John Hartl Movie Reviews & Previews

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John Hartl

Agrees with the Tomatometer 81% of the time.

Publications:: Film.com , MSNBC , Newsweek , Seattle Times

Total Reviews:: 690

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Showing 51 - 100 of 690

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
2.5/4	76%	Unforgivable (2012)	" Bouquet and the waterways of Venice are the chief charms of Téchiné's movie, which is otherwise one of his less convincing efforts." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 9, 2012
2/4	31%	Total Recall (2012)	" Wisemen's film is a soulless mess, reminiscent of the unwatchable "Matrix" sequels, while Verhoeven's movie remains a dazzling carnival." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 2, 2012
3/4	67%	Trishna (2012)	" Featuring a Bollywood subplot and an irresistible East-meets-West score, the movie is lush and lusty: both a strong vehicle for Pinto and a good match for Winterbottom's impressionistic style." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 19, 2012
3/4	93%	Elena (2012)	" Zvyaginstsev makes the most of the ghastly settings, which include a backyard that ominously features nuclear cones - and the kinds of compartmentalized living spaces that Hitchcock used for droll effect in "Rear Window."" — Seattle Times Posted Jul 12, 2012
2.5/4	78%	Take This Waltz (2012)	" [It] often feels thin and self-conscious." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 12, 2012
2.5/4	25%	Drunkboat (2012)	" This enigmatic coming-of-age movie often seems destined to sail off the deep end. Yet it rights itself just often enough to keep you watching." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 12, 2012
3/4	76%	The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (2012)	" If it were any shorter, it would lack depth. If it were any longer, it would most likely seem a strain. As is, there's an emotional honesty here that registers quickly and often." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 5, 2012
3/4	88%	Polisse (2012)	" Whatever you think of it, you won't be neutral." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 28, 2012
3/4	52%	Grassroots (2012)	" A witty, well-cast, sometimes ingeniously paced political comedy." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 21, 2012
3/4	98%	The Island President (2012)	" Climate-change documentaries are almost always disturbing, but "The Island President" communicates a special urgency." — Seattle Times Posted May 3, 2012
3.5/4	97%	Monsieur Lazhar (2012)	" "Monsieur Lazhar" is a complex, multilayered tale that reveals new meanings as it introduces each new character." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 26, 2012
2/4	81%	Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie (2011)	" Much of "Force of Nature" feels familiar and unnecessarily predigested." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 19, 2012
1/4	38%	Detention (2012)	" Resembles a movie less than it suggests an evening of determined, incoherent channel-hopping - with the help of a remote control that's apparently stuck on "random."" — Seattle Times Posted Apr 12, 2012
3/4	100%	They Call It Myanmar: Lifting The Curtain (2012)	" While "They Call It Myanmar" is certainly more encouraging than previous films on this long-repressed country, fears of persecution continue to loom large." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 5, 2012
1.5/4	——	Invincible Force ()	" The only entertaining touches are Drew's interactions with visitors or bystanders who are shocked by his behavior. The rest is simply interminable." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 22, 2012
2.5/4	88%	Boy (2012)	" "Boy," from New Zealand, has its charms, most of them to do with Boy, an 11-year-old pop-culture enthusiast who's obsessed with Michael Jackson and moonwalking." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 22, 2012
2.5/4	53%	Being Flynn (2012)	" For a movie that deals with suicide, homelessness and cocaine addiction, writer-director Paul Weitz's latest family drama feels strangely bland." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 15, 2012
3/4	——	Adventures In Plymptoons! (2012)	" Plenty of clips from Plympton classics demonstrate why friends and fans have been rounded up to honor him." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 15, 2012
3/4	89%	In Darkness (2012)	" Based on the true story of Leopold Socha, a Catholic Polish sewer worker who hid a group of Jews over a period of 14 months in the underground tunnels of Lvov." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 8, 2012
3.5/4	86%	Chico & Rita (2012)	" Remarkably sexy for its genre (it's not for kids at all), it's nostalgic about a time and place that rarely gets treated on film ("Godfather II" touched on it), and it has an emotional pull that may catch you by surprise." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 23, 2012
3/4	63%	Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission (2012)	" Garriott's story is unique, a stranger-than-fiction tale that is unlikely to be topped. And the images from space - crisp, spectacular, haunting - make it worth the trip." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	——	Don't Expect Too Much ()	" Their anecdotes about Ray's creation of a filmmaking commune are vivid and affectionate, and they're punctuated with material from the film that is sometimes alarming but always informative." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 9, 2012
2/4	——	We Can't Go Home Again (1976)	" It's the kind of would-be groundbreaker that continues to stir interest long after its failure as a theatrical release." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 9, 2012
4/4	99%	A Separation (2011)	" Partly a courtroom drama, partly a political satire and partly a twisty thriller that gradually draws you in and becomes more engrossing with each new revelation." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 2, 2012
3/4	73%	The Conquest (2011)	" Sarkozy seems to mean exactly what he says, even when he's lying for his cause, and Podalydès has the skill to demonstrate that." — Seattle Times Posted Jan 26, 2012
3/4	93%	My Joy (2011)	" For long stretches, it appears to be a road movie headed nowhere. Still, the detours it uncovers are fascinating." — Seattle Times Posted Jan 19, 2012
3/4	100%	Urbanized (2011)	" A showcase for many conflicting viewpoints." — Seattle Times Posted Jan 5, 2012
3/4	100%	Summer Pasture (2011)	" The filmmakers may not explain everything that passes before their cameras (why is caterpillar fungus such a hot commodity?), but that's part of the intrigue in this vanishing way of life." — Seattle Times Posted Dec 29, 2011
3/4	83%	Tyrannosaur (2011)	" If the script ultimately seems a bit extreme (are there no immediate consequences for Joseph's tantrums or the criminal outbursts of Hannah's abusive husband?), it's often surprisingly successful in pushing the limits of British kitchen-sink drama." — Seattle Times Posted Dec 8, 2011
3.5/4	91%	Arthur Christmas (2011)	" The movie is dense with witty visual detail that helps to distract from the somewhat trumped-up moral dilemma at its center." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 22, 2011
2.5/4	77%	Melancholia (2011)	" Where did Melancholia come from? It's best not to ask. The explanation for the planet's origins is so preposterous that veteran science-fiction writers everywhere must be rolling their eyes." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 17, 2011
3.5/4	100%	We Were Here (2011)	" There's something profoundly inspirational about this portrait of a community coming together to battle prejudice and disease." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 10, 2011
3/4	45%	3 (2011)	" Tykwer's script is structured so that the audience knows more about the characters' connections than they do. As each faces a midlife crisis/turning point, fate sometimes appears to be calling the shots." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 3, 2011
3.5/4	95%	Weekend (2011)	" Cullen and New are British stage actors with little background in film. Haigh's only previous film was a documentary. Perhaps because they don't feel bound by a set of rules, they've created one of the year's most enjoyable surprises." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 27, 2011
3/4	64%	Norman (2011)	" The director, Jonathan Segal, skillfully builds on the tension that this situation creates, though he can't quite make Wingate's ending click. Still, Segal is so good with his actors that you may not mind." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 20, 2011
2/4	27%	Dirty Girl (2011)	" The movie is all over the place, searching for an identity that proves almost entirely elusive." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 20, 2011
4/4	93%	Take Shelter (2011)	" It's so stunningly effective at establishing a sense of dread that it's almost impossible to recommend it without reservations." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 20, 2011
2.5/4	74%	Blackthorn (2011)	" The filmmakers didn't have a lot of options. In some ways the new picture feels like a boxed-in replay." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 13, 2011
2.5/4	37%	Restless (2011)	" This low-budget movie takes its time filling in the backgrounds of its characters. That works for a while, but when it's over you may wonder if that's all there is." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 6, 2011
1.5/4	19%	Bunraku (2011)	" One long, extensively choreographed fight sequence in which "mortal" blows are delivered so often, and with so little lasting impact, that a brawl just becomes a brawl becomes a brawl." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 29, 2011
2.5/4	81%	Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2011)	" By the end, with the running time pushing past the two-hour mark, it's reasonable to ask: Just who are these people?" — Seattle Times Posted Sep 26, 2011
3/4	100%	World on a Wire (2011)	" It starts slowly, then develops an irresistible momentum." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 15, 2011
3/4	88%	Nora's Will (Cinco dias sin Nora) (2010)	" An unexpectedly droll tale about a funeral, "Nora's Will" demonstrates the power of some people to reach beyond the grave." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 15, 2011
3/4	80%	The Whale (2011)	" A gorgeous and provocative film that consistently rises above its Flipper-ish genre." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 8, 2011
1.5/4	14%	Seven Days In Utopia (2011)	" A cluttered, empty drama that uses (or tries to use) golf, painting, dinner-table prayers and fly-fishing as pathways to enlightenment. When that doesn't work, the filmmakers start preaching." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 1, 2011
3.5/4	64%	Amigo (2011)	" You could argue that the chief villain of the ambiguously titled "Amigo" is language, which is used quite deliberately to mock and mislead and betray." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 1, 2011
2/4	72%	The Future (2011)	" Provides plenty of material for July junkies as well as July detractors." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 25, 2011
2.5/4	62%	Griff the Invisible (2011)	" Something clicks here. Physically as well as verbally, these kids are speaking their own language." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 25, 2011
3/4	92%	Senna (2011)	" "Senna" is carefully edited and makes sometimes spectacular use of extensive home movies and videos." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 25, 2011
3/4	100%	The Sky Turns (2011)	" Without relying on melodrama or nostalgia, Alvarez embraces the inescapable nature of impermanence." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 18, 2011
3/4	95%	The Guard (2011)	" Like an Irish version of "In the Heat of the Night," the profane and frequently hilarious "The Guard" watches the sparks fly as a smart African-American detective teams up with an unapologetically racist County Galway policeman." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 11, 2011
3.5/4	98%	Project Nim (2011)	" You end up fearing for the humans who contact him. At the same time, you feel his rage." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 11, 2011
3/4	86%	The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)	" Bowie's screen debut still fascinates whenever he's on-screen, and it's full of little reminders of how much has changed since the movie was made." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 4, 2011
3.5/4	80%	Life in a Day (2011)	" What could have been a gimmick turns out to be philosophical and heartfelt." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 28, 2011
2.5/4	——	Redland (2011)	" It's the kind of flawed, boundaries-pushing film that suggests its creators will have much to offer in the future." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 21, 2011
3/4	91%	Tabloid (2011)	" The movie is guilty of condescending toward its subjects, though most of them appear to be having a fabulous time telling tales." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 21, 2011
3.5/4	84%	A Better Life (2011)	" Weitz, who directed the excellent 2002 Hugh Grant movie, "About a Boy," once more does a sensitive job with iffy material." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 14, 2011
3.5/4	91%	City of Life and Death (2011)	" In almost any form, the story of the Nanking atrocities can leave you profoundly shaken. But Lu Chuan's version may be the most compassionate and emotionally satisfying treatment to date." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 7, 2011
1.5/4	14%	Zookeeper (2011)	" The team of five writers, including James, simply fails to provide a narrative that would make us care about what happens next." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 7, 2011
2.5/4	60%	Vincent Wants to Sea! (2011)	" Like a lot of recent foreign and independent films, "Vincent Wants to Sea" tends to thrash around while its creators try to locate a finale that's neither obvious nor unrealistic." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 30, 2011
2/4	25%	The Beginning of a Great Revival (2011)	" Perhaps the translation is at fault here, but why does the dialogue consistently do so little to flesh out the characters?" — Seattle Times Posted Jun 23, 2011
2.5/4	90%	Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2011)	" Weerasethakul's sincerity is evident, though the film's meditative pace and vague philosophical undertones will not be for everyone." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 16, 2011
2.5/4	85%	Viva Riva! (2011)	" Despite a nifty final twist and a willingness to dispense with a few taboos, it fails to establish a consistent rhythm." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 16, 2011
3/4	59%	Forks Over Knives (2011)	" Fulkerson methodically makes the case that we've been brainwashed by repetition and clever advertising campaigns." — Seattle Times Posted May 12, 2011
3/4	86%	Meek's Cutoff (2011)	" Vast and mysterious, the American West of Kelly Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond's "Meek's Cutoff" is not quite like any other landscape." — Seattle Times Posted May 5, 2011
3/4	73%	POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011)	" Forget about "greatest." But this could be the most self-referential movie ever: literally a 90-minute narrative about its own creation." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 28, 2011
1.5/4	48%	Super (2011)	" A sense of style can make up for a lot at the movies. But James Gunn's brutal new comedy-thriller, "Super," succeeds only in demonstrating that without it, you may not have much of anything." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 14, 2011
2.5/4	71%	Hanna (2011)	" It's only when Ronan takes over that the film discovers a still, focused center." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 7, 2011
2.5/4	88%	Certified Copy (Copie Conforme) (2011)	" The movie threatens to become a sketch about a coquette and a boor squabbling at each other to little effect." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 7, 2011
3/4	50%	Desert Flower (2011)	" Written and directed by German filmmaker Sherry Hormann, it works as well as it does because of the performances she's drawn from a solid cast." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 31, 2011
3/4	74%	The Human Resources Manager (2011)	" Yehoshua and Riklis are sometimes better at setting things up than following through, but the result suggests a novelistic density." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 24, 2011
3/4	59%	La Rafle (2012)	" Bosch does an impressive job of pulling together the stories she and her assistants found while researching the script." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 24, 2011
3/4	80%	I Will Follow (2011)	" As a director, DuVernay handles her actors with care, though visually the picture sometimes betrays its shoestring budget." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 10, 2011
3/4	92%	Dogtooth (Kynodontas) (2010)	" To put it mildly, "Dogtooth" is not for everyone, but it can grow on you even if you think you've rejected its influence." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 10, 2011
3/4	37%	I Am (2011)	" Here's a rare feel-good documentary that earns its somewhat cockeyed optimism." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 24, 2011
2.5/4	64%	Biutiful (2010)	" Despite a commanding, Oscar-nominated performance by the always-interesting Javier Bardem, there's a quality of manufactured misery to "Biutiful"..." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 3, 2011
2.5/4	55%	Baarìa (2009)	" The picture does have its plodding moments - but there's enough left over for the rest of us to have a reasonably good time." — Seattle Times Posted Jan 27, 2011
2/4	53%	The Mechanic (2011)	" West's slick, fairly faithful new remake gives partial screenplay credit to Lewis John Carlino, who wrote the original "Mechanic." But the picture isn't likely to do for Jason Statham what the 1972 film did for Bronson." — Seattle Times Posted Jan 27, 2011
3.5/4	88%	Undertow (2010)	" Reminiscent of such heavenly Hollywood fantasies as "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," Peru's "Undertow" suggests a more passionate, lyrical tale of a soul in search of a body." — Seattle Times Posted Jan 20, 2011
2.5/4	——	Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods (2011)	" There's too much talk and not enough demonstration of what Morrison is all about." — Seattle Times Posted Jan 6, 2011
3/4	98%	Marwencol (2010)	" Simultaneously hypnotic and unnerving, it asks some rather uncomfortable questions about the nature of art and the potential and limits of self-healing." — Seattle Times Posted Dec 28, 2010
3/4	100%	L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot (Henri-George Clouzot's Inferno) (2010)	" The remains of an aborted movie can become a fascinating pastiche." — Seattle Times Posted Dec 16, 2010
3/4	87%	Budrus (2010)	" Bacha, who worked on the impressive 2004 documentary "Control Room," does well to focus on one tiny town and its leading citizens; "Budrus" is at its best when she keeps the scale small." — Seattle Times Posted Dec 16, 2010
3/4	91%	Alamar (To the Sea) (2010)	" "Alamar" takes a lyrical approach to a story about father-son bonding in the tropics. It's as sketchy as it is beautiful." — Seattle Times Posted Dec 2, 2010
2.5/4	81%	Today's Special (2010)	" Shah is a first-rate scene-stealer, Patel and Jaffrey effortlessly suggest parental chemistry, while Mandvi, best-known for the eccentric touch he brings to Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," tones down the silliness to make a credible leading man." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 18, 2010
2.5/4	50%	Cool It (2010)	" A wide-ranging, sometimes scattered new documentary that's positioned as a four-years-later answer to Al Gore's 2006 Oscar winner, "An Inconvenient Truth."" — Seattle Times Posted Nov 11, 2010
2.5/4	81%	Four Lions (2010)	" An ambitious, uneven new farce that dares to mock the motives and personalities of four suicide bombers who plan to attack the London Marathon." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 4, 2010
3/4	85%	A Matter of Size (2010)	" While the story may take place in working-class Israel in the 21st century, rejection is universal. So are most attempts to come to terms with it. Still, there's more than a little novelty value in the choices its characters make." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 14, 2010
3/4	45%	You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)	" It's as if the dour Interiors had been reworked by a more forgiving, generous filmmaker who wants to move beyond stereotypes and discover what he calls the "beautiful and ironic" aspects of life." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 7, 2010
2.5/4	58%	It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)	" If a movie about schizophrenia, delusion and attempted suicide can be called pleasant, even mild-mannered, this is that movie." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 7, 2010
3/4	89%	Let Me In (2010)	" If you've never seen the original, you may not sense that something's missing. And the casting is in some ways an improvement." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 30, 2010
3.5/4	97%	Cell 211 (Celda 211) (2009)	" It's the kind of gutsy, physical performance that wins Academy Awards for Daniel Day-Lewis, but Ammann is just as impressive as a man who must suddenly test his limits and values." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 30, 2010
2.5/4	67%	Jack Goes Boating (2010)	" Hoffman's direction is a mixture of skill and showiness. He's attentive to all the actors, but he can't resist cute camera angles and Fellini-esque touches that don't quite fit this story." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 23, 2010
2.5/4	52%	I'm Still Here (2010)	" What I'm Still Here most resembles is a less slick, less witty, feature-length version of HBO's Entourage, with several unusually raunchy touches..." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 9, 2010
2.5/4	72%	Soul Kitchen (2010)	" The slapsticky tone of Akin's latest work is more anarchic than heavenly, but the picture has its screwball charms." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 9, 2010
3/4	81%	Anton Chekhov's The Duel (2010)	" Much of what is spelled out in the book is artfully condensed for the film, which was shot in Croatia and is pretty enough to double as a tourist lure." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 9, 2010
2/4	32%	A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop (San qiang pai an jing qi) (A Simple Noodle Story) (The First Gun) (2010)	" Whereas the Coens worked with a shoestring budget and emphasized a deadpan sense of humor, Zhang pours on expensive special effects whenever the opportunity for large-scale slapstick presents itself." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 9, 2010
2.5/4	72%	36 vues du Pic Saint Loup (Around a Small Mountain) (2010)	" Rivette is 82 now, and his best work may be behind him." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 26, 2010
2.5/4	59%	Centurion (2010)	" Occasionally Marshall provides a back story to fill out a role, but too often that's how it comes off: as filler." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 26, 2010

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