Peter Brunette

Agrees with the Tomatometer 76% of the time.

Biography:
Besides being a weekly film critic and contributing editor at Film.com, Peter Brunette was Professor of English and Film Studies at George Mason University. He wrote or edited six books on film, including Roberto Rossellini, the definitive study in English of this director's films (Oxford University Press, 1987; republished University of California Press, 1996); Screen/Play: Derrida and Film Theory (Princeton University Press, 1990; co-authored with David Wills); a co-edited book (with David Wills) on visual theory published by Cambridge University Press in 1994, entitled Deconstruction and the Visual Arts: Art, Media, Architecture; and a book on Francois Truffaut's film "Shoot the Piano Player" (Rutgers, 1993). Cambridge University Press published his book The Films of Michelangelo Antonioni in 1998 and, in 1999, his edited book, Martin Scorsese: Interviews, was published by the University of Mississippi Press. He was also general editor of the Mississippi interview series; some seven books have already been published in this series, and twenty more are contracted for. He was also general editor of a film book series at Indiana University Press; two titles have been published in the last two years. At the time of his death in June of 2010, he was working on books on Luchino Visconti and Wong Kar-Wai. During the past several years, he served on panels at the Palm Springs Film Festival in California, the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, and at the Rotterdam Film Festival in Holland. He was director of the Film and Media Studies program at George Mason University and was also active in the GMU Cultural Studies program. He was one of the first two internet critics to be elected to membership in the National Society of Film Critics. Brunette has also written for film periodicals like Film Quarterly and Sight & Sound, and was the U.S. correspondent for the Italian journal Filmcritica. He also wrote regularly for The New York Times Arts & Leisure section and The Boston Globe. He was artistic director of the Key Sunday Cinema Club, which has branches in six cities.
Publications:
Film.com , Hollywood Reporter , Screen International , Screendaily
Total Reviews:
112
Location:
Washington D.C.

Worst Reviewed Films

Showing 1 - 50 of 103
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
62% Faubourg 36 (Paris 36) (2009) " Many stale plot devices are recycled." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 18, 2008
39% The Stone Angel (2007) " A perfectly respectable, solidly-made film which, beyond the expert performance by the always reliable Ellen Burstyn, has unfortunately little to recommend it." — Screen International
Posted Oct 18, 2008
27% The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008) " Less pleasurable after the first fifteen minutes." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 18, 2008
85% The Take (2007) " Things never quite come together and the central plot focus of the family drama is never plausible enough to make for compelling cinema." — Screen International
Posted Oct 15, 2008
15% The Other Man (2008) " Seldom has such great star power been marshaled in the service of a sillier movie than The Other Man." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 3, 2008
55% Married Life (2008) " The film is hampered by a plodding and unimaginative script whose situations are pedestrian and whose dialogue is much less sparkling than the filmmakers appear to think it is." — Screen International
Posted Sep 22, 2007
93% Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004) " Even if the script had been more accessible, it's doubtful whether its ultra-high concept will connect with general audiences." — Screendaily
Posted Mar 15, 2004
40% Proof of Life (2000) " [A] flat and thoroughly predictable piece of filmmaking." — Film.com
Posted Dec 7, 2000
94% Central Station (Central do Brasil) (1998) " its blatantly manipulative pairing of an adorable young boy and a selfish, honesty-challenged older woman ... so calculating that I could never get emotionally involved." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
43% The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) " Redford should have spent more time thinking about his characters than about the meaning of it all." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
57% Dr. T & The Women (2000) " On the surface, Altman's film is clearly meant as a paean to the variety and emotional fecundity of women, but scratch the surface, and you realize that underneath, it's not so pretty." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
48% The Way of the Gun (2000) " True to the film's title, the gun, in all its many, many forms is exalted to the point of becoming a religious icon, flashing forth in the always stylized but numbingly boring shoot-outs that seem to occupy more than half the film's length." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
20% Jack Frost (1998) " Let it melt!" — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
55% Hamlet (2000) " Ultimately, I don't think that Michael Almereyda's modern-day adaptation of Hamlet really works, but it's a lot of fun along the way." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
71% The Cider House Rules (1999) " Perceived as too soft by some and too weird and kinky by even more." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
93% Run Lola Run (Lola rennt) (1999) " In fact, it turns out, not surprisingly, that it is boring to watch someone run for 87 minutes..." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
19% Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999) " Even a fantasy, whoever it's for, has to have a plot that minimally makes sense, characters that make decisions based on coherent personalities, and a consistent tone. Unfortunately, Teaching Mrs. Tingle lacks all three." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
28% The Story of Us (1999) " Sloppy." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
37% Psycho (1998) " So much of Van Sant's 'new' version of the classic remains the same that you sit there shaking your head, mumbling, why, oh, why?" — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
36% Rules of Engagement (2000) " Nothing can redeem this film's deep immorality." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
83% There's Something About Mary (1998) " This reprehensible and deeply unfunny film is obviously critic-proof." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
50% Summer of Sam (1999) " Lee's just not a good enough filmmaker - and finally, not smart enough - to achieve the grand statements that he's apparently after." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
78% Sweet and Lowdown (1999) " The only reason to see this film is for the acting." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
33% The 13th Warrior (1999) " With the possible exception of the action sequences and the very occasionally imaginative set design, it's awful." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
30% The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) " Fails on nearly every count." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
87% The Blair Witch Project (1999) " The film is a faux documentary, made by two first-time filmmakers." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
73% Remember the Titans (2000) " I didn't believe the movie, or my tears, for a second." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
3/10 52% Angela's Ashes (1999) " I'm sure the producers of Angela's Ashes meant well, but they got the wrong guy to direct it." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
6/10 41% The Ninth Gate (1999) " Compulsively watchable." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
6/10 83% The Hurricane (1999) " Occasionally riveting." — Film.com
Posted Jan 1, 2000
79% I Killed My Mother (2013) " Uneven but funny and audacious adolescent comedy from a talented beginner." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Jul 6, 2010
82% Panique au village (A Town Called Panic) (2009) " There's really very little to say about this film beyond that it's absolutely brilliant." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Mar 26, 2010
80% The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada) (2010) " The film is gorgeously shot and contains a plethora of haunting images..." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Feb 2, 2010
—— The Korean Wedding Chest (Die koreanische Hochzeitstruhe) (2009) " Tenderly observed personal documentary on Korean wedding customs." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 12, 2009
80% Max Manus: Man of War (2010) " Solid and convincing, if pedestrian, World War II story that has its moments." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Sep 17, 2009
84% Whip It (2009) " Some old material given a delightful new grrrl-power twist." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Sep 15, 2009
56% The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) " A shocking yet stately and powerful plea for women's rights." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Jun 26, 2009
85% The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band) (2009) " It's clear that this portrait of a sick society is meant to explain, at least partially, the horrendous war that breaks out at the very end of the film, and the fascism that quickly followed in its wake." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 22, 2009
90% Army of Crime (L'Armée du Crime) (2010) " Though it drags here and there and is a bit flat in places, the film is solidly made and for the most part quite involving." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 18, 2009
48% Antichrist (2009) " Visually gorgeous to a fault and teeming with grandiose if often fascinating ideas that overwhelm the modest story that serves as their vehicle, this may be the least artistically successful film von Trier has ever made." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 18, 2009
97% A Prophet (Un prophete) (2010) " French master Jacques Audiard has challenged the thus-far mostly middling Cannes competition with a powerful prison drama that's an old-fashioned Bildungsroman in in-your-face, intensely realistic disguise." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 16, 2009
33% Ne Te Retourne Pas (Don't Look Back) (2009) " "Don't Look Back" begins promisingly. Seemingly obsessed with surfaces, the camera restlessly searches for hints and clues among the fragments we see, even before we know there's a mystery." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 15, 2009
46% Management (2009) " The plot doesn't always make sense, and when it does it's often pretty predictable, but when all is said and done, this romantic comedy starring the ultracute Steve Zahn and Jennifer Aniston ultimately delivers the goods." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 12, 2009
77% Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys) (2008) " Patience will be required to appreciate this brilliant, gorgeously visual film." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Nov 4, 2008
86% Lorna's Silence (2008) " A worthwhile, if less powerful offering from the Belgian masters of slice-of-life filmmaking." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 18, 2008
92% Il Divo (2009) " At long last in this year's Cannes Competition, a film on a serious subject that nevertheless consistently entertains and often makes you laugh out loud." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 18, 2008
65% Plus Tard (One Day You'll Understand) (Later) (2008) " Once again, veteran Israeli director Amos Gitai has made a subtle yet powerful and moving film on an aspect of Jewish experience." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Oct 3, 2008
65% What Doesn't Kill You (2008) " We've all seen this film before -- two hoodlum friends from the tough, violent streets of South Boston trying to cope with the lure of easy money and the offsetting threat of jail time -- but we've never seen it this well done." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Sep 15, 2008
94% Slumdog Millionaire (2008) " A solidly entertaining and energizing film." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted Sep 11, 2008
66% Che: Part One (The Argentine) (2009) " All in all, it's a highly worthwhile, professionally accomplished project, but in its obsessive devotion to precise documentation, the film forgets to inspire." — Hollywood Reporter
Posted May 29, 2008
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