|
47%
|
The Great Gatsby (2013)
|
"This enormous movie is as much of a reflection of its protagonist as its director, offering a window into an exclusive world as it is conceived and formed in a dream."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
73%
|
Dead Man's Burden (2013)
|
"The movie offers a convincing look at the sort of irreparable damage the Civil War did to families, but too often it feels like self-conscious role-play."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
67%
|
The Iceman (2013)
|
"The film is at its best when it navigates the contradiction at the heart of this man, generating interest and tension as it parallels his home life with his profession."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
83%
|
What Maisie Knew (2013)
|
"The film hits home thanks to a stunning performance by Onata Aprile. At age 7, Aprile has mastered the steepest challenge in screen acting: reacting in an engaging way."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
53%
|
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)
|
"It's a middlebrow drama, but Changez's transition from elitist Princeton grad living the Wall Street dream to radical Lahore professor is depicted in convincing fashion."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
24%
|
Arthur Newman (2013)
|
"This is a decidedly minor effort, directed by Dante Ariola with a bland, generic eye, missing the pathos of interesting drama and the charm of quality romantic cinema."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
98%
|
Mud (2013)
|
"An evocative drama set at the precipice of adulthood."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
8%
|
The Big Wedding (2013)
|
"The Big Wedding is the kind of movie where casting Christine Ebersole as a woman named Muffin is seen as the height of comedy. No thanks."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
58%
|
At Any Price (2013)
|
"The sense of place is strong. Bahrani's preferred neo-neo realist approach is dressed up with epic, wide images of windmills grinding in the breeze, enormous seed processors and cars streaming down country roads."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
77%
|
42 (2013)
|
"The movie is sentimental, and it has a right to be, but the actors take great pains to portray their characters as men and women in full."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
76%
|
It's a Disaster (2013)
|
"The apocalypse is the catalyst for a dissection of modern self-absorption; there's nothing like a major disaster to rouse you from a technologically-induced zombie state."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
68%
|
Disconnect (2013)
|
"Working with a strong cast and a well-crafted Andrew Stern script, director Henry Alex Rubin has woven an effective tapestry of modern alienation."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
27%
|
The Brass Teapot (2013)
|
"The screenplay falters, introducing ridiculous villains and featuring thorough lapses in logic in a blur of strained drama. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
87%
|
Upstream Color (2013)
|
"The movie's deep emotional underpinnings are compromised by too many images that skew toward a dense, abstract sensibility."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
54%
|
The Company You Keep (2013)
|
"A sincere thriller that feels like it has arrived at least a half-decade behind schedule."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
9%
|
The Host (2013)
|
"The only real conflict here is the one going on inside the protagonist's head, while poor Saoirse Ronan has little to do but look very uncomfortable."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
81%
|
The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)
|
"The movie settles into conventional rhythms once the focus shifts to Bradley Cooper and completely loses its way after that. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
51%
|
Welcome to the Punch (2013)
|
"Angry men mumble as they point guns at each other in a series of standoffs in Welcome to the Punch, and it almost works. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
70%
|
Wrong (2013)
|
"There's off-kilter style to spare: empty frames, heightened sterile imagery and mannered performances. But there's nothing below the surface that we haven't seen before."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
94%
|
Room 237 (2013)
|
"Like any great puzzle, The Shining is a lot of fun to try and solve. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
91%
|
Gimme The Loot (2013)
|
"Writer-director Adam Leon has crafted a classic New York story, a film imbued with the fast rhythms and muggy sensations of city life during the summer. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
93%
|
The Sapphires (2013)
|
"It sidesteps the usual cliches. Fame and fortune matter less than the human connections that are fostered and repaired on this unlikely journey."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
48%
|
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
|
"Those who might be resistant to stirrings of patriotic pride at the slow-mo sight of an American flag fluttering in the breeze would do well to look elsewhere."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
43%
|
Admission (2013)
|
"These guys could make taxes seem charming. Pair them up romantically and surround them with a competent three-act screenplay and the rest takes care of itself. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
66%
|
Spring Breakers (2013)
|
"With its violence, copious drug use, threesomes and scenes of the women in tiny bikinis, the movie revels in the debauchery without saying much about it."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
29%
|
Upside Down (2013)
|
"Director Juan Solanas has produced such an immense cinematic vision that the flaws ultimately don't matter."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
79%
|
Ginger & Rosa (2013)
|
"Mostly, Sally Potter gets out of the way and lets Elle Fanning do her work. The faith is rewarded. She's just 14, but Dakota's younger sister is our next great actress."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
96%
|
War Witch (2013)
|
"The portrait of a girl who retains her dignity and strength, her faith in the future, in the face of unimaginable horrors. It's inspirational in a very real way."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
65%
|
Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey (2013)
|
"You'd be hard pressed too many other documentaries that leave you feeling so damn great."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
65%
|
The We and the I (2013)
|
"Evoking a New York City commuter's nightmare, this movie aims for poignancy but achieves mostly exasperation."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
31%
|
Emperor (2013)
|
"The facts might be right, or at least mostly right, but the film is polished to the point of distraction."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
67%
|
Stoker (2013)
|
"The movie is a carnival of sinister images, combined to create a demented portrait of hormones run wild."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
25%
|
Phantom (2013)
|
"We get stern orders, dry technospeak and the occasional physical incident, but far less than what's required in such an apocalyptic setting."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
19%
|
Inescapable (2013)
|
"The movie suffers from the conflict between its potboiler instincts and the filmmaker's understandable need to acknowledge the brutality of Syria's secretive regime."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
60%
|
Rubberneck (2013)
|
"Alex Karpovsky's performance digs out the character's menacing, damaged and sympathetic qualities in equal measure."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
45%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
|
"Everything is so low-key it doesn't really stick, which is strange when you consider that the movie is about nothing less than a supernatural war over a teenage girl's soul."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
82%
|
Like Someone in Love (2013)
|
"A meticulously constructed depiction of modern alienation, from the great Abbas Kiarostami. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
92%
|
No (2013)
|
"A fascinating period re-creation if not an especially compelling drama. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013)
|
"Every new Soderbergh film, even the failures, is a gift for viewers who love movies. Side Effects is no exception."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
89%
|
Koch (2013)
|
"A thoughtful look at the fundamental reasons a down-and-out city was primed to embrace this larger-than-life cheerleader for all things Gotham."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
37%
|
Stand Up Guys (2013)
|
"There's not much to the story beyond its thin conceit, so the filmmaker relies on his stars' charms. Even when it comes to Oscar winners, that approach only gets you so far."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
47%
|
Bullet to the Head (2013)
|
"You're meant to feel Jimmy's pain, to share his rage, but that's hard when he doesn't even seem human."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
4%
|
Movie 43 (2013)
|
"With so many famous people in one movie, you might have thought, 'Gee, how bad could it be?' The answer: Very, very bad."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
40%
|
Parker (2013)
|
"This is classic grindhouse material pretending to be something it's not. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
87%
|
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2013)
|
"Unlike Werner Herzog's vintage efforts, Happy People plays like an everyday Discovery channel special."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
36%
|
LUV (2013)
|
"It's got the heart and soul, but not the brain. "
|
Robert Levin
|
|
59%
|
The Last Stand (2013)
|
"There isn't much of a story here, though it's great to see Arnold back where he belongs."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
56%
|
Fairhaven (2013)
|
"Tom O'Brien smartly stresses realistic, submerged feelings instead of overwrought dramatics in his low-key portrait of friendship and all its complications."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
79%
|
Quartet (2013)
|
"No movie starring these actors could possibly be all that bad. But Quartet is tepid when it wants to be sophisticated, a slow-moving, middlebrow endeavor."
|
Robert Levin
|
|
67%
|
A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (2013)
|
"This is the story of people who dream big dreams and find a common understanding in the face of impossible difficulties. It's hard not to get behind that. "
|
Robert Levin
|
47%
45%
95%
99%
65%
61%
