|
2.5/4
|
60%
|
Vikingdom (2013) |
"
Intentionally or otherwise, Yusry Abd Halim allows the film, in all its candy-colored visuals and slow-mo-laden action scenes, to revel in its inherent campiness."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Oct 2, 2013
|
|
|
88%
|
Rush (2013) |
"
This is entertaining enough, but ultimately it's spuriously triumphant Oscar-baiting fluff."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Sep 26, 2013
|
|
|
45%
|
And While We Were Here (2013) |
"
For every such moment there's a sappy montage or overt visual reference to Rossellini to cheapen the effect."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Sep 19, 2013
|
|
|
72%
|
The Wall (2013) |
"
An elegant, slow-burning exercise in narrative minimalism."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Sep 12, 2013
|
|
|
60%
|
Riddick (2013) |
"
A vibrant stylistic mishmash that works brilliantly in chunks but is ultimately too scattered to sustain any cohesion."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Sep 12, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
18%
|
The Ultimate Life (2013) |
"
Its thinly veiled message of social conservatism and religious affirmations as the pathway to an ideal life is delivered with all the predigested sentimentality of a Hallmark card. "
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Sep 4, 2013
|
|
|
89%
|
The World's End (2013) |
"
Most of the credit belongs to Wright, whose chaotic style belies the film's meticulous construction."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 23, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
50%
|
Devil's Pass (2013) |
"
As Renny Harlin's career progresses, it seems more and more that his early gems were merely happy accidents."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Aug 22, 2013
|
|
|
——
|
The Day of Two Noons () |
"
Gibisser employs a lot of shifting pieces, but his seemingly erratic fragments combine to form a vibrant whole. "
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 21, 2013
|
|
|
77%
|
Kid-Thing (2013) |
"
Zellner handles the material delicately, treating her apparent psychosis like an ill-fated by-product of growing up. This strange yet wistful dynamic suggests Harmony Korine adapting Judy Blume."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 15, 2013
|
|
|
30%
|
Kick-Ass 2 (2013) |
"
Sticking to the original's box-office-busting formula of blood, guts, boobs, and bad words, Wadlow sleepwalks through the material, failing to inject any personality into what's actually an incredibly disturbing story of pathological teens."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 15, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
51%
|
Blood (2013) |
"
Themes of family ties, obsession, and morality, so dramatically realized in Conviction, are gracelessly and shapelessly strewn together here."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Aug 7, 2013
|
|
|
——
|
The Mercenary (Il Mercenario) (A Professional Gun) (1968) |
"
Corbucci is no stranger to stylistic excess. In this film, his camera is characteristically unencumbered...and his scenes of sadism, oddball humor, and hyperbolic political sentiment form a potent if uneven mixture of tones."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 2, 2013
|
|
|
96%
|
Intolerance (1916) |
"
A poetic, theoretic, and geometric account of bodies in movement, the basest yet most profound record of mankind in art."
—
House Next Door
Posted Jul 31, 2013
|
|
|
85%
|
Terms And Conditions May Apply (2013) |
"
The film presents some worthwhile information, but in a painfully uncreative manner."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 18, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
72%
|
Grabbers (2013) |
"
Good, clean genre entertainment, the sort of harmless yet endearing brand of moviemaking seemingly unattainable in today's Hollywood system."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jul 16, 2013
|
|
|
75%
|
Despicable Me 2 (2013) |
"
Directors Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin deserve credit for not rehashing the basic ideas of their first effort, but they never really expand upon its unique universe either."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jul 2, 2013
|
|
|
87%
|
100 Bloody Acres (2013) |
"
Though entertaining enough as a genre exercise, the film is too simplistic to transcend its base concept."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 27, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
96%
|
A Band Called Death (2013) |
"
The film is made impetuously watchable and disarmingly emotional by the filmmakers' strong command of docudrama and nonfiction narrative style."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jun 26, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
100%
|
More Than Honey (2013) |
"
Markus Imhoof's film reveals itself as a curious, audacious mix of personal essay film and nature documentary."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jun 12, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
52%
|
Hatchet III (2013) |
"
BJ McDonnell, too hesitant to stray from the beaten path set by Green's previous films, lacks the looser, more whimsical hand that would have allowed Hatchet III to transcend its thoughtlessly imitative state."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jun 10, 2013
|
|
1.5/4
|
22%
|
Rapture-Palooza (2013) |
"
Its views on organized religion are so halfhearted and perfunctory as to make Kevin Smith's Dogma seem like a veritable master's class in theistic studies."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jun 6, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
40%
|
The Rambler (2013) |
"
Sinister, comical, aggravating, and audacious, Calvin Lee Reeder's film is nothing short of an affront."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jun 4, 2013
|
|
|
57%
|
American Mary (2013) |
"
The filmmakers certainly exaggerate (i.e. exploit) their subject, but for a community that prides itself on shock value, there seems no sufficient alternative."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted May 31, 2013
|
|
|
69%
|
Fast & Furious 6 (2013) |
"
[Director Justin Lin] manages to imbue the material with Hawksian notions of masculinity, group dynamics, and moral authority even as he preserves the franchise's multicultural milieu and gleefully exaggerated action sequences."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 23, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
75%
|
Doin' It in the Park: Pick-Up Basketball, NYC (2013) |
"
Perhaps the first important film about street hoops, even if the overall product struggles from a lack of focus."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted May 19, 2013
|
|
|
75%
|
Pieta (2013) |
"
This is brilliant in some stretches and deplorable in others, with the director's usual extreme violence and depraved sexuality."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 16, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
100%
|
Elemental (2013) |
"
More than some run-of-the-mill social-awareness doc, the film pays as much attention to the personal and emotional strife of its subjects as it does to their activism. "
—
Slant Magazine
Posted May 13, 2013
|
|
1.5/4
|
45%
|
No One Lives (2013) |
"
Ryuhei Kitamura's latest genre bloodbath is par for the course, in spite of the occasionally flourish of interesting subtext. "
—
Slant Magazine
Posted May 10, 2013
|
|
1.5/4
|
67%
|
One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das (2013) |
"
The overall product doesn't reveal anything about its subject that a Wikipedia page couldn't do just as well."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted May 7, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
0%
|
Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn (2013) |
"
As far as derivative crime sagas go, Paul Borghese's film might represent the new gold standard of shameless barrel-scraping."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Apr 30, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
18%
|
1st Night (2013) |
"
The political dynamic that underpins The Rules of the Game is nonexistent in 1st Night, which is fixated entirely on the zany sexcapades of its characters."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Apr 27, 2013
|
|
|
47%
|
The Lords of Salem (2013) |
"
Polished and calculated, this is a nerve-shattering fright fest bolstered by immaculate technique."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 25, 2013
|
|
|
23%
|
Arthur Newman (2013) |
"
For the most part, the film is very basic, a simple drama about the dangers of avoiding responsibility, but there are occasional flairs of eccentricity."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 25, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
100%
|
This Ain't California (2013) |
"
While the film is deeply romantic and nostalgic, possessing a genuine reverence for youth and rebellion, it's also something of a tragedy."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Apr 8, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
83%
|
Stranger Things (2013) |
"
Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal's film is a tasteful, well-orchestrated drama that never reaches beyond its humble means."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Apr 2, 2013
|
|
|
47%
|
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) |
"
This ludicrous actioner strives to be as loud, violent, and patriotic as possible."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
|
88%
|
The Iran Job (2013) |
"
The film takes a distinctly American approach to Iranian matters of gender relations and religious extremism, shedding little light on subjects that are far more complicated than Schauder makes them out to be."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
|
65%
|
Starbuck (2013) |
"
Director Ken Scott stresses the movie's dude-centric outlook, playing up the anxieties of impending fatherhood, and neglects any sort of maternal perspective, which dumbs down an already moronic premise."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
100%
|
The Revolutionary Optimists (2013) |
"
The filmmakers display a genuine reverence for their subjects, evident even in the intimate but never intrusive photography."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Mar 25, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
0%
|
Silver Circle (2013) |
"
Amateurish and hyperbolic, this animated feature directed by Pasha Roberts makes quite clear his political leanings. "
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Mar 18, 2013
|
|
|
56%
|
The End of Love (2013) |
"
Creative people often mistakenly assume that the trials of their profession are compelling."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 14, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
71%
|
My Amityville Horror (2013) |
"
The film is a tender character portrait rooted in deep curiosity and sympathy for its subject. "
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Mar 12, 2013
|
|
|
13%
|
Safe Haven (2013) |
"
Keeping up with the movie's inane plot twists makes for a capricious good time, but an unimaginative denouement turns the whole thing into a fool's errand."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 7, 2013
|
|
3.5/4
|
80%
|
Le Petit Soldat (The Little Soldier) (2013) |
"
In many ways, Jean-Luc Godard's Le Petit Soldat is equal to Breathless in its inventiveness and exuberance."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Mar 4, 2013
|
|
.5/4
|
31%
|
Language of a Broken Heart (2013) |
"
A feigned attempt at a stereotypically quirky indie film that has virtually nothing in the way of formal sophistication or narrative ambition."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Mar 2, 2013
|
|
|
100%
|
Pavilion (2013) |
"
Shallow-focus photography sharpens the action and gives the seemingly banal images a sense of drama, capturing the urgency of childhood without resorting to histrionics."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 27, 2013
|
|
1.5/4
|
61%
|
A Fierce Green Fire (2013) |
"
The firector avoids all manner of stylistics, opting instead for the formulaic documentary trifecta of first-person interviews, archival material, and news footage."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Feb 25, 2013
|
|
|
38%
|
Stand Up Guys (2013) |
"
Thematic inconsistencies abound as Stevens aims for a tone somewhere between Grumpy Old Men, The Hangover, and Goodfellas."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 4, 2013
|
