|
4/4
|
98%
|
Before Midnight (2013) |
"
Offers a remarkably intimate and provocative study of a marriage."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 6, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Stories We Tell (2013) |
"
After you see it, you'll be practically exploding with questions - and with awe."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 30, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Frances Ha (2013) |
"
A black-and-white salute to the French New Wave (the score is borrowed from Georges Delerue, composer of many a Truffaut and Godard film) that manages to be very much of this moment ..."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 24, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
99%
|
Mud (2013) |
"
Mud is steeped in a sense of place, and the people inhabiting it. Southern. Superstitious. Suspenseful. Sublime."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Apr 25, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Barbara (2012) |
"
Hoss, wearing her blond hair pulled back tight, and wearing an expression of inscrutable melancholy, gives a performance that doesn't feel like a performance at all."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
The Gatekeepers (2013) |
"
As a clear-eyed examination of a conflict that seems to have no end, The Gatekeepers is powerful, provocative stuff."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Feb 28, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
98%
|
56 Up (2013) |
"
What ultimately is so compelling about 56 Up is the universality of the experiences. We were all once children. And we all will die. And in between, there is everything else."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Feb 21, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Amour (2012) |
"
This is a masterpiece."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jan 24, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013) |
"
As a hugely compressed account of the Osama bin Laden manhunt, as a compelling but troubling look at "black ops" tradecraft, and as a riveting portrait of a fiercely determined woman working in a male-dominated sphere, the film is a resounding success."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jan 3, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
82%
|
De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone) (2012) |
"
Audiard, who made the uncompromising prison saga A Prophet, is like a gritty, realist Douglas Sirk - throwing his characters into whirlwind scenarios that are filled with big emotions and fateful turns of events."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Dec 20, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) |
"
A head-spinning wonder of a movie about love and pain, reclamation and the totemic power of a National Football League franchise."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Nov 2, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
The Sessions (2012) |
"
Using only his tilted head, his eyes, nose, and mouth and that quizzical voice, Hawkes brings O'Brien to life."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Nov 1, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Searching for Sugar Man (2012) |
"
Beautiful and revelatory, Searching for Sugar Man also incorporates huge chunks of Rodriguez's music."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 9, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) |
"
Beasts of the Southern Wild is like outsider art: patched together with found materials, conjured up by untrained artists (the actors), and evocative of a truly American attitude of eccentricity, boldness, transcendence."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 12, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) |
"
The usual complaints and caveats about Anderson - he's precious, his characters have no grounding in the real world - can be made about Moonrise Kingdom, but so what?"
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 7, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
75%
|
Surviving Progress (2012) |
"
[A] remarkably cogent, albeit remarkably alarming, film."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 17, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
Pina (2011) |
"
This meditation on movement and space, transportation and transcendence is not to be missed."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jan 26, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
98%
|
The Artist (2011) |
"
Strangely, wonderfully, The Artist feels as bold and innovative a moviegoing experience as James Cameron's bells-and-whistles Avatar did a couple of years ago."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Dec 22, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
89%
|
The Descendants (2011) |
"
Payne introduces a circle of friends and family, and shows us the connections, and conflicts, in play. And he makes it all feel lived-in, real."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Nov 17, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
90%
|
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) |
"
Olsen inhabits Martha's broken world completely. And at the movie's end - a jarring, boldly ambiguous end - we're in her head, too, not sure what is real, and what is not."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Oct 27, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Take Shelter (2011) |
"
A movie for this moment in time, this moment in our lives."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Oct 20, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
The Ides of March (2011) |
"
The Ides of March wields its searchlight over our political landscape and finds a battlefield: a bloody ground of cynicism and fatal compromise."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Oct 6, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
Moneyball (2011) |
"
Don't be surprised to see Pitt in the best-actor Oscar race come the new year."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Sep 22, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
89%
|
The Trip (2011) |
"
A rambling but illuminating odyssey that has as much to do with friendship - and the competition and conflicts that come with it - as it does with celebrating the comedic chops of its two stars."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 16, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
84%
|
The Tree of Life (2011) |
"
[It] not only aspires to change your life - it tries to explain it, from the first cosmic blip to those busy amoebae splitting and multiplying, to jellyfish jellying through the primal seas, to the planets lined up in a row."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 9, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
13 Assassins (2011) |
"
A film, like so many samurai stories (and American westerns) about brotherhood, justice and sacrifice, 13 Assassins is, at turns, thrilling and funny, visually exquisite and emotionally charged."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 12, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
83%
|
The Double Hour (2011) |
"
A beautiful, head-spinning mystery that requires keen attention - and rewards it with a tricky and poetic payoff - The Double Hour is a topflight Euro thriller right up there with Tell No One."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Apr 28, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
99%
|
Bill Cunningham New York (2011) |
"
I love this man, I love this movie."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Mar 31, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Of Gods and Men (2011) |
"
Beauvois' camera is watchful and unobtrusive, panning the monastery and its spartan rooms, documenting the brothers' quotidian tasks, but also the modest ritual, the beauty, the illumination."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Mar 17, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
Poetry (2011) |
"
About guilt and responsibility, about loss, about the terrible things human beings do, and the moments of serenity and spiritual succor to be gleaned from the natural world."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Mar 3, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
90%
|
The Illusionist (L'illusionniste) (2010) |
"
Gorgeous, and full of bittersweet whimsy, The Illusionist is animator Sylvain Chomet's follow-up to his Oscar-nominated The Triplets of Belleville."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jan 20, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
88%
|
White Material (2010) |
"
A mournful, frightening, powerful film."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Dec 9, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
97%
|
A Film Unfinished (2010) |
"
A Film Unfinished is a profoundly unnerving historical document."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Oct 14, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
87%
|
Black Swan (2010) |
"
Wild and woolly, the movie is a breathtaking head trip that hails from a long tradition of backstage melodramas: 42nd Street, A Star Is Born, All About Eve, and, yes, that kitschy '90s relic, Showgirls."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Oct 14, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
97%
|
A Prophet (Un prophete) (2010) |
"
Rahim, with only a few film and TV roles behind him, gives a performance of startling force and subtlety."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Mar 12, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Crazy Heart (2009) |
"
Hand the Oscar to Jeff Bridges right now, and let's be done with it."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jan 14, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
35 Rhums (35 Shots of Rum) (2008) |
"
35 Shots of Rum is visual poetry, but poetry that examines the human condition with insight and illumination."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Dec 3, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) |
"
Witty and wonderful, Fantastic Mr. Fox is the perfect Thanksgiving entertainment..."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Nov 24, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
The Damned United (2009) |
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Oct 9, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
100%
|
Aruitemo Aruitemo (Still Walking) (2008) |
"
Pitch-perfect and profoundly moving..."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Sep 24, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Food, Inc. (2009) |
"
It's not a pretty picture. But Food, Inc. is an essential one."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 18, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
Goodbye Solo (2009) |
"
A quietly soulful study of two very different men."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 7, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
Sugar (2008) |
"
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's film is a modest but masterful triumph."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Apr 23, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
Wendy and Lucy (2008) |
"
Thanks to an extraordinary performance from Michelle Williams and an exceptionally deft hand from her director, this low-budget and loping little film is a genuine heartbreaker."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jan 22, 2009
|
|
4/4
|
91%
|
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains (2008) |
"
A tale of horror, heroism, unimaginable physical challenges, and, yes, cannibalism, Stranded offers the kind of real-life drama that can't help but bring up notions of God, fate, and nature's imposing will."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Dec 11, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) |
"
It doesn't happen often, but when it does, look out: a movie that rocks and rolls, that transports, startles, delights, shocks, seduces. A movie that is, quite simply, great."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Nov 20, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Chop Shop (2008) |
"
Beautifully observed, and beautifully acted by the novice thespian Polanco (culled from a New York City public school), Chop Shop is at once a heartbreaker and a story of hope and the American Dream."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Apr 11, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) |
"
The absolute clarity of the storytelling, the aching authenticity of the performances make for a film that will stay with you for at least as long as the period alluded to in its title. It might stay with you forever."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Feb 7, 2008
|
|
4/4
|
95%
|
The Red Balloon (Le Ballon Rouge) (1956) |
"
A beautiful little meditation on childhood, on imagination literally taking flight."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Dec 13, 2007
|
|
4/4
|
88%
|
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) |
"
Lumet's film is a stunner."
—
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Nov 2, 2007
|
72%
76%
61%
52%
26%
4%
