James Kendrick
Tomatometer-approved critic
James Kendrick is the film and video critic at QNetwork.com, where he has been writing reviews since 1998. From 1996 to 1998, he wrote reviews at his own, now defunct, web site, "Charle Don't Surf!" He is also an associate professor of film and digital media at Baylor University and the author of three books.
Current All-Time Top 10 (Chronological Order)
Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
Play Time (Jacques Tati, 1967)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
Waco, Texas
http://www.qnetwork.com
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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The Magician's Elephant (2023) |
Parts of it are a bit clunky and the animation feels somewhat cheap at times, but The Magician’s Elephant is nonetheless an enjoyable diversion that stays true to the essence of DiCamillo’s novel while also forging its own path. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Phenomena (1985) |
constantly skirts the edge of being something unique and enthralling, but at each turn Argento turns up the volume a bit too loud or piles on just a bit too much, even for those who appreciate his elaborate excesses - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Romeo and Juliet (1968) |
Whiting and Hussey have a powerful screen chemistry, and the way they exchange glances, especially when they first spy each other across the dance floor in the film’s most captivating sequence, is electric. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre (2023) |
Were it not for the presence of Hugh Grant, Guy Ritchie’s awkwardly titled international crime thriller would be easily forgotten. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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The Quiet Girl (2022) |
simple and beautiful in its moving evocation of human experience and the depth of its belief in the transformative power of human kindness - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Invaders From Mars (1953) |
Although it is hindered by wooden acting and some low-grade effects and costumes, it nonetheless embodies so much cleverness and ingenuity in its overall design and effect that you forgive the visible zippers and hammy lines of dialogue. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989) |
Sacrifices were made at virtually every turn, meaning that The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, for all its grandeur and beauty and imagination, is a severely compromised work … and it shows. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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The Woman King (2022) |
Viola Davis is a force unleashed, heading up a full-blooded tale of conflict set against the backdrop of the slave trade that offers both a twist on the traditional male-dominated warrior-epic and a look at a part of history Hollywood typically ignores - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Cooley High (1975) |
while it does not shy away from the harsh realities of growing up poor and black in the inner city in the early 1960s, it does not wallow in victimhood, either, showing how its characters lead determined, vibrant lives - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Epidemic (1987) |
Long, ponderous, amateurish, and remarkably dull, it seeks to be some kind of self-aware hybrid of reflexive meta-film about the film industry and a drama about a rampaging virus - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Europa (1991) |
For all its technical and aesthetic brilliance, Europa remains a rather cold and distant film, one that is easy to appreciate, but difficult to love. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) |
Johnson replaces the insular familial privilege at the heart of Knives Out with an even more obnoxious form of privilege whose odiousness is in direct proportion to how much its characters flaunt it in the public sphere - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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White Noise (2022) |
something of a mess, but in a great, enthralling, engaging kind of way - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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The Seventh Continent (1989) |
confounding in its emotional devastation and almost sadistic insistence on presenting such a horrific event while offering no real insight - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Benny's Video (1992) |
plays with a cool, clinical sense of detachment that makes its interpersonal and physical horrors resonate in ways that graphic violence and visual bombast simply couldn’t match - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) |
certainly makes for a frustrating experience, but that frustration is central to Haneke’s project because it forces you to confront the horrors of the inexplicable - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
a delicate balancing act, and McDonagh pulls it off with astonishing grace, punctuating the film’s humanity with heavy doses of ambiguity that keep you thinking and wrestling with the characters long after the credits have rolled - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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The Menu (2022) |
stylish and engrossing and sadistically enjoyable - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Women Talking (2022) |
a great achievement in dramatizing both the power of words and the resilience of victims to throw off the shackles of their oppression and choose a different path - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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The Fabelmans (2022) |
a probing family drama that is also suffused with a genuine love of the art of cinema and all its potentials - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (1972) |
the first half is structured as a kind of lumbering black comedy before the ghouls are unleashed, which, despite the general amateurishness of the production, pack quite a punch - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Malcolm X (1992) |
Washington’s commanding central performance and the intensity with which the story is told make the film feel both brisk and invigorating, challenging our notions of history and what it means to be black in America, then and now. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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EO (2022) |
a deeply moving, beautifully wrought, and keenly reflective film that finds new avenues of dramatization of, and insight into, all the good and bad that humanity has to offer - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Bones and All (2022) |
doesn’t quite reach the twisted melodramatic heights to which Guadagnino clearly aspires, which makes Bones and All, like his Suspiria remake, more interesting as a concept than it is effective as a film. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Decision to Leave (2022) |
By the time it works its way to its tragic conclusion, Decision to Leave has spun a fully immersive web of romantic intrigue that demonstrates without doubt that Park is just as good in a restrained mode as he is when he lets it all fly. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) |
When it works, it is because it finds just the right balance between the legitimate form it is parodying and the ridiculousness of the content stuffed into it. In other words, it is like a feature-length “Weird Al” music video. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Eve's Bayou (1997) |
both complex and engaging, drawing us into the smoldering, simmering world of the Batiste family and their twisted dynamics without turning them into Gothic grotesquerie - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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The Good Nurse (2022) |
flips the serial-killer narrative on its head, making it all the more enigmatic in refusing to offer up pat assessments or easy explanations - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Soft & Quiet (2022) |
writer/director Beth de Araújo builds the momentum so well and the performances are so insidiously effective that it works despite its obviousness - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Nov 14, 2022
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Halloween Ends (2022) |
commendable for its ambition, although said ambition is relentlessly stretched to the breaking point by shoddy plotting, confusing characters, and a general lack of focus - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Nov 02, 2022
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Don't Worry Darling (2022) |
finds enough intriguing and compelling means of dramatizing and turning its domestic horrors inside out that it remains engaging right up until the final frames - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Nov 02, 2022
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Cure (1997) |
an effective, deeply unsettling thriller that continues to perplex because it refuses the kinds of restorative satisfaction normally supplied by that genre - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Nov 01, 2022
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Smile (2022) |
an effective horror film that is both conventionally scary and engaging in its evocation of memory and trauma - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Nov 01, 2022
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Goodnight Mommy (2022) |
doesn’t have much that is unique or original to offer visually, but its dramatic conflict is potent enough to carry us through to the eventual revelation we may or may not see coming - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Oct 17, 2022
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Exotica (1994) |
a master class in complex narrative design in the service of dramatizing the depths of human emotion - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Oct 17, 2022
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Sound of Metal (2019) |
rich in subtlety and nuance, when it could have been overbearing and melodramatic - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Oct 17, 2022
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Blonde (2022) |
a film that is so good and so bad in equal measure that it is hard to even begin to gauge it - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Oct 17, 2022
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Good Guys Wear Black (1978) |
standard Norris action fare, but there is a distinct difference in how deep the cynicism runs regarding corruption in the government and military - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Oct 02, 2022
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A Force of One (1979) |
piles on the dramatic slow motion to such an extensive degree that some action sequences that should be thrilling start to feel a bit ludicrous - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Oct 02, 2022
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The Octagon (1980) |
notably more violent and cynical than Norris’s previous films, even though he plays the same type of taciturn, reluctant hero whose integrity is never—ever—in question - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Oct 02, 2022
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God's Country (2022) |
as much as God’s Country is about conflict and our almost fatalistic collision course with each other, Higgins offers small glimpses of the possibility of connection - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Oct 02, 2022
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Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) |
the humor is persistent and we can’t help but care for Gru and his nascent villainy - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Oct 02, 2022
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The Easy Life (1962) |
Risi proves to have a deft sense of managing the intertwined humor and drama of his incredibly complex characters. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Sep 28, 2022
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Barbarian (2022) |
a giddy-unnerving exercise in narrative whiplash - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Sep 16, 2022
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Hôtel du nord (1938) |
ambiguity of illusion is key to the film’s effectiveness and why it rises above its relatively pedantic melodramatic narratives - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Sep 16, 2022
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The Story of Film: A New Generation (2022) |
You won’t see everything, but you will see enough to create an impression of just how vibrant and alive to possibilities the cinema remains, and for that reason alone The Story of Film is worth the telling. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Sep 14, 2022
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Thirteen Lives (2022) |
Howard manages to keep things tight and engaging, primarily by submerging us right along with the rescue team, engaging us viscerally in the cramped darkness. - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Sep 14, 2022
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Buck and the Preacher (1972) |
goes against the grain, rewriting one of Hollywood’s most storied genres—the Western—through the lens of neglected black history - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Sep 14, 2022
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Massacre at Central High (1976) |
even with its various flaws and shortcomings, it deserves more attention as a uniquely daring attempt to invigorate staid exploitation fare with an incisive social intelligence - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Sep 14, 2022
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Daddy Longlegs (2010) |
both humorous and harrowing, and even though it drags at times, its sense of repetition is crucial to its protagonist’s primary flaws - Q Network Film Desk
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| Posted Sep 14, 2022
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