Maria Garcia
Maria Garcia's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when
published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Film Journal International
| Publications: | Film Journal International |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80% | Like Crazy (La pazza gioia) (2017) |
Great performances by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti anchor this commedia al'Italiana-inspired movie.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted May 3, 2017
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| 98% | I Am Not Your Negro (2017) |
Intelligent but sometimes discursive documentary about African-American author James Baldwin.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Dec 8, 2016
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| 93% | Newtown (2016) |
Newtown is the filmmaker's biased narrative of that village as one defiled by an outcast who is never named by her or her subjects.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 6, 2016
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| 92% | Demon (2016) |
Skillfully realized story of a dybbuk, a diabolical spirit from Jewish folklore who addresses wrongdoings.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Sep 7, 2016
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| 93% | The Little Prince (2016) |
This inventive adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's children's book is beautifully realized in CG and stop-motion animation techniques.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Aug 3, 2016
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| 96% | Hooligan Sparrow (2016) |
Rather than allowing Hooligan Sparrow to represent [subject Ye Haiyan's] achievement, [director Nanfu] Wang continually highlights her own plight.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jul 20, 2016
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| 80% | Jia Zhangke, a Guy from Fenyang (2016) |
An inspired approach to biography [...] a thoughtful portrait of this gifted artist.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted May 25, 2016
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| 95% | Black Girl (La noire de...) (1966) |
With Black Girl, Ousmane Sembene crafts one of cinema's finest portraits of African neocolonialism.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted May 17, 2016
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| 90% | The Clan (El Clan) (2016) |
Rather than the psychological thriller one might expect, The Clan is a senseless and sanguinary depiction of criminal behavior.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Mar 16, 2016
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| 89% | Mountains May Depart (Shan he gu ren) (2016) |
The latest and most intensely personal movie by the celebrated Chinese director Jia Zhangke won the top prize at Cannes' Directors Fortnight.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 11, 2016
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| 90% | I Knew Her Well (Io la conoscevo bene) (1965) |
This is a timeless story, although not in [director Antonio] Pietrangeli's hands, an archetypal one. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2016
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| 93% | 2016 Oscar Nominated Shorts - Live Action (2016) |
Ave Maria is the standout in this year's quintet of Oscar-nominated live-action shorts.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 28, 2016
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| 87% | The Club (El Club) (2016) |
This drama about pedophile priests replaces the depiction of ethical and moral dilemmas with all the details one might hear on a daytime reality show.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2016
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| 100% | Democrats (2015) |
A fascinating, fly-on-wall portrait of patriarchal politics and power. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Nov 18, 2015
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| 95% | Sembene! (2015) |
Serves as a good introduction to the work of "the father of African cinema."‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Nov 2, 2015
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| 73% | Suffragette (2015) |
[Suffragette] will resonate with audiences because while it is a historical drama, its modernity is felt in the predicament of its working-class hero.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 22, 2015
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| 96% | Jafar Panahi's Taxi (2015) |
An exercise in self-pity that will test the limits of [Jafar Panahi's] most sympathetic audiences.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 1, 2015
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| 93% | The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution (2015) |
An expertly edited mosaic of the political party.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Sep 1, 2015
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| 97% | Listen To Me Marlon (2015) |
A portrait of the artist as increasingly uncomfortable with his talent and his Hollywood milieu. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jul 27, 2015
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| 98% | Phoenix (2015) |
A profound commentary on the lasting effects of the Nazi era on the German people.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jul 23, 2015
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| 89% | A Borrowed Identity (2015) |
An excellent cast, a solid script, and a few surprises about the little-known circumstances of life as an Arab-Israeli citizen make A Borrowed Identity an absorbing film. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jun 25, 2015
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| 88% | Tangerines (2015) |
Excellent performances from the ensemble cast [...] elevate what is an otherwise theatrical treatment of a timeworn narrative.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Apr 17, 2015
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| 80% | Human Capital (2015) |
An unremarkable thriller elevated by a few excellent performances and Paolo Virzì's direction.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 14, 2015
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| 97% | Two Days, One Night (2014) |
It is not often that movies so authentically portray the travails of working-class characters in developed countries.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Dec 22, 2014
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| 88% | Winter Sleep (2014) |
[Haluk] Bilginer's [performance] alternates between brooding melancholy and sharp-tongued contemptuousness, failing to reach the tragic dimensions which the writers intended.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Dec 16, 2014
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| 89% | Closed Curtain (2014) |
If Closed Curtain seems at times too self-reflexive, it is Panahi's despair which rescues the movie, exquisite in its rendering, and terrifying for its ability to clutch at the soul.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jul 8, 2014
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| 84% | Violette (2014) |
Unfortunately, Provost mostly avoids Leduc's substantial literary contribution in favor of depicting her life solely through her friends and mentors, and her mother Berthe with whom she had a dysfunctional relationship.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jun 12, 2014
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| 89% | Elena (2014) |
Women's cinematic quests for identity are singular, as they so often involve reminiscences of a dead relative... Elena adds another assured and courageous voice.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted May 28, 2014
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| 82% | Camille Claudel, 1915 (2013) |
Despite beautiful cinematography and Juliette Binoche in the title role, Bruno Dumont's biopic is a dull fictionalized depiction of three days of the eponymous sculptor's 30-year confinement.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 15, 2013
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| 96% | Cutie And The Boxer (2013) |
Heinzerling has a great eye, and his conventional, low-key approach to cinematography in Cutie and the Boxer-no shaky camera, very few tracking shots, and adequate lighting-puts all the emphasis on his subjects.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Aug 15, 2013
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| 88% | Herman's House (2013) |
Herman's House shows off the talents of several young principal crew members, and that of the director who makes his documentary feature debut, but it lacks the gravitas of human-rights filmmaking.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Apr 16, 2013
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| 100% | The Revolutionary Optimists (2013) |
Among that rare group of documentaries about child poverty that does not advocate for anything except hope.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Mar 28, 2013
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| 92% | Gimme The Loot (2013) |
An impressive debut feature, Gimme the Loot is also an unusual take on characters who want to leave their stamp on "the city that never sleeps."‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Mar 22, 2013
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| 93% | No (2013) |
Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín's last in a trilogy of films about his country's political landscape, No is the story of the 1988 national referendum which unseated a dictator.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 11, 2013
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| 91% | Caesar Must Die (2013) |
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani brilliantly merge documentary and fiction in this film about a prison production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 7, 2013
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| 79% | La pirogue (2013) |
Director Moussa Touré's allegorical underpinning transforms this rather predictable plot, ripped from familiar headlines around the world, into a decidedly Senegalese story. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2013
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| 71% | The Loneliest Planet (2012) |
Director Julia Loktev finds accomplished simplicity, a rare quality in the early work of any director.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 26, 2012
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| 57% | Doctored (2012) |
Doctored offers no fix for the problems it identifies, beyond a visit to your local chiropractor. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Sep 24, 2012
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| 88% | We Women Warriors (2012) |
A strikingly original depiction of the role of women in a complicated struggle for human rights. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Aug 15, 2012
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| 22% | True Wolf (2012) |
True Wolf is ostensibly about a Montana couple's life with their adopted wolf, but the documentary's lack of cohesiveness fails to connect us to either the exigencies of that existence, or to the wolf.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Aug 15, 2012
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| 73% | Chicken with Plums (2012) |
The first live-action movie by the Persepolis filmmaking team of Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud is not as engaging as their animation debut, but is beautifully scored and well-acted.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Aug 15, 2012
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| 28% | Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding (2012) |
This film by director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) is a formulaic, multi-generational story about a New York City lawyer on the verge of divorce who goes home to Mama, a pot-smoking denizen of Woodstock.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jun 6, 2012
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| 50% | Patagonia Rising (2012) |
Although director Brian Lilla is neither a compelling storyteller nor a journalist, he presents a passionate and cogent scientific argument against Chile's latest dam project in Patagonia Rising.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jun 6, 2012
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| 51% | Where Do We Go Now? (2012) |
Lebanese director Nadine Labaki's strikingly original second feature presents a clever solution to ending sectarian violence.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted May 8, 2012
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| 98% | This Is Not a Film (2012) |
This deceptively simple, day-in-the-life-of documentary about Iranian director Jafar Panahi is an act of defiance against the filmmaking ban imposed on him by Iranian authorities.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 27, 2012
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| 90% | Oscar Nominated Animation Shorts (2012) |
Pixar's La Luna and the New York-set A Morning Stroll are the standouts in this program of Oscar-nominated animated shorts.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 21, 2012
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| 92% | Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2012) |
Turkish writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's sixth feature film is about a murder investigation in which the lives of each of the men assigned to the methodical task of meting out justice are also under scrutiny-by their colleagues and by the filmmaker.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 4, 2012
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| 100% | Daguerréotypes (1976) |
Daguerreotypes, one of Agnès Varda's early yet accomplished feature-length documentaries, presages the themes and visual style she would explore in her subsequent work.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2011
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| 93% | You Don't Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo (2011) |
Audiences will not "like the truth" that this newly declassified footage of a Guantanamo detainee reveals, although the title actually refers to the interrogators of 15-year-old Omar Khadr who deny the obvious truth of their prisoner's predicament.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Sep 27, 2011
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| 74% | La belle endormie (The Sleeping Beauty) (2011) |
Instead of the romantic claptrap of other adaptations, this is a road movie, and its star is a girl. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jul 7, 2011
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