Alan Zilberman

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
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 23, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 23, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 18, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 11, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 11, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 4, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 4, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 4, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 4, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 24, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 20, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 13, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 12, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 10, 2020
100% His House (2020) This is a horror film with a lot on its mind, without losing any genre requirements. - Washington City Paper EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 30, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 23, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 16, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 16, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 16, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 16, 2020
94% Minor Premise (2020) With its stirring lead performance and ticking clock, this modest thriller is a major accomplishment. - Washington City Paper EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 15, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 15, 2020
4/5 81% Charm City Kings (2020) It is an effective coming of age drama that never condescends to its characters. - Brightest Young Things EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 8, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 5, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 5, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 5, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 5, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 2, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 1, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 25, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 23, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 18, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 3, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 28, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 24, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 14, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 14, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 6, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 31, 2020
3/5 70% Amulet (2020) An early scene in Amulet contains imagery as disquieting as anything you might see this year. - Brightest Young Things EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 24, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 23, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 17, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 15, 2020
4/5 91% Relic (2020) When the horror finally resolves, it happens with genuine catharsis. - Brightest Young Things EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 10, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 10, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 2, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 30, 2020
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 EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 26, 2020