|
1/5
|
0%
|
Sexual Chronicles of a French Family (2012) |
"
You'll have more fun staying at home."
—
Total Film
Posted Dec 6, 2012
|
|
1/5
|
44%
|
Modesty Blaise (1966) |
"
Joseph Losey didn't really do frivolous. Which is probably why his attempt at spoofy pseudo-Bondery is so direly unfunny. "
—
Total Film
Posted Oct 18, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
54%
|
Secret Beyond the Door... (1949) |
"
Borrowing a plot from the Bluebeard legend, and chucking in a load of sub-Freudian hokum, Fritz Lang nonetheless makes a class act of this Gothic psycho-thriller."
—
Total Film
Posted Feb 25, 2013
|
|
2/5
|
78%
|
Aurora (2011) |
"
Another hefty slice of eastern european life - even longer, even slower and even glummer."
—
Total Film
Posted Oct 30, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
43%
|
To Rome with Love (2012) |
"
Four trivial stories, forced laughs: don't expect much more from Allen's latest postcard from Europe."
—
Total Film
Posted Sep 3, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
20%
|
Hara ga kore nande (Mitsuko Delivers) () |
"
Before long the shouting and gurning quotient reaches discomfort levels and the movie winds up just irritating."
—
Total Film
Posted May 10, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
71%
|
Despair (Despair - Eine Reise ins Licht) (1978) |
"
Everything about Despair feels queasily off - the plot, the acting, the dialogue and the fussily over-decorated sets."
—
Total Film
Posted Jan 10, 2012
|
|
2/5
|
90%
|
The Yellow Sea (2011) |
"
At nearly two and a half hours long, The Yellow Sea is overkill in every sense."
—
Total Film
Posted Oct 25, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
75%
|
Norwegian Wood (2012) |
"
Writer/director Tran Anh Hung seems hamstrung by reverence, as monotony sets in early and doesn't lift."
—
Total Film
Posted Mar 2, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
10%
|
Chatroom (2011) |
"
A plodder that prefers to explain (and then repeat the explanation) rather than let the audience use their imagination."
—
Total Film
Posted Dec 21, 2010
|
|
2/5
|
50%
|
Mammoth (Mammut) (2009) |
"
Moodysson braids these threads with contrived symmetries. The preaching soon grows wearisome."
—
Total Film
Posted Nov 4, 2010
|
|
2/5
|
——
|
Forbidden (1932) |
"
Well before the end the whole thing collapses into rip-roaring melodrama."
—
Total Film
Posted Oct 27, 2010
|
|
2/5
|
14%
|
Blind Revenge (2012) |
"
It's all rather mannered and the final denouement is disappointingly banal."
—
Total Film
Posted Feb 19, 2010
|
|
2/5
|
67%
|
Helen (2008) |
"
It's an intriguing premise - but this debut feature from short filmmakers Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor never gets up to speed. It feels like a first draft, with some painfully stilted dialogue."
—
Total Film
Posted May 1, 2009
|
|
2/5
|
94%
|
Tokyo Sonata (Tokyo Sonata) (2009) |
"
The multiple plotting threatens to pull it apart."
—
Total Film
Posted Jan 30, 2009
|
|
2/5
|
44%
|
Death Defying Acts (2008) |
"
It all looks pretty enough - but well before the end you'll be plotting your escape."
—
Total Film
Posted Aug 8, 2008
|
|
2/5
|
——
|
A Very British Gangster () |
"
Overall, it might've worked better in a one-hour TV slot."
Posted Dec 7, 2007
|
|
3/5
|
91%
|
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969) |
"
A sense of clarity and austerity about the visuals lends potent emotional heft."
—
Total Film
Posted May 1, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
62%
|
Me and You (Io e te) () |
"
Script and acting are flawless - but set beside Bertolucci's glory years (The Conformist, Last Tango In Paris, Novecento) it all feels a bit slight."
—
Total Film
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
82%
|
Papadopoulos & Sons () |
"
Yes, it's sentimental and predictable, but there's a warmth and charm about Marcus Markou's feature debut that makes it hard to resist."
—
Total Film
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
73%
|
A Place in the Sun (1951) |
"
Most of Dreiser's acrid social satire is smoothed away by Stevens' grandiose style, and it's all too stately to be affecting."
—
Total Film
Posted Feb 4, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
63%
|
Hitchcock (2012) |
"
A breezy, lightweight account of the making of a classic. Some of the casting may be questionable, but in the end it's the "cattle" who carry it."
—
Total Film
Posted Jan 18, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
95%
|
Midnight Son (2012) |
"
Leberecht plays games with vampire lore, but skirts around it with a subtlety and delicacy that lends his film emotional depths rare in low-budget horror."
—
Total Film
Posted Dec 17, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
73%
|
The Music Lovers (1971) |
"
It's unashamedly vulgar and, if you switch off critical filters, enormous fun."
—
Total Film
Posted Apr 30, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
22%
|
Elles (2012) |
"
Binoche is, as always, superb, but Malgorzata Szumowska's film won't tell you much about the oldest profession that you didn't already know - and Binoche's marital clashes feel like a standard feminist tract circa 1975."
—
Total Film
Posted Apr 9, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
98%
|
Oslo, August 31st (2012) |
"
Anders Danielsen Lie gives a compelling, deep-etched lead turn, and you'll find yourself drawn in as he searches for a reason to continue living."
—
Total Film
Posted Nov 2, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
60%
|
Real Steel (2011) |
"
Only those with a heart of tin could resist."
—
Total Film
Posted Oct 7, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
64%
|
Guilty Of Romance (2013) |
"
Filmed in garish colours like an explosion in a paint factory, it's more style than content, but diverting all the same."
—
Total Film
Posted Sep 21, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
83%
|
The Salt of Life (2012) |
"
It may be on the slight side, but this is a poignant comedy, charming and melancholy."
—
Total Film
Posted Aug 4, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
67%
|
Jack Goes Boating (2010) |
"
It's all a tad schematic, and the direction is workmanlike but cautious."
—
Total Film
Posted Jun 20, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
83%
|
Potiche (2011) |
"
This is feminism-lite and director François Ozon plays it for laughs, revelling in his pastel vision of the '70s."
—
Total Film
Posted Jun 8, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
100%
|
Love Like Poison (Un Poison Violent) () |
"
The melodramatic title won't do it any favours, as Katell Quillévéré's debut feature is a quiet, sensitive study of a 14-year-old girl beset by adolescent confusion."
—
Total Film
Posted May 9, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
94%
|
Win Win (2011) |
"
Some accomplished turns, and the mood of downbeat quirkiness has its appeal. Plot contrivances scupper it though, and given McCarthy's track record it's a letdown."
—
Total Film
Posted May 9, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
75%
|
The Way Back (2011) |
"
It's all painstakingly done - but not quite as involving as it should be."
—
Total Film
Posted Dec 23, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
90%
|
Easier with Practice (2009) |
"
Based on a men's mag article, Kyle Patrick Alvarez's debut feature is an honest, funny-sad portrayal of emotional dysfunction."
—
Total Film
Posted Dec 8, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
100%
|
Into Eternity (2011) |
"
Thought-stirring stuff -- but it tediously makes the same point over and over again."
—
Total Film
Posted Nov 10, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
95%
|
The Arbor (2011) |
"
It's a powerful story, but muddled by the nagging distraction of having these voices lip-synched by actors."
—
Total Film
Posted Oct 21, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
96%
|
Restrepo (2010) |
"
Built around hand-held reportage, the film passes no judgement on the rightness or otherwise of the occupation. But the sense of bewilderment and futility speaks for itself."
—
Total Film
Posted Oct 7, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
70%
|
Ondine (2010) |
"
A sweet, lyrical treatment of the perennial 'woman from the sea' myth, well acted and beautifully shot amid Irish coastal landscapes. But the last degree of enchantment is missing."
—
Total Film
Posted Mar 5, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
76%
|
Invictus (2009) |
"
An undeniably stirring, if predictable, account of how Nelson Mandela turned the Springbok team into a unifying force for his country. Non-rugby fans may find their patience tested, but Freeman's magisterial performance carries it."
—
Total Film
Posted Feb 5, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
71%
|
The Boys Are Back (2009) |
"
Often touching, more often infuriating account of an ex-pat Brit journo in Oz exploring the how-to of father-son bonding. But even if you're grinding your teeth, the film's brash exuberance and its lead actor will keep you watching."
—
Total Film
Posted Jan 22, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
95%
|
Hofshat Kaits (My Father My Lord) (2008) |
"
A compelling, saddening film."
—
Total Film
Posted Jan 5, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
79%
|
Nowhere Boy (2010) |
"
No surprises in this account of the troubled pre-Beatles adolescence of John Lennon, but sharp scripting and a pair of outstanding performances lift it out of routine biopic territory."
—
Total Film
Posted Dec 18, 2009
|
|
3/5
|
85%
|
Me and Orson Welles (2009) |
"
A diverting period comedy-drama, but slight compared to Linklater at his sharpest. Worth catching, though, for newcomer Christian McKay's magisterial portrayal of the young Welles in all his moody, manipulative glory."
—
Total Film
Posted Dec 4, 2009
|
|
3/5
|
96%
|
BirdWatchers - La terra degli uomini rossi (2008) |
"
Marco Bechis' crusading film sets up some fairly predictable clashes. But it's redeemed by the casting of actual Guarani tribespeople in the lead roles - and as actors, the Guarani prove themselves superb naturals."
—
Total Film
Posted Sep 18, 2009
|
|
3/5
|
100%
|
Sztuczki (Tricks) (2009) |
"
Andrzej Jakimowski's gentle comedy has hazy, loopy summer charm by the bucketload, enough to make you overlook the often wayward plotting and shaky motivations."
—
Total Film
Posted Sep 4, 2009
|
|
3/5
|
70%
|
La Habitación de Fermat (Fermat's Room) (2009) |
"
This feature debut for co-directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopeña is never quite as clever as it thinks it is, and there are some sizeable holes in the plot. Still, with its teasing sense of play, you won't be crawling the walls."
—
Total Film
Posted May 29, 2009
|
|
3/5
|
89%
|
O' Horten (2007) |
"
A film of dour but appealing charm."
—
Total Film
Posted May 8, 2009
|
|
3/5
|
83%
|
Kirschblüten - Hanami (Cherry Blossoms) (2008) |
"
An affectionate, gentle film, if marred by sentimentality."
—
Total Film
Posted Apr 3, 2009
|
|
3/5
|
86%
|
Unrelated (2008) |
"
If Eric Rohmer were British, this is the kind of film he'd make."
—
Total Film
Posted Sep 19, 2008
|
72%
81%
63%
52%
26%
4%
