Doug Cummings

Doug Cummings
Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications: Filmjourney
Official Websites: filmjourney.org

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
91% Ponyo (2009) At its best, this is a master working in a minor key; at its worst, it feels like a project in search of structure and conviction. - MUBI EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 13, 2017
89% Quatre nuits d'un rêveur (Four Nights of a Dreamer) (1972) It's an affectionate tribute to the beauty of Parisian youth with a keen eye for the friction caused when whimsical idealism meets the messy demands of interpersonal reality. - L.A. Weekly EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 5, 2013
100% A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut) (1957) A Man Escaped masterfully constructs the spaces -- physical and mental -- inhabited by Lt. Fontaine (played in a low-key register by an untrained actor, François Leterrier). - L.A. Weekly EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 5, 2013
95% Diary of a Country Priest (Journal d'un curé de campagne) (1954) Bresson's third feature and in many ways his first major work. - L.A. Weekly EDIT
Read More | Posted May 5, 2011
100% Something's Gonna Live (2010) What sets the film apart are its tender sense of camaraderie (felt in many candid, informal conversations) and its thematic heft: these artists genuinely want to reflect the human condition, a value often lost in today's technological extravaganzas. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 15, 2010
93% La Graine et le Mulet (The Secret of the Grain) (Couscous) (2007) Through his superlative cast of performers, Kechiche's family portrait is a doting record of the innate resiliency of this beloved community. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 23, 2008
90% The Unforeseen (2008) It provides a multilayered examination of what it means for society to "develop" and "grow" while depleting its natural resources. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 14, 2007
100% The Doctor's Horrible Experiment (Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier) (1959) It's the kind of role that can inspire brilliance, and Barrault is remarkable, suggesting a deranged mime who moves in a series of spasms and ticks before breaking into wild, inexplicable violence. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 31, 2007
62% Diary of the Dead (2007) This time out, the elements seem particularly impassioned and conscientiously formed. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 16, 2007
90% Blade Runner (1982) The film's noisy sound mix and congested pictorialism--as if it had been directed by a crazed, postmodern Von Sternberg--is a direct corollary to its moral ambiguity and sense of climactic human expiration (technological and social). - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 8, 2007
94% The Violin (El Violin) (2007) by turns shocking, observant, picturesque, and thought-provoking, the film is a moving expression of the tumultuous existence of countless Mexican lives. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 26, 2007
100% Out 1, Noli Me Tangere (1971) Out 1 has been accurately described as a "film-fleuve," and though its current may be slow, its volume is massive; one could easily follow any one of its many tributaries to vast thematic territory. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 21, 2007
No Score Yet Kapurush (The Coward) (1994) A deeply felt and observantly rendered mood piece that pivots on setting, camera placement, actor positions, and an editing structure that incorporates flashbacks via emotional associations - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 21, 2007
75% Tekkonkinkreet (Tekkon kinkurîto) (2007) If it doesn't quite achieve seamless plotting and colorful dialogue, it makes up for it by merging highly stylized animation with live action aesthetics in remarkably immersive ways. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted May 8, 2007
100% Raise Ravens (Cria Cuervos) (1976) The film's vaguely uncanny and disquieting tone is due to several factors, including its emphasis on death, loss, and decay...In many ways, the film is a lament and warning for Spain's future. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 1, 2007
100% Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) Hollywood melodramas do not often compare to timeless masterpieces of world cinema, but this does, largely through McCarey's sophisticated blend of tragic pathos, psychological insight, and rich, knowing humor. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 21, 2007
No Score Yet Leyenda del tiempo (2006) A seemingly effortless, but enigmatic and deeply engaging observation of modern San Fernando islanders. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 8, 2007
No Score Yet The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987) One of the more astonishing aspects of the film (one that also incriminates the viewer) is [its] shocking moral fury. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 8, 2007
100% Gamlet (Hamlet) (1964) Kozintsev emphasizes the imprisoning moral architecture of Elsinore, not by obvious claustrophobic visuals, but by a rich, widescreen frame and purist, black-and-white imagery... - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 7, 2006
86% Who's Camus Anyway? (2005) While it's chock full of film references, colorful characters, and social eccentricities, its true sophistication emerges gradually, posing complex questions about the roles of fantasy, identity, and volition in modern life. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 1, 2006
100% La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2003) Filled with wall-to-wall political debate, pleas for social equality and critiques of power, the film is a furious, provocative, and rousing experimental documentary that reenacts the Commune's historical moment. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 27, 2006
86% The Road To Guantanamo (2006) To its credit, the film isn't sensationalistic nor is it political agitprop. While the violence is concrete and upsetting, it's virtually tame by contemporary Hollywood standards. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 22, 2006
74% Mr. Arkadin (1962) While the plot sometimes seems too fragmented for its own good, Welles' consistently inventive imagery nevertheless ensures that the action remains thoroughly engrossing. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 21, 2006
73% Cavite (2006) The film maintains an impressive narrative momentum throughout, but its documentary details make the biggest impression. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 13, 2006
100% Buffalo Boy (2003) In a lesser film, the copious floods would signal pat themes of life and renewal, but Nguyen-Vo emphasizes the water's destructive power as well. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 6, 2006
No Score Yet Our Times (2002) A personal and informative time capsule of a crucial moment revealing the ongoing cultural tensions in Iran between conservatism and progress. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 22, 2006
81% The Future of Food (2005) With alarming and concise analysis, it highlights the way traditional farming in the US has become a corporate-controlled, less diversified business with global repercussions. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 17, 2006
89% Tony Takitani (2005) The characters and narrative are so lightly sketched, the film's gravity sneaks up on the viewer through the gradual force of its form and rhythm. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 31, 2005
89% A State of Mind (2005) The film is also admirably intimate, giving a human face to those living in a totalitarian society; their fears, joys, inspirations, and hopes. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 28, 2005
90% Darwin's Nightmare (2005) Sauper is no polemicist, and his close observation and eye for challenging juxtaposition provides more than enough impetus for engagement. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 21, 2005
100% Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) Robert Bresson's aesthetic of realist, material sounds and images assembled in paradoxical ways virtually defines the cinematic parable... - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2005
87% Howl's Moving Castle (2005) ...heartfelt humanism once again enlivens the filmmaker's craft, yet this time around the film seems quieter, more charming and eccentric than awing. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 13, 2005
97% L'Argent (1983) L'Argent showcases the filmmaker at the height of his formal ingenuity, particularly his use of narrative ellipses and fragmented space (close-ups of legs, hands, objects). - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 11, 2005
88% Funny Ha Ha (2003) Dollenmayer's low-key naturalism is a perfect compliment to the camera's hand-held gaze, presenting a touching combination of amiable nonchalance and emotional yearning. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 6, 2005
No Score Yet Nang-Nak (1999) George Lucas isn't the only filmmaker who can turn ancient myth, graphic eye candy, doomed romance, and Buddhist non-attachment into box office gold... - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 3, 2005
88% The Tracker (2003) [T]he film emphasizes its fable qualities and sets the stage for its moral structure, which hinges on the merging of power and racism and the possibility of resistance. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 1, 2005
92% White Dog (1982) A powerful, inspired critique of racism, tapping into the relationship between humans and animals in a way that places it within the ranks of cinematic masterpieces... - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted May 14, 2005
100% Fury (1936) Fury offers a striking portrait of the structure of society; its assorted classes, organizations and technologies, and methods of law and order... - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted May 12, 2005
96% Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) [A] passionate call for a more accurate account of the diverse struggles, hopes, and joys to be found throughout the city of angels. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted May 8, 2005
98% Killer of Sheep (2007) If this sounds depressing, it's not, largely due to Burnett's ability to highlight warmth, humor, and unexpected moments of compassion. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted May 4, 2005
88% F for Fake (1974) An almost impossibly lively pastiche of images and ideas that never tires. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted May 1, 2005
94% The Best of Youth (La meglio gioventù) (2003) It avoids the pratfalls of easy melodrama by maintaining a psychological distance from its characters; there are never any obvious explanations for their choices or behaviors. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 22, 2005
92% The River (1959) The film's scenario is merely a loose framework for emphasizing its setting through various festivals, bazaars, and imaginative legends. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 21, 2005
No Score Yet Star Spangled to Death (2004) It's a stimulating, labyrinthine experience provided by a master of the American avant-garde and an historical artifact that is nevertheless piercingly contemporary. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2005
100% The House is Black (2008) Farrokhzad breaks through the repugnant aura that has often haunted victims of [leprosy] and affirms their resilience and human beauty. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2005
83% It's All True (1993) ...the film at once seems like a visually dynamic conflation of a Robert Flaherty film and a proto-neorealist fable comprised of photogenic locals and working class heroics. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 10, 2004
88% Tell Them Who You Are (2005) Mark Wexler's film is the latest success in the blooming genre of therapeutic, first-person, digital essay films exploring the filmmaker's personal life. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 10, 2004
100% I Vitelloni (1953) Although the plot moves between set pieces, its dramatic structure is centered on the characters, individuals caught between terminal stasis and illegitimate dreams. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 2, 2004
94% La Voie lactée (The Milky Way) (1969) More witty than Dogma and more aesthetically refined than the original Bedazzled, the film is affectionately irreverent and adventurous storytelling. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 2, 2004
97% Umberto D (1955) Like Falconetti as Joan of Arc, Battisti offers one of those rare performances that is so perfectly realized, it automatically negates the possibility of any future roles. - Filmjourney EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 2, 2004