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Dan Bayer
Dan Bayer's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
AwardsWatch
Next Best Picture
Daniel Bayer has been in love with movies all his life, in love with the theater since he could sit still, and in love with tap dance since seeing Singin’ in the Rain at nine years old. A nationally-ranked dancer in his teens, his theater credits are many and varied, both behind and on the stage. He now spends his days as a non-profit database manager and the rest of his time seeing, writing about, and talking about movies and theater. He is a proud member of GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. You can find him on the AwardsWatch and Next Best Picture podcasts, and on Twitter @dancindanonfilm.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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The Movie Teller (2023) |
As it is, the film feels unbalanced, which is sad, given how wonderfully it starts and how beautifully it controls its emotions. That first half, though, is magical, as wonderful a testament to the magic of the movies as you’re likely to see this year. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 22, 2023
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Knox Goes Away (2023) |
The film’s disparate parts are all out of alignment, leading to a film about the loss of memory that you’ll forget as quickly as Knox himself would. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 22, 2023
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Widow Clicquot (2023) |
As fizzy, bold, and complex as the wine itself, Bennett is the special ingredient that brings all of Napper's strong craft together and makes the film such a joy to watch. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 19, 2023
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Wicked Little Letters (2023) |
Colman, a master at working with mixed emotions, may have traded in subtlety for obviousness in this performance. Still, when the letters are so attention-grabbingly dirty that the film’s tone is already pretty broad, she merely doubles down on that tone. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 17, 2023
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Rustin (2023) |
While it's possible that "Rustin" still could have worked without Domingo in the lead role, it's unquestionable that he is the best thing in the film, enough to justify the film's existence all on his own. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 16, 2023
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Fingernails (2023) |
The questions that “Fingernails” raises cut to the core of what makes us human. That grabby setup and lovingly-written characters ensure that the audience stays invested even though the film takes its time moving through somewhat standard romance beats. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 15, 2023
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Mountains (2023) |
With this irresistible central trio of performances and Sorelle’s assured control over the storytelling, “Mountains” (named after a Haitian proverb about the eternal struggles of life) will make a massive impact on all who see it. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 14, 2023
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The Critic (2023) |
No matter what’s happening elsewhere, McKellen is always great, but, unfortunately, he’s not great enough to save “The Critic” from its own worst impulses. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 13, 2023
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Mother, Couch (2023) |
"Mother, Couch" is presented less as a puzzle for the audience to solve than as a trip for them to be taken on, a trip where only the pilot knows the flight plan and the windows are completely obscured. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 13, 2023
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His Three Daughters (2023) |
“His Three Daughters” deals with death by eschewing melodrama and keeping everything grounded and low-key. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 11, 2023
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Les Indésirables (2023) |
Ladj Ly’s spiritual sequel of sorts to his 2017 Cannes Jury Prize winner “Les Misérables,” “Les Indésirables,” is another pressure cooker of a social issue drama-cum-political thriller - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 09, 2023
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Finestkind (2023) |
“Finestkind” sinks under its own weight despite the rest of the cast’s valiant efforts to keep it afloat. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 09, 2023
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National Anthem (2023) |
“National Anthem” is radical, a powerful statement that whether or not you’re queer yourself, you can benefit from having queer people in your life, from exploring yourself in queer spaces and being open to them, as opposed to frightened of them. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 07, 2023
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Rotting in the Sun (2023) |
The pacing feels like being stuck in stop-and-go traffic, making it feel much longer than its 105 minutes, and it feels largely due to this inability to balance its main themes well. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Sep 07, 2023
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The Equalizer 3 (2023) |
"The Equalizer" series has always been about blunt force - that of Washington's star persona in front of the camera and that of Fuqua's action direction behind it, and that is still the case with this third installment. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Aug 29, 2023
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Golda (2023) |
Mirren’s performance is so good that it doesn’t need a lot of cinematic bells and whistles surrounding it to get at the heart of this woman’s story, but that doesn’t stop Nattiv from throwing everything he can at the film. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Aug 23, 2023
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Jules (2023) |
“Jules” is a film that, much like its main character, is easy to dismiss on its face. But, much like its main character, it has more to offer than meets the eye. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Aug 11, 2023
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Red, White & Royal Blue (2023) |
"Red, White & Royal Blue" proves that there's still juice left in the old formulas as long as you have a cast and director that knows exactly what to do with them. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Aug 10, 2023
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Susie Searches (2022) |
"Susie Searches" is an enjoyable mixed bag of disparate elements that works more often than not, largely thanks to the strength of its endearing lead. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jul 27, 2023
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Every Body (2023) |
Cohen may make it look easy, but making a documentary this passionate in every frame is more difficult than it looks. “Every Body” is a testament to just how strong the conventional documentary format can be when it’s in the right hands. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jul 10, 2023
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Joy Ride (2023) |
In finding the humor of being an Asian-American woman, Lim, and her cast and crew have created something that anyone can see and relate to, thus making the world a better – and more uproariously funny – place. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jul 07, 2023
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The Lesson (2023) |
It may be a bit uneven, but “The Lesson” so fully embraces what it is that it’s hard not to enjoy it for exactly that. The film’s uniqueness in the current cinematic landscape may lead one to overvalue it a bit, but its rarity is something to be valued. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jul 06, 2023
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Earth Mama (2023) |
Thanks to Nomore’s powerfully sympathetic performance and Leaf’s tenderly empathetic construction, “Earth Mama” easily passes the challenge it sets out for itself at the beginning. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jul 05, 2023
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Revoir Paris (2022) |
Efira does wonderful work as Mia, further cementing herself as the newest goddess of French cinema. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jun 23, 2023
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Shortcomings (2023) |
Everyone’s mileage may vary on how bearable it is to spend time with these people, especially Ben. Still, in the hands of this cast and crew, it’s hard to deny that “Shortcomings” is a triumph of allowing its unlikeable protagonist to remain unlikeable. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jun 19, 2023
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Dalíland (2022) |
With such a black hole at its center, "Dalíland" would be little more than a list of interesting facts about Dalí, his wife, and their later years without Kingsley and Sukowa. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jun 09, 2023
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The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (2022) |
The images, the score, and the performances are so alluring that it's impossible to look away from them. Given its uniqueness, it's also impossible to forget. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted May 19, 2023
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Fool's Paradise (2023) |
Trying to have fun while watching “Fool’s Paradise” is largely a fool’s errand. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted May 11, 2023
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Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023) |
"The Next Chapter" is far from a perfect film, but for what it is - a romantic hang-out comedy travelog meant to be enjoyed with your best gals and gays over glasses of wine - it's absolutely perfect. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted May 08, 2023
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Love Again (2023) |
While the film doesn’t offer the non-stop campfest some people might feel they have been promised, it does have enough self-consciously ridiculous moments to stay entertaining even when it looks somewhat cheap and slapdash. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted May 08, 2023
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Chevalier (2022) |
It's the performance, and the film, that its real-life subject deserves. Considering how rarely that happens, "Chevalier" is cause for celebration. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Apr 21, 2023
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Carmen (2022) |
“Carmen” proves that Millepied has it in him to make a true masterpiece of a ballet on film, which could very well explode the cinematic form as we know it. The chances he takes in this film are encouraging and get him very close. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Apr 19, 2023
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) |
While the bright, colorful animation is almost ludicrously over-detailed, the script as a whole feels underdone, with no real character arcs and no more than a few chuckles here and there. - AwardsWatch
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| Posted Apr 04, 2023
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Evil Dead Rise (2023) |
Why must horror films wreak such brutal havoc on women, and why do audiences so enjoy watching them? I must confess; I don’t know. But for all that “Evil Dead Rise” does well, it’s a hard film to recommend because of it. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Tetris (2023) |
With a strong lead performance, a quotable script, and a genuinely surprising twisty story, “Tetris” ensures that you’ll never see those falling blocks in the same way again. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Problemista (2023) |
Dialing up her voice to manic speed levels and rock concert volume, Swinton’s Elizabeth is an iconic comic creation, able to elicit laughs by just opening her mouth. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Upon Entry (2022) |
“Upon Entry” is a searing indictment of the US immigration system and will open a lot of eyes to what people coming to this country have to go through. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 15, 2023
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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) |
Even though the action in the series is awe-inspiring, the fact that this latest film ends in such a character-focused way inspires awe of a different, incredibly welcome kind. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 14, 2023
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The Long Game (2023) |
Even if it doesn’t stand out in the pantheon of sports films, the story it’s telling deserves to be heard. It also deserves a better film. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Bottoms (2023) |
Delectably raunchy, defiantly queer, and most of all deliriously funny, “Bottoms” is a new high school comedy classic. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) |
“Honor Among Thieves” plays like an old-fashioned fantasy adventure with modern sensibilities, led by a cast who understands that if they’re having fun, the audience will have fun with them. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 11, 2023
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The Five Devils (2022) |
Unfortunately, “The Five Devils” ultimately comes across as a lot of great ideas piled on top of each other without a unifying vision to pull them all together. It’s a mess: an incredibly intriguing, artfully assembled mess, but a mess all the same. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Champions (2023) |
This isn’t a gourmet meal; it’s fast food. It’s filling in the moment, but you may feel empty a few minutes after finishing. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Pacifiction (2022) |
Watching “Pacifiction” is a chore, a deathly slow, ponderously heavy slog through a political allegory that confounds the viewer at every turn. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Of an Age (2022) |
The film falls frustratingly short of the perfection its first half promises, but it’s still something pretty special. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023) |
“Last Dance” might be the least of the “Magic Mike” trilogy, but it’s still entertaining enough that, once again, it’s a pure pleasure all the way through. No guilt is necessary. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Feb 07, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin (2023) |
“Knock at the Cabin” is still a damn good psychological thriller, one that invests its premise with the right amount of seriousness for it to be scary but also imbues it with just enough fun for its nihilistic streak to go down easy. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Feb 01, 2023
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The Drop (2022) |
The cast gives it their all to make sure the best jokes land, but ultimately “The Drop” just doesn’t have enough skill to fully make good on its admittedly hilarious premise. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jan 17, 2023
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Plane (2023) |
As it turns out, the film’s title isn’t the most boring thing about it. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jan 17, 2023
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M3GAN (2022) |
“M3GAN” is an all-out blast, a fiendishly fun, endlessly entertaining PG-13 first-week-of-January horror flick that fully understands how absurd its premise is and knows exactly how to play it. - Next Best Picture
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| Posted Jan 04, 2023
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