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Charles Solomon
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Grave of the Fireflies (1988) |
A flower on the grave of all the children who have died needlessly in war. It is eloquent, moving, and beautiful. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 07, 2023
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The Monkey King (2023) |
It's not particularly well-designed or animated... There's nothing new here. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 07, 2023
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Aurora's Sunrise (2022) |
The animation is adequate... It's an interesting film but has its flaws. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 07, 2023
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Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir, The Movie (2023) |
This is very odd, very trite, and bad to the point of being offensive in places. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Aug 17, 2023
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Justice League: Warworld (2023) |
I found this odd. It takes three DC heroes and plops them into alien environments where they don't necessarily function terribly well. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Aug 17, 2023
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The First Slam Dunk (2022) |
Complicated emotionally and very exciting visually. I really enjoyed it, and I think basketball fans will get off on it. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Aug 11, 2023
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) |
I've seen all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, and this is the best of them by lightyears... Anyone who likes these characters is going to have a ball with it. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Aug 11, 2023
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In the Company of Rose (2022) |
A very engaging and interesting doc. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jul 21, 2023
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Nimona (2023) |
A very interesting but frustrating film because parts of it are so good... The visuals in the film are so strong they can carry it. I just wish they hadn't talked us to death. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jul 21, 2023
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Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023) |
To call this "derivative" would be kind. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jul 21, 2023
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Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King (2023) |
It's basically one long battle...If you haven't been following [Black Clover] you will probably be lost, but for anime fans, this pulls out all the stops. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 28, 2023
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Lonely Castle in the Mirror (2022) |
It's not all it could be and not what you expect from a Keiichi Hara film. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 28, 2023
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Stan Lee (2023) |
It starts to feel a little "product placement," but if you love Stan Lee you will be ecstatic. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 28, 2023
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Elemental (2023) |
A good, B+ Pixar movie. All the elements are there for a great film, but they just need some rejiggering, reconfiguring, and trimming. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 28, 2023
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Americonned (2022) |
I found this to be a very frustrating film because I agreed with pretty much everything it was saying, but it didn't say it terribly well. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 13, 2023
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Heroes of the Golden Masks (2023) |
Usually, you would expect a comedy adventure to be funny and exciting, but this isn't either. It's a lot of elements from the Aladdin and Kung Fu Panda movies recycled not terribly effectively. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 13, 2023
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Film, the Living Record of Our Memory (2021) |
Well-intended and by and large competent, but it feels very stolid and very familiar. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 06, 2023
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Enter the Slipstream (2023) |
A very neat, solid, well-constructed film. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 06, 2023
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) |
This may be the most visually flamboyant animated film since Yellow Submarine... The film kind of sprawls over [its runtime], but the animation is very exciting. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 06, 2023
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32 Sounds (2022) |
I was very interested in the subject of this film... But it just doesn't go anywhere. It's just throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 06, 2023
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The Thief Collector (2022) |
There's half a film here, but the result is not coherent and I just loathe these thieves. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 06, 2023
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Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom (2023) |
It's heavy-handed and people dressing up in silly costumes to look and move like animated characters really doesn't work. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 06, 2023
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Wanda Sykes: I'm An Entertainer (2023) |
She appealing to a much saner audience, and is at times just hilarious. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 06, 2023
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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) |
"Phantasm" looks exactly like what it is: A television program that's been expanded to fill a big screen. But enlarging the characters only makes the flaws in the Saturday-morning-style animation more evident. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted May 23, 2023
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Charles: In His Own Words (2023) |
A perfectly enjoyable little film. I don't know if there are any great revelations in it, but worth watching. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted May 17, 2023
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Ponyo (2008) |
It's not on the same level as Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away, but it is a very magical and charming film. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted May 17, 2023
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An American Tail (1986) |
Rarely has so much animated opulence been wasted on such a thin, badly told story. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted May 16, 2023
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Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2022) |
We need a new term to describe animated films where everything is done from live-action, because they're not creating a performance the way an animated film always has. I'm afraid this did very little for me. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Apr 24, 2023
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Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting (2021) |
If had kept its focus on [fewer issues] it would have been a stronger film, but there's plenty to be interested in and plenty to be upset about. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Apr 24, 2023
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Suzume (2022) |
Cements Shinkai's reputation as one of the most interesting directors working in animation, period. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Apr 24, 2023
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Tsurune the Movie: The First Shot (2023) |
Instead of making this just another underdog sports tale, the filmmakers really make it about the psychological and even spiritual growth of [athletes]... A really charming film. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Apr 07, 2023
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Kubrick by Kubrick (2020) |
There's nothing to look at; you get the feeling this would've made for a better audiobook. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Mar 21, 2023
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The Magician's Elephant (2023) |
This feels like [a knockoff], except there isn't anything in particular it's knocking off. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Mar 21, 2023
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Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992) |
Decades later, this masterpiece of graphic imagination has been reduced to a long, drawn-out cartoon-adventure that suggests an overblown episode of a Saturday morning TV show. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted Mar 07, 2023
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The Amazing Maurice (2022) |
The film did not do a lot for me... There just isn't a lot here. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Facing the Laughter: Minnie Pearl (2023) |
It could have easily been a stronger film. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Sword Art Online the Movie: Progressive - Scherzo of Deep Night (2022) |
The film is actually quite interesting, and I liked it better than the series. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Sword of the Stranger (2007) |
For years, American animators have complained that their artform is too often restricted to bland fairy tales and harmless fantasies. Sword of the Stranger demonstrates that talented artists can use animation to tell a swashbuckling period adventure. - Animation Scoop
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| Posted Feb 13, 2023
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New Gods: Yang Jian (2022) |
It feels like two stories not very well grafted together. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Feb 11, 2023
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That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond (2022) |
If you're a fan then you'll have fun, but I don't think this will recruit many new viewers into the series. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Feb 11, 2023
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The Super 8 Years (2022) |
Her account of the contrast between the model [family life] and the tensions underneath as she's beginning her career as a fiction writer is intriguing, and she holds our attention. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Feb 11, 2023
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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) |
They borrow rather shamelessly from Spider-Verse... but to no great effect. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jan 18, 2023
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Little Nicholas (2022) |
Probably my favorite film of the year... Utterly charming, funny, warm and interesting. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 20, 2022
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) |
Perhaps the most significant innovation in Snow White was the introduction of sophisticated film-making techniques to animation. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted Dec 19, 2022
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The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie (2022) |
It's very silly, it's lots of fun... if you just want a giggle and this kind of romantic comfort, you'll have fun. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 06, 2022
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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2022) |
[The characters] are not particularly attractive and don't allow for much expression in the animation... as a result, the film is very, very talky.
- FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 06, 2022
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EVANGELION:3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time (2021) |
A powerful film, a well-made film... a watershed work in Japanese animation. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 06, 2022
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My Father's Dragon (2022) |
It does skew younger than the other Cartoon Saloon features have... [But it's] an interesting film and a good film. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Nov 30, 2022
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) |
It's the integrity of that vision and the power that it gives it that eclipses pretty much any other American animated film we've gotten this year. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Nov 30, 2022
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The Soccer Football Movie (2022) |
I don't know if it qualifies as a comedy. Aren't those supposed to be funny? - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Nov 30, 2022
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