Andrea Gronvall
Andrea Gronvall's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when
published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Chicago Reader,
Time Out
| Biography: |
Chicago Reader film critic.
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| Publications: | Chicago Reader, Time Out |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 69% | Beautiful Boy (2018) |
The leads are superb, buoyed by Amy Ryan as Nic's mom, Maura Tierney as his stepmother, and LisaGay Hamilton in a moving cameo.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 26, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Wolkenbruchs wunderliche Reise in die Arme einer Schickse (2018) |
This Swiss-German romantic comedy delivers on its whimsical title.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 10, 2018
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| 100% | Retablo (2017) |
Alvaro Delgado Aparicio examines societal notions of masculinity, and how an artistic temperament can be both a vulnerability and a lifeline in a harsh world. ‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 10, 2018
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| 90% | The Great Buster: A Celebration (2018) |
Peter Bogdanovich brings his formidable knowledge of movies to bear in this incisive portrait of Buster Keaton...‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 10, 2018
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| 100% | Before the Frost (Før frosten) (2018) |
To the movie's credit, writer-director Michael Noer and his cowriter, Jesper Fink, provide enough plot twists to upend viewer expectations about the nature of evil in this study of human savagery.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 10, 2018
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| 83% | Becoming Astrid (Unga Astrid) (2018) |
Under Pernille Fischer Christensen's astute direction, the actors never descend into bathos.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 10, 2018
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| 3/4 | 100% | Mother's Day (2018) |
[Mays] is well matched by McClure, Wilmot, and Martin, who renders every gesture of her reticent character telling beyond words.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 3, 2018
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| 2/4 | 94% | Cardboard Gangsters (2017) |
...any sympathy for our "hero" is severely taxed.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 3, 2018
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| 2/4 | 13% | Life Itself (2018) |
I've seen Life Itself twice already, and I may even watch it a third time someday, not because it's perfect-it isn't-but because just as with my own life, I like to revisit the high points.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Sep 20, 2018
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| 3/4 | No Score Yet | School of Life (L'école buissonnière) (2017) |
Although he presents several characters fondly, Vanier emphasizes seriousness of purpose over playfulness.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Sep 6, 2018
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| 81% | Alpha (2018) |
A work of great imagination but devoid of wasteful excess, grounding his straightforward tale in recognizable human-and animal-behaviors.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Aug 24, 2018
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| 92% | Crazy Rich Asians (2018) |
Knockout visuals, a winning cast, and an irrepressibly feel-good vibe make this dazzling romantic comedy one for the ages.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Aug 14, 2018
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| 88% | Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) |
The screenwriters (Rudd among them) frequently mock their own sci-fi jargon, their snarkiness the strong suit in a movie offering little else except souped-up car chases.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Aug 2, 2018
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| 100% | Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (2018) |
This eerie and affecting feature debut from writer-director Mari Okada blends fantasy and coming-of-age stories.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jul 20, 2018
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| 81% | Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) |
This exuberant sequel easily tops the 2008 musical hit. ‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jul 20, 2018
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| 86% | Thoroughbreds (2018) |
Cory Finley uses the clipped dialogue of film noir to heighten the sense of menace.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jul 18, 2018
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| 4/5 | 89% | Hereditary (2018) |
Toni Collette is flawless.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jun 22, 2018
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| 48% | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) |
J.A. Bayona demonstrates a flair for the gothic... which has less pyrotechnics but more suspense.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jun 22, 2018
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| 89% | Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2018) |
Because Basquiat started as a graffiti artist, many of his earliest works were destroyed, so the rare photos here, provided by his friend Alexis Adler, are illuminating. ‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jun 21, 2018
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| 92% | Nossa Chape (2018) |
An extraordinary sports documentary and a compelling human-interest story, this documentary follows the rising Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense after the November 2016 plane crash that killed 19 players and the entire staff.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jun 21, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Breath (Nafas) (2016) |
An unsentimental perspective distinguishes this 2016 Iranian drama from earlier youth-centered classics.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Apr 14, 2018
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| 100% | White Sun (Seto Surya) (2017) |
[Deepak] Rauniyar gets the most out of the actors, a mix of pros and amateurs, and cinematographer Mark Ellam generates exhilarating images of this vertiginous corner of the world. ‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2018
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| 89% | Wait for Your Laugh (2017) |
Timing is everything in comedy, and according to this nostalgic documentary portrait of Rose Marie, she always knew when to jump to the next big thing. ‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jan 18, 2018
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| 76% | Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) |
Like a video game, the narrative lacks any character development, relying on obstacles, chases, and the threat of elimination. Hart delivers his one-liners with precision and verve, and Johnson is sweetly funny as the muscular incarnation of a gawky nerd.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Dec 21, 2017
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| 31% | Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) |
The wafer-thin plot barely sustains the songs and romance.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Dec 21, 2017
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| 4/4 | 91% | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) |
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri tells the story of a woman emulating God's vengeance when she might profit more by emulating his forgiveness, especially toward herself.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Nov 30, 2017
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| 98% | BPM (Beats Per Minute) (120 battements par minute) (2017) |
[BPM] devotes significant screen time to philosophical debate but also appeals to the senses with graphic sex and a throbbing techno score by Arnaud Rebotini.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Nov 16, 2017
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| 92% | Thor: Ragnarok (2017) |
This is a colorful mashup of Scandinavian myth, interplanetary sci-fi, Old Testament references, and crossover comic book characters.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Nov 2, 2017
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| 87% | Novitiate (2017) |
Writer-director Maggie Betts balances the naturalistic exchanges of her sympathetic young cast with bravura set pieces for the seasoned actors.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Nov 2, 2017
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| 63% | Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017) |
The movie's focus on the caustic effects of celebrity make this narrative set in the first half of the 20th century particularly relevant for the media-frenzied 21st.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Nov 2, 2017
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| 93% | Thelma (2017) |
[Thelma] links supernatural horror to repressed memories, raging hormones, and fundamentalist zealotry, crafting a sexy and unsettling brain-teaser.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 19, 2017
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| 81% | Marshall (2017) |
This real-life case makes for an entertaining courtroom drama that nonetheless reduces Marshall to the level of Perry Mason and consigns to the end credits his greater triumphs.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 19, 2017
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| 65% | The Foreigner (2017) |
Martin Campbell directed this twisty, bracing political thriller, giving Chan room to display his dramatic ability and letting Brosnan flesh out a vigorous, complex character who's surrounded by frenemies with secrets of their own.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 19, 2017
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| 2/4 | 66% | Victoria & Abdul (2017) |
Victoria & Abdul may capture the ugly side of Britain's colonial past, but its demeaning portrait of Abdul reinforces the Orientalism it purports to lampoon. ‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 13, 2017
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| 41% | The Mountain Between Us (2017) |
The movie works as far-fetched escapism with some genuinely moving moments.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Oct 5, 2017
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| 100% | Against the Law (2017) |
This somber BBC production... intercuts eyewitness accounts from grizzled survivors of homophobia in postwar England with a dramatic treatment of the life of journalist and activist Peter Wildeblood.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Sep 21, 2017
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| 88% | B&B (2018) |
the plot is overly reliant on such technology as smart phones and night goggles, gizmos that eventually hamper the paranoiac suspense.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Sep 21, 2017
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| 52% | Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) |
Exaggerated, cartoonish violence, deliberately cheesy CGI, and a buoyant pop soundtrack make this a stylish if overstuffed romp.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Sep 21, 2017
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| 33% | Home Again (2017) |
Witherspoon lacks the abandon the May-December love angle requires, and the movie is so tidily formulaic that it feels as if it's been airbrushed; the send-up of Hollywood falls flat too.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Sep 14, 2017
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| 35% | American Assassin (2017) |
Somewhere along the way Michael Cuesta morphed from a creator of thoughtful indie dramas... into an action director (Showtime's Homeland); if he ever wants to tackle a James Bond movie, this nonstop spy thriller should serve as his audition.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Sep 14, 2017
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| 87% | Wind River (2017) |
The pace was breakneck in Sheridan's previous thrillers, but in this whodunit the mood is more ruminative and the dialogue is portentous. ‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Aug 17, 2017
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| 70% | Annabelle: Creation (2017) |
The constant floating, spinning, shattering, and slamming of household objects gradually saps the movie's tension.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Aug 10, 2017
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| 79% | An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power (2017) |
Some might see the film as lionizing Gore, but it's a fascinating primer on how to engage and train citizen activists, from the grass roots to the corridors of power.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Aug 3, 2017
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| 78% | Atomic Blonde (2017) |
Adapting Sam Hart and Antony Johnston's graphic novel The Coldest City, Kurt Johnstad has written a smart exploitation thriller.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Aug 3, 2017
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| 96% | Step (2017) |
For most of the film the dancing is unsteady, but in the final number director Amanda Lipitz, a Tony Award-winning producer, makes the gutsy amateurs look like pros.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Aug 3, 2017
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| 91% | Girls Trip (2017) |
Bridesmaids proved that women could be just as smutty onscreen as men, but this fast-paced comedy is ruder, cruder, funnier, and more explicit.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jul 20, 2017
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| 18% | Wish Upon (2017) |
This horror flick is so predictable it feels not raw but antiseptic.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jul 13, 2017
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| 93% | Baby Driver (2017) |
Oozing menace as addicted bank robbers, Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm are all the more charismatic thanks to Bill Pope's luscious noir photography. Credit Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss for the razor-sharp editing.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jun 29, 2017
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| 54% | 47 Meters Down (2017) |
The only thing this so-called thriller has going for it is widescreen cinematography by Mark Silk.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jun 15, 2017
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| 96% | The Women's Balcony (Ismach Hatani) (2017) |
With an eye for artful detail, director Emil Ben-Shimon orchestrates a resolution both plausible and jubilant.‐ Chicago Reader
Read More | Posted Jun 13, 2017
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