|
89%
|
Ginger Snaps (2001)
|
"John Fawcett has directed "Ginger Snaps" with terrific flair, punctuating ominous moods with bursts of pitch-dark humor. "
|
David Sterritt
|
|
92%
|
The Devil's Backbone (El Espinazo del diablo) (2001)
|
"This moody ghost story follows generally familiar lines despite its unusual historical setting, but it's imaginatively filmed and builds a sense of brooding emotional power."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
87%
|
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
|
"Its shaky camera work and fuzzy images get monotonous after a while, and there's not much room for character development within the very limited plot."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
62%
|
Linsanity (2013)
|
"As a piece of filmmaking, Linsanity is scattershot and too reliant on newsreels. And the interviews, most of all with the religiously devout Lin are, alas, fairly unrevealing."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
80%
|
The Summit (2013)
|
"Nick Ryan's documentary The Summit pieces together the fateful expedition utilizing newsreel footage, new and old interviews with the climbers and their associates, and, regrettably, re-enactments."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
97%
|
Gravity (2013)
|
"Cuarón and his cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, keep the audience in weightless suspension right along with the astronauts. For most of us, Gravity is the closest we will ever get to the real deal."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
96%
|
Mother Of George (2013)
|
"The cinematography by Bradford Young is rich-toned and lustrous, and the film, until it bogs down in melodramatics, has a sensual ease. We are not looking at these people from the outside. Dosunmu pulls us deep inside."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
91%
|
Inequality For All (2013)
|
"It's unseemly, I know, to praise a movie like this for the stand-up-comic affability of its host. But Reich's engagingness also gives credence to the seriousness of his message."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
82%
|
Don Jon (2013)
|
"The movie becomes increasingly soft-edged and sappy."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
53%
|
The Muslims Are Coming (2013)
|
"The comedy routines are so-so (though the falling-in-the-aisles reaction shots tell another story) and the comics' patchwork odyssey often derails into irrelevancies."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
88%
|
Rush (2013)
|
"Rush isn't bad, exactly, but it's like a standard-issue male action programmer that somehow crept in from an earlier era."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
81%
|
Prisoners (2013)
|
"A film that, for all its pretensions and intermittent power, is essentially high-grade claptrap."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
50%
|
Thanks For Sharing (2013)
|
"Most of all, there's Ruffalo, who in his scenes with a very good Gwyneth Paltrow, plays a man who, with heartbreaking vulnerability, is straining to normalize himself. It's a major performance in a minor movie."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
95%
|
Enough Said (2013)
|
"Best is Gandolfini's sensitive-guy-in-a-bulky-physique performance. He was a marvelously versatile actor, and, with the knowledge that he is gone, it's doubly poignant to watch him here."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
95%
|
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2013)
|
"Harry Dean Stanton is a marvelous actor and, at least from a visual standpoint, a marvelous camera subject. He's not much of a talker, though."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
61%
|
My Father and the Man in Black (2013)
|
"You get a strong whiff of what it must have been like to be Johnny Cash, or his exasperated manager, from this film. It would make a good companion piece to "Walk the Line."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
85%
|
Yaaba (1989)
|
"It isn't a fancy or melodramatic film, and it moves rather slowly, especially if you compare it with hyperactive Hollywood pictures. But it glows with gentleness and charm"
|
David Sterritt
|
|
34%
|
Salinger (2013)
|
"By turns fascinating and infuriating."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
91%
|
Our Nixon (2013)
|
"We get to see film of daughter Tricia's wedding (her father is a surprisingly agile ballroom dancer) and other oddities."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
96%
|
Cutie And The Boxer (2013)
|
"Their 40-year marriage seems like more of a trial than this overweening, lightly likable movie acknowledges."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
81%
|
Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013)
|
"Lowery has a way with actors, though. As a local sheriff with an eye for Ruth, Ben Foster is excellent and, in a too-small role as a grizzled shopkeeper, Keith Carradine proves himself yet again to be one of our finest performers."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
74%
|
The Grandmaster (2013)
|
"I've never been a big fan of Wong's phantasmagoric prettiness, but at least here it provides a welcome corrective to the usual martial-arts mayhem."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
83%
|
The Patience Stone (2013)
|
"Amid these horrors, the young wife retains not only the frailty but also the incandescence, the sheer staying power, of beauty."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
73%
|
Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)
|
"Winfrey is good, though, demonstrating yet again that she's an actress and not just a celebrity playing an actress."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
88%
|
Misery (1990)
|
"Unfortunately, what could have been a seamless psychological thriller is interrupted by violence that's as gratuitous as it is sadistic."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
68%
|
Elysium (2013)
|
"If Elysium is an example of how recession-era Hollywood intends to dramatize the rift between the haves and the have-nots, let's hope the studios don't also bring back Smell-O-Rama."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
47%
|
We're The Millers (2013)
|
"Even tastelessness needs to have some taste. The blue humor in We're the Millers is just bland."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
84%
|
They Live (1988)
|
"Too bad director John Carpenter doesn't match this tantalizing premise with snappy, thoughtful filmmaking; long stretches of the movie are trite and silly."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
92%
|
Insomnia (2002)
|
"A startlingly good thriller wrapped around a morality tale."
|
Stephen Humphries
|
|
97%
|
Chicken Run (2000)
|
"There are some mighty fine laughs in this clever Claymation cartoon from the creator of England's hilarious Wallace and Gromit movies."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
93%
|
Out of Sight (1998)
|
"Much of the action seems more like warmed-over Quentin Tarantino than first-rate Steven Soderbergh."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
88%
|
Trading Places (1983)
|
"Directed by John Landis with a surprising amount of class, though he lets some of his old Animal House' vulgarity slip ostentatiously into the action."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
69%
|
Cliffhanger (1993)
|
"There's a visceral charge to the high-altitude chase scenes, but the thriller ultimately falls flat, even on its own limited terms."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
94%
|
Dave (1993)
|
"Kline gives a tremendously likable performance as the ersatz president, and Sigourney Weaver brings charm and elegance to the role of First Lady who's as ignorant of the switcheroo as the rest of the country."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
91%
|
Face/Off (1997)
|
"This is the ultimate Woo movie, but while his fans will enjoy every minute, others will find it too long, repetitive, and violent."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
68%
|
The Artist and the Model (2013)
|
"It's a miniature art history lesson that is also a rapt communion between two people who, at least in this moment, are joined in the ecstasy of creation."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
91%
|
The Spectacular Now (2013)
|
"James Ponsoldt, who directed from a script by Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter, is a bit too glib to do justice to this material, but the young actors, especially Woodley, are quite fine."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
64%
|
2 Guns (2013)
|
"It's essentially a buddy-cop romp with the usual assortment pack of graphic gruesomeness."
|
Peter Rainer
|
|
96%
|
Unforgiven (1992)
|
"Unforgiven plays out its drama with enough old-fashioned sobriety to lend the proceedings a classical air... It also incorporates enough latter-day cynicism, though, to comply with contemporary Hollywood fashion."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
93%
|
The Freshman (1990)
|
"It's fun to watch Marlon Brando parody one of his most justly celebrated roles."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
85%
|
The Secret Garden (1993)
|
"An intelligently conceived and finely crafted picture with a G rating, a tag normally shunned by ambitious filmmakers because of its association with kiddie cartoons and squeaky-clean dullness."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
84%
|
Back to School (1986)
|
"The profoundly strange presence of Rodney Dangerfield triumphs over sloppy writing and lumpy editing in this sometimes raunchy farce."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
85%
|
Presumed Innocent (1990)
|
"The performances are capable, if rarely inspired."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
92%
|
Parenthood (1989)
|
"There are good jokes and funny observations about middle-class life. The picture is too long and predictable, though."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
90%
|
The Lion King (2011)
|
"Simba is a superbly realized character, especially in the first half of the movie when he's still a little cub."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
88%
|
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
|
"The Last Crusade is a step backward for [Spielberg], but backwardness is an integral part of the Indy series right from its kiddie-matinee origins."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
89%
|
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
|
"Still one of Hollywood's most assured directors, Clint Eastwood transcends the story's cliches with a classically restrained yet steadily imaginative filmmaking style."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
81%
|
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
|
"It's a straight-out drama in the old Hollywood style. As such, it works fairly well, though its lapses in taste are sour reminders of the subtlety Hollywood has lost in recent years."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
88%
|
The Big Easy (1987)
|
"[The film is] directed by offbeat filmmaker Jim McBride, who gives the action a lot of energy but falls back too often on the usual sex-and-violence formulas."
|
David Sterritt
|
|
93%
|
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
|
"There are a few hilarious moments, and a few more that are foolish and even disgusting."
|
David Sterritt
|
