|
78%
|
OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (Lost in Rio) (2010)
|
"Can't overcome the fact that it's sending up a 007 series that -- with the exception of 2006's superb Casino Royale -- already plays like a parody of itself."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
86%
|
The Square (2010)
|
"The movie's protagonists (and all of its supporting characters) are reprehensible people, and Roberts' performance is fascinatingly uncharismatic, extinguishing any possibility of sympathy for his character even when the film gradually reveals his town to"
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
91%
|
The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) (2010)
|
"Though slow at times, The Secret in Their Eyes recaptures the greatness of its genre, and does so without mimicking or replicating its predecessors."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
76%
|
Kick-Ass (2010)
|
"Comic scribe Mark Millar and director Matthew Vaughn's pitch-black love letter to the genre, Wertham's greatest fear is fully realized in an irresponsible blitzkrieg of irony-tinged fun."
|
Sean Edgar
|
|
81%
|
City Island (2010)
|
"City Island offers few surprises and is content to leave audiences with a tidy, unquestioning view of traditional family values."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
86%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
|
"Although The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo doesn't overcome all of its genre's clichés (particularly in the unnecessary romance between its leads) it still shakes off most of the cobwebs that have for years been creeping into detective films."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
42%
|
Brooklyn's Finest (2010)
|
"Fuqua indulges the rather unfortunate belief that movies with multiple characters need to Come Together and Mean Something."
|
Jeffrey Bloomer
|
|
90%
|
Fish Tank (2010)
|
"The film's moments of clunkiness are worth overlooking given its strength when Fish Tank stops trying to deliver a message and instead listens to its characters."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
——
|
Andy Barker, P.I.: The Complete Series (2009)
|
"The show was still finding its tone when it was cut, and never had the chance to grab even a cult following. For such a talented cast and crew working around such a unique premise, it's unfortunate%u2014more because of what could've been than what was."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
92%
|
The General (1927)
|
"he General is the highlight of his career's tragicomic performances, featuring not just the awe-inspiring stunts that were his bread and butter, but also a level of fluidity only he and Chaplin attained at the top of their games."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
57%
|
Died Young, Stayed Pretty (2009)
|
"What a cool, unexpected kick this film was."
|
Tim Basham
|
|
67%
|
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009)
|
"The only person left surprised as the credits roll and Lee rides off into the sunset with the man of her dreams is Lee herself. The rest of us could've left halfway through and told you that's exactly how the film would end."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
74%
|
I Sell the Dead (2008)
|
"McQuaid recalls Terry Gilliam with his flights into the absurd and his penchant for choking dry humor."
|
Jeffrey Bloomer
|
|
70%
|
Chelsea on the Rocks (2009)
|
"In need of a re-edit like few other films, Chelsea on the Rocks isn't so much bad as it is disappointing."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
——
|
Office - Season Five (2009)
|
"After 100 episodes, The Office is just as willing to try new things and buck formulas as it was four years ago."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
83%
|
The September Issue (2009)
|
"Filmmaker R.J. Cutler demonstrates once again that he -- as well as anybody -- can capture the interpersonal dynamics that drive a team of headstrong individuals. Or at least make us think he has."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
87%
|
Big Fan (2009)
|
"A stronger director could have turned this material and its complex themes into a taut, ironic thriller."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
72%
|
La Mujer sin Cabeza (The Headless Woman) (2008)
|
"This subtle and compact short story affirms that the hovering hands and exquisitely layered sound design of her previous film weren't accidents but the unusually precise creations of an exciting new filmmaker."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
37%
|
The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
|
"A fastidiously old-fashioned love story with sloppy, soppy existential ideas and more than enough droll narrative tricks to see it through to the end."
|
Jeffrey Bloomer
|
|
88%
|
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
|
"Quentin Tarantino's dual loves of vengeance and cinema have never had a purer expression than the face of a Jewish cinematheque owner projected Oz-like onto the smoke of Nazis aflame."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
92%
|
Ponyo (2009)
|
"Sometimes it's enough to just sit back and let a beautiful work of animation wash over you, letting the troubles of the world slide past as the pictures take you out of this world. Ponyo is just that sort of film."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
80%
|
It Might Get Loud (2009)
|
"The film is a nice chronicle of each guitarist's rise to fame, but the much touted jam summit itself is the disappointing part, lackluster enough to function mostly as mortar between the bricks."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
91%
|
District 9 (2009)
|
"For 85 minutes, District 9 is a thinking creature's action film, but its final brain-numbing half hour sacrifices most of that logic for loud blasts and unconvincing sentiment."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
86%
|
Lorna's Silence (2008)
|
"Lorna's Silence is the fifth excellent film in a row from the remarkably consistent Dardennes."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
34%
|
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
|
"The movie is finally just too frivolous to elicit any real reaction, bemusement, anger, whatever. It's almost quaint."
|
Jeffrey Bloomer
|
|
74%
|
Cold Souls (2009)
|
"Giamatti gives one of his best performances, and writer-director Sophie Barthes intriguingly turns his loss of soul into a clinical, observable event. But each fertile idea gets only a few shallow iterations."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
73%
|
Beeswax (2009)
|
"Beeswax is probably Bujalski's best film to date, and curiously it feels both spontaneous and carefully guided, deviously tilting the audience in favor of one of its characters while it subtly builds an equal and opposite critique."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
94%
|
In the Loop (2009)
|
"Despite the movie's serious implications and overall cynicism, In the Loop feels light and natural, interweaving many subplots and a large cast with deftness reminiscent of Robert Altman."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
79%
|
Humpday (2009)
|
"Shelton often seems hemmed in by the high concept, but she manages to worm her way out so expertly that when it's over, the whole thing feels like it was built backwards, starting not with the premise but with the final, observant conversation."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
87%
|
500 Days of Summer (2009)
|
"The film bounces between the relationship's winning uplslope and its mopey descent, and the intercutting eventually kills the momentum, even though the film's rousing final minute reclaims some of the early spunk."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
85%
|
Soul Power (2009)
|
"James Brown and B.B. King anchor this footnote in boxing history, but the film peaks near the midpoint with Bill Withers' truly soulful performance of "Hope She'll Be Happier.""
|
Robert Davis
|
|
67%
|
Brüno (2009)
|
"Those who last beyond the first few minutes will be treated to a film that's more focused than Borat, with more jokes, less fluff, and enough social awareness to step on some toes. And it saves the best stunt for last."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
68%
|
Public Enemies (2009)
|
"The story of the visually curious Michael Mann film Public Enemies has been told before in movies more exciting but rarely more thoughtful than this one."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
54%
|
Surveillance (2009)
|
"Riffs on noir influences with an inquisitive visual style that often drifts from the plot at hand."
|
Jeffrey Bloomer
|
|
97%
|
The Hurt Locker (2009)
|
"These men live, barely, on a cocktail of adrenaline and testosterone, and yet The Hurt Locker hones in on the fatalistic psychology of the Iraqi war zone more convincingly than any other recent film about soldiers on the battlefield."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
——
|
Dana Carvey Show (2009)
|
"The show doesn't end up as the classic it seems like it should've been, but comedy nerds won't be too disappointed."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
65%
|
Dead Snow (Død snø) (2009)
|
"Can't resist the urge to make the mordant comedy implicit in these movies more literal than it should be."
|
Jeffrey Bloomer
|
|
89%
|
Séraphine (2009)
|
"During the film I craved energy, but by the end I realized that I just wanted a story that stood a bit closer to its interesting, well-played title character and a bit further from the time-marking events of historical drama."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
50%
|
Whatever Works (2009)
|
"Some may observe that two of every three jokes fall flat, but I'm a little bit amazed that Allen would toss that one good third into such a sloppy story, like a fistful of prized truffles whisked quickly into a pan of Tuna Helper."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
18%
|
Love N' Dancing (2008)
|
"The bottom line is that a few pretty dances aren't enough substance to make for a fulfilling, or even moderately entertaining movie when the rest of the material is so weak."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
85%
|
Treeless Mountain (2009)
|
"Relying on the essentially inert performances of child actors, So Yong Kim draws on a deep understanding of how movies work but also taps into her own experiences. That's a potent combination."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
96%
|
Food, Inc. (2009)
|
"At times I feel like I'm being guided by someone who not only doesn't have time to explore so many complex issues but also doesn't understand them deeply enough to know or admit when he's making dissonant compromises."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
79%
|
The Hangover (2009)
|
"While I'm not ready to call the film a triumph, its approach to humor is smart enough to benefit greatly from low expectations. Which is to say, it's an enjoyable piece of trash."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
88%
|
Forbidden Lie$ (Forbidden Lies) (2007)
|
"Thankfully, both filmmaker and subject approach the film as a duel. Broinowski thrusts, Khouri parries. Finding out what, if anything, is true about Khouri's story is simply the Macguffin for a filmmaker more thrilled by the hunt."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
67%
|
Away We Go (2009)
|
"Away We Go breathes. Its affectless, tossed-off quality tells a lumpy story built out of a few scenes that fizzle but also a few that transcend, in part because they arrive unexpectedly from an untidy little comedy."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
82%
|
Pontypool (2009)
|
"It's perfectly modulated horror of the imagination, à la Orson Welles' adaptation of The War of the Worlds, with potent ideas about what corrupts, inspires, subverts, and engages us."
|
Robert Davis
|
|
92%
|
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
|
"Even if Drag Me to Hell isn't particularly scary, even if it idly disregards its potential, it's been a long time since a horror movie of such obvious wit and loving theatrics hit American theaters."
|
Jeffrey Bloomer
|
|
81%
|
Okuribito (Departures) (2009)
|
"Though not unpleasant, Departures can't reconcile its bawdy sense of humor with the tiresome sentimentality that always lurks not far behind."
|
Jeffrey Bloomer
|
|
64%
|
The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
|
"What it is, though, is a defiantly independent work that deftly addresses the darker elements of the nation and humanity without quite giving up hope."
|
Sean Gandert
|
|
33%
|
Terminator Salvation (2009)
|
"A steady camera in action sequences goes a long way."
|
Jeffrey Bloomer
|
87%
24%
91%
85%
45%
40%
