|
81%
|
Higher Ground (2011)
|
"Though the film cries out for a sharper focus, Farmiga expertly captures a woman who realizes that until she herself is grounded, there can be no higher ground."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
95%
|
The Guard (2011)
|
"The film is entertaining, surprising and Gleeson is once again on top of his game. If only director McDonagh had made some room for Cheadle and Mark Strong to shine as well."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
98%
|
Project Nim (2011)
|
"We are uncomfortably reminded throughout the film that all living creatures have worth. Including man-made hybrids. Correction: especially man-made hybrids."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
75%
|
Everything Must Go (2011)
|
"Ferrell's credible performance notwithstanding, it's as if Raymond Carver's minimalism has overtaken the show. No 4-page short story here, we'll need a little something more for a 96-minute film."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
90%
|
Bridesmaids (2011)
|
"Kristen Wiig has always been the bridesmaid, never the bride. Which is no longer a negative, as the emphatically unbridled Wiig takes the wedding cake to delicious new lows."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
72%
|
The Future (2011)
|
"A sober, funny, beautiful film. July is a filmmaker unlike any other, working tangentially in the modern neuroses of a Woody Allen, a Nicole Holofcener, while playing in the kingdom of magic realism."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
11%
|
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs Evil (2011)
|
"The overblown title and exclamation point suggests an entertainment of the most stupendous! fantastic! thrilling! kind. Hence the concept of 'hoodwinked.'"
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
61%
|
Water for Elephants (2011)
|
"Powerful, sensitive, she creates a huge performance that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Addressing the elephant in the room ... oh, let's do. She's the only mammal worthy of our attention."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
74%
|
The Big Uneasy (2010)
|
"Rather than making us feel 'uneasy,' this film should flood us with rage. What Shearer's worthy film cries out for ... is the bite from the filmmaker/satirist himself."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
55%
|
The Conspirator (2011)
|
"Though it's a bit heavy-handed, the film is visually meticulous, with strong performances. Wright is a powerhouse, emanating a calm, mature strength that is mesmerizing to watch."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
71%
|
Hanna (2011)
|
"Think La Femme Nikita facing down Bullwinkle Moose's Natasha Fatale, with breakneck running á la Run Lola Run. Add in borrowed sets from Fellini, and voila! Hanna is served -- sadly, not as well as it should be."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
26%
|
Arthur (2011)
|
"Couldn't that billionaire Arthur afford to treat us to a better show?"
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
50%
|
Wrecked (2011)
|
"A character study sans a character. Oops. It might have worked as a short but as a feature, we're left wandering around the woods, stranded, starving for a story."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
66%
|
Insidious (2011)
|
"It's a horror show all right. Stilted line readings creep hand-in-demonic claw with pacing that could induce rigor. If only Mrs. Gas Mask Psychic could have warned us in advance ..."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
91%
|
Source Code (2011)
|
"Jones' brilliant visuals work perfectly with Ripley's story, the scenes playing out like musical variations of an underlying theme. In the land of the one-trick pony, Jones is a rare exception."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
47%
|
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules (2011)
|
"Rodrick schools his brother to always lower people's expectations. The film succeeds ... in doing just that."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
20%
|
Peep World (2011)
|
"Dysfunction rages more behind the camera than in front, the amateurish direction matched by hackneyed writing. Simply put: this faltering family plot cries out for a whole other kind of family plot."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
84%
|
Jane Eyre (2011)
|
"Given the superb acting, the few sparkling rounds of wordplay, and the gothic haunts that amp up the wilder aspects of the drama, this beautifully-shot Jane stands among the best of its gazillion versions."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
70%
|
Limitless (2011)
|
"As if we, too, had taken some drug, it's not until we shrug off the visual effects of the film that we realize that the plot is rather silly. But holy hallucinogens, that eye candy can't be beat."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
88%
|
Rango (2011)
|
"No tightly-plotted Pixar masterpiece, Rango is its own insane expression, a nervy bundle of outrageous daring, jangled and tangled to a free-wheeling fare-thee-well. Green hasn't been this much fun since early Shrek."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
20%
|
Beastly (2011)
|
"No one erred by choosing to mothball Beastly for eight months. It was only in the mistaken decision to release it that the ugly came roaring out."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
29%
|
Take Me Home Tonight (2011)
|
"'80s rocker Eddie Money called ... he wants his song title back."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
77%
|
When We Leave (2011)
|
"Script problems aside, the fact that newcomer Feo Aladag has created such a strong-hearted drama, getting our attention and making us care, opening our eyes to such a senseless crime, is no small feat."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
34%
|
Hall Pass (2011)
|
"Appealing not to the lowest common denominator but the shortest, i.e., the toddler set, barred due to the R rating. Or, as one young lad said to his friend in the sandbox: "Waaaaaah!""
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
79%
|
How I Ended This Summer (2010)
|
"When it finally concluded, how did the filmmakers end this summer? With an aching crawl, all the while giving us a sharp sense of regret for the fine film buried underneath the tons upon tons of tundra."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
37%
|
I Am (2011)
|
"In Shadyac's earlier films, the hero gets a supernatural, life-altering jumpstart. Here, he's his own hero, his unexpected blow to the head leading to his own happy ending. Maybe even affecting ours as well."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
85%
|
Cedar Rapids (2011)
|
"Like the location of Iowa in regard to the rest of the country, the film ends up right in the middle. Not enough of this, not enough of that. However, it is Helms' daffy sweetness that redeems the whole."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
94%
|
Win Win (2011)
|
"W/D McCarthy addresses the everyday issues with such humanity and natural humor, intermingling the comedy and drama into a perfectly-hued shade of heightened reality ... that WIN WIN is about as good as it gets."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
49%
|
No Strings Attached (2011)
|
"Sex, sex, sex, sex. Echoed repeatedly, the word is used like a hopeful incantation, as if by its mere repetition we'll be convinced that the movie is indeed something hot and desirable. It's not."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
——
|
Reagan ()
|
"While it's not surprising to see the president's son Ron picking his way through a potential minefield, wanting both to celebrate his father and address his failings honestly, what's the filmmaker's rationale?"
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
65%
|
The Music Never Stopped (2011)
|
"JK Simmons takes center stage, clueless as to how to communicate with his son. And then there's the music, grabbing at us, taking us out of ourselves while pulling us in. Playing us, as it were -- but in a good way."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
68%
|
Our Idiot Brother (2011)
|
"A well-written, delightful throwback to the Frank Capra/Preston Sturges sensibility, in which the one who owns the least usually has the most."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
77%
|
In A Better World (2011)
|
"A visual masterpiece, with robin's egg blue skies shot through with cotton candy clouds, heaven is beyond our reach while hell is the very ground below our feet. Bier suggests that only we can bring that heaven closer to ourselves."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
92%
|
Incendies (2011)
|
"It is the very fact that the hatred is blind, one group attacking each other just because it's ingrained to do so, that is at the heart of this sad, magnificent film."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
98%
|
Marwencol (2010)
|
"Hogancamp didn't know he was creating art ... he was merely surviving, spinning stories for his sanity. In an era of 'look-at-me,' this type of agenda is as far away from our world as Marwencol itself."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
86%
|
Rabbit Hole (2010)
|
"It's an understated, superbly-written drama that is extraordinarily ordinary, deeply moving in its slow, purposeful exploration of human behavior that is so recognizable, it takes our breath away."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
24%
|
The Dilemma (2011)
|
"Though The Dilemma refers to a singular predicament, the film miscalculates its total number of problems ... particularly with regard to its grab-bag of styles running throughout."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
22%
|
Country Strong (2011)
|
"It's a relief when Paltrow's character bursts into song. That's the only time when she's not pitching fits to beat the band ... making the band, and the audience, extremely grateful."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
4%
|
Hemingway's Garden of Eden (2010)
|
"The question that occurs is not whether director Irvin hates actors but rather, how much. We can imagine him shouting to the cast: 'Once more, with less feeling. Get shallow! Can't you do worse than that?'"
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
32%
|
All Good Things (2010)
|
"While the acting is superb and the film worth viewing, in this odd straddle between fact and fiction, the filmmakers miss the chance to bring more fictive power to the tale."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
100%
|
Waste Land (2010)
|
"A fascinating film, offering a glimpse of a world we've never seen before ... allowing us to savor the unexpected power in the phrase, 'Recycle yourself.'"
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
77%
|
Tiny Furniture (2010)
|
"A film can't get much smaller than Tiny Furniture, a glorified home movie rife with non-actors, a vague plot and flaccid direction. Neither entertaining nor compelling, it's just painfully dull."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
81%
|
I Am Love (2010)
|
"Though a flimsy melodrama -- so overdone that it often collapses under filmmaker Luca Guadagnino's ineffable sense of bloat -- Swinton saves the day."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
10%
|
Little Fockers (2010)
|
"Per Fockers' actress Blythe Danner: 'All the films have been a joy. I hope they keep coming, even if we graduate to walkers and wheelchairs ...' Oh God. We're all severely focked."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
96%
|
True Grit (2010)
|
"Bridges is a marvelous Cogburn, leaking words out of the side of his mouth as if he were simultaneously chewing on gravel. Those fearless Coens, refusing to be pigeon-holed, treat us to a tall order of bona fide grit."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
32%
|
How Do You Know (2010)
|
"Some more whine with your waffling? All of you?"
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
71%
|
Never Let Me Go (2010)
|
"Nothing about this movie is casual. Perhaps the most impeccably-shot film of the year, every quiet word, every move, every unspoken desire leads us, if we so choose, to reflect on our own paths. "
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
90%
|
The Fighter (2010)
|
"The script is never heavy-handed, adeptly mingling humor with drama, with a tone so authentic that we feel we could easily share a beer with these folks. Even better ... we'd want to."
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
13%
|
Yogi Bear (2010)
|
"The classic Jellystone sign cries out for an edit: from "Please Don't Feed the Bears," to "Please Don't See the Bears." "
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
|
90%
|
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)
|
"He, um, "seize" you when you're sleeping ... At a zippy 84 minutes, akin to a blast of Lapland frosty air, this film's take on Santa offers up a refreshing break from frequently sappy holiday fare. "
|
Kimberly Gadette
|
87%
24%
91%
85%
45%
40%
