Alan Zilberman

Alan Zilberman's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Washington Post
Washington City Paper
Brightest Young Things
Publications:
Washington Post,
Washington City Paper,
Brightest Young Things
Movie Reviews Only
T-Meter | Title | Year | Review | |
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60% | Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) |
If the first Wonder Woman is the DCEU at its finest, this film reverts closer to Justice League: hammy, portentous, and oddly unfinished. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Dec 23, 2020
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2.5/5 | 91% | Promising Young Woman (2020) |
It is good trash striving for something more respectable, and does not realize good trash can also have something to say. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Dec 23, 2020
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98% | Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) |
Boseman's performance is a fitting end to a singular career that was tragically cut short. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Dec 18, 2020
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75% | Wander Darkly (2020) |
That director Tara thinks this schlock could move an audience is an insult to our intelligence and our hearts. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Dec 11, 2020
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3.5/5 | 81% | I'm Your Woman (2020) |
Director Julia Hart constructed the film so that it is a sharp rebuke of countless crime thrillers audiences have seen over the years. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Dec 11, 2020
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No Score Yet | The Predators (I Predatori) (2020) |
No characters are likable, none of the social commentary is subtle, and the film uses offensive imagery without giving it the moral weight it deserves. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Dec 4, 2020
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83% | Undine (2020) |
His characters and understated style serve the material by drawing us into a story full of tragedy, murder, and forgiveness. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Dec 4, 2020
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79% | Summer of 85 (Été 85) (2020) |
Adults may see the hero's behavior as frivolous, but it comes from a genuine emotional place. The movie is like that, too: slight and ultimately poignant. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Dec 4, 2020
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3/5 | 83% | Mank (2020) |
This is a strange film, one that benefits from knowledgeable viewers, to the point where novices may ultimately watch the credits in annoyed confusion. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Dec 4, 2020
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27% | Hillbilly Elegy (2020) |
There is little narrative arc, only a raw glimpse of this flawed family, so Howard and his collaborators strain for significance that always eludes them. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Nov 24, 2020
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5/5 | 99% | Collective (Colectiv) (2020) |
The film follows those who push for accountability, and while their efforts are important, it suggests that reform is impossible when every system is stained. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Nov 20, 2020
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3.5/5 | 83% | Freaky (2020) |
It realizes there are two things in movies that never go out of fashion: a ticking clock, and a character who has to convince everyone that they are right. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Nov 13, 2020
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89% | The Climb (2020) |
In a moment when most comedies are hastily assembled joke factories, this one feels like it's alive. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Nov 12, 2020
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2/5 | 83% | Proxima (2019) |
The director defines her characters so broadly that it is difficult to invest in what befalls them. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Nov 10, 2020
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100% | His House (2020) |
This is a horror film with a lot on its mind, without losing any genre requirements. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 30, 2020
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4/5 | 85% | Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020) |
Not all the jokes stick the landing, yet this is film - in a roundabout way - is about a need for collective decency. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Oct 23, 2020
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77% | 12 Hour Shift (2020) |
The presence of Angela Bettis adds instant credibility to a horror movie...that is also the case with 12 Hour Shift, a horror thriller that has grace notes of gallows humor. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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82% | Hail to the Deadites (2020) |
Hail to the Deadites is an example of what happens when someone depicts fans without questioning their fandom. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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63% | Get the Hell Out (Tao Chu Li Fa Yuan) (2020) |
Unlike The Walking Dead, this film has a bright palette and stylized choreography. It is always goofy and never grim, which is a shrewd way to hide the political satire under the film's surface. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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4.5/5 | 98% | Time (2020) |
The film covers twenty of years of family history in less than ninety minutes, and yet careful observation gives the suggestion we have known this family all our lives. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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94% | Minor Premise (2020) |
With its stirring lead performance and ticking clock, this modest thriller is a major accomplishment. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 15, 2020
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90% | The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) |
Distortions notwithstanding, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a rousing reminder of what was at stake in the late 1960s. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 15, 2020
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4/5 | 81% | Charm City Kings (2020) |
It is an effective coming of age drama that never condescends to its characters. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Oct 8, 2020
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94% | The Mole Agent (2020) |
The line between recreation and cinema vérité is deliberately unclear, and yet the message is unshakable-elderly people deserve more dignity than they get, and the loneliness they face is a tragedy. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 5, 2020
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100% | Kokoloko (2020) |
Kokoloko is an unlikely travelogue since so much of the story involves mayhem and murder, but the 16mm imagery is a pleasure to behold. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 5, 2020
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No Score Yet | The Heist of the Century (El robo del siglo) (2020) |
This film has just the right balance of suspense and comedy, the sort of thing you should rush to see before the inevitable American remake. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 5, 2020
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89% | Ema (2019) |
Larraín intersperses Ema with beautiful dance sequences and crisp cinematography. If this drama provides no easy answers, at least it's a delight to behold. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 5, 2020
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2.5/5 | 93% | Possessor: Uncut (2020) |
Few of the characters have any recognizable impulses, except for greed, lust, and rage, so the brutality is only in service of itself. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Oct 2, 2020
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100% | Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020) |
Johnson is a deft filmmaker, using careful staging to suggest scenes that are alternately exaggerated and intimate. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Oct 1, 2020
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4.5/5 | 89% | Kajillionaire (2020) |
This is an art film that might move you to tears, as long you are willing to accept its wavelength. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Sep 25, 2020
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98% | Cell 211 (Celda 211) (2009) |
Daniel Monzón's Cell 211 is a brutal reminder of how to make a well-made thriller. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Sep 23, 2020
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88% | The Nest (2020) |
We have been these characters before, in one way or another, and the film's final mercy is to show what is possible when our deepest mistakes are finally acknowledged. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Sep 18, 2020
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81% | I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) |
Kaufman embraces more genre tropes than his usual work, although the frequent discursions can test our patience. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Sep 11, 2020
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4/5 | 68% | Rent-A-Pal (2020) |
Whereas Joker revels in cynical theatrics and nasty violence, Rent-A-Pal deals with the dark impulses of its premise. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Sep 11, 2020
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2/5 | 70% | Tenet (2020) |
Pesky things like narrative and character development only get in Nolan's way, to the point where I cannot help but feel his next film should abandon storytelling altogether. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Sep 3, 2020
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3/5 | 92% | The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020) |
Iannucci's anger is still there, except he hides it through big-hearted performances and formal flourishes that are not in his earlier films. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Aug 28, 2020
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59% | Tesla (2020) |
It is rare and refreshing to see it in a film that expects its audience to take it seriously. Just because Tesla was active in the late 19th century doesn't mean that he should speak or act like an old-timer. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Aug 24, 2020
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4/5 | 89% | Sputnik (2020) |
It may lack in top-notch special effects, but it has the potential to stir the imagination. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Aug 14, 2020
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2.5/5 | 94% | Boys State (2020) |
This film does not paint a portrait with evocative color, and instead smudges familiar shades of red and blue. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Aug 14, 2020
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83% | She Dies Tomorrow (2020) |
Although it is astute and curious about death in a way that few films achieve, it is never too grim. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Aug 6, 2020
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1/5 | 76% | Summerland (2020) |
This film does not merely hold us by the hand. It practically pries open our mouth into a forced, uncomfortable smile. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Jul 31, 2020
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3/5 | 70% | Amulet (2020) |
An early scene in Amulet contains imagery as disquieting as anything you might see this year. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Jul 24, 2020
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75% | The Rental (2020) |
Director Dave Franco internalizes the formal requirements of the horror genre, without fully understanding what those tropes are in service of. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Jul 23, 2020
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4.5/5 | 82% | The Painted Bird (2020) |
If Taika Waititi wants to wave away wartime atrocities with dancing and David Bowie, Václav Marhoul realizes that honest acknowledgment is the only way to begin any reckoning. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Jul 17, 2020
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100% | Through the Night (2020) |
This is the rare gentle and heartfelt film that nonetheless may provoke your sense of anger for justice. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Jul 15, 2020
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4/5 | 91% | Relic (2020) |
When the horror finally resolves, it happens with genuine catharsis. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Jul 10, 2020
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94% | Palm Springs (2020) |
This is a love story about two depressed, anxiety-ridden people whose mental states are constantly deteriorating. But it is also demented, charming, and funny as hell. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Jul 10, 2020
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2/5 | 96% | John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020) |
In all these scenes, Lewis comes off as an engaged, charming man, although there is no sense of his interiority. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Jul 2, 2020
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4/5 | 86% | White Noise (2020) |
By depicting their flaws and moments where they're a bit more vulnerable, it makes their need to cling to white identity politics all the more pathetic. - Brightest Young Things
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| Posted Jun 30, 2020
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4/5 | 64% | Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) |
Unlike the Judd Apatow model where the dialogue is the primary source of humor, Ferrell's script (co-written with Andrew Steele) creates funny situations. - Washington City Paper
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| Posted Jun 26, 2020
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