|
B+
|
44%
|
Midnight's Children (2013) |
"
Rushdie adeptly trims his sprawling tale down to a still-substantial 2 1/2-hour movie, which only occasionally seems to hurry."
—
Oregonian
Posted May 8, 2013
|
|
B+
|
91%
|
Gimme The Loot (2013) |
"
Hickson walks the line between bravado and vulnerability, while Washington has a charisma, spark and beauty that should ensure this won't be the last we see of her."
—
Oregonian
Posted May 2, 2013
|
|
B-
|
81%
|
Renoir (2013) |
"
Philosophy and analysis can wait for another day; it's pleasant enough to quietly revel in the pristine sunlight and unhurried pace of an era gone by."
—
Oregonian
Posted May 2, 2013
|
|
B
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013) |
"
It's solidly entertaining, with Downey's roguish charm as appealing as ever."
—
Oregonian
Posted May 2, 2013
|
|
C
|
68%
|
Disconnect (2013) |
"
"Disconnect" would have been wiser to focus more on the everyday ways technology alienates us from each other, rather than descend to this sort of fear-mongering melodrama."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
B-
|
76%
|
It's a Disaster (2013) |
"
If you can look past the awkwardness of humor based on being unexpectedly trapped in a house during a major emergency, it's an acutely observed, frequently funny piece of work."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 25, 2013
|
|
D
|
46%
|
Pain & Gain (2013) |
"
Bay seems to have been gunning for something along the lines of "Blood Simple" or "A Simple Plan," but "Pain & Gain" is just plain simple."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 25, 2013
|
|
B
|
64%
|
Antiviral (2013) |
"
The metaphors are maybe too clear (there's a food product grown from celebrity muscle cells), but the filmmaking is solid, using a nearly monochrome palette for its sleek dystopia."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 25, 2013
|
|
B-
|
42%
|
To The Wonder (2013) |
"
Any half-serious filmgoers need to see "To the Wonder" for themselves; it remains the product of a fascinating mind."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 25, 2013
|
|
B+
|
96%
|
Blancanieves (2013) |
"
If not for some faintly disturbing imagery and a pleasingly feminist heroine, you could mistake this for a movie actually made in the 1920s (and even those two factors weren't utterly unknown then)."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 18, 2013
|
|
B
|
75%
|
No Place On Earth (2013) |
"
The Holocaust-survival documentary is almost a cliché at this point, but Janet Tobias' documentary provides yet another proof that there's a virtually infinite supply of such stories."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 18, 2013
|
|
B+
|
94%
|
Room 237 (2013) |
"
The credibility of these theories ranges from faintly plausible to frankly ridiculous, but Ascher isn't interested in judging them; his movie is more about the joys of deconstruction and the special kind of obsession that movies can inspire."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 18, 2013
|
|
A-
|
87%
|
Upstream Color (2013) |
"
Carruth's mesmerizing, confounding film is full of overwhelming sensory splendor and ripe with multiple meanings. "
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 18, 2013
|
|
C
|
54%
|
The Company You Keep (2013) |
"
Whatever the movie has to say about the use of violence to oppose an unjust system, or the way priorities change as we age, has been said before."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 18, 2013
|
|
B
|
68%
|
Trance (2013) |
"
This is a stylish enough, mind-bending thriller, a cocktail of "Inception," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," and "The Thomas Crown Affair" (the remake)."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
C
|
65%
|
Starbuck (2013) |
"
For a story about a man on the cusp of belated adulthood, "Starbuck" has some growing up of its own to do."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
D-
|
13%
|
Molly's Theory Of Relativity (2013) |
"
It's really about Lipsky's love of his own words, as every character serves as nothing more than a mouthpiece for identically insipid dialogue."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
B+
|
77%
|
42 (2013) |
"
Digital recreations of Ebbets Field, Crosley Field, and Forbes Field ring true, but pleasing the hardball historians doesn't interfere with entertaining folks who've never heard of those departed shrines."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
B
|
70%
|
Somebody Up There Likes Me (2013) |
"
Deadpan absurdity and an insistently whimsical score only add to the cookie-cutter feel, but the performances are appealing enough."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 11, 2013
|
|
B
|
70%
|
Wrong (2013) |
"
For all its dominant paradigm subverting, "Wrong" never feels dangerous or truly challenging, content generally to amuse rather than amaze."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 4, 2013
|
|
B-
|
81%
|
From Up On Poppy Hill (2013) |
"
The animation is pretty and clean, reminiscent of other Studio Ghibli films like "Whisper of the Heart," but never achieves wondrous artistry."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 4, 2013
|
|
B+
|
81%
|
The Place Beyond The Pines (2013) |
"
Cianfrance traces a tale familiar in its outlines but fascinating in its particulars."
—
Oregonian
Posted Apr 4, 2013
|
|
C+
|
40%
|
Mental (2013) |
"
Not content to make his point through sharp-tongued comedy, Hogan ends up beating a dead horse -- or shark, as the case may be."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
A
|
100%
|
M (1931) |
"
Lang's film is a must-see for even a moderately ambitious film buff."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
B+
|
96%
|
War Witch (2013) |
"
Nguyen reportedly worked on "War Witch" for a decade, and it shows in both the immediacy and authenticity of his tale, and the meticulous craft with which it's told."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
B+
|
65%
|
The We and the I (2013) |
"
By the end of the line, we've been granted a privileged peek at today's youth that's intimidating and nostalgia-inducing in equal measure."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 21, 2013
|
|
B-
|
45%
|
On the Road (2012) |
"
Even if Salles' film can't possibly capture the impact of its source, it's intriguing enough to rate a place in the ever-expanding mythology of "the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live.""
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 21, 2013
|
|
D
|
48%
|
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) |
"
The level of dehumanized violence is disturbing -- more people get shot point-blank in the head in this movie than during a weeklong Deer Hunter cosplay convention."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 21, 2013
|
|
B
|
66%
|
Spring Breakers (2013) |
"
Korine seems, almost despite himself, to have something more than hip nihilism as his goal."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 21, 2013
|
|
C+
|
43%
|
Admission (2013) |
"
Despite a talented cast and a few amusing distractions, the film suffers from an overall flatness that's surprising and disappointing."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 20, 2013
|
|
B-
|
82%
|
Like Someone in Love (2013) |
"
"Like Someone in Love" meanders with intention toward a bittersweet resolution, but then pulls the rug out from under you in a cruelly ambiguous shot."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 14, 2013
|
|
B
|
67%
|
Stoker (2013) |
"
This is the first of his films Park didn't write himself, and while the setup is compelling, a prosaic follow-through serves to straighten out the narrative rather than enhance it with curves."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 14, 2013
|
|
C-
|
31%
|
Emperor (2013) |
"
There's the potential here for a fascinating Japanese counterpart to "Judgment at Nuremberg," but director Peter Webber is satisfied with ladling garden-variety melodrama over a cursory treatment of the historical drama."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 7, 2013
|
|
B
|
63%
|
The Monk (2013) |
"
Not to be mistaken for a serious treatment of religious fervor or clerical corruption, "The Monk" is instead a knowingly over-the-top bit of gothic nuttiness."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 7, 2013
|
|
B
|
60%
|
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) |
"
It's a movie that, at moments, curiously combines Franco's mainstream, crowd-pleasing instincts with his postmodern, experimental bent."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 7, 2013
|
|
A-
|
95%
|
West of Memphis (2012) |
"
"West of Memphis" does nothing to displace its predecessor films as masterpieces of investigative filmmaking, but complements them as a riveting capstone to an epic and tragic tale."
—
Oregonian
Posted Mar 7, 2013
|
|
|
52%
|
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) |
"
An overlong, mediocre fantasy that tries too hard to please every demographic."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 28, 2013
|
|
C
|
51%
|
Post Tenebras Lux (2013) |
"
There's visual poetry here, in small doses, but it doesn't take long for one's patience to run out."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 21, 2013
|
|
C+
|
85%
|
Sightseers (2013) |
"
It's neither grounded enough to be genuinely horrifying nor over the top enough to be nastily fun."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 21, 2013
|
|
B
|
76%
|
Kon Tiki (2013) |
"
For most of its running time, it's a riveting rendition of a stranger-than-fiction tale."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
A
|
92%
|
The Gatekeepers (2013) |
"
A blunt, clear-eyed, first-hand take on decades of Middle Eastern history, from practically the founding of the Jewish state up through the recent fits and starts of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
B
|
——
|
Hannah Arendt (2013) |
"
A watchable, even suspenseful portrait of a woman who spends most of the film smoking cigarettes, sitting at typewriters or sparring at dinner parties."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
B+
|
87%
|
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2013) |
"
Primarily following one veteran sable trapper through his primitive but fascinating annual routine, the movie also features clouds of mosquitoes thick enough to inspire phantom itching in viewers."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
B+
|
100%
|
Masquerade (2012) |
"
As entertainment, it's a decidedly unstuffy costume drama that's compelling to the end."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
C+
|
16%
|
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2013) |
"
Charles Swan III just needs to grow up. And unpleasant as it may be, we deserve more than a glimpse into his mind."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
C-
|
45%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013) |
"
If this film makes enough money, sequels will surely follow. You've been warned."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
A-
|
93%
|
Amour (2012) |
"
An insightful, memorable film about what it means to love."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 8, 2013
|
|
B+
|
60%
|
John Dies at the End (2013) |
"
Straightening out what's ultimately, and almost literally, a shaggy dog story isn't the point. Hanging on and soaking up a glorious bit of cinematic weirdness, courtesy of Coscarelli's fertile imagination, is."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 7, 2013
|
|
A-
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013) |
"
Soderbergh directs with subtlety, placing clues delicately but firmly along the way; he never cheats by revealing something the audience didn't have a chance to suspect on its own."
—
Oregonian
Posted Feb 7, 2013
|
43%
42%
95%
99%
65%
61%
