|
93%
|
Secret Sunshine (2010)
|
"An exemplary examination of coping that expands to entail questions of morality, absolution and faith."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
83%
|
Our Beloved Month of August (2010)
|
"Doesn't so much blend disparate genres as collapse them into a uniquely evocative collage."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
98%
|
Inside Job (2010)
|
"An exhaustively infuriating recap of the causes and effects of our country's three decade-commitment to financial deregulation."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
72%
|
I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)
|
"With uneven if generally charming results ... [it] straddles the fine line between outrageous farce and heartfelt romance."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
90%
|
Ne change rien (2010)
|
"A film dreamily in love with the equally inspiring and tedious work of art."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
88%
|
White Material (2010)
|
"A visually ravishing, structurally beguiling portrait of post-colonial race-conflict as a hallucinatory apocalyptic dream."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
86%
|
Le refuge (Hideaway (Le refuge)) (2010)
|
"An unconvincing ending doesn't derail the otherwise nuanced complexity of François Ozon's latest investigation of female alienation, sexuality and maternity."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
32%
|
All Good Things (2010)
|
"[Offers] merely tantalizing speculation from afar rather than up-close-and-personal character and thematic insights."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
66%
|
The American (2010)
|
"In terms of tone, character and fatalism, an American rendition of Jean-Pierre Melville's seminal existential Euro-noirs."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
93%
|
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
|
"A long-form sitcom overly pleased with its own progressiveness."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
77%
|
Amer (2010)
|
"Duplicates the style and hothouse psychosexual passions of its '70s predecessors with such self-consciousness that little unsettling emotion emerges."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
58%
|
Make Out With Violence (2011)
|
"A dreadfully pretentious genre-bender about the pain of unrequited love."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
98%
|
Marwencol (2010)
|
"May be aesthetically rough around the edges but it nonetheless offers an empathetic view on a stunningly unique figure."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
87%
|
Black Swan (2010)
|
"A consistently gripping bit of operatic lunacy."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
90%
|
Tangled (2010)
|
"May not break any new ground, but for better and worse, it's the most inoffensive Princess affair to date."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
93%
|
Lourdes (2010)
|
"[An] aesthetically and tonally controlled knockout."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
90%
|
October Country (2009)
|
"[An] intensely raw, empathetic non-fiction portrait."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
94%
|
45365 (2009)
|
"Crafts a symphonic sense of time and place, and in doing so locates the profound in the prosaic."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
70%
|
Ondine (2010)
|
"Understated in its subversion of, and then canny adherence to, its chosen folklore"
|
Nick Schager
|
|
93%
|
127 Hours (2010)
|
"The director refuses to allow a minute to pass free from intrusive embellishment."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
39%
|
Due Date (2010)
|
"May be the year's least amusing comedy."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
79%
|
Fair Game (2010)
|
"Has all the excitement (and less of the depth) of a Wikipedia entry on the subject."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
61%
|
The Kids Grow Up (2010)
|
"Unwittingly provides a glimpse of the unhealthy and potentially damaging parental desire to preserve and memorialize every second of family life."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
68%
|
Conviction (2010)
|
"Goldwyn blunts every potentially sharp edge from his film."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
82%
|
Solitary Man (2010)
|
"Koppelman?s script is awash in phony scenarios."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
96%
|
Restrepo (2010)
|
"Captures the complex human face of modern warfare."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
55%
|
Mao's Last Dancer (2010)
|
"Woefully creaky and corny."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
12%
|
Love Ranch (2010)
|
"A misbegotten jumble that clumsily synthesizes various incongruous elements."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
76%
|
Let it Rain (Parlez-moi de la pluie) (2010)
|
"Incapable of rising above mere pleasantness."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
60%
|
Frozen (2010)
|
"Green?s nifty framing, dawning-dread pacing, and fixation on corporeal deterioration proves sturdy."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
66%
|
Tamara Drewe (2010)
|
"Modernizes its source material in only superficial, ho-hum ways."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
52%
|
I'm Still Here (2010)
|
"A clever stunt that shrewdly wrestles with issues of fame, truth and self."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
94%
|
The Town (2010)
|
"Treats its stock dynamics and themes with respectful professionalism."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
89%
|
Let Me In (2010)
|
"The gist remains the same, and in some cases improved upon."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
88%
|
Certified Copy (Copie Conforme) (2011)
|
"An astonishingly multilayered portrait of a romantic relationship that doubles as a commentary on the value of reproductions - and, thus, the cinema itself."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
90%
|
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2011)
|
"From human to beast, old to young, and living to dead, Weerasethakul's characters are in constant evolution."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
72%
|
Enter the Void (Soudain le vide) (2010)
|
"Exhilarating, exasperating, inspired and redundant, Enter the Void is a film of equal parts greatness and silliness."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
92%
|
Prodigal Sons (2010)
|
"A multilayered portrait of immense physical, emotional and psychological change."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
23%
|
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
|
"[The] Resident Evil saga continues to be one of the millennium's only adequate B-movie franchises."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
67%
|
Jack Goes Boating (2010)
|
"Carries an overpowering scent of writerly affectation."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
71%
|
Never Let Me Go (2010)
|
"The film's conceit begins to crumble under the weight of unpersuasive details."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
81%
|
Catfish (2010)
|
"All that's left to the proceedings are "well-duh!" revelations about the way modern mass-media affords opportunities for role-playing deceptions."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
41%
|
The Expendables (2010)
|
"Offers up neither clearly delineated characters nor any fundamental character of its own."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
62%
|
Salt (2010)
|
"Salt's centerpieces are assuredly helmed but lacking in imagination"
|
Nick Schager
|
|
86%
|
Altered States (1980)
|
"As the proceedings briskly fly, the silliness of the entire endeavor becomes more readily apparent."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
63%
|
Predators (2010)
|
"A big-budget B-movie made with some A-level flair."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
19%
|
Gentlemen Broncos (2009)
|
"Rockwell is the film's only consistently amusing presence."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
69%
|
The Girl Who Played with Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden) (2010)
|
"Strained pulp awash in insincere you-go-riot-grrrl attitude."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
90%
|
Fish Tank (2010)
|
"The film's rough patches are ... considerably smoothed over by its performers."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
78%
|
Bluebeard (2010)
|
"A moody fantasia of barely repressed compulsions and desire."
|
Nick Schager
|
75%
22%
63%
85%
46%
40%
