William Wolf

Agrees with the Tomatometer 75% of the time.

Biography:
WILLIAM WOLF, who publishes the WOLF ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE on the web, is a critic, author, journalist and lecturer. He writes extensively on film and stage and teaches film courses at New York University. He was formerly film critic for the Gannett newspaper chain, a critic and contributing editor for New York Magazine and the film critic of Cue Magazine. His articles have appeared in newspapers throughout the country, national magazines and prestigious annuals. Mr. Wolf served two terms as chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. He is currently a member of the National Society of Film Critics, the Online Film Critics Society, the Drama Desk, P.E.N. and the American Association of University Professors. He has covered film festivals throughout the world, including those in Cannes, Moscow, Budapest, Berlin, Toronto and New York, and has served on the juries of the Chicago and Miami film festivals. During his career he has interviewed many luminaries of film, theater and the world of entertainment. At New York University, he is known for his courses on Film as Literature in the English Department, Cinema and Literature in the French Department, and The Screening Room preview course at Lincoln Center's Walter reade Theater for NYU's School of Continuing andProfessional Studies. Mr. Wolf is the author of two books, Landmark Films: The Cinema and Our Century, written in collaboration with Lillian Kramer Wolf, and The Marx Brothers.
Publications:
Wolf Entertainment Guide
Critics' Group:
National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Online, Online Film Critics Society
Total Reviews:
1940
Location:
New York, NY

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 1940
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
A 77% Augustine (2013) " Compelling, sensual story of a real-life 19th Century French neurologist and his attractive young female patient suffering from seizures and on display to doctors as a cure is sought and sexuality looms. " — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted May 17, 2013
A 96% Stories We Tell (2013) " Canadian writer-director Sarah Polley creatively examines her family history using real people and actors, plus photos and film clips, with humor and a dramatic revelation. Unusually creative." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted May 10, 2013
C - 49% The Great Gatsby (2013) " Director Baz Luhrmann trashes Fitzgerald's work in a wrong-headed, tasteless production. Only when the noisy soundtrack and hectic editing die down do we get to enjoy the good cast in dramatic moments. Otherwise, more headache than heartache." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted May 10, 2013
A 85% What Maisie Knew (2013) " Dysfunctional adults seen through the eyes of a six-year-old girl caught in the middle. Will she finally find the love and care she needs? " — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted May 3, 2013
A - 73% Love Is All You Need (2013) " Mother of the bride and father of the groom find romance amid hectic wedding plans in Italy's Sorrento with multiple family complications. Ultimately colorful and charming despite excesses. " — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted May 3, 2013
B 51% Post Tenebras Lux (2013) " You can undergo brain strain if you try too hard to decipher meanings, but Mexican writer-director Carlos Reygadas has a gift for imagery that will linger in your mind." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted May 1, 2013
B 62% Paradise: Love (2013) " Austrian women head for Kenya to have sex with young African men. Very explicit scenes and also on the pathetic side." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Apr 26, 2013
A 54% The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) " Mira Nair's intense and timely thriller about a Pakistani in search of the American dream who becomes disillusioned and hostile when he is discriminated against and mistreated after 9/11." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Apr 26, 2013
A - 88% In the House (2013) " French high school teacher aids student with talent for writing, but student's deviousness and teacher's ethical lapse lead to dire consequences." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Apr 19, 2013
A 88% The Angels' Share (2013) " Glasgow misfits get a chance to change their lives in a clever highly entertaining comedy by director Ken Loach involving a caper at a whisky distillery. English subtitles eliminate problem understanding brogue." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Apr 12, 2013
B + 55% The Company You Keep (2013) " Idealists who resorted to lethal volience against Vietnam War but have resumed new identities are outed in drama raisng questions of whether they were justified" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Apr 5, 2013
A 77% Renoir (2013) " Beautifully filmed drama about the latter days of the great artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his relationship with son Jean before he became the great filmmaker." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Mar 29, 2013
A 96% Blancanieves (2013) " Remarkable film from Spain riffing on the "Snow White" fairy tale in pristine black and white and rooted in the world of bullfighting with originality, excellent acting and bullfighting dwarfs." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Mar 29, 2013
C 43% Admission (2013) " Tina Fey as a Princeton University admissions official in a romantic comedy mess that could have been satirical fun had the screenwriter known when to stop piling on complications." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Mar 22, 2013
A - 79% Ginger & Rosa (2013) " Teenage pals in 1960s London have growing up experiences including angst from a betrayal, with a special performance by remarkable actress Elle Fanning as Ginger." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Mar 15, 2013
A 79% Reality (2013) " Naples fishmonger becomes obsessed with getting on a reality show named "Big Brother" and the obsession turns to paranoia in this multi-layered comedy-drama with a great lead performance." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Mar 15, 2013
A 96% War Witch (2013) " Poignant story of an African 12-year-old seized in her raided village, forced to become a solider and subjected to a life of rape and violence." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Mar 1, 2013
B - 46% The Sweeney (2013) " Ray Winstone excels as a ruthless cop in this British crime drama that is short on credibility but long on action." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Mar 1, 2013
B 19% Inescapable (2013) " Father attempts to free daughter in thriller timely as a result of today's upheaval in Syria." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Feb 22, 2013
A - 82% Like Someone in Love (2013) " Irianian writer-director Abbas Kiarostami sets a well-told story in Tokyo, where an elderly man befriends a young call girl in a situation likely to end badly." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Feb 15, 2013
A - 67% Porfirio (2013) " Man in Colombia paralized from waist down by police bullet is seen with all the difficulties of his life, including how he has sex, but meanwhile plots revenge." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Feb 8, 2013
C 20% Identity Thief (2013) " Premise of stolen identity driven into the ground by crass comedy aiming for the lowest common denminator and hiting it." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Feb 8, 2013
B 85% Side Effects (2013) " Starting out as well cast film about abusive pill popping, film veers into a far-fetched crime tale slickly directed by Steven Soderbergh but a let=down." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Feb 8, 2013
A 91% Caesar Must Die (2013) " Writer-directors Paolo and Vittorio Tavianigo get Italian prisoners to perform in a makeshift Italian language adaptation of "Julius Caesar" with amazing, touching results revealing raw talent and potential beyond prison walls." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Feb 6, 2013
A 89% Koch (2013) " Documentary about the life and times of New York's colorful three-term mayor, with the positives and negatives of his reign against a background of the city's history." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Feb 1, 2013
A - 46% Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary (2013) " Documentary salute to Mumia Abu-Jamal, improsoned and given a death sentence for the killing of a policemen, a crime which he has denied committing, and now a renowned symbol of injustice" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Feb 1, 2013
C - 4% Movie 43 (2013) " In-your-face raunchy, politically and socially incorrect crass comedy pushing the envelope to the limit. Some sketches funny, some merely in bad taste, but stars doing the down and dirty add interest. " — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Jan 27, 2013
—— Alone (1998) Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Jan 22, 2013
A - 98% 56 Up (2013) " A fascinating follow-up on the lives of 56-year-old Brits filmed intermittently since they were youngsters." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Jan 4, 2013
A 51% Promised Land (2013) " Hotshot salesman tries to convince locals in Midwest town to sign over rights to explore for natural gas on their lands, and battle over fracking and the environment ensues." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 28, 2012
B 88% Django Unchained (2012) " Writer-director Quentin Tarantino's blaxploitation action film about pre-Civil War slavery mixes smart-assed humor and violence as ex-slave Django teams up with bounty hunter on mission to free slave wife" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 28, 2012
A - 95% West of Memphis (2012) " Documentary aboout three youths wrongly convicted for murder in 1993 and finally released in 2011. " — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 25, 2012
B + 81% The Impossible (2012) " Tale of a family's miraculous survival of the 2004 tsunami made utterly realistic by digital and special effects." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 21, 2012
A 93% Barbara (2012) " Doctor in East Germany plots to leave, but responsibilities and a new reltionship pose questions for her to resolve in this top-notch film " — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 21, 2012
A - 45% On the Road (2012) " Adaptation of Jack Kerouac's culturally and historically important work captures the era and the characters that set the tone and the scene" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 21, 2012
A 93% Amour (2012) " Emotionally shattering French drama mixing love and old age with great performances by acting icons Jean-Louis Trintingant and Emmmanuelle Riva." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 19, 2012
A 65% The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) " Smashing new film verson of the stage musical with outstanding performances by Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and others." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 18, 2012
A 93% Zero Dark Thirty (2013) " Exciting drama depicting hunt and killing of Osama bin Laden" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 18, 2012
B 37% Stand Up Guys (2013) " Al Pacino, Chhristopher Walken and Alan Arkin as over-the-hill gangsters take one last fling" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Dec 14, 2012
A - 56% Love, Marilyn (2012) " An exploration of Marilyn Monroe's life from various angles, with actresses giving voice to the icon's words." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Nov 30, 2012
c - 50% What A Man (2012) " Heavy-handed German romantic comedy about a dullard who tries to become more manly to impress women" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Nov 30, 2012
A 92% The Gatekeepers (2013) " Six former heads of Israel's Secret Service (Shin Bet) talk revealingly about their operations and views" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Nov 26, 2012
A - 63% Hitchcock (2012) " Odd but entertaining look at Hitchcock struggling to make "Psycho" with Anthony Hopkins as the great man and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Nov 23, 2012
A 82% De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone) (2012) " Tough French film starring Marion Cottilard as a woman who suffers the loss of both legs in an accident and Matthias Schtoenaerts as the roughneck, erratic and erotic friend who changes her life." — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Nov 23, 2012
A - 88% Life of Pi (2012) " Stirring, fabulously filmed adventure tale of shipwrecked Indian lad suriving in a lifeboat with dangerous (digitally created) tiger" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Nov 22, 2012
A 94% The Central Park Five (2012) " Moving story of five finally exonerated youths wrongly imprisoned in Manhattan jogger rape case that produced hysterical cry for convictions, resulting in false confessions" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Nov 22, 2012
C 64% Anna Karenina (2012) " Adaptation of Tolstoy novel opulent but sunk by lack of emotional involvement" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Nov 16, 2012
A 98% Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God (2012) " Lacerating documentary about the abuse of deaf children by a priest and the cover-up that reaches into the Vatican" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Nov 16, 2012
25% Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) " Story of courageous Kevin Laue, who despite having only one arm, became a successful basketball player" — Wolf Entertainment Guide
Posted Oct 28, 2012
Showing 1 - 50 of 1940
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