Robert Denerstein

Tomatometer-approved critic

Publications: Denver Rocky Mountain News, Movie Habit, Denerstein Unleashed

Critics' Group: Broadcast Film Critics Association

Movie Reviews Only

Movies
TV

T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
95%	Transit (2019)	The gamble mostly pays off; Transit reminds us that no time is immune from disruptive dangers and that when things fall apart, finding a clear pathway to safety will be dauntingly difficult and morally challenging. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 15, 2019
52%	Five Feet Apart (2019)	Sparked by a bubbly performance by Haley Lu Richardson , the movie never really conquers the formula that dominates it. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 15, 2019
96%	Woman at War (Kona fer í stríð) (2019)	Woman at War tackles tough subject matter with a taste for cheerful idiosyncrasy. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 14, 2019
44%	The Wedding Guest (2019)	Film-savvy audiences soon will catch onto Winterbottom's attempts to earn neo-noir credentials as Patel and Apte's characters go on the run. Patel overdoes his character's pragmatic stoicism, and I eventually tired of the waiting game... - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 14, 2019
72%	Triple Frontier (2019)	I'm a bit of sucker for this kind of material and Triple Frontier -- which wisely places its robbery about midway through -- earns passing grades. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 14, 2019
94%	Birds of Passage (Pájaros de verano) (2019)	Birds of Passage feels wholly original because the upward and downward spirals it charts are set against a backdrop of Indigenous culture. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 8, 2019
77%	The Invisibles (2019)	The Invisibles tackles an intriguing subject but doesn't dig as deeply as it might have. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 7, 2019
100%	Wrestle (2019)	Will these young men conquer in life as they sometimes do on the mat? We're not entirely sure, but we grow to like these kids and wish them well. That's a reflection of the involvement created by a good documentary. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 7, 2019
79%	Captain Marvel (2019)	Captain Marvel tries to zip and zap its way into the pop-cultural canon... Some, I suppose, will enjoy the frenzy, but for me, the point turns out to be inadvertent: Incessant movement doesn't necessarily get you anywhere. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 7, 2019
54%	Greta (2019)	The absence of deeper mystery pushes everything onto Greta's slick surface, where it slides into territory that's not only farfetched, but implausible and, in a few instances, laughable. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 1, 2019
82%	Ruben Brandt, Collector (2019)	Ruben Brandt may be a case in which visual wit, clever distortions of reality and an abundance of creativity tend to produce an artful whirligig in which the various parts... never quite produce a whole that sings. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 28, 2019
86%	The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)	Ejiofor creates a realistic backdrop for the movie's central story. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 28, 2019
92%	Fighting with My Family (2019)	All such movies struggle to find an element that adds flavor to the formula and Fighting With My Family follows suit. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 22, 2019
76%	Never Look Away (2019)	Von Donnersmark has assembled the right blocks for his story but can't quite convert them into a fluid, arresting whole. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 15, 2019
88%	Arctic (2019)	Arctic makes for a harrowing slice of life-or-death adventure. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 15, 2019
60%	Alita: Battle Angel (2019)	Scrappy at the outset, Alita eventually loses its kick. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 14, 2019
47%	What Men Want (2019)	Henson dominates the movie, but can't entirely rise above the movie's sitcom conceits. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 8, 2019
23%	Miss Bala (2019)	It's improbably plotted and predictable, yes. In sum, though, it's just Corruption Lite and, by the end, laughable. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 1, 2019
89%	Capernaum (Capharnaüm) (2018)	It stands as an important entry into the film liturgy on kids who must fight for every scrap of life they can find. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 1, 2019
97%	The Heiresses (Las Herederas) (2019)	Thanks to Brun's beautifully calibrated performance, it's stirring to watch Chela flirt with the prospect of rejoining the world. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 1, 2019
65%	Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)	Velvet Buzzsaw aims at an easy target -- the commodification of art -- but the movie's cast produces enjoyable results. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 1, 2019
92%	Cold War (Zimna wojna) (2018)	In this impossible situation, a powerful but stammering, 15-year love affair gives the movie its emotional weight. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 24, 2019
19%	Serenity (2019)	Not only do the pieces in the movie's puzzle seem mismatched, but the whole enterprise is marked by silliness and over-reach. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 24, 2019
93%	Stan & Ollie (2019)	The movie Stan & Ollie pays fitting tribute to the comic duo, focusing on them mostly at the end of their careers. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2019
93%	Sicilian Ghost Story (2018)	This ghost story makes no attempt to scare us with cheap shocks. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2019
41%	The Upside (2019)	Despite a few stabs at realism, Upside becomes another movie in which a black character helps a white character fight long odds. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 11, 2019
100%	The World Before Your Feet (2018)	The World Before Your Feet is one of those documentaries that audiences tend to love -- and not without reason. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 4, 2019
73%	On the Basis of Sex (2019)	On the Basis of Sex never transcends by-the-book filmmaking. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 28, 2018
95%	If Beale Street Could Talk (2019)	Among other things, a tender depiction of such a love is precisely what distinguishes If Beale Street Could Talk from normal Hollywood fare. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 27, 2018
66%	Vice (2018)	By the end, you may find yourself vainly waiting for McKay to pull the thematic string that unifies his jigsaw of a movie and keeps Vice from falling onto the side of the ledger where disappointments are recorded. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 27, 2018
93%	Bumblebee (2018)	Yes, Bumblebee has a more human feel than its five previous predecessors, but itÂ's still aligned with its five predecessors, and let's be honest: In Bumblebee smashing things becomes an inevitable accompaniment to mending hearts. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 21, 2018
62%	Bird Box (2018)	Bullock gives a strong, fiercely determined performance; the rest of the cast is in equally good form. But in trying to surpass generic horror, Bird Box achieves only limited success. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 21, 2018
81%	Ben is Back (2018)	Ben is Back, the story of a mother dealing with her son's drug addiction, proves observant and smart -- until a mid-picture plot twist alters its course. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 21, 2018
65%	Aquaman (2018)	There's plenty of visual invention on display, but the eye can't totally silence a question from the mind: How much underwater spectacle does an Aquaman movie need before we start to drown in it? - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 21, 2018
32%	Welcome to Marwen (2018)	In Welcome to Marwen, the stories that take place inside of Marwen... aren't all that interesting and the overall story vacillates between being creepy and heart-warming, never quite making up its mind which map to follow. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 21, 2018
79%	Mary Poppins Returns (2018)	Few of the youngsters who are taken to Returns aren't going to spend much time making comparisons to the original, but they should be able to get lost in the movie's carefully considered production design and an abundantly clear desire to entertain. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 20, 2018
63%	Mary Queen of Scots (2018)	Mary Queen of Scots doesn't have the musty feel of period-bound drama but it doesn't spring to vivid life, either. So, no hails for this queen. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 14, 2018
97%	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)	A Marvel story that's (gasp!) actually animated and better for it. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 14, 2018
96%	Roma (2018)	Cuaron obviously is one of the boys in this on-screen family, but Roma isn't about children or even childhood; it's a movie about a moment and the people who lived it. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 14, 2018
26%	Mortal Engines (2018)	Oh well, Mortal Engines doesn't generate disdain -- at least it didn't in me -- but it's difficult to avoid thinking that not enough has been accomplished by a scrapheap of a movie that can feel both old-fashioned and old hat. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 13, 2018
59%	Vox Lux (2018)	Director Brady Corbet's Vox Lux might be a case of a movie taking a bite out of a big subject but failing entirely to digest it. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 13, 2018
94%	Burning (Beoning) (2018)	Burning invites us to question everything that we're seeing, a process that's aided by its cast of fine young actors. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 3, 2018
94%	Wildlife (2018)	Not always easy to read, Wildlife nonetheless entangles us in the lives of characters who defy easy definition. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 3, 2018
84%	Creed II (2018)	Creed II isn't as good as the first installment, but it's no disgrace, either. Credit the cast for keeping familiar characters alive -- if a little bruised. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2018
79%	At Eternity's Gate (2018)	Amazingly, casting him as van Gogh in his 30s doesn't prove distracting because we're witnessing an intensely subjective account of van Gogh's final years. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2018
78%	Green Book (2018)	Better to view Green Book as an anecdotal tale which - no matter how amusing - doesn't speak to complex racial issues that remain frustratingly unresolved in 2018. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2018
84%	Monrovia, Indiana (2018)	I wouldn't call Monrovia one of Wiseman's best efforts, but it exemplifies an approach in which he captures various places and institutions as if he were recording for future generations. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 15, 2018
91%	The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)	Not all of the episodes are successful and, sorry to say, stretches of the movie are duller than you might expect from the Coens. But this is a Coen brothers film and, as such, demands some attention... - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 15, 2018
92%	The Great Buster: A Celebration (2018)	There are many reasons you might want to see Bogdanovich's fond look at a great star of the silent cinema whose career peaked in the 1920s but continued pretty much until his death in 1966. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 8, 2018
98%	Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)	I'm not sure that there's any great moral to be drawn from all this, but Can You Ever Forgive Me? entertains right up until an end that suggests that Israel's reformation retained trace elements of defiance. Refreshing. - Denerstein Unleashed EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 2, 2018