John Hartl
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Eve's Bayou (1997) |
Firmly anchored by confident movie-star performances by Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield and Diahann Carroll, this vivid portrait of an early-1960s African-American family is one of the most impressive ensemble pieces of the season. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jan 10, 2023
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Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) |
[Washington plays] Rawlins as a mixture of canny private eye and wary out-of-towner. In her best role to date, Beals communicates some of the hothouse seductiveness of film noir's best bad girls. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Oct 26, 2021
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Cool as Ice (1991) |
Try to imagine Vanilla Ice in the Marlon Brando role in The Wild One. Somebody did, and this is the embarrassing result. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Aug 13, 2021
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Bhaji on the Beach (1993) |
The scenes in Blackpool are vibrant, funny and finally quite complex and powerful. - Seattle Times
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| Posted May 10, 2021
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Nights of Cabiria (1957) |
Fellini and Masina's unique collaboration appears to demolish the wall between life and art, film and audience. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Feb 28, 2021
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The Unforeseen (2007) |
A gorgeous, thoughtful film that is remarkably evenhanded in its treatment of the subject. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Sep 22, 2020
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Born to Be Wild (1995) |
Screenwriters Paul Young and John Bunzel... can't decide whether they're making a slapstick comedy or an impassioned ecological statement or just a harmless baby-sitter... - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jul 13, 2020
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Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) |
What lends it novelty and makes it such wicked fun is the change of locale from a Capra-esque small town to rude, hectic New York City. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 23, 2020
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The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor (2015) |
Arthur Dong, the director of Coming Out Under Fire, tells this strange, sad, unresolved story with remarkable clarity. - Seattle Times
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| Posted May 08, 2020
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The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) |
This is a shocking, confrontational film that is intended to disturb. It is also an adult film in the best sense. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Apr 21, 2020
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Prefontaine (1997) |
The most poignant aspect of Prefontaine has to do with the title character's adjustment to relative failure. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Mar 25, 2020
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Stepmom (1998) |
The result is a cartoonish two-hour-plus soap opera of little distinction, played by actors who deserve better and should have known better. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Apr 01, 2019
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Itzhak (2017) |
Music hangs in the air throughout the film. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Apr 04, 2018
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The Final Year (2017) |
In the end, "The Final Year" can offer only the perspective of time and history as a consolation. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jan 17, 2018
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Father Figures (2017) |
At first [Helms and Wilson] seem incompatible. But their journey through family secrets delivers surprising charm. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Dec 22, 2017
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The Foreigner (2017) |
[Campbell is] a master at rejuvenating tired warhorses, and he pulls it off again with this one. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Oct 10, 2017
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Second Nature (2016) |
The staging of a few scenes suggests home-movie limitations. But enthusiasm counts for a great deal in a project as ambitious and strange as "Second Nature." - Seattle Times
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| Posted Sep 07, 2017
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Whose Streets? (2017) |
"Whose Streets?" marks the filmmaking debut of Folayan and Davis, and it's charged by its personal touch. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Aug 15, 2017
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Susanne Bartsch: On Top (2017) |
Auntie Mame once insisted that "life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death." That sentiment is echoed in a new documentary about a nonfictional Mame, Susanne Bartsch, who reigned in New York during the post-Warhol era. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 20, 2017
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My Journey Through French Cinema (2016) |
Tavernier's own adolescent obsession with the films of Jacques Becker gets the movie off to a choppy start, but the variety of inspirations (not to mention the visual quality of the film clips) is astonishing. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 20, 2017
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Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu (2017) |
The script tends to build its narrative on philosophical and religious arguments, but they're often riveting and articulate, especially in courtroom scenes that take the film beyond the expected limitations of action scenes. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 20, 2017
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The Last Animals (2017) |
Testimonials cover a wide range, including England's Prince William who helps to bring it all into perspective. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 20, 2017
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The Farthest (2017) |
Imagine the late Chuck Berry and Carl Sagan dancing to a cosmic beat, and you've caught the central idea behind The Farthest, an irresistible NASA instant classic about the conquest of space - via the Voyager missions. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 15, 2017
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The Fabulous Allan Carr (2017) |
The survivors are especially effective at recalling the "life is a cabaret'' momentum of the period. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 15, 2017
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Ethel & Ernest (2016) |
Suggesting a matchup between Archie Bunker and Gracie Allen, Ethel & Ernest is a sweet British memoir/cartoon about an ordinary couple who survive the Blitz along with their growing son. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 15, 2017
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Becoming Who I Was (2017) |
As playfully time-oriented as its title, Becoming Who I Was makes reincarnation a central part of its story about a journey through more than one life. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 15, 2017
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500 Years (2017) |
[Yates] returned to fill in those missing years of genocide, corruption and disappearances. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jun 15, 2017
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Tommy's Honour (2016) |
"Tommy's Honour" rarely finds a way to make golf seem exciting on film. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Apr 12, 2017
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Kedi (2016) |
Cats wander in and out of frame; humans speculate on whether the local cats are ambitious or arrogant; Turkish music spills onto the soundtrack; and there's more than one growler of a catfight. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Mar 01, 2017
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Once Were Warriors (1994) |
Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell, who plays Grace, had never acted before, and neither have a couple of the other key players. But under the careful direction of television veteran Lee Tamahori, they all do credible and forceful work. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Feb 21, 2017
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Dream Big: Engineering Our World (2017) |
Entertaining but almost too ambitious for its own sake ... - Seattle Times
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| Posted Feb 15, 2017
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I Am Jane Doe (2017) |
The writer-director, Mary Mazzio, demonstrates a profound empathy with her subjects, who can admit to the charms of "Pretty Woman" without falling for it. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Feb 08, 2017
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My Bakery in Brooklyn (2016) |
You never feel connected to couples who are clearly supposed to be infatuated. It's left to the actors to pull off the illusion, and they fail almost immediately. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jan 19, 2017
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Patriots Day (2016) |
For all its rough edges and gruesome touches, "Patriots Day'' is a heartfelt and ambitious attempt to turn mayhem into something that's emotionally valid. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Jan 11, 2017
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The Eagle Huntress (2016) |
The outline of a modern feminist epic is always there in the background. What's surprising is how fresh and charming the movie manages to be. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Nov 21, 2016
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Almost Christmas (2016) |
Like a self-help book for dysfunctional families facing the holidays together, "Almost Christmas" is a collection of sketches - not really a story - that explore awkward pre-Yuletide social situations. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Nov 09, 2016
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Closet Monster (2015) |
Sort of a horror film, but not really. It's too funny to be categorized that way. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Oct 24, 2016
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The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2016) |
The pace is swift, archival clips are well-chosen and conspiracy theories pile up in a way that seems intentionally funny. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Oct 20, 2016
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Kevin Hart: What Now? (2016) |
Hart says "What Now?" will be his last stand-up film. Turning a one-man show into a cast-of-thousands spectacle is one way to go out with a bang. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Oct 12, 2016
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A Man Called Ove (2015) |
"A Man Called Ove" has some tear-jerking moments, but the film is so carefully designed - with long, circular takes that seem to surround the main characters at crucial fateful points - that technique often triumphs over sentimentality. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Sep 29, 2016
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Operation Avalanche (2016) |
Ingeniously using his low budget to address his ambitions, Johnson has directed, co-written (and starred in) a unique science-fiction film. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Sep 23, 2016
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Max Rose (2013) |
Fascinating at certain moments, especially when Lewis is exploring his character's grief and bitterness, it still feels like a work in progress. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Sep 15, 2016
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The Hollars (2016) |
Krasinski, who also directed the film, may have spread himself too thin; there's a desperation about the closing scenes, cluttered as they are with bouncy pop songs on the soundtrack. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Sep 15, 2016
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Elevator to the Gallows (1958) |
A classic European film noir with an irresistible score by Miles Davis, it builds tension from a series of seemingly minor mistakes that echo the political/military context of the postwar era. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Sep 01, 2016
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The Sea of Trees (2015) |
No wonder Watts rules the movie. She's playing the only remotely sympathetic character; the men seem consumed by grief and guilt and platitudes. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Sep 01, 2016
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Morris From America (2016) |
Hartigan avoids many of the clichés of after-school specials; a sequel might take these characters in more interesting directions. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Aug 25, 2016
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Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016) |
[A] chatty, mostly fascinating talkathon about the impact of the internet. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Aug 18, 2016
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War Dogs (2016) |
How did Todd Phillips, the director of the "Hangover" comedies, end up making an engrossing, depressing Iraq war movie, "War Dogs," that's deeply critical of the Bush administration? - Seattle Times
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| Posted Aug 16, 2016
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Private Property (1960) |
Allen, who had a key role in "Rebel Without a Cause," turns Duke into a charismatic creature who takes over every scene he's in. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Aug 11, 2016
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Under the Sun (2015) |
It's a movie self-consciously framed around its own making: specifically the creation of a Korean propaganda spectacle. Mansky uses the limitations imposed on him by the government to create a kind of commentary on the genre. - Seattle Times
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| Posted Aug 04, 2016
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