|
47%
|
Parkland (2013)
|
"There are 8 million stories in this naked tragedy. Parkland is content to tell parts of some of them."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
97%
|
Gravity (2013)
|
"An existential action movie that unashamedly embraces the sensation of awe."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
91%
|
Inequality For All (2013)
|
"The film is as much about Reich as income inequality, a topic he has written and talked about for decades. You'll learn why he's 4 feet 10.5 inches tall and why he became active in social politics."
|
Sheryl Jean
|
|
81%
|
Prisoners (2013)
|
"A gorgeous but manipulative thriller that wants you to ponder Big Questions as it sends a shiver down your spine."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
71%
|
Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve (2013)
|
"The film ends with more questions than answers - perhaps that's the point."
|
Sheryl Jean
|
|
95%
|
The Hunt (2013)
|
"Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt conveys the sinister swirl of persecution more vividly than any film I can remember."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
81%
|
Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013)
|
"On its own terms, Saints conjures a mood of stoic obsession at the service of a tale older than the Hill Country dirt it calls home."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
91%
|
Blue Jasmine (2013)
|
"Blanchett excels at every turn, from the haughty airs and headstrong sense of entitlement to the fragile and inevitable disintegration that made the hair on my arms stand up."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
38%
|
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)
|
"This film hits its stride in a way the first one never did."
|
Nancy Churnin
|
|
93%
|
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2013)
|
"It feels thorough, and very affectionate. It just needs more of a narrative hook, a through-line from start to finish that can enhance the story for those not yet in the club."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
69%
|
The Wolverine (2013)
|
"The Wolverine represents a strain of faux gravitas that squeezes nearly all the fun out of blockbuster moviemaking. Here we have multimillion-dollar proof that slow and unsure can be just as dull as hyperkinetic chaos."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
94%
|
Fruitvale Station (2013)
|
"Fruitvale is easy to see as something more than a movie - a diagnosis, perhaps, or a part of that sticky vortex we call the zeitgeist."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
85%
|
The Way Way Back (2013)
|
"The Way, Way Back features seasoned actors Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney and Amanda Peet, but they offer only support to a story that 16-year-old Canadian Liam James carries to the point of stealing."
|
Michael Granberry
|
|
75%
|
Despicable Me 2 (2013)
|
"How do you tell a story about a bad guy who is no longer a bad guy? Despicable Me 2 embraces the dilemma and adds new ones."
|
Nancy Churnin
|
|
99%
|
20 Feet From Stardom (2013)
|
"Loaded with stirring anecdotes and even richer music, Twenty Feet also makes for a fascinating study in ego sublimation."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
78%
|
Monsters University (2013)
|
"Director Dan Scanlon and his creative team pay exquisite attention to each delicious detail, including young Mike's retainer that gleams each time he grins."
|
Nancy Churnin
|
|
59%
|
The Bling Ring (2013)
|
"A little cheekier than most Coppola films, its subjects fish in a barrel of barbed laughs."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
56%
|
Man of Steel (2013)
|
"The movie can't decide if it wants to be a particularly thoughtful brand of superhero saga or a deafeningly generic summer action movie. So it ends up being both, to the detriment of it and us."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
64%
|
Tiger Eyes (2013)
|
"Remarkably, the story, adapted by Blume with her son, director Lawrence Blume, seems as fresh, painful and poignant as when she wrote it."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
98%
|
Before Midnight (2013)
|
"How (Jesse and Celine) try to rekindle that flame is what drives Midnight, a film that feels so authentic it's like overhearing a conversation you're not sure you should be hearing. "
|
Cary Darling
|
|
35%
|
The Internship (2013)
|
"A feature-length chunk of product placement masquerading as a comedy of teamwork and aspiration."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
95%
|
Stories We Tell (2013)
|
"Stories We Tell is just the latest reminder of nonfiction film's current, endlessly innovative state. That's a story worth savoring."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
87%
|
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
|
"Abrams' sophomore effort picks its references well, builds on the relationships established in the original series (and tweaked in the last movie) and keeps the quips and battles coming. Warp speed, Captain."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
49%
|
The Great Gatsby (2013)
|
"Luhrmann hasn't unlocked the secrets of a story that remains all but unfilmable, but his Gatsby is far more than a collection of superficial splashes and tics."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
79%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013)
|
"The movie is shrewd enough to skitter along so frenetically that nothing, not even tonal contradiction, can stick."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
79%
|
42 (2013)
|
"42 escapes the trappings of sheer hero worship largely thanks to Boseman, whose relative anonymity eliminates any potential star baggage. More than that, he strikes a tough balance."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
67%
|
Fists Of Legend (2013)
|
"At 2 1/2 hours, Fists of Legend goes on too long. But Kang Woo-suk's take on a genre often relegated to the level of cartoon is a refreshing change of pace."
|
Cary Darling
|
|
76%
|
The Kings of Summer (2013)
|
"A light-stepping kids comedy for grown-ups."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
36%
|
Family Weekend (2013)
|
"Don't let the innocuous title fool you. Family Weekend is a subversive little comedy in which a tightly wound misfit of a teenage girl, fed up with watching her family spiral out of control, subjects her parents to an extreme intervention."
|
David Martindale
|
|
92%
|
The Sapphires (2013)
|
"The Sapphiresshouldn't gleam as brightly as it does. The up-from-struggle story follows the predictable form of movies like these, from Dreamgirls to The Commitments. But there's such a sense of joy ... that it's hard not to be won over. "
|
Cary Darling
|
|
9%
|
The Host (2013)
|
"Fear and dread of "the other" have long ruled American science fiction, fantasy, suspense thrillers and politics... How jarring then, and refreshing, to see The Host... take the invaders' point of view."
|
Nancy Churnin
|
|
69%
|
Stoker (2013)
|
"Aesthetics are steering this ghostly ship, leaving narrative in the background to fend for itself. Fortunately, Park is in full command of his repertoire."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
59%
|
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
|
"Oz the Great and Powerful somehow manages to be both slavish to its hallowed template (when convenient) and completely tone-deaf to the magic that made it a one-of-a-kind cultural milestone."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
28%
|
21 And Over (2013)
|
"An alcohol-fueled journey that becomes progressively more farfetched and, as the film's run time ticks on, increasingly unwatchable."
|
Chase Wade
|
|
14%
|
A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)
|
"It's all more than a little silly, but Willis' presence at least provides undercurrents of easy jocularity."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
55%
|
The Playroom (2013)
|
"Modest in scale, it's the kind of American independent film that brings some honor to that shopworn descriptor."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
13%
|
Safe Haven (2013)
|
"It's as though the filmmakers lacked the confidence to stick with the basic story, which served every element needed in a Sparks-infused guilty pleasure."
|
Michael Granberry
|
|
84%
|
Side Effects (2013)
|
"Soderbergh, in what's rumored to be his final theatrical release (don't believe it), jumps from imitating the master to imitating the master imitators."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
81%
|
Warm Bodies (2013)
|
"The movie has a wry sense of humor that manages to coexist with its all-you-need-is-love theme."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
93%
|
Amour (2012)
|
"There's nowhere to hide: The film cuts no corners and stings with the authenticity of life's fragility."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
32%
|
Gangster Squad (2013)
|
"What's missing from Gangster Squad is a core, a point of view, something to patch together the cheese and carnage."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
81%
|
The Impossible (2012)
|
"Perhaps Jaws and Open Water are the only other movie experiences that might engender more fear of the sea."
|
Cary Darling
|
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013)
|
"Swift, smart, relentless, Zero Dark Thirty compresses a decade of high-stakes procedural into 157 minutes of pure momentum."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
70%
|
Les Misérables (2012)
|
"One of the most emotionally devastating and gratifying movies I've ever seen."
|
Joy Tipping
|
|
88%
|
Django Unchained (2012)
|
"No movie can match Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti Western/blaxploitation/southern when it comes to illustrating the carnage wrought by slavery."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
61%
|
Jack Reacher (2012)
|
"As the details mount, and the star does what stars do, it starts to seem like a good bag of potato chips. There's no nutritional value, but darned if you don't keep eating."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
82%
|
De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone) (2012)
|
"This is a sensuously assembled, almost tactile film that earns its redemption and sears itself in memory."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
65%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
|
"I was impressed with how much of the story's good humor Jackson and Co. manage to weave into the spectacle. It's there in the close shave with a gang of hungry trolls, and it really lifts off once Andy Serkis' uncanny Gollum enters the picture."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
44%
|
Bad Kids Go to Hell (2012)
|
"With characters that come off more as collections of tics than people and a soundtrack stuck on earsplitting dance remix mode, Bad Kids plays like a straight-to-DVD bad dream."
|
Chris Vognar
|
|
63%
|
Hitchcock (2012)
|
"Its ambitions are modest, its payoffs pleasant enough."
|
Chris Vognar
|
