|
5/5
|
100%
|
Man on Wire (2008) |
"
It is one of the most suspenseful, white-knuckled films of the year."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jan 22, 2008
|
|
5/5
|
98%
|
The Devil Came on Horseback (2007) |
"
The Devil Came on Horseback is a documentary about the genocide in that part of Africa, and the film's strength is that it shows us the horror, rather than tells us about it. It's painful to watch."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Sep 14, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
94%
|
Away from Her (2007) |
"
In Away From Her, four of the best actors in the world turn material worthy of their talents into the best movie of the year so far. The result is moving the way the best-written literature can be, telling us something about ourselves."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted May 10, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
85%
|
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2006) |
"
Few films have ever captured the feel of the desert Southwest better than Tommy Lee Jones' The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Feb 23, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
92%
|
Saraband (2003) |
"
Saraband shows absolutely no sign that Bergman has run out of things to say or ways to say them -- it is as fresh and direct as any he's made."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Aug 4, 2005
|
|
5/5
|
70%
|
Dogville (2003) |
"
It's a tough sit through tough questions."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted May 13, 2004
|
|
5/5
|
85%
|
Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika) (2001) |
"
Everything in the film rings true, is deeply moving, richly photographed, and wonderfully acted."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jun 26, 2003
|
|
4.5/5
|
75%
|
Norwegian Wood (2012) |
"
We cover years at a bound, but when we light, we tend to spend long, lingering moments through the camera's loving eye. This is a beautiful film to see."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Mar 15, 2012
|
|
4.5/5
|
82%
|
Mesrine: Killer Instinct (L'instinct de mort) (2010) |
"
Four hours of French gangsters may not sound like a cinematic joy, but with Euro-star Vincent Cassel in the lead role, the movie is utterly hypnotic."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Aug 12, 2011
|
|
4.5/5
|
96%
|
Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010) |
"
The plain fact is that, on some level, it doesn't matter whether the film is true or not. Either way, it's fascinating. Either way, we learn a lot. Either way, it's a great film."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jun 24, 2010
|
|
4.5/5
|
81%
|
I Served the King of England (2008) |
"
This episodic, picaresque film is one delightful surprise after another, a complete joy to watch."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Sep 11, 2008
|
|
4.5/5
|
85%
|
2 Days in Paris (2007) |
"
The last time I laughed so hard at a movie, it was Nigel Tufnel telling us his amplifier went to 11."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Sep 6, 2007
|
|
4.5/5
|
98%
|
Ten Canoes (2007) |
"
Gulpilil is the canny, subtle and funny narrator of 10 Canoes, a film of unutterable beauty, hypnotic fascination and universal humanity."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Aug 2, 2007
|
|
4.5/5
|
82%
|
The Other Conquest (2007) |
"
[Director] Carrasco uses shadows and mirrors to create effects he has no actual budget for. The lack of money shows on-screen but is cleverly hidden by the director's genius for making us care about his story so much that we forgive all else."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jun 2, 2007
|
|
4.5/5
|
53%
|
Killing Ends (Matando Cabos) (2005) |
"
There isn't any deep message to Matando Cabos; it's pure entertainment."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Aug 25, 2005
|
|
4.5/5
|
86%
|
Howl's Moving Castle (2005) |
"
The world it gives us to live in, for a couple of hours, is pure magic. It is one of those places we might wish never to leave."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jun 16, 2005
|
|
4.5/5
|
89%
|
Brothers (Brødre) (2004) |
"
A profoundly affecting movie, one in which our sympathies lie with everyone."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jun 9, 2005
|
|
4.5/5
|
72%
|
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (2004) |
"
Radford has rendered off the comedy to find the dramatic skeleton underneath. It is an approach that works stunningly well and is perhaps the only way the play can now be done."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Mar 10, 2005
|
|
4.5/5
|
78%
|
A Very Long Engagement (2004) |
"
Artifice, this brilliantly handled, is its own excuse."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Dec 16, 2004
|
|
4/5
|
95%
|
Pina (2011) |
"
For anyone with an interest in dance, "Pina" is a must-see. For anyone not interested in contemporary dance, "Pina" is a should-see. It could change your mind."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Feb 9, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
84%
|
My Afternoons with Margueritte (2011) |
"
The film is leisurely paced, as many French films are, and not much actually happens, but as a character study, it feels true, and ultimately moving."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Sep 22, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
88%
|
Nora's Will (Cinco dias sin Nora) (2010) |
"
This is a very wise film, without any stench of didacticism: Through it all, the abiding power - like the strong force of an atomic bond - is not love exactly, but relationship, the net that wraps us all together and holds us fast."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Mar 24, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
62%
|
Howl (2010) |
"
The film forces us to face what a powerful poem "Howl" remains. That poetry isn't just pretty language, it has the ability to make us think about our lives, even to change our lives."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Oct 21, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
57%
|
Bran Nue Dae (2010) |
"
Bran Nue Dae is an infectiously joyful Australian Aboriginal musical."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Sep 23, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
32%
|
A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop (San qiang pai an jing qi) (A Simple Noodle Story) (The First Gun) (2010) |
"
It takes real chutzpah to challenge the Coen brothers when it comes to stylization in movies, but Chinese director Zhang Yimou has done just that."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Sep 23, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
70%
|
Women Without Men (Zanan-e bedun-e mardan) (2010) |
"
It seduces us with imagery and metaphor."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted May 27, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
89%
|
Séraphine (2009) |
"
What makes this slow, intense film so compelling is its persuasive creation of complex characters: You scarcely believe Moreau is an actor and that the film isn't, on some level, archival footage of the real painter."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jan 29, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
85%
|
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (The Baader Meinhof Complex) (2008) |
"
The Baader-Meinhof Complex is not an easy film to watch; its violence is ugly and brutish. And there's a lot of it."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Oct 1, 2009
|
|
4/5
|
94%
|
Ne le Dis à Personne (Tell No One) (2006) |
"
Tell No One is a French action thriller and murder mystery that doesn't cheat."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Aug 28, 2008
|
|
4/5
|
96%
|
Up the Yangtze (2007) |
"
The movie never editorializes; it simply presents. It is tragedy, not statistics."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jul 10, 2008
|
|
4/5
|
88%
|
Reprise (2006) |
"
If you are young, male and dream of making a name for yourself in the arts, Reprise is about the joys and sufferings of that quest: It is a Jules and Jim for the punk-rock generation."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jun 12, 2008
|
|
4/5
|
87%
|
Meduzot (Jellyfish) (2008) |
"
Most of the first hour passes without much more forward motion than its namesake. But in the corners and niches of that slow development, we get to know a handful of people, crisply drawn in fast sketches."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jun 5, 2008
|
|
4/5
|
88%
|
Roman de Gare (Crossed Tracks) (2007) |
"
Don't go to the theater expecting too much and you can't help but leave with a smile on your face."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted May 22, 2008
|
|
4/5
|
88%
|
Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2004) |
"
Imaginary Witness is powerful and complex, and few will manage to make it through to the end without gasping, weeping or covering their eyes."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Feb 7, 2008
|
|
4/5
|
89%
|
The Savages (2007) |
"
Although the story may sound as dismal as Buffalo's weather, it's surprisingly funny. Not gag funny, but observation funny -- the absurdities of real life, seen and presented."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Dec 20, 2007
|
|
4/5
|
94%
|
My Kid Could Paint That (2007) |
"
Documentarian Amir Bar-Lev began making a film about whether Modern art is a scam and whether a 4-year-old painter from Binghampton, N.Y., might not be as good as Picasso. But Bar-Lev ended making a film instead about whether the 4-year-old is a scam."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Nov 1, 2007
|
|
4/5
|
86%
|
When the Road Bends...tales of a Gypsy Caravan (2007) |
"
If you have any ear for non-Western music, Gypsy Caravan is a must."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Sep 6, 2007
|
|
4/5
|
82%
|
Talk to Me (2007) |
"
Don Cheadle has elevated yet another film: Talk to Me is better than it intends to be. But thank Ejiofor as well."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jul 26, 2007
|
|
4/5
|
86%
|
Steel City (2007) |
"
Steel City is gritty, blue-collar and surprisingly dry-eyed. If it hadn't been a movie, it could have been a song off Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska album."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jun 28, 2007
|
|
4/5
|
74%
|
La Vie en Rose (La Mome) (2007) |
"
Don't bother voting. Just give the Oscar to Marion Cotillard now. As the chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, her acting is the most astonishing I've seen in years."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jun 21, 2007
|
|
4/5
|
74%
|
Avenue Montaigne (Fauteuils d'orchestre) (Orchestra Seats) (2006) |
"
When it all wraps up as neatly as the treacliest Hollywood film, we don't feel cheated, but rather enjoy the satisfaction of a story resolved, and we're happy for each of the people we have spent our hour with."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Mar 31, 2007
|
|
4/5
|
19%
|
I Think I Love My Wife (2007) |
"
I Think I Love My Wife is a surprisingly grown-up film. With only a minimum of gross-out humor - which may disappoint his fans - it gives us an adult take on relationships and a take the younger film audience may not be willing to hear."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Mar 15, 2007
|
|
4/5
|
91%
|
Iraq in Fragments (2006) |
"
James Longley's devastating documentary Iraq in Fragments has neither narration nor obvious political ax to grind, but it manages to tell us something about Iraq that we aren't getting or can't get from standard news coverage."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Feb 22, 2007
|
|
4/5
|
32%
|
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) |
"
As a biopic, it is as meretricious as most, but as a myth about love and loss, about otherness and identity, about compassion and revulsion, about fetishism and sex, about art and life, it will likely stay with you for days."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Nov 21, 2006
|
|
4/5
|
76%
|
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) |
"
Like an O'Neill play, its virtues are not in well-constructed ideas but in the emotional catharses it wrings out of its audience."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Oct 26, 2006
|
|
4/5
|
90%
|
Half Nelson (2006) |
"
It's interested in how real people, not movie characters, might act in the situation. It is about all the gray areas, all the complexities, all the layers of meaning."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Sep 7, 2006
|
|
4/5
|
82%
|
Tsotsi (Thug) (2006) |
"
A deeply moving portrait of a human being, suffering in life and not having any handle on how to deal with it. It's tragedy, not melodrama."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Mar 24, 2006
|
|
4/5
|
89%
|
Cache (Hidden) (2005) |
"
This is a film you will be discussing for days, trying to figure out what actually happened and why."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Feb 9, 2006
|
|
4/5
|
84%
|
De Zaak Alzheimer (The Memory of a Killer) (The Alzheimer Case) (2005) |
"
It is distinguished by the intelligence of its plotting and the fullness of its characterizations: These are believable people, not merely plot fodder."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Dec 24, 2005
|
|
4/5
|
99%
|
Moolaadé (2004) |
"
It's certainly clear where the director stands on the issue, but underneath is a far richer film about the complex issues of globalization and the values of tradition."
—
Arizona Republic
Posted Jul 21, 2005
|
87%
24%
91%
85%
45%
40%
