|
87%
|
The Conjuring (2013)
|
"The Conjuring uses every stock scare in the horror movie playbook for a dumb, yet charmingly traditional haunted house picture that manages to feel more retro than rehashed."
|
Philip Brown
|
|
20%
|
Girl Most Likely (2013)
|
"There are moments to make you honestly wish it were a better movie, and that the semi-autobiographical screenplay by Michelle Morgan didn't feel so much like a first draft."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
89%
|
After Tiller (2013)
|
"It's humanizing and heartbreaking."
|
Dave McGinn
|
|
8%
|
Runner Runner (2013)
|
"Takes us inside the world of Internet gambling which proves every bit as fascinating as you'd imagine, by which I mean, not at all."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
97%
|
Gravity (2013)
|
"Gravity, a weightless ballet and a cold-sweat nightmare, intimates mystery and profundity, with that mixture of beauty and terror that the Romantics called the sublime."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
——
|
Our Man in Tehran ()
|
"Sometimes, the truth can be more entertaining than fiction."
|
Simon Houpt
|
|
96%
|
Cutie And The Boxer (2013)
|
"A lively double portrait of Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, two Brooklyn-based artists who, after 40 years of marriage, are still creating side by side, and tormenting each other."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
31%
|
Austenland (2013)
|
"The acting throughout falls into two registers; pantomime mugging for most of the cast, while the romantic leads, Russell and Feild, look so ill at ease that you pity them."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
78%
|
Good Ol' Freda (2013)
|
"In this charming insider account, Kelly traces her history with the band from the very early days until after their split."
|
Marsha Lederman
|
|
51%
|
A Single Shot (2013)
|
"Both predictable and outlandish."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
40%
|
The Art of the Steal ()
|
"As is often the case in these caper flicks, there's too much plot for insufficient dramatic effect, and alert viewers will suss out where it's all heading in the first five minutes."
|
James Adams
|
|
34%
|
Salinger (2013)
|
"When [Salerno] drops the stylistic overkill and lets these people talk about Salinger, what emerges is a riveting picture of a contradictory, deeply selfish, troubled man."
|
Dave McGinn
|
|
60%
|
Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story ()
|
"It's dispiriting to see [Guccione] subjected to this paint-by-numbers biographical documentary."
|
Simon Houpt
|
|
5%
|
Battle of the Year (2013)
|
"The 3-D is a pain, and the excitable editing, slo-mo and speeded-up action frustrate attempts to watch the athleticism on display ..."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
81%
|
Prisoners (2013)
|
"The film you begin watching when the lights dim is not the same one you carry home from the theatre."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
33%
|
The Family (2013)
|
"The casting of Robert De Niro as an ex-Mafioso hiding in witness protection is witty in only the silliest, most superficial way. It's a joke with its own tinny, built-in laugh track."
|
Adam Nayman
|
|
35%
|
Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
|
"Insidious: Chapter 2 follows the further misfortunes of the Lambert family with diminishing insidious rewards."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
80%
|
Drinking Buddies (2013)
|
"Not much happens in Drinking Buddies, which, frankly, is refreshing."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
34%
|
Adore (2013)
|
"Outré love stories are great, as are love stories that make viewers squirm. But they have to ring true emotionally, and despite its talented cast, Adore does not."
|
Johanna Schneller
|
|
60%
|
Riddick (2013)
|
"In lieu of blockbuster spectacle, Twohy spins wittily choreographed scenes of small-scale carnage, most of it initiated by Riddick himself."
|
Adam Nayman
|
|
86%
|
Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie (2013)
|
"Évocateur is never less than watchable. At the same time, you have to wonder who's going to watch it."
|
James Adams
|
|
91%
|
Our Nixon (2013)
|
"It's an exploration of the banality of evil that constantly puts banality first, but this is a relatively narrow experimental film designed to supplement rather than replace more thorough histories."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
3%
|
Getaway (2013)
|
"By the time the movie actually arrives at its finest moment - a nearly two-minute single shot from the Mustang's hood as it chases the villain's van through dense traffic - you've become so numb to speed and sensation that you may barely notice."
|
Geoff Pevere
|
|
84%
|
Prince Avalanche (2013)
|
"It's an intimate two-hander with lots of dialogue, humour and poignant revelations, set against a backdrop of rugged woodland beauty."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
74%
|
The Grandmaster (2013)
|
"There are sequences in Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's new film, The Grandmaster, that are as gorgeous as anything you'll see on a screen this year, or perhaps this decade."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
75%
|
You're Next (2013)
|
"A well-executed horror-comedy ..."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
12%
|
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)
|
"Mortal Instruments manages to occupy 130 minutes of frantic, numbing, activity."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
97%
|
A Hijacking (2013)
|
"A nail-biter of a thriller that eschews conventional thrills, Tobias Lindholm's verité-like tale of a Danish cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates is rivetingly low-key."
|
Geoff Pevere
|
|
97%
|
Call Me Kuchu (2013)
|
"Stirring, heartbreaking and thoroughly infuriating ..."
|
Geoff Pevere
|
|
26%
|
Jobs (2013)
|
"If Jobs had been a producer on Jobs, he would have sent it back to the lab for a redesign."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
73%
|
Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)
|
"The Butler may be a sanctimonious cartoon, but it points to events in the civil rights struggle that were as grotesque and extraordinary as any fiction can invent."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
96%
|
A Band Called Death (2013)
|
"An especially pointed variation on one of music's most oft-told tales: A band formed ahead of its time sits in muffled obscurity while others reap the harvest of what it first planted."
|
Geoff Pevere
|
|
76%
|
La pirogue (2013)
|
"For all its technical skill and good intentions, the film doesn't quite have enough dramatic momentum to push it over the top."
|
Adam Nayman
|
|
91%
|
In a World... (2013)
|
"Bell summons up a rich creative voice and projects it at just the right volume. Everything in this cheerful, concise comedy rings out loud and clear."
|
Adam Nayman
|
|
91%
|
The Spectacular Now (2013)
|
"By the end of The Spectacular Now, you're not quite ready to let these characters go."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
30%
|
Kick-Ass 2 (2013)
|
"The year's most unpleasant movie."
|
Adam Nayman
|
|
68%
|
Elysium (2013)
|
"A cautionary tale about the dangers of squandering resources that wastes its own talent."
|
Adam Nayman
|
|
90%
|
The Attack (2013)
|
"It's set up as a descent into the heart of darkness, but it ends up playing out in pallid shades of grey."
|
Adam Nayman
|
|
——
|
A People Uncounted ()
|
"Yeger's doc offers a sobering, often harrowing understanding of a people and the workings of genocide."
|
Dave McGinn
|
|
85%
|
Terms And Conditions May Apply (2013)
|
"Not just a documentary about Internet privacy, but a non-fiction horror flick for anyone who blindly agrees to user licensing agreements online (a.k.a. everyone)."
|
Philip Brown
|
|
100%
|
The Deep ()
|
"Kormakur's film suggests that the enigma of Gulli can somehow be found in his peasant humility, his connections to his community."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
88%
|
Informant (2013)
|
"An unsettling portrait of a charismatic true believer, whose most consistent belief is that he's the hero of a grand narrative."
|
Liam Lacey
|
|
54%
|
Lovelace (2013)
|
"Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman settle for a titillating, exploitative snapshot instead of a fully rounded portrait."
|
Adam Nayman
|
|
69%
|
Cliffhanger (1993)
|
"it has truly awe-inspiring stunts and special effects and many of its suspense sequences will leave you with your heart in your mouth."
|
Christopher Harris
|
|
14%
|
The Smurfs 2 (2013)
|
"Only adults with 'Smurf-holm syndrome' could love this film."
|
Philip Brown
|
|
92%
|
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
|
"A pop epiphany, marking that commercially creative point where the power of Hollywood meets the purity of myth."
|
Rick Groen
|
|
——
|
The Venice Syndrome (Das Venedig Prinzip) ()
|
"Working in a loose, intimate style that belies his strong journalistic point of view, Pichler gathers testimony from a host of native Venetians bemoaning their hometown's chilly social and economic climate."
|
Adam Nayman
|
|
69%
|
The Wolverine (2013)
|
"It restores the tarnished lustre to this most fan-beloved of Marvel characters by doing precisely what Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's near-sacred 1982 run did: It pumps some feeling into the guy along with his muscles and steel talons."
|
Geoff Pevere
|
|
94%
|
Fruitvale Station (2013)
|
"We feel the death on the platform so acutely not because it's a stupid act of randomness, but hardly untypical racist violence, but because we've come to love this man."
|
|
|
——
|
Rufus ()
|
"[It] ends up feeling drab as well as looking it."
|
Adam Nayman
|
