Annie Wagner
Annie Wagner's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Shortbus (2006) |
Shortbus could stand to lose 30 minutes off its flabbily melancholic denouement. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Mar 01, 2018
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The Queen (2006) |
The Queen's myopia is so complete, the performances so meticulous, that you can't help but start to care about, or pine for, or want to overthrow the British monarchy. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Mar 01, 2018
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The Illusionist (2006) |
I can assure you, with all confidence, that the movie is dumb. Really, really, dumb. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Mar 01, 2018
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Catch a Fire (2006) |
Given the complex motivations at play, it's unfortunate that the script doesn't go in for much psychology and wastes precious minutes halfway humanizing Patrick's Boer rival. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Mar 01, 2018
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Time to Leave (2005) |
It's a lovely film, with scattered wrenching moments, but it lacks the mannered impact of the rest of Ozon's oeuvre. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Mar 01, 2018
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Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (1967) |
Peter Whitehead's anatomy of "swinging London" is at its best when indulging in digressive montages of absurd old-lady hats. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Mar 01, 2018
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Expiration Date (2006) |
It's almost funny whenever a Smith Brothers milk truck is mowing Charlie down, but it's almost never funny when he's wooing the most annoying girl in the world. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Mar 01, 2018
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Jesus Camp (2006) |
The filmmakers are more hands off than your average agitdoc director, but their point is unmistakable. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Feb 27, 2018
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The Battle of Algiers (1966) |
This movie is packed with so much glamour and carnage you won't believe it's a documentary about one man. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 23, 2017
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Children of Men (2006) |
[Children of Men] is terribly exciting. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 23, 2017
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Parting Glances (1986) |
Tender and resolutely unsentimental, Parting Glances avoided future AIDS movie clichs not because the example had yet to be set, but because its interests lay elsewhere. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Lust, Caution (2007) |
Lust, Caution is so ambitious and detailed that you'll never be bored. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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3:10 to Yuma (2007) |
3:10 to Yuma isn't a necessary film. But it sure is tasty. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Terror's Advocate (2007) |
This movie is packed with so much glamour and carnage you won't believe it's a documentary about one man. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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King Corn (2007) |
This smart, amiable documentary is about corn: how it's grown, subsidized, processed, and how it sneaks its way into virtually every food on grocery-store shelves. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) |
Julian Schnabel's first film since Before Night Falls is a gorgeous, canny, and sensual adaptation of a most unlikely story. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Red River (1948) |
The best westerns always undercut their own myths, and few are more gorgeously conflicted than Red River. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Atonement (2007) |
Impeccable design, perfect casting, sound that takes the clack of a typewriter and embeds it into all sorts of furious onscreen rhythms... I was swooning even before the love story kicked in. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Charlie Wilson's War (2007) |
It's a timely reminder: Ending a war is all very nice, but watch out for what comes next. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Teeth (2007) |
Teeth isn't perfect, but it's definitely one of a kind-and the abstinence-only parody is priceless. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Billy the Kid (2007) |
Billy the Kid lets you see the character first and his autism second. It's a terrific documentary. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Persepolis (2007) |
Drawn in big swaths of black and white and embellished with thin curls of cigarette smoke and cascades of jasmine flowers, Persepolis is a gorgeous film. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) |
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, which was unjustly denied an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film, is grueling and unsentimental. The excellent acting is what keeps it humane. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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The Band's Visit (2007) |
It's not going to solve any problems in the Middle East, and it doesn't attempt to, either. It's just a quiet story about the uncomfortable charm of coerced hospitality. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Girls Rock! (2007) |
Come for the fleeting shots of camp counselors Carrie Brownstein and Beth Ditto, stay for the wicked banshee screams of 7-year-old Palace and her song about how much San Francisco sucks. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Snow Angels (2007) |
[Snow Angels] is aching with cross-purposes and shimmering with flirty jokes. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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The Unforeseen (2007) |
This enviro documentary has its pretensions (I could've done without Wendell Berry intoning poetry), but the 30-year drama it describes couldn't be more timely. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Chop Shop (2007) |
Chop Shop is the best American indie so far this year. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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The Life Before Her Eyes (2007) |
Every retouched color and dramatic visual effect serves to pollute the movie's already sloppy metaphysics with an unpleasant strain of hysteria. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2017
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Smart People (2008) |
Smart People is just a funny, sturdy, touching movie about the way grief keeps on rippling. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Shotgun Stories (2007) |
Slowness drags the score into repetitive motifs that never seem to speed or slow and locks the dialogue into an occasionally artificial-sounding gravity. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Made of Honor (2008) |
You know how it ends, but you cannot fathom how many pratfalls it takes to get there. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Standard Operating Procedure (2008) |
Standard Operating Procedure seeks answers to questions that are usually purely rhetorical: Who would do such a thing to another human being? And why would you want to photograph it? - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007) |
When Did You Last See Your Father? isn't so much a film by a director as a fantasy sprung straight from the mind of its narcissistic writer and subject. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Frownland (2007) |
Frownland is nothing like a conventional comedy. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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The Love Guru (2008) |
For the first half hour of this badly misconceived Mike Myers movie, I did not laugh. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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The Secret of the Grain (2007) |
Almost certainly the best movie in SIFF 2008, Abdellatif Kechiche's follow-up to Games of Love & Chance burrows into a tight-knit Tunisian immigrant community in a small port town in the south of France. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Meet Bill (2007) |
[Meet Bill] is artless and abrupt, and once you lay eyes on it, you feel totally cheated. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Fugitive Pieces (2007) |
Fugitive Pieces is all about glorifying a state of humorless suspension, where you dwell stoically in the past until, suddenly, you are rescued by a demure, unchallenging version of romantic love. It's depressing. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) |
Set in a well-scrubbed Depression-era Cincinnati, Kit Kittredge is surprisingly effective at addressing economic hardship in terms kids can understand. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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My Winnipeg (2007) |
Guy Maddin has never tipped quite so far in the direction of autobiography as he has with My Winnipeg, and the effect is unexpectedly charming. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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WALL-E (2008) |
Yeah, Pixar movies are usually good, but this one's unimaginably great. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Gunnin' for That No. 1 Spot (2008) |
Gunnin' for That #1 Spot might intrigue hardcore basketball fans-several of these young players are newly minted NBA draft picks-but even then, you'll have to contend with the shockingly unimaginative soundtrack. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Transsiberian (2008) |
Transsiberian is an entertaining film. Just don't expect finesse-and suffer the xenophobia in silence. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) |
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is everything it tries, halfheartedly, to criticize about the character of Vicky: It's determined to be ordinary and likeable no matter what the emotional cost. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Tuya's Marriage (2006) |
The arid landscape, seen with a patriotic affection, is a stirring sight. More wonderful, though, is the story: unusual, understated, and sincere. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Brideshead Revisited (2008) |
Unfortunately, the film doesn't linger at Oxford for long, and the remaining point on the love triangle-Sebastian's sister, Julia-is always present, but only fleetingly interesting. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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Henry Poole Is Here (2008) |
Henry Poole Is Here is so stupid it makes you itch. I half expected to exit the theater with gushing stigmata. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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The Stone Angel (2007) |
Watching The Stone Angel is not a chore. And the ending is pure, classy melodrama-it's totally overblown, and nothing less than satisfying. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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American Teen (2008) |
American Teen succeeds in being exactly as crisp, entertaining, and useless as a romantic comedy. - The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2017
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