to its title, this energetic Hong Kong comedy trades primarily in off-color gags, yet its tone, like that of John Waters's films, is so playful and inclusive that it's unlikely to offend anyone." — Chicago Reader Posted Nov 21, 2012
68%	This Must Be The Place (2012)	" Writer-director Paolo Sorrentino handles the story with surprising thoughtfulness." — Chicago Reader Posted Nov 16, 2012
——	Older Children ()	" [Writer-director Duncan Riddell] makes some solid observations." — Chicago Reader Posted Nov 8, 2012

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