|
32%
|
Man on a Ledge (2012)
|
"a straight-up genre film with no ambition beyond keeping the audience minimally entertained with its workmanlike execution of a literally high-concept idea"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
77%
|
The Grey (2012)
|
"a physically and philosophically grueling survival thriller"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
45%
|
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012)
|
"continues Daldry's trajectory of increasingly indigestible pretension, although he exchanges earnest morbidity for a mixture of cloying sentimentality and offbeat humor"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
71%
|
Il Momento della Verita (The Moment of Truth) (1965)
|
"ends up feeling distracted, constantly torn away from developing an interesting protagonist in favor of lingering on the behind-the-scenes machinations of the business of bullfighting and bullfighting itself"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
53%
|
Albert Nobbs (2012)
|
"While most of us can't identify with having to change our gender to get by, we can all feel the familiar tug of Albert's fundamental desire, which is nothing more than to fit in and be loved. "
|
James Kendrick
|
|
17%
|
The Double (2011)
|
"You have to admire Brandt and Haas for taking such a gamble, but unfortunately it doesn't quite pay off. "
|
James Kendrick
|
|
48%
|
Contraband (2012)
|
"a moderately enjoyable, generally preposterous thriller of minimal ambitions "
|
James Kendrick
|
|
93%
|
Gojira (1956)
|
"For all its rubbery fakeness and sometimes silly plotting, the film nevertheless cuts right to the bone of nuclear anxiety"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
——
|
L'Ultimo treno della notte (Night Train Murders)(Xmas Massacre)(Don't Ride on Late Night Trains) (1975)
|
"reworks familiar material with enough gusto and thematic interest to make it worth revisiting"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
80%
|
Haywire (2012)
|
"a slight genre exercise built on a spare, straight-to-video backbone and fleshed out with Soderbergh's experimental attitude"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
36%
|
Red Tails (2012)
|
"a deliberate throwback to 1940s war movies, but not in a good way"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
97%
|
Wings (1927)
|
|
James Kendrick
|
|
97%
|
Wings (1927)
|
"its unadorned sense of realism sets Wings apart from so many special-effects-laden action movies today that exchange pixels for stuntmen and computer logarithms for physical reality"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
95%
|
Belle de Jour (1968)
|
"A character study with surreal interludes and a rare film in which Buñuel depicts a member of the upper class with some sympathy and depth"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
54%
|
The Iron Lady (2012)
|
"Streep wears Thatcher's body in her prime with authority and in her twilight with an all-too human sense of frailty, reminding us that, however iron-willed she was as a conservative politician, she is still decidedly human"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
77%
|
A Dangerous Method (2011)
|
"a mostly fascinating character study and depiction of the compelling power of ideas"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
93%
|
Coriolanus (2011)
|
"Fiennes holds the screen as both actor and director, illustrating once again that the Bard's most powerful works resonate today as they did hundreds of years ago"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
97%
|
The Artist (2011)
|
"Although he is working in an older acting style that favors large gestures and emphatic facial expressions, Dujardin still evokes the entire wealth of the emotional spectrum"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
87%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
|
"Fincher has delivered a visually striking, well-acted, at times stomach-churning thriller, but I still can't help but wish that he had taken a curve ball and continued exploring new territory rather than taking a big swing at an easy toss "
|
James Kendrick
|
|
76%
|
War Horse (2011)
|
"demonstrates Spielberg's mastery of the fine art of infusing the bleakest of material with a sense of optimism that swells in your heart without blotting out the tragedies and losses that came before"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
75%
|
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
|
"The action is dazzling in terms of overwhelming your senses, but it is rarely awe-inspiring; it doesn't grab you by the throat or rattle your nerves like Spielberg's best work, and it lacks his instinct for feeling."
|
James Kendrick
|
|
82%
|
Young Adult (2011)
|
"it is as if Cody spent so much creative energy getting inside Mavis's head that she forgot to write characters around her"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
93%
|
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)
|
"an effectively enthralling back-to-basics action thriller"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
70%
|
Design for Living (1933)
|
|
James Kendrick
|
|
70%
|
Design for Living (1933)
|
"beneath the sublime surface of Lubitsch's best films beats a human heart full of recognizable desires, fears, flaws, and longings, which is precisely what sets his work apart from its sleazier, more mundane counterparts"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
80%
|
Shame (2011)
|
"If we are to suffer through 101 minutes of Brandon's wretched, unsatisfying existence, shouldn't we at least have some inkling of who the man is and what makes him tick?"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
78%
|
Melancholia (2011)
|
"as an epic metaphor for the devastating effects of depression, the film is not without its merits, although said merits are often stretched to their breaking point or overshadowed by meandering narrative digressions and inexplicable human behavior"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
100%
|
12 Angry Men (Twelve Angry Men) (1957)
|
"an incisive and gripping film"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
25%
|
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011)
|
"drags along too slowly to give it much impact and instead engenders little more than impatience"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
100%
|
Three Colors: Blue (Trois Couleurs: Bleu) (1993)
|
"Binoche's performance is brilliantly understated, and she conveys with minimal dialogue and outward affectation a woman who is internally in turmoil"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
91%
|
Three Colors: White (Trzy kolory: Bialy) (Trois Couleurs: Blanc) (1994)
|
"an odd seriocomic film"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
98%
|
Three Colors: Red (Trois couleurs: Rouge) (1994)
|
"a beautiful film both emotionally and philosophically, not to mention aesthetically"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
97%
|
The Muppets (2011)
|
"its mixture of nostalgia, postmodern humor, and all-around generosity may be exactly what is needed to endear the Muppets to a whole new generation"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
90%
|
The Descendants (2011)
|
"Payne displays a knack for both perfect casting and using his lead actor in sometimes unconventional, unexpected ways"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
82%
|
Super 8 (2011)
|
|
James Kendrick
|
|
92%
|
Take Shelter (2011)
|
"Michael Shannon gives the performance of the year "
|
James Kendrick
|
|
93%
|
West Side Story (1961)
|
"it is the heat of West Side Story's social and cultural conflicts that make it a pop-culture landmark unlike any other"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
44%
|
J. Edgar (2011)
|
"cleverly uses the familiar tropes of the biopic against itself to blur the lines between verifiable fact, elaboration and pure speculation"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
69%
|
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (2011)
|
"a bong that has been hit one time too many"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
67%
|
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
|
"given the increasing familiarity (some might say "exhaustion") of these aesthetic devices, it is almost unavoidable that Paranormal Activity 3 will feel like a slight letdown"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
79%
|
The Skin I Live In (2011)
|
"works in its own right as a semi-campy gloss on mad scientists, the horrors of medical experimentation, and our own conflicted relationships with the bodies we call home"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
92%
|
Blue Velvet (1986)
|
"shocking, perverse, funny, unsettling, scathing, biting, and twisted, but undeniably original"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
94%
|
Yabu no naka no kuroneko (Black Cat from the Grove) (1968)
|
"moves fluidly between the cinematic invisible and the overtly theatrical, mixing impressive tracking shots and dexterous editing with attention-grabbing devices like rear-projection"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
33%
|
Texas Killing Fields (2011)
|
"works sporadically, but never consistently, and ends up feeling much lighter and more forgettable than its "inspired by true events" tagline would seem to merit "
|
James Kendrick
|
|
94%
|
Island of Lost Souls (The Island of Dr. Moreau) (1933)
|
"a disturbing and provocative horror gem"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
88%
|
Margin Call (2011)
|
"Chandor keeps Margin Call visually and emotionally fluid, staging the entire ordeal like an escalating disaster in which fiscal, rather than physical, violence is the looming threat"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
80%
|
Incendiary: The Willingham Case (2011)
|
"starts as a meticulous deconstruction of injustice, but ends up feeling more like an elaborate, preaching-to-the-choir anti-Perry campaign film"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
36%
|
The Thing (2011)
|
"doesn't score any points for originality or improvement, but it is surprisingly deft in maintaining what already works while adding in a few new twists and not making the mistake of trying to explain that which is best left mysterious"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
59%
|
Real Steel (2011)
|
"a big, seemingly clunky contraption that works against all odds"
|
James Kendrick
|
|
85%
|
The Ides of March (2011)
|
"a cynical political fable for increasingly cynical times"
|
James Kendrick
|
