Laura Clifford

Laura Clifford

Agrees with the Tomatometer 80% of the time.

Biography:
Reeling: The Movie Review Show has been produced by Robin and Laura Clifford at the Malden, Massachusetts cable access television station, MATV, since March 16,1991. Reeling is also cablecast on these cable access stations in Massachusetts: Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, Wakefield, Belmont, Waltham, Salem and Lowell with more on the way. Robin and Laura have attended film courses at Emerson College and workshops in 16 mm film production at the Boston Film and Video Foundation.
Favorites:
Red Sid and Nancy Aguirre, the Wrath of God The Decalogue The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Being There The Wizard of Oz
Publications:
rec.arts.movies.reviews , Reeling Reviews
Critics' Group:
Broadcast Film Critics Association, Online Film Critics Society
Total Reviews:
2700
Total QuickRatings:
69
Location:
Boston, MA

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 2700
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
B+ 81% Something in the Air (2013) " Assayas has gathered a large, mostly inexperienced cast to create a mural of mood, a time when idealism was paramount, at least until the members of a political group begin to drift into their own destinies." — Reeling Reviews
Posted May 5, 2013
B 74% Love Is All You Need (2013) " Everything is telegraphed, but that doesn't mean receiving the message is a let down, largely due to Bier's expert hand and her wonderful cast....Dyrholm's luminous performance buoys the film." — Reeling Reviews
Posted May 2, 2013
B- 53% The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) " Nair adds a thriller element by shifting back and forth between Changez's story and the escalating hysteria in the present time, all the while making us question Changez's part in it. The frustrating thing is, that ends up getting lost in the shuffle." — Reeling Reviews
Posted May 2, 2013
B+ 78% Iron Man 3 (2013) " ...the best of the Marvel films with its complex story, exciting action, great cast and special effects." — Reeling Reviews
Posted May 2, 2013
C 58% At Any Price (2013) " ...despite its worthy themes, Bahrani has over stacked his deck with Henry's character while leaving too many questions with Dean's just as Quaid emotes to the rafters while Efron underplays." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 29, 2013
B 90% My Brother The Devil (2013) " When a both a dog and friend of Rashid's are killed in a violent gang encounter, El Hosaini frames both of their lifeless bodies on the street in a powerful image that tells of two innocents both bred to fight." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 25, 2013
C+ 46% Pain & Gain (2013) " ...only sustains itself long enough for the lads to accomplish the first step of their plot before devolving into a morass of overload, dry stretches, Bay's predilection for cheap titillation and behavior too ugly for fun." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 25, 2013
B+ 98% Mud (2013) " a deceptively slow-building film. Like its author's views on women and men, it is full of both hard life lessons and the magical from the very beginning. " — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 25, 2013
C- 24% Arthur Newman (2013) " When Firth first falls into his tattered seductress's game, he changes so violently into the arduous lover, it feels false, an acting exercise, which is all this movie really adds up to." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 25, 2013
B 50% Bert Stern: Original Madman (2013) " Here's a documentary that comes from an unusual angle, the subject's lover looking at both the artist and the man dispensing with rose colored glasses." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 22, 2013
B- 81% Renoir (2013) " Bourdos hired art forger Guy Ribes to be the 'hands' of the painter, and so "Renoir" is a real look at art being created, showing us how nudes can be conjured out of a few rounded lines, how a stroke of brown paint defines a woman's curves." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 22, 2013
A- 87% In the House (2013) " ...joins a handful of clever films where fiction and reality merge, like "Adaptation" or Zoe Kazan's more recent "Ruby Sparks." It's thrilling, funny, smart and hugely entertaining, more satisfying than the director's breakout film." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 21, 2013
B 83% Graceland (2013) " Watching writer/director Ron Morales' harrowing account of poor people's struggles in a violent and corrupt country is a sharp reminder of just how unrealistic entertainments like "Taken" really are." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 19, 2013
C 56% Oblivion (2013) " ...Kosinksi's story is such a mishmash of those that have come before, everything from "WALL*E" to "Star Wars" to "Total Recall" to "An Affair to Remember," that instead of becoming immersed in it, it becomes a game of spot the reference." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 18, 2013
C+ 42% To The Wonder (2013) " although Malick's signature filmmaking style is as lovely as ever, "To the Wonder" isn't very involving. Affleck's never looked more uncomfortable on screen..." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 11, 2013
B+ 88% The Angels' Share (2013) " Loach films have been funny while making their point before (see "Riff Raff"), but this one is imbued with a little bit of magic...Those offended by four letter words should be warned that even the voice of God slings a heavy dose of them here." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 11, 2013
C- 68% Disconnect (2013) " As is often the case with multiple, crossing story lines, results are uneven, the film's theme organic to one, cliched in another, forced in a third. Call this one 'Cyber-Crash.'" — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 11, 2013
B 77% 42 (2013) " ... the film has warmth, a genuine love of its subject shining through." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 11, 2013
B 64% Antiviral (2013) " Cronenberg fils, though, while sharing dad's bodily fixations, exhibits other influences from his Kubriakian art direction (white minimalism) to Lynchian imagery (red drapes and blurred head shots)...star Landry Jones compels in a breakout role." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 10, 2013
C+ 54% The Company You Keep (2013) " Director/star Robert Redford has gathered an enviable cast for a radical "Big Chill" which makes this middling, timeline-trouncing effort worthwhile." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 9, 2013
A- 96% Blancanieves (2013) " Much of the film's emotion is conveyed by Alfonso de Vilallonga's music, which celebrates Spain with uptempo guitar and flamenco when it isn't tipping its hat to Bernard Herrmann during a scene inspired by Hitchcock." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 6, 2013
C+ 68% Trance (2013) " McAvoy has our sympathies at the start, but he hasn't invested his character with any tells that might explain things we learn as things shift. When they do, it's like a switch has been flipped and all that's left is the dupe." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 6, 2013
B+ 62% Evil Dead (2013) " I always say you have to watch 100 horror films to find a good one. This is the good one. " — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 4, 2013
B 87% Upstream Color (2013) " Carruth's film plays like a glass harp which has been smashed and reassembled with missing pieces but unbroken sound." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Apr 2, 2013
B 94% Room 237 (2013) " This documentary will entertain everyone from film junkies to conspiracy theorists and those who like to debunk them as Ascher spreads his net to include everything from the most provocative ideas to blatant bunkum." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 30, 2013
B- 81% The Place Beyond The Pines (2013) " a three-part epic of fathers and sons, criminality and the law that is beautifully crafted. Unfortunately what could have been a great film becomes contrived when the filmmaker turns his focus to his first generation's progeny..." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 28, 2013
D- 9% The Host (2013) " The sight of Ronan speaking to herself as the alien as voice overs account for Melanie is titter inducing even before the standard Meyer supernatural love triangle is introduced." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 28, 2013
C+ 28% G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) " Director Jon M. Chu keeps the action moving and his stars charismatic but "Zombieland" writers Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick have cobbled their plot together from everything from "Star Wars"...to "RED"...to the "Lethal Weapon" series...and more." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 27, 2013
C+ 65% Starbuck (2013) " ...has an amusing premise and likable cast, but while it's pleasant enough to watch it never really achieves lift off." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 24, 2013
B+ 91% Gimme The Loot (2013) " The winner of the Indie Spirit 'One to Watch' award could never work again and will always have a memorable New York City film to his credit." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 24, 2013
C+ 93% The Sapphires (2013) " You've seen this type of tale many times before...but the inspired-by-a-true-story Aboriginal slant adds interest, the actresses create unique characters and Chris O'Dowd really shines." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 23, 2013
B- 79% Ginger & Rosa (2013) " The film may be called "Ginger & Rosa," but the movie's all Elle Fanning's..." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 22, 2013
C+ 43% Admission (2013) " ...there's more warmth than sizzle between Fey and Rudd and the film is neither fish nor fowl - it should have been much funnier or much edgier. Like Fey, Weitz seems content not rocking the boat..." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 21, 2013
C+ 48% Olympus Has Fallen (2013) " ...when an obvious Secret Service baddie shows up to nervously have a smoke with Banning (as Hans Gruber did with John McLean), it's hard not to burst out laughing at the sheer chutzpah of the lift." — rec.arts.movies.reviews
Posted Mar 21, 2013
B- 66% Spring Breakers (2013) " ...the film's greatest acting asset is James Franco, going for broke in his own "Killer Joe" role." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 21, 2013
A- 90% Beyond The Hills (2013) " ...Cristian Mungiu has taken a real life event...to consider deeply human philosophies such as freedom vs. discipline, love vs. security, the choices facing those without financial recourse and the hypocrisies of organized religions." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 18, 2013
C- 29% Upside Down (2013) " ...may be a treat for the eyes, but you'll probably be rolling them throughout most of its running time." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 15, 2013
C 38% The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) " ...a series of cliches strung together with a completely implausible comeback story and its funniest joke are the visuals that accompany the closing credits. The film is pleasant enough and a bit sweet, but it feels slapped together." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 15, 2013
B+ 82% Like Someone in Love (2013) " In his second movie filmed outside of Iran, writer/director Abbas Kiarostami has given us an Eastern counterpoint to his Western "Certified Copy" as once again he explores the nature of identity and the meaning of love." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 10, 2013
D 16% A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2013) " And that glimpse reveals that the mind of Charles Swan III is actually a bad movie." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 9, 2013
B 60% Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) " ...director Sam Raimi...gives Baum's world a 3D/CGI/origin story spin that has more life and imagination than it's seen in over 70 years, even if the modern technology used to achieve it is often less than satisfying." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 8, 2013
C- 31% Emperor (2013) " Call this one Hirohito's Hyde Park on Hudson, as another complex and intriguing piece of history is overshadowed by an inconsequential love story" — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 7, 2013
A 96% War Witch (2013) " Writer/director Kim Nguyen...takes us to a place most of us are lucky enough to barely imagine and does so with grace and sometimes even beauty." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 4, 2013
B+ 92% Lore (2013) " Shortland is a master of tone here, beginning with a nightmarish, chaotic flight which grows darker during the journey and, perhaps darkest of all, at its final destination." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Mar 3, 2013
B- 67% Stoker (2013) " Making his English language debut, Korean director Chan-wook Park ("Oldboy") has chosen a psychological thriller that plays like "The Royal Tennenbaums" as directed by Claude Chabrol." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Feb 28, 2013
C- 52% Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) " Fee Fie Ho-Hum." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Feb 28, 2013
B 89% A Place at the Table (2013) " Jacobson and Silverbush invite interest with their regionalized looks at the circumstances of some very engaging individuals." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Feb 28, 2013
C- 25% Phantom (2013) " An intriguing premise based on a real life Rogue Russian submarine back in 1968 is ruined by muddled story telling which saps any suspense out of a vehicle that should have been fueled by it." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Feb 28, 2013
B+ 92% Little Fugitive (The Coney Island Kid ) (1953) " ...a charmer from another age." — Reeling Reviews
Posted Feb 28, 2013
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