Robert Denerstein
Tomatometer-approved critic
| Publications: | Denver Rocky Mountain News, Movie Habit, Denerstein Unleashed |
| Critics' Group: | Broadcast Film Critics Association |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 34% | I Feel Pretty (2018) |
Not only does I Feel Pretty score low on credibility, but the writing/directing team of Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein lobs a softball.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2018
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| 86% | You Were Never Really Here (2018) |
Watching You Were Never Really Here, I couldn't help marveling at the combination of daring and commitment it must have taken to make a film such as this, one that has little interest in reassuring an audience‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2018
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| 46% | Souvenir (2018) |
Director Bavo Defurne does little to turn the movie into anything more than a pleasant diversion -- the kind of movie in which not much comes as a surprise but we hardly care. ‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2018
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| 78% | Beirut (2018) |
Beirut is never anything less than watchable, even if it's ultimately short on thematic clout.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2018
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| 90% | A Bag of Marbles (Un sac de billes) (2018) |
The movie shows us, with some success, what it might have been like to be a child facing such sustained horror.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2018
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| 14% | Blumhouse's Truth or Dare (2018) |
The real problem when it comes to movies such as Blumhouse's Truth Dare involves summoning new forms of creativity to show the ways in which victims are dispatched.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2018
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| 72% | Final Portrait (2018) |
It takes conviction to make a film such as Final Portrait and Tucci deserves credit for trying to peer into the world of an artist at the moment of creation.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2018
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| 50% | Rampage (2018) |
Rampage is so far from qualifying as a best of its breed that a movie such as Jurassic Park looks like a doctoral dissertation by comparison. Enough said.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2018
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| 100% | Oh Lucy! (2018) |
Led by a Terajima -- who wisely keeps Setsuko's motivations vague -- an able cast creates a genre-defying movie that takes us deep into the kind of life that normally would go unseen. ‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 5, 2018
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| 82% | Blockers (2018) |
Every generation needs a gross-out extravaganza to call its own. Is there any real point in objecting?‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 5, 2018
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| 95% | A Quiet Place (2018) |
A Quiet Place is the kind of movie that can cause a stir in audiences as everyone jumps, winces and exhales in unison. Enjoy.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Apr 5, 2018
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| 92% | Journey's End (2018) |
Director Saul Dibb puts us in the midst of the trench warfare that defined World War I.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 30, 2018
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| 73% | Ready Player One (2018) |
Visually sophisticated and full of invention, the movie harkens back to one of Spielberg's career sweet spots: the 1980s.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 29, 2018
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| 43% | Pacific Rim Uprising (2018) |
In DeKnight's hands, the franchise becomes little more than a collection of cacophonous battle sequences that already have evoked apt comparisons with the Transformer movies.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 23, 2018
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| 96% | Foxtrot (2018) |
After as painful an opening as any film you'll see, Foxtrot director Samuel Maoz divides his film into three acts... an approach that sometimes makes Foxtrot feel overly studied but which also tends to intensify each agonizing moment.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 23, 2018
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| 79% | Unsane (2018) |
I don't imagine that Unsane will be a major box-office performer, but it serves as a clear announcement that Foy is more than a regal presence. ‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 22, 2018
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| 96% | The Death of Stalin (2018) |
I can't think of another movie exactly like The Death of Stalin, which is part of the reason this movie feels so unsettlingly original. ‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 22, 2018
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| 97% | Leaning Into the Wind (2018) |
Leaning into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy feels like a twilight look at Goldsworthy. That's not to say that the artist's productivity has in any way diminished.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 22, 2018
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| 96% | Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2017) |
Director Alexandra Dean's Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story doesn't shortchange Lamarr's career but also focuses on other aspects of Lamarr's fascinating, often tumultuous life.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 16, 2018
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| 22% | 7 Days in Entebbe (2018) |
7 Days in Entebbe does little to make that conclusion feel like more than a faint hope, an afterthought rather than a genuine expression of conviction.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 16, 2018
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| 49% | Tomb Raider (2018) |
By the end, enjoyment has been overrun by formula -- at least it was by me.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 16, 2018
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| 92% | Midnighters (2018) |
I wish Midnighters hadn't gone quite so far with a couple of torture scenes, but -- all in all -- the movie qualifies as a promising first feature.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 9, 2018
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| 62% | The Cured (2018) |
The Cured has more on its mind than grit and gore. It also benefits from a cast that knows how to make us feel as if what we're watching is grounded in a world populated by real people.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 9, 2018
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| 41% | Gringo (2018) |
Amusing in spurts, Gringo is easily shrugged off, probably because little about it seems plausible or pointed.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 9, 2018
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| 39% | A Wrinkle in Time (2018) |
I'd be lying if I didn't say I was hoping for more.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 8, 2018
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| 45% | 90th Academy Awards (2018) |
Marked mostly by an evenness of tone and few memorable displays of personality, the ceremonies took place on one of the most unfortunately garish sets ever. ‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 7, 2018
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| 17% | Death Wish (2018) |
I'm not sure we ever needed a Death Wish reboot, but we sure as hell don't need one now.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 2, 2018
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| 81% | The Party (2018) |
Clarkson deftly delivers her character's withering lines and Spall convincingly dangles at the end of his character's rope, but The Party passes without arriving at a consequential destination.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 1, 2018
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| 94% | Loveless (Nelyubov) (2018) |
Director Andrey Zvyaginstev (Leviathan) skillfully paints a powerful portrait of characters for whom self-interest trumps everything - even the welfare of a child.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 1, 2018
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| 47% | Red Sparrow (2018) |
The result: A medium-grade thriller that relies on Lawrence and a reliable cast, but which comes off as watered-down and more than a bit weary.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Mar 1, 2018
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| 87% | Annihilation (2018) |
Basic elements shatter and recombine in ways that, like the movie, startle and intrigue without ultimately cohering.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 23, 2018
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| 98% | In Between (2018) |
The result is engaging, lively and tough-minded enough to earn serious attention.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 22, 2018
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| 36% | Nostalgia (2018) |
The movie plays like a collection of ideas and monologues fueled by a sincerity that isn't quite the same as insight or hard-won dramatic truth.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 22, 2018
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| 82% | Early Man (2018) |
Early Man boasts some of the trademarks of Aardman characters, bemused figures with hearts as big as their oversized chompers. Score this one as "amusing."‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 16, 2018
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| 94% | A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica) (2018) |
A singer and model by trade, Vega gives a performance that encompasses both Marina's ferocity and vulnerability. She ably advances the movie's best instincts.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 16, 2018
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| 81% | Have a Nice Day (Hao Ji Le) (2018) |
If you think about it, there's a fitting response -- sort of an ironic shrug -- to what the movie has to say, something simple really: "Have a Nice Day."‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 15, 2018
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| 96% | Black Panther (2018) |
This is one helping of popular culture in which effects don't dominate every scene and characters have room to breathe. That's good news for Marvel and even better news for those in the audience.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 15, 2018
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| 91% | Revolting Rhymes (2016) |
In my favorite -- Revolting Rhymes -- we're treated to the story of the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood and other fairy tales as filtered through the urbane and slightly macabre sensibilities of Roald Dahl.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2018
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| 91% | DeKalb Elementary (2017) |
Though based on a true story, Dekalb Elementary struck me as somewhat flat.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2018
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| 100% | Negative Space (2018) |
Finely wrought and artful, Negative Space tells the story of how a boy and his father bond over the fine art of suitcase packing.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2018
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| 80% | Dear Basketball (2017) |
This offering -- which tells of Bryant's early fascination with the game -- might have been more appealing if didn't feel so ego-driven.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2018
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| 100% | The Eleven O'Clock (2016) |
The Eleven O'Clock involves comic confusions in a psychiatrist's office, features sharp byplay from its actors and leads us to an amusing, though slightly predictable, conclusion.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2018
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| 13% | Fifty Shades Freed (2018) |
You can tell a movie is running low on imaginative gas when it must work in a car chase, this one involving prominent display of Grey's spiffy Audi with Anastasia at the wheel.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2018
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| 99% | Faces Places (Visages, villages) (2017) |
There's nothing morbid in either the movie or in Varda's attitude toward the conclusion of an amazing and well-lived life.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 89% | The Insult (L'insulte) (2018) |
It occasionally loses a bit of steam, but Doueiri understands that the fate of every one of his characters is also the fate of a troubled country. Wisely, he refuses to allow us to forget those stakes.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 100% | Holy Air (2017) |
Obvious satire about the commercialization of religion can carry the movie so far, and the most interesting thing about Holy Air becomes its depiction of the lives of Arab Christians living in Israel's West Bank.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2018
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| 80% | Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017) |
The mournful, sentimental Film Stars misfires, perhaps because -- in focusing on Turner's book -- it slices too much meat off the bone of Grahame's tumultuous life.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2018
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| 87% | The Road Movie (2018) |
An assemblage of found footage, all of it taken from dash-cams, The Road Movie only can be watched with wide-eyed disbelief. ‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2018
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| 21% | Forever My Girl (2018) |
The movie is so drained of character, Louisiana even seems to have lost its humidity.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2018
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| 84% | The Final Year (2018) |
The Final Year probably doesn't qualify as a great documentary, but its three principal characters, particularly Powers, are quite impressive.‐ Denerstein Unleashed
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2018
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