|
98%
|
Taxi Driver (1976)
|
"What strikes you aren't just the iconic moments, but the little ones."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
42%
|
To The Wonder (2013)
|
"Once the shock of seeing a Sonic Drive-In in a Malick film wears off, the movie leaves little to ponder beyond the sketchily drawn romance drama at its core."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
79%
|
Ginger & Rosa (2013)
|
"Whether it's memoir or personalized fiction, Ginger & Rosa displays a shrewd understanding of late adolescence-a time when every emotional slight lands like an atom bomb."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
69%
|
The Croods (2013)
|
"The latest advances in computer animation have been applied to a truly primitive comedy-Ice Age recast with a family of nattering Neanderthals."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
91%
|
Caesar Must Die (2013)
|
"The problem with the film, which somewhat inexplicably won the Golden Bear at Berlin last year, is that it scarcely transcends the basic novelty of its premise."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
43%
|
Admission (2013)
|
"Thank goodness for Fey, who lends this sitcom soap a credible emotional center."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
66%
|
Spring Breakers (2013)
|
"Not just a step forward. It's a vision: a fever dream of sun-dappled debauchery that doubles as a thriller-satire on the allure of excess."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
93%
|
Barbara (2012)
|
"Petzold renders Communist oppression in a provocatively muted manner."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
70%
|
Somebody Up There Likes Me (2013)
|
"There's talent here, but the goal seems to be proving that everyone involved is too cool to make an actual movie."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
92%
|
No (2013)
|
"Stirring as a celebration of voter empowerment, No may also inspire pangs of wistful nostalgia."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
94%
|
Journal d'un curé de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest) (1951)
|
"Diary is less a movie about the necessity of faith than what it means to be cut down in the midst of youthful idealism and intransigence, before life offers wisdom."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
67%
|
Stoker (2013)
|
"You may be dazzled or exasperated by this flurry of stylistic excess. You probably won't be bored."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
27%
|
21 And Over (2013)
|
"The real problem with 21 and Over is that it swipes most of its material from better movies."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
52%
|
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
|
"Taking a healthy swig from Lord of the Rings' cup, this high-concept "Jack and the Beanstalk" dresses up traditionalism in expensive nothingness."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
92%
|
Future Weather (2013)
|
"Feels like the product of an explosion at the Sundance factory: a rural setting here, a wisp of mildly quirky indie rock there. "
|
Sam Adams
|
|
45%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
|
"If we must have supernatural high-school romances, can they all be as relatively painless as Beautiful Creatures?"
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
15%
|
A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)
|
"Director John Moore, the anonymous hack at the helm, stages car chases and gun fights with messy imprecision."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
94%
|
The King's Speech (2010)
|
"With a backdrop this large, The King's Speech can't help but seem monosyllabic."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
93%
|
The Trouble with the Truth (2012)
|
"While it never quite lives up to its lofty inspiration, particularly in an unsatisfying final act, it's engagingly written and well played by both leads."
|
Keith Phipps
|
|
60%
|
John Dies at the End (2013)
|
"More arch than amusing, John Dies at the End may exhaust your patience for everything-but-the-kitchen-sink "storytelling." Still, there's something endearing about its relentless barrage of gonzo happenings."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013)
|
"Makes for an intriguing if dispassionate fit."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
80%
|
Warm Bodies (2013)
|
"Good luck ascribing a clear satirical agenda to Jonathan Levine's tonally uneven zomcom, which suffers an identity crisis nearly as severe as its protagonist's."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
95%
|
West of Memphis (2012)
|
"The new film is largely a recap of the older ones, with more celebrity testimonials and fewer Metallica songs but little fresh insight into the miscarriage of justice it chronicles."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
6%
|
A Haunted House (2013)
|
"You know a fright-flick craze is in danger of running its course when Marlon Wayans comes along to broadly, belatedly spoof it."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
30%
|
Broken City (2013)
|
"A political thriller that's never quite as smart as you wish it were."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
89%
|
Consuming Spirits (2012)
|
"Even if one grows impatient with the film's dovetailing tales of small-town desperation, it's hard to tire of its visual execution."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
4%
|
Movie 43 (2013)
|
"Neither the Kentucky-fried turkey its unceremonious release suggests nor the kind of daring film maudit that seems destined to be reassessed decades hence."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
32%
|
Gangster Squad (2013)
|
"A shallow, star-studded amalgam of every Los Angeles cops-and-crooks drama you've ever seen."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
19%
|
Texas Chainsaw (2013)
|
"When making a sequel to a beloved genre classic, it's generally unwise to include clips of the masterpiece you're attempting to live up to."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
93%
|
Amour (2012)
|
"The most brutally honest picture ever made about growing old and wasting away."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
95%
|
Sister (2012)
|
"For fans of Ursula Meier's last movie, the strikingly offbeat domestic drama Home, this act of auteur-on-auteur emulation may feel like a comedown. Yet it's still stirring work."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013)
|
"The decade-spanning Zero Dark Thirty comes freighted with a historical weight it bears amazingly well."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
76%
|
Premium Rush (2012)
|
"Want more from a late-summer joyride than slides, wheelies and bunny hops? Get a load of Shannon, dementedly inspired, trying out an oddball accent and Richard Widmark giggle."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
92%
|
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
|
"A fiendishly clever genre Rubik's Cube that demonstrates, if nothing else, how much Fangoria fare benefits from the wicked wit of a real writer."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
96%
|
Argo (2012)
|
"After Gone Baby Gone, The Town and now this directorial-best, Affleck is establishing himself as a major craftsman."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
88%
|
Starlet (2012)
|
"No amount of strong acting, however, can entirely compensate for the dramatic conveniences or every shrill appearance by Jane's cartoonishly despicable roommates."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
82%
|
Goon (2012)
|
"A disarmingly sweet descendant of the blood-on-the-ice classic Slap Shot."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
90%
|
Bernie (2012)
|
"Part of the film's pleasure lies in watching its spirit of poky Southern amiability give way to true-crime insanity."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
100%
|
How to Survive a Plague (2012)
|
" Plague offers an instructive lesson for Occupy-era rabble-rousers: Only when coupled with a knowledge base will your sound and fury signify anything."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
99%
|
This Is Not a Film (2012)
|
"One mourns the tragic circumstances that caused it to be made, but the result is a sleight of hand to rank alongside Orson Welles's F for Fake."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
51%
|
Promised Land (2013)
|
"The film is way too earnest to inspire much anger. Some messages are better delivered with a flamethrower."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
88%
|
Django Unchained (2012)
|
"As retreads go, Django Unchained is as much a comedown from its predecessor as Lars von Trier's Manderlay was from Dogville."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
61%
|
Jack Reacher (2012)
|
"Jack Reacher includes sufficient eccentricities to keep it enjoyably strange."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
69%
|
Les Misérables (2012)
|
"Jackman's Valjean can't quite sing on key. / And Crowe's Javert deserves Razzies."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
38%
|
The Guilt Trip (2012)
|
"One might be tempted to write off The Guilt Trip as overly familiar, but Barbra Streisand volunteering for a one-hour steak-eating challenge is almost certainly a screen first."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
18%
|
Parental Guidance (2012)
|
"It's hard to say what's worse: the sneering disdain for modern child-rearing tactics or the hacky generation-clash humor."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
81%
|
The Impossible (2012)
|
"A sentimental slog that encourages us to celebrate the survival of European tourists while turning a blind eye to the deaths of thousands of others."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
52%
|
This is 40 (2012)
|
"What lingers are the stormy tête-à-têtes between Rudd and Mann -- a couple with whom we'd gladly celebrate the big 4-0."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
65%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
|
"To gaze upon the film, like Frodo staring into that prophetic magic orb, is to be shaken by a dark vision of cinema's future."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
79%
|
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
|
"Yates leaps into big-budget cinema like a kid in a candy store, packing in nearly every compelling image from the 870-page source material."
|
Steve Heisler
|
76%
30%
94%
85%
45%
40%
