F.X. Feeney

Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications:
L.A. Weekly,
Mr. Showbiz,
Variety,
Village Voice,
Movieline
Critics' Group:
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Movie Reviews Only
T-Meter | Title | Year | Review | |
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62% | Out of Africa (1985) |
Surprise! A movie I thought I'd hate has turned out to be one of the smartest, most enjoyable big-screen romances in years. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jan 12, 2021
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97% | Chicken Run (2000) |
What gives this movie its oddly strong grip on a viewer's heart is a physical tenderness inseparable from the nature of claymation. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Aug 24, 2014
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96% | The Iron Giant (1999) |
The Iron Giant's theme of fear of the unknown is craftily balanced against the power of innocent imagination. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Aug 12, 2014
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94% | The Trouble with the Truth (2012) |
There isn't a false note in either the dialogue or the performances. - Village Voice
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| Posted Sep 11, 2012
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98% | The Godfather (1972) |
Traces the arc of this doomed idealism with a beauty that is still fresh. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Feb 23, 2011
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61% | Centurion (2010) |
[A] highly enjoyable action-adventure. - Village Voice
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| Posted Aug 24, 2010
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6.5/10 | 69% | The Girl Who Played with Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden) (2010) |
Because the movie is long, colorless, uncompromising and, well, Swedish, it's got to be better than any future American version, right? - Movieline
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| Posted Jul 8, 2010
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82% | Casino Jack And The United States Of Money (2010) |
Casino Jack and the United States of Money is indispensable viewing. - Village Voice
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| Posted May 4, 2010
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No Score Yet | Punctured Hope: A Story About Trokosi and the Young Girls' Slavery in Today's West Africa (2009) |
Despite near-fatal drawbacks, Punctured Hope fulfills the stated ambitions of Pischiutta and producer Daria Trifu to teach and inspire discussion. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Dec 17, 2009
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No Score Yet | Under the Eightball (2009) |
Angry passion and visual energy define this extraordinary muckraking documentary. - Village Voice
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| Posted Dec 16, 2009
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No Score Yet | Mr. Sadman (2009) |
The film is impeccably cast; it's shot and cut well. Unfortunately, the secret of comedy is that it's the highest form of suspense, and Mr. Sadman is just too bleakly episodic. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Nov 19, 2009
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No Score Yet | Victory Day (2009) |
Nearly ever word out of the characters' mouths is either an arch piece of exposition or a clanging, nail-on-the-head expulsion of emotion. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Nov 5, 2009
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No Score Yet | From Mexico with Love (2009) |
Whatever its surface predictabilities, From Mexico With Love has the virtue of coaxing you to care about its people. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Oct 22, 2009
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No Score Yet | Janky Promoters (2009) |
Everything builds to a fairly careless climax. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Oct 22, 2009
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35% | Adam Resurrected (2008) |
One cannot recommend this film strongly enough. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Dec 18, 2008
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72% | Eden (2008) |
This portrait of an imploding marriage is remarkable for every reason that counts in a good film. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Nov 20, 2008
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80% | Captain Abu Raed (2007) |
Such a subtle yet global view of human struggle -- the whole world viewed through the prism of a single poor neighborhood -- is a mark of extraordinary promise from this remarkable new filmmaker. - Village Voice
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| Posted Nov 6, 2008
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29% | Vice (2008) |
Writer-director Raul Sanchez Inglis tries to do several ambitious, honorable things with Vice, but for much of the action, they cancel each other out. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted May 8, 2008
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69% | Last Stop for Paul (2006) |
Mandt directs and acts with great zest and contagious, unpretentious good cheer. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Mar 6, 2008
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44% | Full Grown Men (2008) |
Lyrical and funny, Full Grown Men is a tough-minded film about the need to grow up. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Nov 7, 2007
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36% | Park (2006) |
[Makes] the most of thrifty means to highly entertaining effect. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Nov 1, 2007
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43% | Berkeley (2007) |
Roth's gift for unlocking the best in each of his actors does bring those long-ago times to life. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Oct 11, 2007
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50% | G.I. Jesús (2007) |
... Colpaert has so vividly seized the contemporary moment, and explored it with his own eyes and conscience. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jan 25, 2007
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2% | Baby Geniuses (1999) |
There are ticklish moments, but no real laughs. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jan 5, 2007
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95% | Commune (2006) |
It's good to hear people talking about openheartedness without irony. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Nov 9, 2006
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40% | Color of the Cross (2006) |
A too-specific tale of historic injustice rather than one of divinely benevolent sacrifice on everybody's behalf. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Nov 9, 2006
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73% | The Great New Wonderful (2006) |
Writer Sam Catlin and director Danny Leiner have fashioned an alert, shrewdly observed portrait of a moment in time. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jul 20, 2006
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No Score Yet |
A feel-good movie about failure. - Variety
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| Posted May 19, 2006
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52% | Down in the Valley (2006) |
Jacobson has an excitingly clear-eyed, unsentimental feel for the intensity of adolescent passion. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted May 11, 2006
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85% | The Proposition (2005) |
The Proposition is a very hard and harsh movie, but it also has a hypnotic, lyrical velocity. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted May 4, 2006
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31% | The Promise (Master of Crimson Armor) (Wu ji) (2005) |
The story it tells, measured strictly in terms of emotional power and overall fun, is as moving and pleasurable as any matinee item by Ford, Hawks or Raoul Walsh. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jan 3, 2006
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77% | Little Manhattan (2005) |
[It's] as if the filmmakers (maybe without even realizing it) are mocking his emotions, implying that kids are just kids, and only think they feel what they're feeling. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Dec 1, 2005
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90% | New York Doll (2005) |
Whitely, to his great credit, unfolds this tale simply, just as it was lived. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Oct 27, 2005
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72% | Innocent Voices (Voces inocentes) (2005) |
A howl of grief and outrage that all middle paths were torched in this tragic war. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Oct 13, 2005
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6% | A Sound of Thunder (2005) |
The barometer of the film's undoing is Burns's super low-key performance, which starts out as a poker-faced spoof on heroic cool, but takes a misstep more fatal than mere time-travel can undo. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Sep 8, 2005
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88% | Touch The Sound (2004) |
We're led to experience her life as she does -- as an adventure in which setbacks are not challenges, but illuminations of untracked paths. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Sep 8, 2005
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3.5/5 | 31% | November (2005) |
A one-woman Rashomon that plays and replays the same traumatic incident, with shifts in nuance. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jul 21, 2005
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71% | Crónicas (2005) |
Leguizamo's strengths and limitations fit snug with the reporter's own -- the comedic sizzle the actor brings to his best work translates smoothly into hardhearted aggression. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jul 7, 2005
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80% | The Unwanted Woman (2005) |
The film does disintegrate into big speeches as it rounds to its climax - but through these characters, Milani hauntingly maps the souls of men and women at odds in a theocracy. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jun 24, 2005
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21% | The Deal (2005) |
A riveting thriller full of good scares and learned, muckraking insight into the global labyrinth of oil and politics. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jun 16, 2005
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65% | We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004) |
Originally written in the 1970s. That figures, in the best sense: It is worthy of comparison to the lifelike, character-rich films we cherish from that era, and is certainly one of the finest films to come out this year. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Aug 12, 2004
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60% | The Dreamers (2004) |
A wise, high-energy conjuring of 1968. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Feb 5, 2004
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91% | Dinner Rush (2001) |
Fiery energy, swift, character-driven chitchat and a tough, upbeat sense of how the world works. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jan 20, 2003
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81% | Innocence (2001) |
Cox's own directorial style is innocent, in the sense of being original without ever straining for effect. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Dec 9, 2002
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86% | Faithless (2001) |
Bergman has reached for a woman's insight his whole career. Ullmann completes this for him. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Oct 21, 2002
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93% | Amadeus (1984) |
This dark, exuberant epic is nearly 18 years old, yet remains the most popularly successful film ever to render the inner life of an artist. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Oct 3, 2002
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87% | Aberdeen (2001) |
Moland ... has a fine eye for landscapes, but an even surer touch with actors. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Oct 1, 2002
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89% | 101 Reykjavik (2001) |
Kormakur ... balances tones with a smooth, mature confidence. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Sep 30, 2002
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52% | Scarlet Diva (2000) |
This is such a dazzlingly self-assured directorial debut that it's hard to know what to praise first. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Sep 19, 2002
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95% | Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) |
It works its magic with such exuberance and passion that the film's length becomes a part of its fun. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jul 19, 2002
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