|
89%
|
Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir ()
|
"A fascinating, if workmanlike, insight into the life of a legend."
|
David Michael Brown
|
|
42%
|
Paris Manhattan (2013)
|
"As light and airy as a soufflé, but not without charm. Taglioni and Bruel are both convincing as the reluctant lovers who just might embrace the inevitable."
|
Ed Gibbs
|
|
73%
|
Love Is All You Need (2013)
|
"A deceptively light-hearted romp that blends English and Danish with a touch of Italiano, for a lively, likeable view of the complexities of life and love."
|
Ed Gibbs
|
|
49%
|
The Man With the Iron Fists (2012)
|
"A vacuous but fun exercise in chop-sock style over substance."
|
David Michael Brown
|
|
——
|
Love Story ()
|
"Smartypantsy, fresh, brave: a rom-com experiment that will have you smiling on hitherto unknown levels."
|
Danny Murphy
|
|
71%
|
The Science of Sleep (2006)
|
"More amazing work from Gondry. If you're interested in a basic narrative, look away; if you prize inventive filmmaking, don't miss it. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
90%
|
Zodiac (2007)
|
"Beautifully poised, slow and sinister: a trance of expectant menace in which Fincher holds his audience until the movie's finale."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
77%
|
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)
|
"Altar Boys doesn't strive to revolutionise the genre, but by playing to what it knows the film works as an appealing teenage reminiscence."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
34%
|
TMNT (2007)
|
"Whenever the amphibians are in action, the film finds a rhythm that mixes punk graphic cool and merch-friendly visuals."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
30%
|
Tideland (2006)
|
"Surreal, inspired cinema from Gilliam that refuses to sugar-coat the dark imagination of children. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
94%
|
The Singer (Quand j'etais chanteur) (2006)
|
"A gentle lament for the relics of an era, an affectionate epitaph for a dying breed of crooners perishing in the cheap mockery of neon discothèques and cubicle apartments."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
86%
|
Paris Je T'aime (2007)
|
"The bulk of the work, filtered through the idiosyncratic lens of the global art-house, relays a peculiar impression of the city that is at once familiar and displaced."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
66%
|
Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
|
"Lavish, grim, magnificent; a robust successor to Zhang's recent martial arts epics, characterised by similarly baroque spectacle and tragedy. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
93%
|
Gwoemul (The Host) (2007)
|
"Joon-ho Bong's The Host is a very different kettle of mutated fish."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
72%
|
Bubble (2006)
|
"A still, sometimes eerie imitation of life that casts a cold eye over small town paralysis."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
72%
|
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
|
"Intriguing possibilities, except Helm and Forster aren't quite Kaufman and Jonze. Once their parallel narratives converge, those hoping for a mind-bending meta-pile-up may feel the movie lacks the courage of its fatalistic fiction."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
9%
|
Norbit (2007)
|
"Like all of Murphy's recent films, there's also a sweet-if-predictable heart beating beneath the discount jokes. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
51%
|
The Fountain (2006)
|
"The enormous, and sometimes inspired, visual arc of Aronofsky's reach sadly exceeds his narrative's basic grasp."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
92%
|
Volver (2006)
|
"Almodóvar's phantasms are emotionally anchored so the story never gets away from its characters -- just when you suspect he might have overplayed his hand he stages a clever, surprising inversion to tie the film together."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
65%
|
Apocalypto (2006)
|
"Damn if the movie, through Mel's sheer determination, doesn't almost turn from a fight-n-flight gore fest into a moving meditation on a civilisation in the throes of decline. Almost."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
87%
|
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
|
"Lurid melodrama lifted by corrosive writing and a frightening performance from the Dame. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
72%
|
Inland Empire (2006)
|
"A shaky CCTV cam from inside a mind on the edge of madness, the visuals and surreal riddles suggest Lynch has come full circle to the genius of his debut, Eraserhead. What he does now is anyone's guess. And that's thrilling."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
87%
|
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
|
"Captivating hyper-realism, a taut political thriller, and the performance of the year. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
96%
|
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
|
"Both magical and brutal, del Toro's film is a memorable exploration of the enduring power of fairytales. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
55%
|
Marie Antoinette (2006)
|
"This gauzy interpretation of the French icon as the life of a decadent paparazzi princess is Versailles via Vogue, a frivolous New Romantic confection in which history is less important than emotional veracity. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
76%
|
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)
|
"Montiel's honey coated Queens of the mid-'80s is rich with the violence and carnality of teenagers, and the performances of LaBeouf (as the young Dito) and Channing Tatum (as his Stanley Kowalski-like grunt friend, Antonio) are raw pleasures."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
96%
|
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
|
"In the 13 years since it was released to a predictably puzzled family audience, Tim Burton's macabre stop motion musical has wound its way through cult affection (and survived mall-Goth appropriation) to earn its rightful place as a genuine classic."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
51%
|
Fast Food Nation (2006)
|
"This is a considered film that lacks the immediacy of a blunt message like the more simplistic Super Size Me, or the punchy, smokescreen climax of a film like Syriana to send the audience out feeling enlightened. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
51%
|
Aquamarine (2006)
|
"Little girls and salty sea dogs alike have long been held in thrall to the mermaid's siren song; in Aquamarine, based on Alice Hoffman's book, the ladyfish finds herself awash in the low tide of teen romantic comedy."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
40%
|
Nacho Libre (2006)
|
"In a season of smug, telegraphed quirkiness (hello, Little Miss Sunshine), the rambling Nacho Libre, like director Jared Hess' previous Napoleon Dynamite, feels like an original."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
24%
|
Lady in the Water (2006)
|
"Once again Shyamalan is a maddening storyteller, by turns inspired and insipid, and he still manages to conjure some odd, unnerving moments."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
76%
|
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
|
"If Hathaway's Andy drives the pedestrian narrative -- idealistic girl learns the value of staying true to herself and her "real" friends; snore -- then Streep is the movie's soul."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
48%
|
Macbeth (2006)
|
"The Bard gets buried in the gruff posturing, while the cadence of the words prevents the actors from playing to their strengths."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
22%
|
Barnyard (2006)
|
"A shockingly crass grab for holiday pocket money that's both infantile and endlessly patronising."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
43%
|
Re-cycle (Gwai wik) (2008)
|
"Amounts to a monstrous, CGI-disfigured pro-life tract. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
95%
|
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
|
"Love, the filmmakers repeat ad nauseum, is the only act of freedom in times of trouble.
So it is about girls, after all..."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
69%
|
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
|
"A Scanner Darkly is the most faithful Dick adaptation to date. Like Dick's writing, Richard Linklater's movie doesn't sweat at immersing itself in the trappings of sci-fi; it's concerned with ideas."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
86%
|
Thank You For Smoking (2006)
|
"Curiously, the film's key drawback --its impassive resolution feels a little too slick -- is arguably indicative of the theme: no matter how much we may think we're peeling back the layers, all we arrive at is another façade."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
47%
|
Renaissance (2006)
|
" The picture is visually stark - at times imagining Fritz Lang had directed The Matrix - and isolated compositions, spiked with high contrast menace, are impressive in their artistic detail. However, the perfunctory plot is B-grade sci-fi."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
82%
|
Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai (2000)
|
"Amusing, melancholy, and meditative, Ghost Dog is a modern classic of the hit man genre."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
88%
|
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
|
"Though occasionally overwrought, peerless sequences, such as the sublime flight through a bamboo forest, ensure House Of Flying Daggers is a work of real beauty."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
93%
|
Nobody Knows (Dare mo shiranai) (2004)
|
"What begins as a slow, determinedly realist account of the children's existence gradually weaves a spell via Kore-eda's gift for delicate emotional detail. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
92%
|
Tarnation (2004)
|
"Witness his hilarious high school musical rendition of David Lynch's Blue Velvet: much like the documentary itself, it's a heartbreaking, beautiful monstrosity."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
89%
|
Brothers (Brødre) (2004)
|
"Strong performances and scenes of the father's imprisonment in war camps make for tense viewing."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
82%
|
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
|
"[Depp is] ever the most watchable of freaks, even if he is slipping in and out of accents, looking perplexed at his slight lines and, most frustratingly, hinting at the mad -- okay, madder -- memorable turn that might have been."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
81%
|
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
|
"July's suspiciously contrived awkwardness notwithstanding, the picture is at its best when it cleaves to her experimental video aesthetic; framing the mundane with the wonder of a child-like perspective."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
57%
|
Last Days (2005)
|
"Wandering in a narcoleptic stupor, Pitt's junkie rock star is as much lost soul as tortured genius, and Van Sant refrains from tacky pop theorising or tired rock-crit veneration. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
71%
|
Thumbsucker (2005)
|
"Mills, a former music video director, writes and directs with subtle clarity, bringing a refreshing sensibility to the archetypical tale in which a displaced teen comes of age in a confusing and banal environment. "
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
83%
|
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005)
|
"Visually, Burton is at his most Edward Gorey-esque in the austere, storybook Victorian land of the living, whilst his contrasting comic underworld summons the spirit of Poe, the personality of Harryhausen and the ephemera of his own back catalogue."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
|
38%
|
The Brothers Grimm (2005)
|
"At times this fanciful romp lurches uneasily between violence, slapstick comedy and sublime escapism - in other words, it's pure Gilliam."
|
Luke Goodsell
|
78%
——
——
85%
45%
40%
