|
85%
|
21 Jump Street (2012)
|
"Against all odds, 21 Jump Street is an immensely enjoyable, frequently hilarious film."
|
Michael Burgin
|
|
71%
|
Natural Selection (2012)
|
"A violent, witty, heart-wrenching and, most of all, awkward tale of one woman's travels to places beyond her own -- places that are painful and depressed, yet intoxicating with excitement."
|
Chris French
|
|
96%
|
The Kid with a Bike (2012)
|
"continues the Belgian writing-directing brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's extraordinary run of charting the lives of European down-and-outers navigating difficult moral and spiritual terrain."
|
Jay Antani
|
|
79%
|
Attenberg (2012)
|
"Attenberg gets down in the emotional muck where life, death and sex intertwine. And like those life experiences, watching it can be both awkward and poignant."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
67%
|
Friends With Kids (2012)
|
"Friends with Kids is not a lecture, though -- rather, a romantic comedy for adults for whom issues like family planning are a reality."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
54%
|
Dr Seuss' The Lorax (2012)
|
"There's something tedious about this film, partly because the Lorax is sidelined, partly due to a pointed environmental message that ultimately overrides all the characters."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
——
|
No Room for Rockstars (2012)
|
"a heartbreaking snapshot of how the music becomes bait for corporate interests to snatch up alienated youth, turning an entire culture into a profiteering scheme."
|
Jay Antani
|
|
96%
|
Undefeated (2012)
|
"In introducing us to [Coach] Courtney...Undefeated finds its voice"
|
Jay Antani
|
|
43%
|
Patriocracy (2012)
|
"This is a doc one can chew on for days after, recommending to friends, asking people about and wanting to watch again."
|
Maryann Koopman Kelly
|
|
83%
|
Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts (2012)
|
"2012's slate of Oscar-nominated live-action shorts are a diverse lot that uniformly focuses limited screen time on character. There's not a disingenuous moment in the bunch."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
75%
|
Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts (2013)
|
"These are certainly important topics worthy of our attention. Keeping that attention, however, is another matter with uneven results."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
90%
|
Oscar Nominated Animation Shorts (2012)
|
"A consistently strong category that this year once again demonstrates a range of stunning styles from simple line drawings to computer-generated imagery."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
86%
|
Chico & Rita (2012)
|
"Unfortunately, an evocative setting--the evolution of Afro-Cuban jazz in Havana and New York--sets the stage for a rather slight romance."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
89%
|
Carol Channing: Larger Than Life (2012)
|
"Carol Channing: Larger than Life is like a warm cinematic hug from Shubert Alley, not to be missed by anyone with even the remotest passing interest in Channing or Broadway history."
|
Dan Kaufman
|
|
70%
|
Newlyweds (2012)
|
"Ed Burns' latest writing and directing venture holds the perfect recipe for swiftly putting audiences into a New York state of mind."
|
Caitlin Colford
|
|
80%
|
Haywire (2012)
|
"It remains to be seen whether Carano can do more than kick ass. But for now, she's a compelling candidate to join the pantheon of female action stars."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
34%
|
Joyful Noise (2012)
|
"The rousing arrangements performed by both industry icons and fresh faces are the only saving graces in what's otherwise a mess of slight plot and lazy dialogue."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
——
|
Northeast (2012)
|
"As irritating as his exposition-less cinema vérité style is, Kohn's thematically autobiographical script builds to an emotional impression that is increasingly universal."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
92%
|
Beauty and the Beast (2012)
|
"Beauty and the Beast is just as enchanting 20 years after its initial release."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
52%
|
The Iron Lady (2012)
|
"The highlights of Thatcher's controversial career are managed in abbreviated montages that don't do the woman or these events justice."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
56%
|
In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)
|
"It's a brutal, upsetting viewing experience that parses the physical, emotional and moral tolls of war and indicts world-governing bodies for failing to intervene."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
100%
|
Semper Fi: Always Faithful (2012)
|
"Shot on a variety of affordable video cameras, from the older HD standard Sony EX1 down to the classic Panasonic DVX100, Semper Fi has a very intimate visual look."
|
Jonathan W. Hickman
|
|
96%
|
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011)
|
"It all ends. And to be sure, it's a fitting end for the storied franchise."
|
Jonathan W. Hickman
|
|
96%
|
The Muppets (2011)
|
"Even balcony critics Waldorf and Statler would have a hard time faulting this Wonkaful delight."
|
Sean Edgar
|
|
86%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
|
"Ultimately it's Mara who has to pull it off and deliver Lisbeth's unique brand of cunning and power fueled by revenge. She's a knockout."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
56%
|
Albert Nobbs (2012)
|
"A modest film with memorable characters tackling big themes."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
12%
|
I Melt with You (2011)
|
"Instead of sympathizing with these jackasses, one wants to scream exactly what they don't want to hear: "Oh, grow up.""
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
80%
|
Young Adult (2011)
|
"Re-teaming with her Juno director Jason Reitman, Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody refreshingly favors sour over sweet."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
49%
|
Sleeping Beauty (2011)
|
"Leigh strikes an observational, artful tone that builds to an emotional climax as fittingly yet frustratingly enigmatic as anything that's come before."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
94%
|
Coriolanus (2011)
|
"A powerful, rapturous viewing experience that strikes the delicate balance between Shakespeare's iconic iambic pentameter and ultra-modern [storytelling]."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
74%
|
Rampart (2012)
|
"Harrelson may have given another award-worthy performance here, but it's lost amid the oblique visuals and storytelling."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
98%
|
The Artist (2011)
|
"A beautiful, ambitious, nostalgic endeavor that demonstrates its makers are, indeed, artists."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
78%
|
A Dangerous Method (2011)
|
"Caring more about the journey than the destination (neither of which are particularly interesting), the film is ultimately nothing more than a Freudian slip-up."
|
Dan Kaufman
|
|
85%
|
In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery (2011)
|
"It's far too much ground for one 90-minute documentary to cover ... In Heaven, Underground, though, is gorgeously photographed."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
97%
|
Tomboy (2011)
|
"The awful inevitability that Laure could be found out at any moment--by her parents, by her friends--renders Tomboy an excruciating viewing experience."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
84%
|
Tyson (2009)
|
|
Robert Davis
|
|
44%
|
J. Edgar (2011)
|
"J. Edgar connects with viewers on an emotional level, charting the man's complicated love affairs-with his mother, his secretary, his deputy and his country."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
20%
|
The Double (2011)
|
"A throwback genre flick, complete with a throwback lead, that gives away its double cross early yet maintains enough mystery to keep viewers moderately intrigued."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
83%
|
Klitschko (2011)
|
"Despite a confusing opening sequence and a disappointingly anticlimactic ending, Klitschko makes for a thrilling boxing documentary."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
70%
|
Oranges And Sunshine (2011)
|
"The script occasionally employs a clumsy voiceover, but later the same technique works wonderfully, pairing the most dramatic plot points with its most emotional monologues."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
90%
|
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
|
"Ultimately, script, style and performance coalesce in Martha Marcy May Marlene for a riveting yet excruciating viewing experience."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
82%
|
Incendiary: The Willingham Case (2011)
|
"Despite the occasional broad-brush stroke, the filmmakers refuse to tell the viewer which side to take. There's no big-bang ending that tells the audience, once and for all, where the film or filmmakers stand."
|
Shannon M. Houston
|
|
90%
|
Hausu (House) (1977)
|
"House suggests that the nitrous-oxide hyperdrive of Japanese pop culture-as vivid now as ever in entertainments like Takashi Miike's Yatterman, for instance-is a brilliantly imagined, if not in fact transcendental brand of therapy"
|
Steve Dollar
|
|
27%
|
Dirty Girl (2011)
|
"Enjoyable to a fault, Dirty Girl struggles at times with tone, unable to find an effective balance between scenes that border on farce and those with weightier themes."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
85%
|
The Ides of March (2011)
|
"...a familiar thriller with a good cast. It's slick and entertaining, but nothing more."
|
Jonathan W. Hickman
|
|
93%
|
50/50 (2011)
|
"[The filmmakers] tap into the wonderful complexity of the material: Cancer is awful, but it's instructive and loving and funny, too."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
45%
|
3 (2011)
|
"Narratively and stylistically, Tykwer turns the love triangle on its head, crafting an emotionally mature and complex film that's dense with the stuff of life."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
|
74%
|
Blackthorn (2011)
|
"These days elegiac Westerns are the only kind anyone seems interested in making anymore. But when the result is a film as moody and beautiful as Mateo Gil's Blackthorn, that's not a bad thing at all."
|
Michael Dunaway
|
|
91%
|
Straw Dogs (1971)
|
"It ends up hackneyed, unnecessary, and clichéd, improved only by the A-list acting talent and slickness of the production values."
|
Jonathan W. Hickman
|
|
37%
|
Restless (2011)
|
"It's a disappointing, maudlin development in a career that's been fascinating ever since he followed up Finding Forrester with Gerry."
|
Annlee Ellingson
|
78%
——
——
85%
45%
40%
