|
92%
|
Mister Roberts (1955)
|
"Henry Fonda stars, as brilliant as ever."
|
Don Druker
|
|
95%
|
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
|
"Sincere, square, and interminable."
|
Jonathan Rosenbaum
|
|
96%
|
The King and I (1956)
|
"Typically overproduced."
|
Dave Kehr
|
|
100%
|
Alfie (1966)
|
"For all its implicit misogyny, the original 1966 film version of Bill Naughton's play remains durable because of Michael Caine's career-defining performance as the cockney ladies' man."
|
Jonathan Rosenbaum
|
|
97%
|
The Thin Man (1934)
|
"One of the most popular comedies ever made."
|
Don Druker
|
|
100%
|
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)
|
"Based on a true story, its style is simple, direct, forceful -- even after more than six decades."
|
Don Druker
|
|
95%
|
Stage Door (1937)
|
"While it sometimes lapses into pure corn, it nevertheless manages to capture the manic-depressive dormitory atmosphere of young actresses trying to make it in New York."
|
Don Druker
|
|
100%
|
Captain Blood (1935)
|
"Michael Curtiz, the most polished of Warner's studio technicians, starts Flynn off royally."
|
Don Druker
|
|
100%
|
Stagecoach (1939)
|
"Its virtues remain intact."
|
Dave Kehr
|
|
28%
|
The Vow (2012)
|
"Most of the time it plays like the movie adaptation of a Land's End catalogue, making monogamy seem essential by associating it with high-end interior design."
|
Ben Sachs
|
|
75%
|
House of Pleasures (2011)
|
"It emphasizes setting over character and plot; and it casts a mood that's both eerie and entrancing."
|
Ben Sachs
|
|
98%
|
La Grande illusion (The Grand Illusion) (1937)
|
"It's still one of the key humanist expressions to be found in movies: sad, funny, exalting, and glorious."
|
Jonathan Rosenbaum
|
|
98%
|
La Grande illusion (The Grand Illusion) (1937)
|
"It's an excellent film, with Renoir's usual looping line and deft shifts of tone, though today the balance of critical opinion has shifted in favor of the greater darkness and filigree of The Rules of the Game."
|
Dave Kehr
|
|
7%
|
Woo (1998)
|
"This Manhattan-based romantic comedy might be fun if it didn't hit you over the head with a sledgehammer every few minutes."
|
Jonathan Rosenbaum
|
|
11%
|
Alex & Emma (2003)
|
"The actors make this fun if you can overlook the ludicrous view of Jeremy Leven's screenplay concerning how novels are written and what publishers generally pay for them."
|
Jonathan Rosenbaum
|
|
73%
|
A Single Girl (2000)
|
"A stunning demonstration of moral and existential suspense in relation to duration, much like Agnes Varda's 1961 Cleo From 5 to 7."
|
Jonathan Rosenbaum
|
|
77%
|
The Towering Inferno (1974)
|
"Irwin Allen, the Busby Berkeley of natural disasters and other people's troubles, teams up with John Guillermin, a competent if undistinguished action director."
|
Don Druker
|
|
73%
|
The Prince of Tides (1991)
|
"The results may seem overripe and dated in spots, but she coaxes a fine performance out of Nolte, and the other actors (herself included) acquit themselves honorably. "
|
Jonathan Rosenbaum
|
|
100%
|
The Love Parade (1929)
|
"Made before the production code was inflicted, the film is rife with Lubitschian innuendo."
|
Dave Kehr
|
|
100%
|
One Foot in Heaven (1941)
|
"The movie's stiff sense of virtue won it an Oscar nomination, but more impressive is Scott's weirdly distant performance as a woman who impulsively accepts the life of a church mouse and then finds she can't do much for her children."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
71%
|
Windfall (2012)
|
"A full-throated attack on wind energy, this feature by Laura Israel is one of the most surprising (and depressing) eco docs I've seen in years."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
76%
|
The Innkeepers (2012)
|
"The place offers West plenty of odd, creaky spaces to inspect as the innkeepers' project of capturing ghostly events on video (a joking reference to the Paranormal Activity franchise) begins to bear fruit."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
63%
|
The Woman in Black (2012)
|
"This is an effective genre exercise, if not an especially inspired one."
|
Ben Sachs
|
|
93%
|
Coriolanus (2011)
|
"Visually and dramatically it works well-it's Shakespeare by way of Black Hawk Down-but as an allegory of modern-day geopolitics it doesn't really go anywhere."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
46%
|
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1955)
|
"The film is the quintessence of a certain kind of 50s schlock."
|
Dave Kehr
|
|
80%
|
The Citadel (1936)
|
"Though it has Vidor's favorite theme of personal rebirth and his enduring country/city dichotomy, it lacks his usual fire."
|
Dave Kehr
|
|
71%
|
Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940)
|
"Sam Wood, the El Supremo of Hollywood hackdom, squired this one to glory."
|
Pat Graham
|
|
67%
|
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
|
"Tepid and slow."
|
Dave Kehr
|
|
100%
|
Decision Before Dawn (1951)
|
"Werner, who served in the Axis forces during the war, gives a magnetic performance."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
83%
|
One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937)
|
"Universal survived the Depression thanks to Boris Karloff and Deanna Durbin, the latter horror being a reedy-voiced child star who infected a number of late 30s musicals before creeping puberty ended her career. This is one of her more tolerable vehicles."
|
Dave Kehr
|
|
50%
|
The Alamo (1960)
|
"Interminable."
|
Jonathan Rosenbaum
|
|
56%
|
The Turning Point (1977)
|
"For a film ostensibly dedicated to physical grace, Ross's images are unforgivably clumsy."
|
Dave Kehr
|
|
——
|
Amador ()
|
"The soulful young actress Magaly Solier manages to carry this dull, obvious Spanish drama."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
96%
|
Tomboy (2011)
|
"Modestly conceived and executed."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
53%
|
Albert Nobbs (2012)
|
"Rodrigo Garcia [is] known for his female ensemble dramas but demonstrates no particular affinity for this material."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
80%
|
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2012)
|
"The boy (played by a trio of child actors) is so unremittingly evil that the movie begins to feel like a grotesque remake of that old John Ritter comedy Problem Child."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
32%
|
Man on a Ledge (2012)
|
"This noirish thriller is as self-knowingly ludicrous and thoroughly enjoyable as Fritz Lang's Beyond a Reasonable Doubt or While the City Sleeps."
|
Ben Sachs
|
|
99%
|
A Separation (2011)
|
"This is primarily a human story about a marriage unraveling, the husband torn between love for his daughter and devotion to his father, the daughter torn between one parent and the other."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
77%
|
The Grey (2012)
|
"The movie draws on the terrifying beauty of the natural world and generates tension from the volatile dynamics of a carefully observed group."
|
Ben Sachs
|
|
71%
|
Il Momento della Verita (The Moment of Truth) (1965)
|
"Francesco Rosi's 1965 feature is widely (and plausibly) considered the best movie about bullfighting, in part because of its irony and finesse in capturing how the sport springs from and plays against the social reality of Spain."
|
Jonathan Rosenbaum
|
|
36%
|
Red Tails (2012)
|
"This is so generic as storytelling that it fails even as a basic history lesson: it's hard to believe that the stock conflicts on-screen have any connection to real events."
|
Ben Sachs
|
|
80%
|
Haywire (2012)
|
"There's a good deal of pleasure to be had in the clockwork precision of her hand-to-hand combat, which Soderbergh often shoots in profile to showcase her wall-climbing backflips."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
95%
|
Pina (2011)
|
"Crane and steadycam allow Wenders to get so close to the action that in the minimalist Café Müller, one's illusion of being on stage is uncanny."
|
Andrea Gronvall
|
|
71%
|
Carnage (2011)
|
"Foster is particularly impressive in a stridently unattractive role, as the pinched, angry liberal who's orchestrated the meeting but doesn't get quite the apology she wants."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
34%
|
Joyful Noise (2012)
|
"It's hard to enjoy the movie's charms when writer-director Todd Graff keeps trying to shove them down your throat."
|
Ben Sachs
|
|
54%
|
The Iron Lady (2012)
|
"Streep, no fan of Thatcher, nicely undercuts the poignancy of her current condition with flashbacks that reveal her brittle arrogance in office."
|
J. R. Jones
|
|
67%
|
Newlyweds (2012)
|
"Burns's faux-documentary style allows space for some wickedly revealing confessions, while jump cuts accentuate his characters' rapid-fire showdowns."
|
Andrea Gronvall
|
|
48%
|
Contraband (2012)
|
"Several graphically violent scenes of women and children in jeopardy make this, ultimately, beneath contempt."
|
Ben Sachs
|
|
83%
|
Outrage (2011)
|
"Kitano is clearly enjoying his powers as a master of the form, and the movie invites the viewer to share in his enjoyment."
|
Ben Sachs
|
|
91%
|
Inni (2011)
|
"Well crafted and flat-out cool."
|
Kevin Warwick
|
