|
50%
|
Whatever Works (2009)
|
"People cynically walk into so much expecting disappointment - auditoriums showing Woody Allen's annual crapshoot, for example. Sometimes, they get expected middling results. Sometimes, as with Allen's 30-year-old script, they get unanticipated surprises."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
85%
|
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
|
"The film ends on a devastating farewell, but also imparts important empathy to Wendy: Although she's at the bottom of the barrel, there are those still inescapably trapped beneath its weight. This is the downbeat, dejected truth of pure pennilessness."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
59%
|
The Weather Man (2005)
|
"Intended as director Gore Verbinski's palate cleanser before back-to-back "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequels, this is an apprehensive cringe comedy of male malaise. It's also Verbinski's best to date, a small-scale challenge he should attempt more often."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
48%
|
The Way of the Gun (2000)
|
"It boastfully claims roaring, bloodletting gunfire to do Sam Peckinpah proud, Joe Kraemer's throbbing percussive score (proving timpani should get more melodies) and any number of quotable, slick dialogue snippets. Swaggering, verbose, soulful and badass."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
96%
|
WALL-E (2008)
|
"Some found ecological undertones too scolding. But the question of what happens to trash is a nice undertone - never overshadowing the endlessly renewable entertainment of "WALL-E's" plucky protagonist & carefully, comically choreographed physical humor."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
12%
|
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
|
"This is the Texas chainsaw massacre, not the Texas chainsaw misunderstanding. Nothing castrates a bogeyman like cheap-Freud psychology, and Leatherface possesses no greater power than a hulking professional-wrestling heel. A low point in American horror."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
91%
|
Up in the Air (2009)
|
"Incisive and occasionally sad, this captured the zeitgeist of the late-Zeroes' tectonically shifting economics. But Jason Reitman's generous, rich, rewarding tragicomedy of occupational dissatisfaction will still wow viewers even after (hopeful) recovery."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
75%
|
The Upside of Anger (2005)
|
"No actress has neck muscles like Joan Allen - able to gracefully reach upward or, here, stiffly twist into a double helix of tension and anxiety. It's not simply witty repartee and good chemistry. It's about comfortable situations that can't really last."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
40%
|
Vanilla Sky (2001)
|
"Cameron Crowe's vinyl-collector version of "Jacob's Ladder" is a daring gamble paying off even when ambition exceeds his grasp. The subconscious can boil over with too much pop culture poured in. Keep that in mind, and it will have you at "What the hell?""
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
89%
|
Venus (2006)
|
"It's a pleasure to have Peter O'Toole's company here - likely for the last time in a role of such magnitude & majesty, bangs still swept back in boyish wisps and his sky-blue eyes vibrant and hungry. A loving, lyrical, eloquent sonnet to elderly sunsets."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
78%
|
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
|
"As in any fable, there are spires, towers and moats, and it's a spellbinding saga - a macabre dance choreographed by its romance's throbbing heart. Mathilde and Manech's love left its mark in many places, so why not the grungiest and war-torn?"
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
76%
|
The Virgin Suicides (2000)
|
"Sofia Coppola's compelling, ethereal fable about adolescent loss of innocence is claustrophobic and uncomfortable, but profoundly affecting and gently funny. "The Virgin Suicides" advises teen years are sometimes best remembered as a long-ago vacation."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
88%
|
Waitress (2007)
|
"Adrienne Shelly's lasting legacy is this exquisite, engaging film about slices of life, Keri Russell's luminosity, an unhurried narrative, Andy Griffith's codger delighting in schadenfreude and even Jeremy Sisto making his abhorrent character relatable."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
80%
|
Waking Life (2001)
|
"A far-out-man poetry slam, art exhibit and imaginative philosophical discourse all at once drifts gently down a stream of consciousness until merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, "Waking Life" is but a dream. Who says existential fiction must be dreary?"
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
98%
|
Up (2009)
|
"Adventure is about escaping death's closure, but it's also about clinging to life's openness - letting one escapade's end evolve into something new. "Up" is a tremendously affecting story of indomitable love, infectious spirit and embraced possibilities."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
15%
|
Skyline (2010)
|
"Derivative enough to be called "Adherence Day," "Skyline" knocks off so many alien-invasion films you can almost hear commentary referring to "Cloverfield" or "District 9" moments. The "Skyline" moment? Future filmmakers won't be so stupid as to ape that."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
86%
|
Unstoppable (2010)
|
"Expect mild inertia, but after "Domino," that's a relief. Plus, "Unstoppable" is purely pleasurable like no Tony Scott movie in years -a terrific, thunderous thrill ride tempered by blue-collar anxiety, but also buoyed by can-do optimism and work ethic."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
0%
|
Strange Wilderness (2008)
|
"Any resemblance to comedy is purely coincidental and unintentional. The only reason to chuckle is to prove you haven't died while watching it. Its credits should be handed to a mercenary. It's not a film. It's the Zeroes' worst pop-culture excretion."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
68%
|
Unbreakable (2000)
|
"Sequel talk often sparks because this unconventionally contemplative comic-book film is M. Night Shyamalan's only idea worth continuing -a patient, downbeat and thrillingly unpredictable drama that still stands today as Shyamalan's visionary masterpiece."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
77%
|
Undercover Brother (2002)
|
""Undercover Brother" fares better as a blaxploitation spoof than as silly-spy shtick. Scathing but not scatological, "Brother's" withering insights are equal opportunity: Here, white guilt is as satirically punishable an offense as propping up prejudice."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
82%
|
Tsotsi (Thug) (2006)
|
"It's a redemption song that could be stripped down into a Hallmark-esque distillation of "City of God." Instead, it retains a minor key, with bullets, blood and beatings illustrating a descent into dangerous living while a baby's presence suggests hope."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
79%
|
Space Cowboys (2000)
|
"Problems are evident, and eminent, from a black-and-white flashback prologue in which four young men speak with old actors' voices. Yes, a man purportedly in peak physical condition sounds like a 70-year-old who's eaten bags of gravel daily for 30 years."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
93%
|
Touching the Void (2004)
|
""Void" plummets into the nucleus of instinct and consciousness - survival a near-primordial pursuit beyond bravery or weakness. It concocts no comfort about what was gained, but stares in transfixed, unforgettable awe at the horror of all that was lost."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
92%
|
Traffic (2000)
|
""Traffic" leaps into growing gorges between profit and principle and, from a law perspective, questions the sanity of ramming heads into walls of cocaine bricks. It remains one of the Zeroes' preeminent epics even after policy cinema's shift to terrorism."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
63%
|
Traitor (2008)
|
"Surprisingly, Steve Martin created this story. In a decade of wild and crazy fictional terrorism, his was the most horrifyingly plausible - one that spun terrorism as drama into uncomfortable community theater, striking the country's friendliest corners."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
87%
|
Los Cronocrímenes (Timecrimes) (2007)
|
"Watching "Timecrimes" is like stumbling in a pitch-black haunted house. Hitting walls where paths should be is fun, and time-travel tropes of choice versus fate are inventively goosed. Even with five minutes left, it could conclude in any number of ways."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
27%
|
Seven Pounds (2008)
|
"Proof that no black actor, regardless of acclaim or popularity, can ever truly transcend the Mythical Black Man motif. Milquetoast dweebishness robs Will Smith of his natural forcefulness, and "Seven Pounds" has easily the worst ending of the last decade."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
71%
|
Thumbsucker (2005)
|
"Many films portray teens as Frankenstein monsters bolted together by peer pressure and prescription drugs. "Thumbsucker" bests most of them by avoiding fingers wagged in caution and addressing the opportunity costs of adolescence and adulthood."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
83%
|
Thirteen Days (2000)
|
""Days" terrifically evinces those days' timorous uncertainty of whether Red dread over ending the world matched Yankee angst. The knowing glances at its conclusion speak volumes: The planet's lucky break had only to do with random chance."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
81%
|
Bakjwi (Thirst) (2009)
|
"Boldly erotic and playfully ponderous about sins of the flesh, "Thirst" rips open its bodice, and various veins, with arterial sprays of carnage and carnality. It's a savage, frank, fanged fusion of "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice.""
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
94%
|
Ne le Dis à Personne (Tell No One) (2006)
|
"Until an exposition flood so mammoth it has cresting waves, "Tell No One" is as eloquent as it is intricate - a superior depiction of crime, corruption, shame and secrecy. A French-language "Fugitive" with wind-sprint intensity and immediacy."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
77%
|
Team America - World Police (2004)
|
"The jarhead action, intentionally crappy parody songs, mélange of terrorist gibberish and semi-sensible anatomical analogies for foreign policy all let "Team America" rowdily resurrect the Zucker Brothers' spirit of peerless, puerile genre satire."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
100%
|
Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
|
"Consciously depressing, draining and damning. A dizzying, disorienting tone befits indictments against vulgarly abused power, and Gibney avoids judging soldiers already punished in accordance with a system of blame shamefully traveling down, never up."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
59%
|
Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
|
"A minor improvement, largely ditching cheap Pavlovian parlor tricks that ruined the first film. However, the coda makes a creaky bid for annual franchise status. At one point, the 1930s are mentioned. Let me guess: Hand-cranked cameras for that one?"
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
92%
|
Tarnation (2004)
|
"As performance art born of personal pain, "Tarnation" stares teary-eyed into how genetics, culture, environment and susceptibility conspire to trigger mental illness - a documentary more to be experienced than simply viewed."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
82%
|
Talk to Me (2007)
|
"Kasi Lemmons' radio drama of flamboyance, fury and finesse cranks the funk on a sister station to "Talk Radio" and "Good Morning Vietnam," powered by two performances of impeccable clarity and cut from Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
69%
|
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
|
"Art is a dream through which some seek to rise above the mundane. "Synecdoche" is the nightmare of succumbing further to the mundane via art. What could be inaccessible is instead gloriously indispensable - a confounding & combative, but great, film."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
74%
|
Sunshine (2007)
|
""Sunshine's" mostly cerebral adventure into unquantifiable science and human nature makes its huh-what conclusion more forgivable. Loopy as it gets, once the Icarus II sets a course for the heart of the sun, "Sunshine" becomes a head-trip and a half."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
40%
|
The Scorpion King (2002)
|
"Boasting sword-and-sandal action more sluggish than a Ye Olde Renaissance Faire, The Rock putting someone through a table would be a welcome anachronism. "The Scorpion King"? More like "Moron the Barbarian.""
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
93%
|
Sugar (2008)
|
"Steroids enter the equation, but "Sugar's" narrative turns feel more generous than obvious - emphasizing baseball's calming, community ideas over its cult of personality. The gravity of Miguel's plight stays with you, but so does his eventual peace."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
64%
|
Jackass 3-D (2010)
|
"Though its material is starting to age in a way that its Peter Pan performers reject, "Jackass 3D" is still gaspingly funny for most of its running time and the best fully live-action digital 3D film yet. Diarrhea has never looked this crisp."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
82%
|
Monster (2004)
|
"By "Monster's" end, nothingness replaces Aileen Wuornos' ferocity - evidence of exhaustive efforts from Patty Jenkins and Oscar-winner Charlize Theron to emphasize this serial killer's fraying sanity, not her crimes' sensationalism."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
45%
|
The Strangers (2008)
|
"There?s no better feet-on-the-seat execution for the home-invasion genre than this. "The Strangers" twists the knife with scenes lasting a beat longer than normal to maximize dread and sound design excavating a hole in your cortex and nestling there."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
72%
|
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
|
"Inventively inverting "Adaptation.'s'" anxiety into light romance, "Fiction" is one of the most intelligent, lively, charming and beguiling concept comedies since "Groundhog Day" and a perfect seriocomic splinter of Will Ferrell's big-baby shtick."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
20%
|
Rumor Has It (2005)
|
"A romantic comedy with all the excitement of an AARP magazine cover story and negligible chemistry between Aniston and Costner. Given talk of infertility, let it be said "Rumor" is a series of rocky places in which comedy?s seed can find no purchase."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
95%
|
The Station Agent (2003)
|
"Peter Dinklage details Fin?s solitude in single glances, but his countenance also warms to eventual friendship. It?s an attenuated, reserved, realistic performance ? bolstered when we learn Fin is silent because shouting only summons repressed rage."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
86%
|
State and Main (2000)
|
"David Mamet, that president emeritus of hard-consonant profanity, often seems as comfortable with softer stuff as a man wearing wool in July. But this on-the-nose Hollywood satire played like Preston Sturges absolved of Production-Code limitations."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
95%
|
Star Trek (2009)
|
"Although given the Starship Enterprise?s keys, geek-culture maven J.J. Abrams warps the vessel like he stole it in a sleek, stylish reboot stuffed with jailbreak momentum, deft pacing, dense plotting, passionate principles and perfect casting."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
66%
|
Solaris (2002)
|
"Steven Soderbergh prunes Andrei Tartovsky?s 1972 film (based on Stanislaw Lem?s novel) to the clarity and concision of a great short story ? a forlorn, philosophical sci-fi romance treading the terrain of "Blade Runner?s" metaphysical melancholy."
|
Nick Rogers
|
|
68%
|
Snakes on a Plane (2006)
|
"Few studio-supported films match its B-movie nirvana of stupid-goodness. It's exactly what its title suggests and more ? the proof in the primal levels ranging from basic exploited fears to the crowd?s roaring reactions and howls of humor or horror."
|
Nick Rogers
|
73%
21%
63%
85%
46%
40%
