Nicolas Rapold

Nicolas Rapold

Agrees with the Tomatometer 68% of the time.

Publications:
Film Comment Magazine , L.A. Weekly , Reverse Shot , Time Out New York , Village Voice
Total Reviews:
180

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 180
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
3/5 100% Elemental (2013) " The filmmakers behind "Elemental" might have done better to commit to a single portrait and been more fearless about avoiding familiar oratory, but small steps are progress too." — New York Times
Posted May 16, 2013
2/5 57% Unmade In China (2013) " It is surprisingly boring to watch a movie being made, on the set or off, and a beleaguered production is not necessarily an exception." — New York Times
Posted May 3, 2013
2.5/5 60% Free The Mind (2013) " Larger ideas of a mind-body connection, and mentions of brain research, are not treated in an inspiring or deeply informative way." — New York Times
Posted May 2, 2013
4/5 —— Fragments of Kubelka (2013) " If "Fragments of Kubelka" demands an investment of time, Mr. Kubelka rewards it." — New York Times
Posted May 2, 2013
2.5/5 —— Hamesima X (2013) " A mystical tract seemingly reincarnated in the ultra-cheesy body of a 1980s straight-to-video thriller." — New York Times
Posted Apr 28, 2013
2.5/5 —— Highway (2012) " Picturesque flourishes and jumpy editing can't disguise this film's soapy heart." — New York Times
Posted Apr 25, 2013
2.5/5 —— Mortem (2013) " Most often "Mortem" just lacks bite, and the dedicated leads seem at times a little slight for the staging of a struggle at eternity's edge." — New York Times
Posted Apr 25, 2013
5/5 79% An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty (2013) " A dense, organic, dazzling and funny tapestry, making use of varied and subtly colored animation and stop-motion; candid video; playfully verbose direct address; chapters and footnotes and doodles; and suavely chosen music and sonic bridges." — New York Times
Posted Apr 25, 2013
2/5 60% American Meat (2013) " An advocacy film better suited for a class than for a cinema." — New York Times
Posted Apr 11, 2013
2/5 4% 6 Souls (2013) " Beginning as a psychiatric freak show, "6 Souls" eventually trades serial-killer intimations for backwoods bad mojo before becoming just another dimly lighted pop-up-stalker flick." — New York Times
Posted Apr 5, 2013
2.5/5 76% No Place On Earth (2013) " The film mixes emotional accounts by proud survivors from two families with foreign-language re-enactments that are perhaps too faithfully murky." — New York Times
Posted Apr 5, 2013
3.5/5 92% Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (2013) " A snappily edited, archivally wallpapered recollection of fearless behavior in the face of an antsy establishment. But it's equally significant as a pointed act of retelling." — New York Times
Posted Apr 5, 2013
3/5 100% The Revolutionary Optimists (2013) " As heartening as it is to see a slum child tutored about vicious cycles of adversity and using the buzzword "partnership" with aplomb, the film comes to feel cut and dried." — New York Times
Posted Mar 28, 2013
2/5 70% Wrong (2013) " It would take a firmer hand to right this "Wrong."" — New York Times
Posted Mar 28, 2013
2.5/5 50% You Don't Need Feet to Dance (2013) " In a film plunked somewhat unfortunately between the inspirational and the ordinary, the impressively patient Mr. Conde voices public-service-announcement sentiments about being able to do as much as anyone else." — New York Times
Posted Mar 21, 2013
1/5 13% Love And Honor (2013) " This trifle about two soldiers who sneak away to America while on leave unfolds in a world about as realistic as a flashback on a sitcom." — New York Times
Posted Mar 21, 2013
2/5 —— Better Mus Come (2013) " Despite its cultural detail and fetching leads this Jamaican director's colorful debut feature is undone by ragged scene construction, weak acting and a scattered script." — New York Times
Posted Mar 14, 2013
2/5 —— Crazy and Thief (2013) " Might have been better off in a kid's-size portion as a short." — New York Times
Posted Mar 14, 2013
2/5 40% The Other Side of the Ice (2013) " This tedious chronicle has the interest level of a home movie of a vacation with bickering and yammering left intact." — New York Times
Posted Mar 7, 2013
3.5/5 88% Girl Rising (2013) " No one would confuse the movie with a short-story collection. But it's more ambitious and effective at blunting cynicism than most consciousness-raising efforts. " — New York Times
Posted Mar 7, 2013
2/5 83% Genius On Hold (2013) " This promisingly tragic tale is sunk by cartloads of context and an overbearing, slanted narration." — New York Times
Posted Feb 28, 2013
3/5 —— The Unspeakable Act (2013) " [It] is about the familiar more than it is about the forbidden." — New York Times
Posted Feb 28, 2013
3/5 95% One Life (2013) " A typically eye-catching, years-in-the-making chronicle of animal life that is tainted by the urge to anthropomorphize." — New York Times
Posted Feb 20, 2013
3.5/5 30% The Berlin File (2013) " As soon as "The Berlin File" takes flight with its exhilarating action set pieces, memories of any muddles evaporate amid the tension and vivid engagement with settings, from courtyards to fields." — New York Times
Posted Feb 14, 2013
2.5/5 —— Lost In Thailand (2013) " Runs through its clichés reliably enough." — New York Times
Posted Feb 10, 2013
3/5 —— David (2013) " Complicated [and] entertainingly erratic ..." — New York Times
Posted Feb 4, 2013
3/5 91% The Last Gladiators (2013) " Pretty or not, the stories of dropped gloves and smashed faces shed some clarity on the game's violence ..." — New York Times
Posted Jan 31, 2013
3/5 87% Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2013) " Mr. Herzog is openly inspired, as ever, by the rugged independence of these resourceful trappers, who seem stoic about everything but their faithful dogs." — New York Times
Posted Jan 24, 2013
2.5/5 —— Welcome To The Machine (2013) " A strain of quixotic eccentricity runs through the film's endeavor; Mr. Weider basically has more material than he can marshal." — New York Times
Posted Jan 10, 2013
2.5/5 —— Saving America's Horses: A Nation Betrayed (2012) " Filled with crushing facts about animal cruelty yet also overstuffed and overwrought, it's emotionally and visually tough to watch." — New York Times
Posted Dec 6, 2012
2/5 —— Happy New Year (2012) " A dully directed movie that sends a message but lacks oomph." — New York Times
Posted Dec 6, 2012
2/5 —— Young & Wild (2012) " The film's sexual intelligence is undone by a paralyzing voice-over and an encroaching case of the blahs." — New York Times
Posted Nov 30, 2012
2.5/5 56% Walk Away Renee (2012) " "Walk Away Renee" lets us observe a mother-son bond, but Mr. Caouette hasn't found a way to galvanize this incarnation of material for strangers." — New York Times
Posted Nov 30, 2012
3.5/5 —— Seeds of Resiliency (2012) " Admirably succinct and often affecting, even if it rarely encompasses the full shape, depth and insights of these stories." — New York Times
Posted Nov 22, 2012
2/5 0% Gottfried Helnwein and the Dreaming Child (2012) " This repetitive documentary from Lisa Kirk Colburn banally strings Gottfried Helnwein's musings together with creative wrangles ..." — New York Times
Posted Nov 22, 2012
2/5 44% Habibi Rasak Kharban (Habibi) (2012) " Despite moments of dour power and a likable female lead, the couple's predicament is all too often flatly staged and acted out." — New York Times
Posted Nov 16, 2012
3.5/5 100% Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012) " Even though the film drags, the magic of Bollywood is that this story's muddle of twists only clarifies the urgency behind the undying desires of all concerned parties." — New York Times
Posted Nov 14, 2012
2.5/5 77% Bones Brigade: An Autobiography (2012) " Gradually becomes an echo chamber of personal dramas and exploits, not to mention propulsive soundtrack cues - all within a sport already nursing a penchant for self-documentation." — New York Times
Posted Nov 1, 2012
2/5 31% A Man's Story (2012) " Vonicos ... misses an opportunity to make a feature-length documentary that takes the full measure of his subject's work." — New York Times
Posted Nov 1, 2012
0/5 —— In the Night () " Sometimes a movie is so awful that you worry you are doing yourself some form of harm simply by watching it." — New York Times
Posted Oct 29, 2012
1/5 —— Dust Up (2012) " The sort of self-impressed tedious effort that many thought had died with the post-Tarantino imitations of the 1990s." — New York Times
Posted Oct 25, 2012
3/5 80% Orchestra Of Exiles (2012) " "Orchestra of Exiles" aspires to a level of primary research that other historical documentaries could take a page from." — New York Times
Posted Oct 25, 2012
2.5/5 36% Yogawoman (2012) " Doing yoga proves more appealing than watching a film promote it. " — New York Times
Posted Oct 18, 2012
3.5/5 —— Chicks (La Vie Au Ranch) (2012) " Ms. Letourneur's film ... bears a rare, even strange, stamp of authenticity." — New York Times
Posted Oct 18, 2012
3/5 71% We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists (2012) " The film is most illuminating in showing how democratic practice can still find a new voice and innovative means with each generation." — New York Times
Posted Oct 18, 2012
4/5 82% Two Years at Sea (2012) " Thoreauvian self-sufficiency or classical pastoral engagement with nature and its creatures takes a back seat to the company of objects, trees and music." — New York Times
Posted Oct 11, 2012
3/5 —— Split: A Deeper Divide (2012) " Even political foes agree here on today's parlous state of disagreement, leaving you keen to vote but feeling a little defeated already." — New York Times
Posted Oct 11, 2012
4/5 100% A Whisper To A Roar (2012) " "A Whisper to a Roar" is a vivid documentary with unusual access to the key players in the geopolitical dramas it recounts." — New York Times
Posted Oct 11, 2012
3/5 82% Fat Kid Rules the World (2012) " A relatively respectable slice of high school outsider storytelling." — New York Times
Posted Oct 4, 2012
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