|
83%
|
Something in the Air (2013)
|
"Every kid believes the world around him is changing in ways it hasn't before; for these kids, it really was. Or had."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
77%
|
Pieta (2013)
|
"For all its cringe-inducing horror, "Pieta" is visually restrained, striking visceral blows with psychological precision while making little use of gore."
|
Barbara VanDenburgh
|
|
65%
|
The Iceman (2013)
|
"Why would anyone want to watch something so determinedly downbeat, so unerringly serious? Because of the performances, Shannon's in particular."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
——
|
Disobedience (2013)
|
"It seems petty to quibble with a movie that brings a tale this incredible to more people."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
42%
|
Black Rock (2013)
|
"Maybe it's a parody?"
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
87%
|
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
|
"I thought it was really fun, an inventive, surprising rethinking of some of "Star Trek's" most hallowed inventions, but I'm not wedded to the source material as gospel. Trekkies will think it's a desecration. So, pick your side."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
38%
|
Aftershock (2013)
|
"The ending is sick enough to make it almost worth the wait. Key word: almost."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
52%
|
At Any Price (2013)
|
"A viewer is constantly aware of how much everyone is striving. It's the cinematic equivalent of a stranger who trips all over themselves in an effort to become your new best friend."
|
Randy Cordova
|
|
42%
|
Midnight's Children (2013)
|
"Faithfully adapted from Salman Rushdie's award-winning 1981 novel, the movie feels both too packed and too slight, overflowing with vivid details but lacking the structure to support their weight."
|
Barbara VanDenburgh
|
|
37%
|
Peeples (2013)
|
"The elements are all there. They're just thrown together in haphazard fashion. A funny scene here, an attempt at a touching scene there, toss, repeat randomly, the end."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
55%
|
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)
|
"It most disappoints as a thriller, the flashbacks and voiceovers and romantic entanglements so dominating the proceedings you forget that someone is bound and gagged in real time."
|
Barbara VanDenburgh
|
|
66%
|
The We and the I (2013)
|
"All of the kids are good in their roles, mostly as characters one assumes resemble themselves. And as any actor will tell you, playing yourself is one of the toughest gigs around."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
50%
|
The Great Gatsby (2013)
|
"DiCaprio has aged into roles like this with a certain grace. He carries himself with the self-confidence Gatsby would, but also manages the shade of doubt, that it's all false bravado."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
76%
|
No Place On Earth (2013)
|
"The film is not without its flaws, but the story it tells is both terrifying and inspiring."
|
Kerry Lengel
|
|
81%
|
Kon Tiki (2013)
|
"Unfortunately, sharks and whales aren't the stars of the film, so the movie is a pretty humdrum affair when it focuses on humans, even when actors are playing characters based on real people."
|
Randy Cordova
|
|
75%
|
Simon Killer (2013)
|
""Simon Killer" is a beautifully made look at ugliness and brutality, the kind of oxymoronic exercise that fascinates some and repels others."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
——
|
Midget Zombie Takeover (2013)
|
"A horrible movie, an amateurish-looking disaster that makes you wonder if it isn't some kind of in-joke, a stunt to see how bad a movie can be and still find its way into theaters."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013)
|
"Downey is as funny as ever, if not more so. He ensures that Iron Man 3 is a solid installment in the franchise, and helps to make it seem, at least for a time, that it might be something more."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
42%
|
To The Wonder (2013)
|
"A thing of great beauty, but not much more."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
77%
|
Renoir (2013)
|
"One would expect a film about French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir to look beautiful, to be shot in warm, sumptuous colors. And one would not be disappointed in Gilles Bourdos' "Renoir.""
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
47%
|
Pain & Gain (2013)
|
"You can't thread a needle this fine with a script filtered through Bay's puerile id."
|
Barbara VanDenburgh
|
|
88%
|
Upstream Color (2013)
|
"I loved it."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
98%
|
Mud (2013)
|
"Once writer and director Jeff Nichols' film about love, lies and loss gets going, it never really stops."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
76%
|
It's a Disaster (2013)
|
"You certainly wouldn't want to spend your last moments with this bunch, but a couple of hours watching them is enjoyable enough."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
67%
|
Disconnect (2013)
|
"As cautionary tales go, "Disconnect" is a pretty good one, but it's not really a whole lot more than that."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
45%
|
Leonie (2013)
|
"It hits all the expected beats of a thoroughly vanilla biopic as an aging Leonie reflects on her unconventional life via plodding voiceover while doddering through a forest collecting berries."
|
Barbara VanDenburgh
|
|
47%
|
The Lords of Salem (2013)
|
"You get the idea that "The Lords of Salem" would be a lot scarier if you could tell what was going on."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
56%
|
Oblivion (2013)
|
""Oblivion" may not live up fully to its grand ambitions, but it isn't for lack of trying."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
94%
|
Room 237 (2013)
|
"It's nuts, in the best possible way."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
68%
|
Trance (2013)
|
"If you're going to champion style over substance, you'll want Danny Boyle providing the style."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
55%
|
The Company You Keep (2013)
|
"The navel-gazing grows obnoxious, especially as the people on screen seem more like archetypes than characters."
|
Randy Cordova
|
|
77%
|
42 (2013)
|
"Helgeland has given us an impressive introduction to one of the most important men in U.S. history. But you can't help wanting more."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
62%
|
Evil Dead (2013)
|
"Whether you think it's a good movie will depend largely upon your stomach for gruesome violence. Then again, if you are going to see a movie called "Evil Dead," you're probably going to be OK."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
81%
|
The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)
|
"Fine, fine, it's an epic. Now let us up for air, please."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
93%
|
The Sapphires (2013)
|
"It's pure joy."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
90%
|
Beyond The Hills (2013)
|
"It is a haunting movie, dealing with superstitions, possession, even exorcism, one in which Mungiu poses no easy answers, because there are none to be found."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
70%
|
Wrong (2013)
|
"The key to making a movie like this work is for the characters to invest themselves completely in the weird little universe Dupieux has created for them, and they do."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
79%
|
Ginger & Rosa (2013)
|
"Fanning is nearly perfect as Ginger navigates choppier waters than most teens have to. There is not a false note in her performance; no matter how melodramatic things become, everything about Ginger remains genuine."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
——
|
Nicky's Family (2013)
|
"The story is good enough to tell itself, and the filmmakers should have let it."
|
Barbara VanDenburgh
|
|
40%
|
Mental (2013)
|
"A lot of times, you simply want the jabbering characters to shut up."
|
Randy Cordova
|
|
28%
|
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
|
"Ever played a video game with a friend and had to sit there while he hogged it, leaving you to do nothing but watch for what seemed like hours?"
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
98%
|
56 Up (2013)
|
"Yes, on some level it's just a seven-year check-in with people maybe half-remembered, if that. Yet the films also serve as a kind of check-in with us, too."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
9%
|
The Host (2013)
|
"Just kind of dumb."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
43%
|
Admission (2013)
|
"You could call it a dramedy, I guess, but that manufactured term suggests a blending of the two elements. Here they exist almost as separate genres squeezed into the same movie."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
47%
|
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
|
""Olympus" has a strictly director-for-hire vibe; anyone with access to a Roland Emmerich movie or two (namely "Independence Day") and a mad-libbed action script could have churned out something similar."
|
Barbara VanDenburgh
|
|
45%
|
On the Road (2012)
|
"Director Walter Salles' film is fairly faithful to the source material. It's not going to start a movement, though."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
15%
|
Dorfman in Love (2013)
|
"The story is simple and predictable, harmlessly pleasant (except when it tries to be a little edgy; then it's just silly)."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
66%
|
Spring Breakers (2013)
|
"James Franco's performance alone is worth the price of admission."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
69%
|
The Croods (2013)
|
"It's all well enough."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
|
82%
|
Like Someone in Love (2013)
|
""Like Someone in Love" is not a complicated story, but in Kiarostami's telling, it is a rich one, and a rewarding one, too."
|
Bill Goodykoontz
|
87%
24%
91%
