Ethan Alter

Ethan Alter
Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications: Film Journal International, Hollywood Reporter, Premiere Magazine, Village Voice, NYC Film Critic, Show Business Weekly, Giant Magazine, Television Without Pity, TV Guide, Yahoo! TV
Critics' Group: New York Film Critics Online

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
87% The Lobster (2016) The English-language debut of Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is built on a terrific premise, but some cracks appear in the foundation by the final act. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 10, 2016
91% Captain America: Civil War (2016) The Marvel blockbuster machine keeps on trucking with a double-sized new issue of Captain America that packs enough punch to distract from its grinding plot mechanics. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 3, 2016
77% Keanu (2016) Keanu is proof positive that Key & Peele are one of the great contemporary comedy duos, even if the feature surrounding them is little more than a shaggy-cat story. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 28, 2016
75% Above and Below (2016) Errol Morris appears to serve as the inspiration for Nicolas Steiner's documentary, which possesses some of that director's artistry but lacks his inquisitive spirit. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 15, 2016
90% Green Room (2016) Jeremy Saulnier's wickedly entertaining follow-up to Blue Ruin makes a big impression by staying small. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 11, 2016
88% The Invitation (2016) Karyn Kusama's quietly chilling direction enlivens a somewhat plodding housebound thriller. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 8, 2016
51% Hardcore Henry (2016) More like Headache-Inducing Henry. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 7, 2016
47% They're Watching (2016) A contemporary Blair Witch Project knock-off that feels significantly more dated than the film it's inspired by. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 25, 2016
27% Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) Zack Snyder's wearying superhero opus may be slugged "Dawn of Justice," but it's the twilight of any hope that the filmmaker will find the fun in the DC Universe. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 24, 2016
11% The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016) Although there's technically one more film to go in the four-part Divergent Series, this third installment reveals a franchise already on its last legs. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 17, 2016
90% 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) A sequel in third act only, 10 Cloverfield Lane successfully switches out monster-movie mayhem for chamber-room chills. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 10, 2016
15% Gods Of Egypt (2016) [An] endearingly goofy gloss on the Old World fantasy spectacles of yesteryear. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 25, 2016
91% A War (Krigen) (2016) While it builds to an intriguing thematic question, the dramatic situation at the heart of Tobias Lindholm's war-themed procedural is a little too open-and-shut. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 11, 2016
84% Deadpool (2016) Early on, Deadpool teases audiences that it's going to lead a comedy-laced comic-book movie revolution, but it ends up joining the superhero establishment. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 8, 2016
80% Southbound (2016) With one notable exception, the quality of this horror anthology mostly heads in one direction: south. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 4, 2016
42% Moonwalkers (2016) Not out there enough to work as gonzo period comedy, and certainly not trenchant enough to succeed as satire, Moonwalkers is an imitation of a real movie. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 14, 2016
10% The Forest (2016) The night is dark and not so full of terrors in "Game of Thrones" star Natalie Dormer's first foray into C-grade J-horror. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 8, 2016
100% Only Yesterday (1991) Isao Takahata's 1991 animated feature belatedly arrives on U.S. screens and thankfully hasn't aged a day. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 4, 2016
31% Daddy's Home (2015) The odd-couple comedy duo of Ferrell & Wahlberg enlivens this mostly tedious comedy, which has hints of a darker, more interesting film lurking underneath. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 23, 2015
59% Concussion (2015) If [Concussion] serves any purpose at all, it's as a reminder that Will Smith is an A-grade movie star, even in C-grade material. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 22, 2015
74% The Hateful Eight (2015) Eight too often feels wearying, a film of modest ambition made by a director with unlimited resources. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 21, 2015
92% Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) Strives to unite old and new generations of Star Wars fans and mostly succeeds. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 16, 2015
95% Son of Saul (2015) Although the style of László Nemes' Holocaust drama at times threatens to overwhelm the substance, the movie has a cumulative power that's difficult to shake. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 15, 2015
77% Moomins On The Riviera (Muumit Rivieralla) (2014) Gentle to a fault, this quiet adaptation of the Finnish comic strip will likely only delight the Moomin faithful. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 3, 2015
70% The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) The reigning YA franchise champ laces up for one final round, and (mostly) manages to go out on top. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 18, 2015
100% Song Of Lahore (2015) A warm-hearted, if somewhat superficial, exploration of how great music crosses borders, composed in the key of Buena Vista Social Club. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 12, 2015
66% The Visit (2015) M. Night Shyamalan's first foray into found-footage territory conjures up a few scares, but otherwise operates on autopilot. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 10, 2015
9% Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) [A] slick, efficient and utterly banal piece of global cinema product. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 10, 2015
No Score Yet Hot Sugar's Cold World (2015) More a doodle than a fully formed documentary, this chronicle of a modern-day musical maestro nevertheless dances to an intriguing tune. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 5, 2015
96% In Jackson Heights (2015) One of the most invigorating portraits of democracy in action to come along in recent memory. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 3, 2015
58% Extraordinary Tales (2015) Despite working from extraordinary subject matter-Edgar Allan Poe's various tales of the macabre-too many entries in this animated anthology are disappointingly ordinary. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 22, 2015
77% Tales of Halloween (2015) A sweet, well-meaning confection that doesn't provide a lot of genre nourishment. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 16, 2015
73% Crimson Peak (2015) While there may be some slight stiffness in the storytelling joints, Guillermo del Toro's Gothic love story is a visually ravishing delight. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 15, 2015
92% Beasts of No Nation (2015) War is (a beautiful) hell in Cary Joji Fukunaga's disconcertingly picturesque combat film. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 14, 2015
29% Reversion (2015) Oh, what short form sci-fi master Ray Bradbury would have made of this overlong short story! - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 8, 2015
95% The Forbidden Room (2015) Within the guise of a rarefied ode to silent movies, Maddin may have made his most commercial film. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 6, 2015
56% Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) A diverting animated sequel that, believe it or not, boasts one of Adam Sandler's most affecting performances. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 25, 2015
60% The Intern (2015) Robert De Niro soars in Nancy Meyers' latest-too bad the movie itself only intermittently achieves liftoff. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 23, 2015
44% Cooties (2015) Cooties struggles to fill 90 minutes with a premise that could support, at most, five minutes of great content. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 17, 2015
33% Being Canadian (2015) Like our good neighbor to the north, this first-person documentary is genial, amusing and a little bit dull. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 16, 2015
93% Queen of Earth (2015) A standout star turn from Elisabeth Moss enlivens and deepens Alex Ross Perry's extended Roman Polanski homage. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 26, 2015
14% Sinister 2 (2015) A sequel that has no reason to exist is also a movie that has no reason to be seen. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 19, 2015
65% Digging For Fire (2015) A perceptive, if sometimes heavy-handed, drama about love and marriage. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 19, 2015
17% Air (2015) [Christian Cantamessa has] the eye of a promising director-now he just needs a better script. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 14, 2015
88% Straight Outta Compton (2015) A smorgasbord of a musical biopic in which the strength of the individual parts compensates for the flaws of the whole. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 13, 2015
94% The Diary Of A Teenage Girl (2015) May tread familiar territory, but at least it does so with great empathy and thoughtfulness. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 5, 2015
71% I Am Chris Farley (2015) Understandably if disappointingly leery of asking too many difficult questions about [Farley's] life and death. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 30, 2015
55% A LEGO Brickumentary (2015) [The directors] don't feel the compulsion to [...] expand on any of the information that was likely handed directly to them by the company's public-relations team. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 30, 2015
20% Extinction (2015) [After an interesting first half, Extinction] consumes its own brains and becomes another mindless creature feature. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 29, 2015
57% Paper Towns (2015) Despite likeable performances by the young cast and some resonant moments, this gauzy teen drama is, sadly, paper-thin. - Film Journal International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 23, 2015