Carla Meyer

Carla Meyer
Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:
Film Critic, San Francisco Chronicle
Publications: Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, Dallas Morning News
Critics' Group: San Francisco Film Critics Circle

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
2/4 67% Penguin Bloom (2021) In this era of increased calls for more authentic and inclusive representation onscreen, Watts' casting seems, at the very least, outdated. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2021
3/4 70% A Recipe for Seduction (2020) Lopez is the most respectful fake Sanders yet, giving "Recipe's" least soapy performance. He brings a stoicism and a bravery to the character, who can head-butt a guy without disturbing his own horn-rimmed specs. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 14, 2020
3/4 100% Represent (2020) An imperfect but insightful film... - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 12, 2020
2/4 29% The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020) The film becomes so bad that no amount of positive thinking - as recommended by Rhonda Byrne's 2006 mega-selling nonfiction book "The Secret," from which this narrative film is drawn - can save it. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 30, 2020
1/4 52% I Still Believe (2020) An overlong, badly paced film filled with cliched dialogue and accented by pleasant yet forgettable music. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2020
2.5/4 62% The Call of the Wild (2020) Ford exhibits so much feeling here that he transports us back to his work in earlier films like "Witness" and "The Fugitive"; back to when you could make a case for him as a great actor and not just a movie star, or Chewie's cranky companion. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 19, 2020
3/4 86% Ms. Purple (2019) Carey and Kasie have suppressed most outward signs of emotion. But Chu and Lee show the emotion roiling beneath the surface... - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 19, 2019
2.5/4 84% Downton Abbey (2019) "Downton Abbey," an enjoyable but uneven film adaptation of the beloved PBS series, seems designed to give fans what they want. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 17, 2019
2/4 42% Vita & Virginia (2019) The movie's editing undermines both lead performances. Scenes end abruptly, or seem set up for a moment that never arrives. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2019
3/4 86% The Nightingale (2019) Just as she did in "The Babadook," Kent maintains tension for so long at a stretch that you do not notice you have forgotten to breathe until it finally eases up. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 7, 2019
3/4 92% Wild Rose (2019) Buckley's unusually unguarded expressions give viewers entry into her character's every thought. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 26, 2019
2/4 88% American Woman (2019) Had the movie been more focused on Deb's devastation over Bridget's disappearance, Miller might have been great in it. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 11, 2019
2.5/4 60% The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019) Watching these movies that imagine what pets do when you are away is like seeing a more colorful, exciting version of your home pet cam. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 5, 2019
3/4 66% Wine Country (2019) Director Poehler clearly allowed for improv on set, but she also kept this film from losing its shape the way so many "SNL"-tied films before it have. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted May 7, 2019
1/4 40% El Chicano (2019) Diego... lacks any nuance as a character. He is grim and humorless, like most everything else about this film. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted May 1, 2019
3/4 96% Hail Satan? (2019) "Hail Satan?" is too lacking in conflict (apart from the eternal one) to be a true study of a movement. But it's a highly entertaining survey. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 24, 2019
3/4 99% Amazing Grace (2019) In "Amazing Grace," Franklin's vocals are pristine and elastic, her control of her instrument absolute. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 11, 2019
3/4 96% On Her Shoulders (2018) Its subject compels throughout. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 31, 2018
2.5/4 95% Blaze (2018) Dickey would have made a strong impression regardless. But it turns out he can act, and sing, and has a genuine magnetism that combines with an endearing quality to create a highly appealing screen presence. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 9, 2018
2.5/4 85% Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco (2018) There is a remarkable person here, and Crump should get credit for reintroducing him to the spotlight, even if it takes wading through disco and banality to get to him. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 3, 2018
3/4 84% A Simple Favor (2018) "Favor" is packed with jokes, most very funny. The ones that are not as funny usually land anyway, thanks to Kendrick's sly delivery and Lively's blithe way with a putdown. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 12, 2018
2/4 91% Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018) "Teen Titans" never reaches that sweet spot where adult and kid humor align in a single gag. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 25, 2018
1/4 56% The First Purge (2018) Without ideologies at play, how is this "Purge" film different from the others? It isn't. It's interesting, then boring, then bad, like the rest. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 3, 2018
4/4 100% Leave No Trace (2018) Whether this insular relationship can survive in the larger world is the source of such consistent, compelling tension that you do not notice until this close-to-two-hour film is nearly over that it contains almost no exposition. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 29, 2018
2/4 49% A Kid Like Jake (2018) Some of this material is too sensitive, granted, to have a very young actor play it. But "Jake" goes too far the other way, giving us only glimpses of the boy, who emerges as more of a symbol than a real child. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 13, 2018
3/4 100% The Judge (2018) "The Judge" lays out facts while avoiding making easy judgments about how Palestinian men view and treat women. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 26, 2018
2.5/4 90% Lean on Pete (2018) It takes place in a world films rarely show, one where the crusty mentor lacks a heart of gold and where country music plays in every diner, but the people eating there are hard, not homespun. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2018
2/4 51% The Miracle Season (2018) High school volleyball is not an exciting sport to watch on a big screen. At least not the way "Miracle" director Sean McNamara presents it. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 5, 2018
3/4 94% Foxtrot (2018) Israeli filmmaker Samuel Maoz's strange, engaging "Foxtrot" offsets tragedy with a significant entertainment factor. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 13, 2018
2/4 87% Thoroughbreds (2018) It starts out strong but ends up basic, lacking the complexity of "Heavenly Creatures" or even "Wild Things." - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 6, 2018
1/4 23% The 15:17 to Paris (2018) Athough Eastwood deserves credit for not going the cheesy route by drawing out the attack unnaturally, the rest of "15:17" is so drawn out, you almost wish he would have given into cheese. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 8, 2018
2.5/4 77% In the Fade (Aus dem Nichts) (2017) [Kruger's] performance sustains interest in the movie when director and co-writer Fatih Akin ("Head-On"), after a highly promising start, takes it into C-grade Liam Neeson territory. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 10, 2018
3/4 100% Paddington 2 (2018) These actors all yield the floor to Hugh Grant's delightful performance as Phoenix Buchanan, a vain thespian who lives near the Browns in London. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 9, 2018
1/4 17% Father Figures (2017) Comedian Katt Williams, in a small role as a chipper hitchhiker, injects about 15 minutes worth of fun into Father Figures, an otherwise mostly dreadful road comedy in which Ed Helms and Owen Wilson play twins searching for a man to call dad. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 21, 2017
3/4 76% Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) Johnson is good at suggesting a timid teen beneath his wall of muscle. Gillan seems believably unsure of herself as the nerd Martha, while also making exposed abs look classy. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 19, 2017
2/4 86% My Friend Dahmer (2017) Which came first, bullies or dead animals in jars? "Friend" does not say, nor is there a clear link between the discord in Jeff's home and his behavior. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 16, 2017
3/4 97% Mudbound (2017) The story's eventual move into brutality is all the more devastating because of well-observed intimacy that preceded it. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 16, 2017
3/4 98% Jane (2017) Full of vivid greens and sun-backlit wildlife imagery, Van Lawick's shots are beautifully composed yet not too formal looking, thanks to the warm, grainy quality of 16-millimeter film. "Jane" looks like an old home movie directed by David Lean. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 26, 2017
1/4 50% Blood Money (2017) This brand of eccentricity does not suit Cusack. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 12, 2017
3/4 92% The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017) Sandler lends Danny an open-heartedness that grounds the film. - San Francisco Chronicle EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 11, 2017
100% Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2017) If you have or had a mother, or a daughter, or a father, or a son, you are likely to blubber through Bright Lights ... But don't. You will miss part of the show, and Reynolds would not want that. - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 23, 2017
85% Other People (2016) Other People [is] a highly affecting Sacramento-set tragi-comedy . - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 23, 2017
82% Amanda Knox (2016) The powerful new documentary "Amanda Knox" emphasizes the spike in awareness of sexism just since 2007. - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 23, 2017
98% Moonlight (2016) The five stories' most striking commonality is placing its characters in conflict with the American ideal of being able to forge one's own destiny. - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 22, 2017
2.5/4 65% The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) The retirees' embrace of India, and a resulting lack of transformative experiences, diminish the dramatic possibilities in Second. - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 8, 2016
2/4 51% Unbroken (2014) Unbroken is a triumph-of-the-spirit film that devotes too much time to attempts at squashing that spirit. - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 8, 2016
2.5/4 31% Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) It creates a less-believable ancient world and contains fewer compelling action scenes than Scott's previous sun-and-sandals epic Gladiator -- nor conviction. - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 8, 2016
4/4 97% Two Days, One Night (2014) It is Cotillard's emotional accessibility that turns this drama and character study into a quiet thriller. - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 8, 2016
3/4 89% A Most Violent Year (2015) J.C. Chandor is becoming American cinema's foremost chronicler of men in crisis. - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 8, 2016
3/4 93% Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) [The Force Awakens] rarely stops moving, yet its action never seems excessive. That's because combatants and targets always remain clear instead of fuzzed up by the hyper-speed visuals hack action directors use. - Sacramento Bee EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 17, 2015