Nicolas Rapold
Nicolas Rapold's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when
published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Film Comment Magazine,
L.A. Weekly,
New York Times,
Village Voice,
Time Out,
Brooklyn Magazine
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% | Dawson City: Frozen Time (2017) |
While the film's purview may suggest a PBS documentary, the density of Morrison's detail and the twists in his long-game storytelling make for a constant titillating simmer of discovery, a secret history round every corner.‐ Film Comment Magazine
Read More | Posted May 8, 2017
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| 79% | Personal Shopper (2017) |
As in so many of his films, part of the satisfaction comes from feeling Assayas searching through the possibilities as much as his characters do.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Mar 7, 2017
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| 98% | I Am Not Your Negro (2017) |
By the end... the film has explained how not only action but introspection on the issue(s) of race is a moral and mortal necessity for the republic.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2017
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| 100% | Behemoth (Bei xi mo shou) (2017) |
Zhao plays with perspective and the flatness of the image to suggest that industry and the behemoth-like appetites of modern economies have a way of warping reality itself.‐ Film Comment Magazine
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2017
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| 89% | Jackie (2016) |
Jackie is at its strongest not as a making-of-history biopic, but as a perceptive and aphoristic essay on history.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Dec 2, 2016
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| 96% | Manchester by the Sea (2016) |
Lonergan's latest, finely-tuned work shows an unbowed director plunging into the depths of grief.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Nov 18, 2016
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| 46% | Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016) |
Observing these actors' faces, even at rest, is like watching the surface of a lake, noticing it ripple with a breeze.‐ Film Comment Magazine
Read More | Posted Nov 3, 2016
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| 83% | Captain Fantastic (2016) |
Writer-director Ross lapses into contrivance, narrative and emotional, but it'd be worse without Mortensen's utter conviction and that rugged, out-of-time mien which has served him well in stories of extremity from The Road to Jauja.‐ Film Comment Magazine
Read More | Posted Sep 6, 2016
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| 99% | Cameraperson (2016) |
A celebration of female camaraderie, and a hit-after-hit close-up record of a great cinematographer at the height of her empathic powers.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Sep 6, 2016
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| 89% | Fatima (2016) |
Fatima adds another trim chapter to Faucon's catalog of social dramas with its affecting, highly focused story of a hard-working first-generation Moroccan mother, Fatima, and her two teenage daughters in Lyon.‐ Film Comment Magazine
Read More | Posted Aug 22, 2016
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| 77% | Into The Forest (2016) |
Rozema's sturdy film tugs effectively at the heartstrings with its tragic spiral and infuses one assault scene with true camera-canting terror. ‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Jul 28, 2016
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| 91% | Microbe and Gasoline (Microbe et Gasoil) (2016) |
Gondry's most deeply felt film since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Jun 27, 2016
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| 86% | The Idol (Ya Tayr El Tayer) (2016) |
Mr. Abu-Assad, who wrote the script with Sameh Zoabi, mounts an idealistic appreciation of music as a way of bridging boundaries through a unifying appeal to beauty, gliding past differences in the soulful pleasure of song.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted May 26, 2016
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| 19% | Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016) |
More a familiar tale for fans to nod along with than a sports drama with a real kick.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted May 12, 2016
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| 81% | Sunset Song (2016) |
Davies's late output finds him enamored of female protagonists in ages past as they assert their independence from the confinement of social expectations and, well, men.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted May 9, 2016
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| 77% | Viktoria (2016) |
As more and more perfect shots drift by, the reality of the characters and their relationships dissipates, and we're left with just picturesque moods.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Apr 28, 2016
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| 86% | Steve Jobs (2015) |
The shallow great-man-at-high-costs scenario reveals Sorkin as crafting essentially a pop-psychology sitcom (Zingers! The Steve Jobs Story).‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 20, 2016
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| 88% | Gone Girl (2014) |
In its dully paranoid revenge scenario in Main Street USA, Gone Girl consistently postures at being more clever than it actually is.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 20, 2016
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| 73% | Black Mass (2015) |
Slavishly hitting Scorsesean music cues, Black Mass lacks the title's implied mystique.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 20, 2016
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| 57% | Streit's: Matzo And The American Dream (2016) |
Despite much talk of diversity and tradition, Mr. Levine has little fresh to say about gentrification issues or documentary storytelling.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 84% | The Walk (2015) |
Hoky and lovin' it.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 91% | The End Of The Tour (2015) |
It improbably glides along, a conversation of a film, two guys trusting each other or not.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 83% | Mistress America (2015) |
With the eccentric and yet purposeful Mistress America, Baumbach and Gerwig add another chapter to their exceedingly fruitful collaboration.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 94% | Sicario (2015) |
The strength of this essentially psychological thriller lies in its own queasy, cul-de-sac sense of entering a room where very bad things could happen.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 95% | The Wonders (2015) |
Rohrwacher has a deft way of sidling into moments of drama, aided by DP Helene Louvart's extraordinary work‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 97% | Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One (As Mil e Uma Noites: Volume 1, O Inquieto) (2015) |
a restless work of cultural reframing and repositioning that risks one giant bellyflop‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 94% | Carol (2015) |
In their story set in the past, there lies possibility, which is what infuses Carol and Haynes's best work generally, the transcendence of being and becoming yourself.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 96% | Spotlight (2015) |
Spotlight has many dramatic opportunities to break wide open into moments of outrage, but they're infrequently taken, and keyed to the tensions of characters.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 80% | The Assassin (2015) |
The most beautiful and transcendent film of the year.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 95% | In Jackson Heights (2015) |
In this vibrant string of vignettes from this diverse, multicultural, and colorful neighborhood, Wiseman affirms that politics is part of everyday life.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 96% | Son of Saul (2015) |
Wrenching not just because of its bereft story but because Nemes gives us as a guide a man who may be broken beyond repair.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 85% | Hail, Caesar! (2016) |
a straight-up-funny syncopated comedy about studio-run showbiz in all its bottom-line absurdity‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 89% | Mountains May Depart (Shan he gu ren) (2016) |
close by the human reality observed in minute interactions, and against the backdrop of a world that threatens to muffle their spirit.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 89% | My Golden Days (Trois Souvenirs De Ma Jeunesse) (2016) |
traverses coming-of-age territory that in any other hands might immediately seem over-familiar, but here retains the spark of surprise‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 86% | Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) |
reminds us just how unrivaled a filmmaker Linklater is-how, like few other filmmakers, he's someone you can grow up with and alongside, watching him watch you.‐ Brooklyn Magazine
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2016
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| 73% | Above And Below (2016) |
The montage of Mr. Steiner's movie actively looks for links among his subjects: fierce self-sufficiency, absent but not forgotten family, and unachieved dreams. But the most stirring moments can be the stillest ones ...‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Apr 14, 2016
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| 88% | Havana Motor Club (2016) |
Mr. Perlmutt ultimately shows that for these drivers, car culture runs deeper than simply winning or losing a race.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Apr 7, 2016
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| 100% | I Don't Belong Anywhere - Le cinéma de Chantal Akerman (2015) |
Ms. Lambert's film builds nicely, staying in tune with the ordinariness and intimacy explored in Ms. Akerman's boldly rendered films.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Mar 29, 2016
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| 5% | Get a Job (2016) |
At its sloppy heart, this is meant to be an affirming movie, but the filmmakers could have taken a cue from one line of dialogue: "Don't just feel special. Be special."‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Mar 24, 2016
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| 70% | Take Me To The River (2016) |
There's dramatic potential in Ryder's struggle to assert his identity, only to be upstaged by unforeseen troubles, but Mr. Sobel's film skates past any persuasive sense of motivation.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Mar 18, 2016
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| 52% | Lolo (2016) |
As a character, Lolo is a conceit of indulgent parenting and never fully blooms.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Mar 10, 2016
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| 82% | Road Games (2016) |
The cast doesn't quite succeed in keeping the suspense fresh throughout the story's left turns.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Mar 3, 2016
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| 67% | Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) |
The film ... rests in a tidiness that's at odds with the messiness of the milieu. And even when we are exposed to glimpses of wartime violence and menace, it's undercut by fuzzy platitudes near the end of the film.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Mar 3, 2016
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| 100% | King Georges (2016) |
"King Georges" feels stretched into feature length, but its ending neatly portrays a man with a fierce personal code who seems to have accepted change.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Feb 25, 2016
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| 90% | A War (Krigen) (2016) |
For Denmark, the film, an Oscar nominee in the foreign-language category, might seem quietly radical, but Mr. Lindholm errs too far on the side of quiet.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Feb 11, 2016
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| 47% | How To Be Single (2016) |
This reheated "Sex and the City" adventure flops, even with Leslie Mann and Rebel Wilson hard at work being funny.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Feb 11, 2016
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| 69% | Tumbledown (2016) |
We're meant to warm to Hannah and Andrew as they wear each other down with good-natured ribbing. But Ms. Hall and Mr. Sudeikis hardly warm up themselves, showing little chemistry and looking unsure how to play the film's tone, or the would-be zingers.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2016
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| 11% | Dirty Grandpa (2016) |
"Dirty Grandpa" is like watching a friend's mediocre improv troupe do an extended spring-break sketch. And your friend just happens to be Robert De Niro.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Jan 23, 2016
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| 61% | Monster Hunt (2016) |
Some of this recalls Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West," minus the brilliance.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Jan 21, 2016
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| No Score Yet | Unlucky Plaza (2016) |
The multicultural milieu lends an initial boost as Mr. Kwek's jokes and plot entanglements take potshots at life in Singapore, but all the air seeps out of this attempt at zippy, tabloid-nutty storytelling.‐ New York Times
Read More | Posted Jan 7, 2016
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