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Mike Hale

Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications:

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Casanova (2015) EDIT “Mr. Luna’s cautious performance has neither heat nor soul. In the currently crowded ranks of costume dramas, this “Casanova” is easy to resist.” – New York Times Dec 12, 2025 Full Review Exterior Night (2022) 89% EDIT “...“Exterior Night” may not sit with [Marco Bellocchio's] very best films (like “Fists in Pocket,” “China Is Near,” “Good Morning, Night” and “Vincere”), but it fits seamlessly into an astonishing body of work.” – New York Times Feb 28, 2025 Full Review One Minute to Nine (2007) 100% EDIT “It's really a study in character and tragic circumstance, one that poses questions about justice and human nature but doesn't reach for answers.” – New York Times Nov 3, 2021 Full Review Elizabeth is Missing (2019) 93% EDIT “It's a great setup for a straightforward mystery, but "Elizabeth Is Missing" is more complicated than that, and while you can't hold that ambition against it, you might wish that you were watching something simpler.” – New York Times Jan 5, 2021 Full Review The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez (2007) 100% EDIT “[The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández] puts the killing in the context of geopolitics.” – New York Times Oct 19, 2020 Full Review Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012) 49% EDIT “It's a disheartening misfire: a big, bland historical melodrama built on platitudes about honor and the writing life that crams in actual figures and incidents but does little to illuminate them, or to make us care about the romance at its center.” – New York Times May 29, 2020 Full Review iCarly: iGo to Japan (2008) EDIT “The story, involving a trip to Japan by the iCarly.com crew to compete for a best-online-comedy prize, also serves as a showcase for the series's best asset: Jennette McCurdy.” – New York Times Mar 30, 2020 Full Review EDIT “The film marshals a fine roster of scholars and journalists to talk about the politics, and the sociology, of public housing. Its heart, though, is in the reminiscences of the former residents.” – New York Times Mar 24, 2020 Full Review John Oliver: Terrifying Times (2008) EDIT “Watching Mr. Oliver pose clueless questions to serious people on "The Daily Show" can be painfully funny. Watching him onstage for an hour is more like anesthesia.” – New York Times Aug 1, 2019 Full Review Knock Knock, It's Tig Notaro (2015) 89% EDIT “Clearly it would have been great to be sitting with your friends in that living room or that backyard a few feet away from the comedian (and her film crew). Watching others have that experience isn't quite the same thing.” – New York Times Aug 1, 2019 Full Review Springsteen on Broadway (2018) 96% EDIT “A master class in pacing, dynamics, modulation of volume and tone, and the film brings you right up onstage with Springsteen, giving you a more intimate view of his technique - understated, seemingly casual but absolutely controlled.” – New York Times Dec 17, 2018 Full Review Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018) 94% EDIT “There are ups and downs, particularly among the feature films, but we get to see the irrepressible, unpredictable, inventive Williams on top of his game often enough that the documentary flies by.” – New York Times Jul 19, 2018 Full Review Paterno (2018) 69% EDIT “Mr. Levinson lays this out with considerable skill and energy.” – New York Times Apr 9, 2018 Full Review EDIT “People who cross her tend to be on their death beds moments later, in a way that would be funny if the show had any sense of humor.” – New York Times May 19, 2017 Full Review Beaches (2017) 44% EDIT “The Lifetime Beaches is a reduction of the original - smaller emotions, smaller performances, fewer songs, shorter running time (about 87 minutes versus 123) - and while that could have been an improvement, it's not.” – New York Times Jan 20, 2017 Full Review Meet the Donors: Does Money Talk? (2016) 80% EDIT “The film perks up when Ms. Pelosi zeros in on unbridled ego or vanity.” – New York Times Aug 1, 2016 Full Review Looking: The Movie (2016) 89% EDIT “In a show about loneliness and friendship, it helps to have two actors who can so easily convince us that they're the greatest of friends.” – New York Times Jul 24, 2016 Full Review Special Correspondents (2016) 16% EDIT “There's nothing wrong with the type of movie "Special Correspondents" wants to be. The problem is that Mr. Gervais doesn't appear capable of making a good version of it.” – New York Times Apr 28, 2016 Full Review Me Him Her (2015) 45% EDIT “Mr. Landis's sensibility, which combines sitcom jokiness with mumblecore sentimentality, tends to be more grating than amusing in "Me Him Her," though scattered moments will make you laugh.” – New York Times Mar 10, 2016 Full Review No Más Bebés (2015) EDIT “Outrage may be America's leading source of energy right now, and it seems endlessly renewable. No Ms Bebs adds to the supply but in an understated, melancholy way that leaves you more sad than angry.” – New York Times Feb 5, 2016 Full Review Michael Jackson's Journey From Motown to Off the Wall (2016) 92% EDIT “He's made a fan's film, and he's happy to let us know it, shouting out questions from behind the camera and cackling loudly when he particularly likes an answer.” – New York Times Feb 4, 2016 Full Review Tokyo Tribe (2014) 58% EDIT “The cumulative effect ... is numbing.” – New York Times Oct 22, 2015 Full Review Amy Schumer: Live From the Apollo (2015) 90% EDIT “It's a comfortable kind of self-deprecation, born of insecurity but delivered with a confidence that takes the sting out and gives the listener a snug feeling of complicity.” – New York Times Oct 15, 2015 Full Review Veteran (2015) 89% EDIT “"Veteran" is amusing throughout, even if the funny scenes are more subdued or go on a beat or two longer than American viewers are used to.” – New York Times Sep 17, 2015 Full Review Larry Kramer in Love and Anger (2015) EDIT “It's thoroughly admiring... framing [Kramer's] excesses as a necessary response to circumstances and suggesting that on the big questions he was always right.” – New York Times Jun 29, 2015 Full Review
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