|
3.5/5
|
96%
|
Blancanieves (2013) |
"
Blancanieves holds to the structure, but not strictures, of the source fairy tale."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted May 3, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
8%
|
The Big Wedding (2013) |
"
"Big" is an awfully ambitious modifier to affix to this pale wisp of a film."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted May 3, 2013
|
|
4/5
|
98%
|
Mud (2013) |
"
Mud, from the Austin-based writer/director Jeff Nichols, is many things at once, and all enriched by David Wingo's double-stop, aching, stringed score."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
81%
|
From Up On Poppy Hill (2013) |
"
From Up on Poppy Hill, Studio Ghibli's latest, is decidedly earthbound in comparison to those transportive earlier films, though it's not without its charms."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Apr 19, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
76%
|
It's a Disaster (2013) |
"
Berger's one to watch."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Apr 19, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
79%
|
Ginger & Rosa (2013) |
"
Fanning -- a startlingly alert and microemotive young actress -- breathes real feeling into the part, while the jazz soundtrack (John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sidney Bechet) rouses this sensitive film from its drowsier inclinations."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
68%
|
Trance (2013) |
"
By trying to be all things at once, Trance diffuses the potency of each of its disparate ambitions."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
2/5
|
9%
|
The Host (2013) |
"
Three bodies plus four minds is some fertile arithmetic, but The Host can't be bothered with the intellectual or kinky ramifications of its setup."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
94%
|
Room 237 (2013) |
"
I suspect that Ascher's intention was to dynamize an academic exercise, but these constant, sundry inserts render the tone as corny and glib as a VH1 special."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
31%
|
Language of a Broken Heart (2013) |
"
Language of a Broken Heart might have made a passable Hallmark or Lifetime TV movie, cushioned by the TV-movie context. But as a theatrical prospect, it's a fail."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Mar 29, 2013
|
|
4/5
|
92%
|
The Gatekeepers (2013) |
"
The rule of surveillance is to keep quiet and let others do the talking. The Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers flips the script, to astonishing effect, giving voice to the retired directors of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
67%
|
Stoker (2013) |
"
Stoker, rather improbably, manages to find the handshake place between predictable and confounding. And that's... an achievement?"
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
69%
|
The Croods (2013) |
"
Stoopid title. Sweet movie. And not the crack-your-teeth, cloying kind of sweet: DreamWorks Animation's The Croods is a spirited and eye-popping stealth charmer."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Mar 21, 2013
|
|
2/5
|
36%
|
Dead Man Down (2013) |
"
When an early shootout erupts with a reggae-beat score, it's clear this director sees carnage as nothing more than an opportunity for music-video production values."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Mar 15, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
26%
|
21 And Over (2013) |
"
Chon is a vibrant enough presence in the early scenes to invite our sympathy. But the filmmakers sweep all that aside for one more crazy-night escapade with white guys front and center and Chon practically comatose at the edge of the frame."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
89%
|
Koch (2013) |
"
The former mayor is an alert onscreen presence, but the film surrounding him is not always so lively."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Feb 28, 2013
|
|
4/5
|
80%
|
Only The Young (2012) |
"
In a slim 72 minutes, it heart-tethers us to these teenagers, paying tribute to their unique and private selves while allowing the audience to see its own reflection in them."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Feb 22, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
13%
|
Safe Haven (2013) |
"
Sure, Sparks is a known for recycling material, but Hallström and scripters Leslie Bohem and Dana Stevens really push the limit by poaching the iconic canoe-in-a-rainstorm scene from The Notebook."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
95%
|
The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2013: Animation (2013) |
"
The five films the Academy anointed as nominees for this year's Best Animated Short category take to heart the old saw that a picture is worth a thousand words ..."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Feb 7, 2013
|
|
0.5/5
|
14%
|
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) |
"
In his English-language debut, Wirkola dabbles in everything but commits to nothing, making for an unmemorable brew best left untasted."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Feb 4, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
4%
|
Movie 43 (2013) |
"
It rather boggles the mind how so many micromanaging handlers allowed their A-list talent to participate in a production that looks funded from a frat-house's loose-couch-change collection."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Feb 4, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
80%
|
Warm Bodies (2013) |
"
That rare thing in modern studio moviemaking - a consequential universe. Hits hurt. People die. Small gestures of kindness somersault into bigger things."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Jan 31, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
32%
|
Fanboys (2008) |
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Jan 22, 2013
|
|
0/5
|
6%
|
A Haunted House (2013) |
"
It's like watching a snuff film, only it's the audience who's dying inside."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Jan 18, 2013
|
|
4/5
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013) |
"
There is admirably little fat on its bones. No love interests, no backstories, no B-plot about Maya's childhood: Zero Dark Thirty is as ruthlessly, relentlessly single-minded as she is about the hunt for bin Laden."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Jan 11, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
47%
|
Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D (2012) |
"
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away is fine to look at, but good luck feeling anything."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Jan 4, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
70%
|
Les Misérables (2012) |
"
When Les Misérables is good, it is very, very good, and when it is bad, it's usually because Russell Crowe has opened his mouth."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Jan 4, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
81%
|
The Impossible (2012) |
"
To dispel the two talking points attending The Impossible, Juan Antonio Bayona's dramatization of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: No, it's not racist, and no, you don't have to be a parent to feel the film in your bones."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Jan 4, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
52%
|
This is 40 (2012) |
"
Swings between ambitious and facile, enormously likable and sour to taste."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Dec 20, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
89%
|
A Royal Affair (2012) |
"
It is certainly competent, lovely to look at, but leaves little lasting impression."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
64%
|
Anna Karenina (2012) |
"
Parse too closely the space between "neat" and "conceptual" and "trick," and there's little emotional truck to all the elaborate conceit."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
89%
|
Lincoln (2012) |
"
Master shape-shifter Daniel Day-Lewis delivers a monumental portrayal of a man so firmly monumented in our nation's history."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Nov 16, 2012
|
|
3.5/5
|
92%
|
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) |
"
Consistently funny and, as it builds to its conclusion, also very sweet fun."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Nov 16, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
53%
|
Simon and the Oaks (2012) |
"
Significant enough to be name-checked in the title, the trees hang over the film, threatening to impose heavy metaphor on what is otherwise a straightforward family saga."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Nov 9, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
92%
|
Skyfall (2012) |
"
Noted killjoy Sam Mendes might seem like a counterintuitive addition to the series, but it turns out he's aces with action staging and set-pieces soaked in local flavor."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Nov 8, 2012
|
|
3.5/5
|
90%
|
Keep the Lights On (2012) |
"
There's a lot to like here, and if you're a traditionalist who hungers for a happy ending, you'll find it embedded in the opening credits."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Nov 2, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
94%
|
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel (2012) |
"
The filmmakers have done a fine job corralling so many fantastic tales from Vreeland's life."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Oct 26, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
26%
|
Fun Size (2012) |
"
Sometimes funny, often broad-stroked, ever sweet, and landing shy of its potential."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Oct 25, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
68%
|
Wuthering Heights (2012) |
"
I never found a way in, and I couldn't wait for a way out."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Oct 19, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
59%
|
10 Years (2012) |
"
The ingredients are there, but not the follow-through: This resolutely niceness-first film just won't stir the pot."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Oct 5, 2012
|
|
3.5/5
|
93%
|
Beauty Is Embarrassing (2012) |
"
These moments elevate Beauty Is Embarrassing beyond mere tribute to an undersung artist into a far rarer thing: a glimpse into the galvanizing effect art -- good art, bad art, fine art, folk art, or 5th-grader art -- can have."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Oct 5, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
85%
|
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) |
"
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Ripe dramatic material, but Chbosky surrounds his hurting characters with the cinematic equivalent of a hug circle -- which is sweet, but rather antithetical to tension-building."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Sep 28, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
69%
|
Liberal Arts (2012) |
"
The trouble with having so many hyphens appended to one man is that it reduces the number of people around with a little perspective and the nerve to point out that he's fashioned a whole movie around the least interesting person in the story."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Sep 28, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
81%
|
Pitch Perfect (2012) |
"
This slight but sunny entertainment is something of an idiot-grin-maker."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Sep 27, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
93%
|
Looper (2012) |
"
With his third film, writer/director Rian Johnson has crafted his most mainstream picture to date, without sacrificing one whit of the dazzling inventiveness or finely detailed characterizations that distinguished his earlier pictures."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Sep 27, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
86%
|
The Master (2012) |
"
The Master is nothing short of an alternate history to the bobby-socked, Panglossed Fifties, a bracing antidote to our rose-colored pictures of prosperity and suburban domesticity."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Sep 21, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
65%
|
2 Days in New York (2012) |
"
This ebullient domestic comedy fairly radiates with a runner's high."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Sep 21, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
93%
|
Wild Horse, Wild Ride (2012) |
"
Frustrations abound with this limited film, but Wild Horse, Wild Ride does one thing exceptionally well, and that is convey the emotional bond between trainer and horse."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Sep 14, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
89%
|
OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger's Movie (2012) |
"
At once a remarkable achievement, and a fatally compromised film."
—
Austin Chronicle
Posted Sep 14, 2012
|
43%
46%
95%
99%
65%
61%
