>
Dennis Harvey
Tomatometer-approved critic
Film Critic, San Francisco Bay Guardian and Variety
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
NAGA (2023) |
The flamboyant but hollow results feel like too conscious a calling card for a talent that next time out should embrace some restraint, not to mention substance. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Dec 07, 2023
|
|
|
|
HWJN (2023) |
A slick, pleasant diversion that should attract viewers eager for an approximation of CGI-heavy western family entertainments, albeit with up-front Arabic cultural and Muslim religious emphases. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Dec 05, 2023
|
|
|
|
Animal (2023) |
Like nearly every factor here, the songs and blood-soaked interludes alike are not without skill, but get kick-dropped into an inorganic whole uninterested in integrating them to sustained, logical or emotionally credible effect. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Dec 02, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Plot Against Harry (1969) |
...the film’s sensibility was simply ahead of its time, anticipating the bubbling-under ensemble humor of 1970s Robert Altman joints and deadpan 1980s efforts by Jarmusch & co... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
Dream Scenario (2023) |
It’s a caustically clever fantasy parable that plays with the notions of “viral” fame and “cancel culture,” though in the end I found it more intriguing as a concept than terribly rewarding in either comedy or insight. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Eagle (1925) |
Not a career peak for Clarence Brown, whose resume would encompass later classics like The Yearling, National Velvet, Intruder in the Dust and Idiot’s Delight, plus myriad glossy celluloid pedestals for Gable, Garbo, and Crawford. But it is good fun. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
Pavement Butterfly (1929) |
There are many pluses to this well-mounted effort, including some notably stylish touches, good location filming, and the beautifully photographed star nicely underplaying the purple emotions called for. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
Safety Last (1923) |
Lloyd is generally considered the most prosaic of the era’s comedic “big three,” lacking Chaplin’s poetry and Keaton’s deadpan genius. But his movies were, and are, great mainstream entertainment... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Holy Mountain (1973) |
One of the greatest films of the Sixties... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
Witness in the City (1959) |
The 1959 gritty street thriller... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Crucible (1996) |
Raymond Rouleau’s French-East German coproduction should provide something of a revelation... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
Evilspeak (1982) |
Eric Weston’s film isn’t necessarily “good,” but it is definitely out there, with some elements seemingly intended as satire, others not at all. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
A Disturbance in The Force (2023) |
Fun—and probably less traumatizing than watching the real thing, which can be found pretty easily on free online sites. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
Napoleon (2023) |
Napoleon is close to three hours long, but it never feels slack; there is vitality as well as elegance to its flow, highlighted by huge battle sequences that each have their own distinctive character. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
5000 Space Aliens (2021) |
Whether watched in one go, or a few minutes at a time, it’s an equally intense, singular if rather depthless experience—an audiovisual blitz. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
Do Not Disturb (2022) |
Its mix of black comedy, grotesquerie, and bloody thrills has a certain panache as well as chutzpah. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
Cypher (2023) |
Its conceptual originality holds the attention, and many viewers will enjoy seeing various hip-hop luminaries “playing” themselves on this slippery slope. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
Relative (2022) |
This interweaving of testimony and archival materials does render vividly how a “sickness” of molestation and violence from “people you’re supposed to love and trust” can endure over decades, inflicting scars that “never leave you.” - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
Rush to Judgment (1967) |
Dry as dust, a retro-televisual series of talking heads and lectures. But as a disturbing historical artifact, it is invaluable. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Stones and Brian Jones (2023) |
The film doesn’t entirely make the intended case for Jones as some sort of neglected tragic genius. But the mix of vintage concert footage, interviews both new and archival, and other material is inevitably absorbing. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
Life Is Beautiful (2023) |
The outdoor temperatures may be Arctic, but the welcoming indoor temperament as painted by a stranded stranger here is downright toasty. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Nov 21, 2023
|
|
|
|
Next Goal Wins (2023) |
So, one might expect an inspirational underdog sports comedy… not my favorite thing, in general. But yeesh, this movie makes The Mighty Ducks look poppin’-fresh by comparison... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 17, 2023
|
|
|
|
May December (2023) |
A twisty psychodrama that nods to both the upper-middle-class soap operatics of his own Far From Heaven and the identity-blurring gamesmanship likes of Bergman’s Persona, while waxing more caustic than either. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 17, 2023
|
|
|
|
A Picture to Remember (2023) |
This complex but poignantly accessible collage benefits from the diversity of visual formats utilized, as well as an adventuresome, spectral original score by Maryana Klochko. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Nov 17, 2023
|
|
|
|
Biosphere (2022) |
Whimsical, funny, endearing, and ultimately a bit profound... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 16, 2023
|
|
|
|
Orlando, My Political Biography (2023) |
The wide range of experiences glimpsed here testify to the expansiveness of what remains fairly new cultural terrain... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 16, 2023
|
|
|
|
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) |
It is ostensibly a thriller, but much less concerned with action or suspense than character dynamics. It also provides an apex of the “gritty” Seventies filmmaking. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 16, 2023
|
|
|
|
Into the Abyss (2011) |
You can say a lot about Werner Herzog, but who else could it be said of that he has fully earned the right to publicly address the most profound questions of our (or any) era? - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Grizzly Man (2005) |
No Herzog series would be complete without the unsettling curiosity and horror of Grizzly Man. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Heart of Glass (1976) |
Some of the auteur’s most bizarre Kinski-free features... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Queen of the Desert (2015) |
[It] demonstrated that Herzog can fail big, as well as on a DIY scale. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Encounters at the End of the World (2007) |
[An[ extraordinary Antarctica sojourn... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Cobra Verde (1987) |
Kinski lends burning charisma... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Woyzeck (1979) |
Kinski lends burning charisma... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) |
One of Herzog's more artistically successful rare ventures into quasi-commercial, quasi-Hollywood filmmaking... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Signs of Life (1968) |
It is notable that this acclaimed first feature is comparatively conventional—albeit perhaps only when held alongside the singular style and mystic sensibility of many subsequent works... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Lessons of Darkness (1992) |
It restores your faith in humanity to think that the genius behind such cosmic objets d’art... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) |
Cosmic objets d’art... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Skin Deep (2022) |
His assured first feature finds a young couple visiting a remote communal retreat, where they experiment with adopting different perspectives—in very literal terms, as there is actual body-swapping going on here. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Sisi & I (2023) |
Complete with highly anachronistic soundtrack choices (by Portishead, Nico, Le Tigre, etc.), it’s a plush period piece that is nonetheless heavy on revisionist interpretation. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Manodrome (2023) |
[It] ends on its least hyperbolic note, to graceful, even somewhat touching effect. But until then, it piles on contrary devices, some of a ripped-from-headlines ilk, without creating the organic character inner life or narrative that might unify them... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Mission (2023) |
The Mission works on a lot of levels, from the aesthetic pleasure of its extensive painterly animation sequences to the variably questioning, sometimes humorous input from commentators. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Showdown at the Grand (2023) |
“Showdown”... provides a good time. That fun will be heightened by whatever knowledge of 1970s and ’80s cult genre films you bring in with you. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Nov 07, 2023
|
|
|
|
Radical (2023) |
Radical is a feel-good movie that earns its uplift, rather than force-feeding the desired emotional responses. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 07, 2023
|
|
|
|
Rustin (2023) |
Rustin, however, is a cinematic conception that feels stagey in the wrong ways. The dialogue is stiltedly explicative, with characters practically introduced by their verbal resumes. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 07, 2023
|
|
|
|
Priscilla (2023) |
Intriguing as that prospect is this time, though, the results are maybe a little too reductive, making an almost bewilderingly complicated, almost unknowable relationship somehow seem smaller than life. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 07, 2023
|
|
|
|
Bones of Crows (2022) |
If Bones of Crows sometimes seems heavy-handed, a dirge of suffering, you can hardly indict it for being unfaithful to reality. This material is so packed with drama, the 2022 feature has already been spun off into a five-hour broadcast... - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Nov 07, 2023
|
|
|
|
Night of the Hunted (2023) |
After a certain point, I wished him dead… less so innocent lives could be saved, and more just so he would shut up. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Oct 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
Fuzzy Head (2023) |
Too often forced quirkiness overwhelms more heartfelt content here. Still, you have to admire McColm’s singularity of purpose, even if the results sometimes seem too private for a viewer to decipher. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Oct 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
Nightsiren (2022) |
It’s a very handsome-looking movie that doesn’t entirely pull together, but provides a lot of intriguing elements to chew on. - 48 Hills
Read More
| Posted Oct 30, 2023
|