|
71%
|
Wish You Were Here (2013)
|
"Whatever sentiments the title 'Wish You Were Here' evokes in you, flush them. Here is no lighthearted vacation comedy but, instead, a well-acted "psychological thriller" with few thrills but much angst."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
The Brasher Doubloon (The High Window) (1947)
|
"... something of a B+ movie, a low-budget treatment of Raymond Chandler's "The High Window" made with ambition and style, at least in key scenes."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
92%
|
No (2013)
|
"This battle and this triumph of an ad executive makes NO the first great film of 2013, and Bernal's performance the one that will be the hardest to outshine. "
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
86%
|
Madrid, 1987 (2012)
|
"Seldom has a great film accomplished so much with so little. Well, that's if you consider an insanely quotable screenplay so little."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
80%
|
The Other Son (2012)
|
"An unbelievable situation becomes remarkably tangible here and oh so pertinent."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
Going South (Plein sud) (2009)
|
"Worth viewing if you can enjoy a world populated by distraught people who all look like supermodels yet can act."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
Crayfish (Raci) ()
|
"A slight Bulgarian comic tragedy in which two poor pals do each other in by accident after being hired by warring crime lords."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
84%
|
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
|
"The film often soars into the imaginary heavens of delight but then just as quickly sputters and crash lands due to Coppola's leaden helming."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
79%
|
Klown (2012)
|
"Every seemingly happy resolution sets up the next catastrophe."
|
Steve Dollar
|
|
97%
|
Paul Williams Still Alive (2012)
|
"Short and snappy, Paul Williams: Still Alive adroitly juxtaposes an archaic form of fame with one of its practitioners' present-day survival. "
|
Vadim Rizov
|
|
71%
|
The Giant Mechanical Man (2012)
|
"A solid summer palate cleanser to savor between all those main courses of superhero wham-a-thons."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
Francophrenia (Or Don't Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is) ()
|
"In '127 Hours,' James Franco hacked away at his arm. During 'Francophrenia,' you might just wish he did the same to his head. "
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
89%
|
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
|
"It's Gene Wilder, at the top of his form, who makes this uneasy amalgam work, but [Mel] Stuart must surely deserve some of the credit..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
78%
|
Caroline And Jackie (2013)
|
"Marguerite Moreau (Caroline) and Bitsy Tulloch (Jackie) play their yin/yang roles with a gleaming intensity as the story veers increasingly stranger and darker."
|
Steve Dollar
|
|
85%
|
The Hunger Games (2012)
|
"The basic problems stem from the lackluster direction and the witless, bare-bones screenplay. This is sort of a BookRags.com take on a classic. You get the characters and the plot basics, but the art is missing. "
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
A Life Ascending (2010)
|
"Stephen Grynberg might be the Rick Santorum of filmmakers, and like Santorum, Grynberg might actually believe that how he addresses an issue is a completely fair one. "
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
71%
|
Hanna (2011)
|
"A sour, empty graphic novel of an escapade from the man who once helmed 'Atonement,' 'Hanna' gets intensely more godawful as it approaches its climax."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
81%
|
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
|
"What could up have amounted to a highly moving work of art is constantly diminished by low-grade TV sitcom humor such as can be found on any series starring Kevin James or James Belushi."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
The Wrecking Crew (2008)
|
"This sing-along, joyful doc unearths a group of musicians who actually played all the music on the LPS by the Byrds, Cher, Nancy and Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, the Monkees, and Captain and Tennille. A must to see and listen to."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
75%
|
Elegy (2008)
|
"Your final affection for this literary treat of sorts is how well you accept the finale, which is touching, and intellectually potent, yet possibly one depressant too many. "
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
92%
|
Ballast (2008)
|
"His brilliant "Ballast" was as much a hit in Seattle as it was at Sundance."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
Epitaph (Gidam) (2009)
|
"A Japanese morgue-based horror film lacking in much horror"
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
53%
|
Battle in Seattle (2008)
|
"This thriller will inspire any leftie cells you might possess to stand up and cheer. "
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
73%
|
Romeo & Juliet in Yiddish (2011)
|
"If Shakespeare were alive today and in good health, as I'd wish him to be in, he'd probably be begging for a circumcision to honor this little film that gets the gist of his most famous tragedy down pretty well."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
23%
|
Angels Crest (2011)
|
"We watch as this open wound of a father slowly fragments. Thanks to Dekker's brave, nuanced performance, this vision is simultaneously thrilling and harrowing."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
Mr. Scarface (I padroni della città) (1976)
|
"... a mix of caper, revenge and gang war movies rolled into a neat package ..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Tomorrow We Live ()
|
"... total propaganda cinema of triumph and tragedy, a very British drama of the French resistance in World War II."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
97%
|
A Film Unfinished (2010)
|
"Painful, eye-opening, and extraordinarily necessary to view, especially by the young to whom the Holocaust is nowadays too abstract a notion to fully mentally envision in all of its grotesqueness"
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
73%
|
Heartbeats (2011)
|
"The magic of Heartbeats is comprised not just of its subtle acting, but also of it colors, music, fashions, editing, and cinematography. If it isn't perfect, it promises that Dolan in coming years will constantly be closing in on perfection."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
58%
|
Kaboom (2011)
|
"Araki, who must be applauded at least for brazenly championing bisexuality, really should have saved the title of his 1994 effort for this one: Totally F***ed Up."
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
Blow Job (1963)
|
"When the film was screened for a bunch of Columbia University students, they started singing, 'We Shall Never Come!'"
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
52%
|
The Next Three Days (2010)
|
"In the end, you get a thriller that's basically about nothing and not that thrilling. This is a product made to place in theaters like a can of Del Monte Sliced Peaches is manufactured for a grocery shelf. "
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
47%
|
Hereafter (2010)
|
"According to Eastwood and Morgan (who had much better luck with his screenplays on Queen Elizabeth, Idi Amin, and David Frost), people die so two self-indulgent souls can finally find true love while dreadful music plays in the background. "
|
Brandon Judell
|
|
——
|
Frank Sinatra - The Main Event (1991)
|
"While this 1974 concert does not capture Sinatra at his prime, his tone improves over the course of the set and his phrasing remains as seemingly effortless as ever."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
37%
|
From Paris with Love (2010)
|
"Morel's underrated eye and knack for making kinetic movement rhythmic and easy to follow elevates Besson's run-of-the-mill, mismatched-buddy thriller into a propulsive, enjoyably Eurotrashy entertainment."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
92%
|
Une femme mariée: Suite de fragments d'un film tourné en 1964 (A Married Woman) (1964)
|
"... effortlessly and damningly dissect[s] the ugliness of beauty culture."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
83%
|
Nenette and Boni (Nénette et Boni) (1996)
|
"It's a melodramatic premise on paper that, in the wrong hands, might have succumbed to the sensationalism of its mildly incestuous undertones."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
——
|
Stingray Sam (2009)
|
"From rockabilly freakouts to an acoustic lullaby, the soundtrack here is diverse, catchy and easily the film's most exuberantly charming quality."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
95%
|
L'année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) (1961)
|
"An incontestably iconic and beautiful curiosity that simply hasn't held up as the masterpiece it's gushed to be."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
25%
|
Lookin' to Get Out (1982)
|
"As duplicitous as its rogue's gallery of lowlifes, the film situates the raw, loose stylings of '70s Hollywood ... in a glitzy, corny '80s vehicle."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
82%
|
Absurdistan (2008)
|
"A simplistic, straightforward tale that's beautifully staged with the same wave of the magical-realism wand that powers Jeunet & Caro's Delicatessen."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
21%
|
Next Day Air (2009)
|
"Updates the spirit of blaxploitation without feeling pressed to worship or satirize it."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
89%
|
O' Horten (2007)
|
"If you can settle into [Baard Owe's] playful deadpan rhythms, a bittersweetly funny, existential mystery -- or call it a modest adventure, if that's not too oxymoronic -- awaits."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
55%
|
Hardware (1990)
|
"Its psychedelic unease, heavy-metal textures, nihilistic humor, DIY artistry and ... frights are still gloriously entertaining after two decades of special-effects advancements."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
——
|
High School Record (2005)
|
"Naturalistic, semi-improvised series of awkward comic vignettes ... nails the liberating/frightening social moments of post-pubescence in all their riches of embarrassments."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
21%
|
Spread (2009)
|
"Spread eventually reveals a gloomy raincloud of a moral meditation about unhealthy lifestyles and self-delusion."
|
Aaron Hillis
|
|
29%
|
Provoked (2007)
|
"A melodrama dressed up just enough to hold interest, in the retelling of an undeniably important story."
|
Craig Phillips
|
|
70%
|
I Am Legend (2007)
|
"I Am Legend is three film genres for the price of one: Science Fiction, Action, and Horror, and while it's no classic in any one arena it remains edgy fun."
|
Craig Phillips
|
|
81%
|
Fong juk (Exiled) (2006)
|
"Exiled veers on the pretentious ...but the whole thing has such a humor about itself that it's hard to carp about it."
|
Craig Phillips
|
|
50%
|
Days of Glory (1945)
|
"A terrifically gripping WWII drama that manages to balance introspection with bursts of battlefield action."
|
Craig Phillips
|
75%
80%
62%
52%
26%
4%
