Joshua Katzman
Joshua Katzman's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Chicago Reader
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Habit (1996) |
In the spin that Fessenden gives the vampire flick, we’re all ultimately our own worst enemies, ushering in the agents of our own demise. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jun 15, 2022
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The Last Seduction (1994) |
While The Last Seduction isn’t anywhere near the complex and disturbing masterpiece that Chinatown is, it does contain more social commentary than has generally been ascribed to it. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jun 06, 2022
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Red Rock West (1993) |
Helping the story move along at a brisk clip is Dahl’s tight control of the editing coupled with a well-tuned ear for the rhythms and cadences of everyday conversation. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jun 06, 2022
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Spanking the Monkey (1994) |
What it achieves most plangently is a realistic, empathetic portrayal of a young man’s attempts at self-assertion, with all the pain, embarrassment, and missteps that go with it. The performances and mise-en-scene have a naturalistic quality. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jun 06, 2022
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Abadan (2003) |
Mani Haghighi... wrote and directed this debut feature, demonstrating a talent for subtle comedy. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Feb 14, 2020
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Grandma's Boy (2006) |
The sex, fart, and pot jokes come so fast and furious that a white flag seems the most appropriate response. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Aug 15, 2015
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Cherry Blossoms (2008) |
This may lack the understated pathos of Ozu's somber masterpiece, but it's still a moving meditation on aging and loss, and Wepper and Elsner are unforgettable. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jul 30, 2015
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The Godfather of Disco (2007) |
The film explores a fascinating subject: how the business acumen of gay white men -- many of them Jewish -- merged with the creativity of black street culture. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Apr 23, 2015
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Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) |
Del Toro's previous film, the complex, visually arresting Pan's Labyrinth, demonstrated his growth as a filmmaker, and though the themes here aren't as profound, the striking set design and use of nonhuman characters carry over. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Apr 15, 2013
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Vincere (2009) |
Carol Crivelli's soaring classical score heightens Bellochio's operatic tendencies. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Dec 30, 2010
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The Other Guys (2010) |
This is the fourth feature that Will Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay have collaborated on, and once again they deliver laugh-out-loud if ultimately disposable comedy with mixed messages about arrested male development. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Dec 20, 2010
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Piranha (2010) |
This moderately entertaining popcorn thriller recaptures the B-movie spirit of such vintage schlockmeisters as Samuel Z. Arkoff and Roger Corman. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Aug 26, 2010
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The Switch (2010) |
This New York-based comedy directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck distinguishes itself with three-dimensional characters and an engaging storyline. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Aug 20, 2010
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The Expendables (2010) |
Borrows liberally from such male-bonding classics as Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen and Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, but offers not a whiff of the tragic fatalism and astute critique of machismo that inform those superior dramas. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Aug 12, 2010
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Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire's Edge (2004) |
Add this engrossing and informative documentary by director Stephen Marshall to the growing list of films that reveal more about the war in Iraq than anything in the mainstream American news media. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Apr 06, 2010
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Back Soon (2007) |
The premise of two ostensibly straight guys falling in love is compelling, but writer-director Rob Williams cops out with some supernatural hokum about the dead wife channeling her feelings through the boyfriend. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jan 29, 2010
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Katyn (2007) |
Andrzej Wajda has spent much of his long career dramatizing major events in Polish history, and this poignant feature depicts the circumstances surrounding the Soviet Union's massacre of thousands of Polish officers in the spring of 1940. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Feb 18, 2009
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OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) |
This French comedy fondly lampoons both the popular French spy movies adapted from Jean Bruce's novels in the 1950s and '60s and the colonialist era they were set in. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Dec 17, 2008
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A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007) |
As in most of Wang's films, a memorable cast of characters compensates for a serviceable plot. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Dec 16, 2008
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Righteous Kill (2008) |
This thriller by Jon Avnet is mostly by the numbers, and its surprise ending, though effective, feels somewhat forced. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Dec 09, 2008
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Bangkok Dangerous (2008) |
While the film includes several exciting, creatively shot action scenes, the drama is otherwise so shopworn that the violent climax is a relief. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Dec 08, 2008
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Passengers (2008) |
The surprise ending isn't as shocking as those of Jacob's Ladder or The Sixth Sense -- two stellar examples of the genre -- but it's still dramatically potent. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Oct 30, 2008
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Filth and Wisdom (2008) |
Madonna, making her directorial debut, aims for the romping irreverence of Richard Lester's 60s comedies, and though she lacks the formal control to pull it off, this is a charming mess. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Oct 23, 2008
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Battle in Seattle (2007) |
One strength is Barry Ackroyd's handheld-camera work, which deftly tracks the action but still captures the disorientation of those engulfed by the mayhem. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 26, 2008
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Nights in Rodanthe (2008) |
This romantic stinker is one of those films in which every plot development becomes a life lesson and every gesture is weighted with significance. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 26, 2008
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Hounddog (2007) |
A bewildering slice of southern gothic hokum, it suffers from a weak script, proving that old saw about actors being only as good as the lines they're given. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 19, 2008
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Last Stop for Paul (2006) |
This engaging, mostly improvised no-budget feature is based in part on Mandt's experiences, its loose narrative structure developing by chance as the duo encounter an assortment of characters on the road. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 19, 2008
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Outsourced (2006) |
A sweet if predictable variation on the premise of the ugly American, redeemed by Hamiton's dry performance, some nice comic turns by the Indian supporting cast, and a droll script by Jeffcoat and George Wing. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Aug 29, 2008
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The World's Fastest Indian (2005) |
This compelling fact-based story is [Donaldson's] best effort in years. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Aug 06, 2008
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Shotgun Stories (2007) |
... here there's also an undercurrent of biblical revenge that lends the narrative a sense of violent menace and an almost continuous tension. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jun 06, 2008
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Thunderbirds (2004) |
There's enough special effects razzle-dazzle to distract the average ten-year-old, but the script by William Osborne and Michael McCullers is stilted and humorless -- a little camp might have helped. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted May 18, 2008
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Grizzly Man (2005) |
Like so much of Herzog's work, both narrative and documentary, this is an engrossing look at obsessive behavior gone terribly awry. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Apr 29, 2008
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The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) |
Pairing Jackie Chan and Jet Li would seem like a slam dunk, but this big-budget martial arts drama, which borrows liberally from The Wizard of Oz, is something of a disappointment. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Apr 18, 2008
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The Favor (2006) |
This accomplished and economical debut feature (2006) is refreshingly free of gimmicks, focusing squarely on the hero's awkward attempts to forge a relationship with the petulant teenager. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Apr 11, 2008
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The Devil Came on Horseback (2007) |
Filmmakers Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg chronicle his burgeoning activism in the face of the U.S. government's indifference as the government of Sudan works systematically to eradicate black Africans from the region. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jan 04, 2008
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Them (2006) |
First-time directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud have crafted a highly effective horror film that combines a plausible narrative with accomplished use of sound and image. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jan 03, 2008
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Fierce People (2005) |
Director Griffin Dunne, working from Dirk Wittenborn's adaptation of his own novel, pounds away at the analogy between the inherent cruelty of the tribal rituals of the Iskanani and those of the well-heeled. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Dec 03, 2007
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Death Sentence (2007) |
This graphically violent film suffers from cursorily developed characters whose primary function is to advance the creaky plot. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Dec 03, 2007
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Dedication (2007) |
Actor Justin Theroux makes an impressive directorial debut, aided by David Bromberg's mordantly funny dialogue. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Oct 05, 2007
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Home of Phobia (2004) |
John Goodman has a nice turn as a queen with a heart of gold. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 28, 2007
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December Boys (2007) |
Though familiar as an old shoe, this is straightforward and well told. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 21, 2007
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Sydney White (2007) |
While the film's premise is shamelessly hokey and Joe Nussbaum's direction is at best pedestrian, props are due the young cast, especially Bynes, whose can-do optimism seems genuine if ultimately overdone. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 21, 2007
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Silk (2007) |
Francois Girard's adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novel is a visually arresting period piece, set in the 1860s, that addresses memory and loss. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 14, 2007
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Mr. Woodcock (2007) |
Under Craig Gillespie's uninspired direction, the humor eventually settles into stale, familiar pratfalls. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 14, 2007
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In Between Days (2006) |
Kim keeps dialogue to a minimum and provides the barest of story arcs, using a handheld camera to probe subtle shifts of emotion in her nonprofessional actors. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 07, 2007
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Deep Water (2006) |
Osmond and Rothwell's depiction of his unraveling is an exquisitely structured drama. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Sep 07, 2007
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Underdog (2007) |
The TV show was mildly subversive, with humor that children and adults could enjoy on different levels, but the movie strives for a blander, family-oriented middle ground. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Aug 06, 2007
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Sunshine (2007) |
Boyle's spiritual and metaphysical musings intertwine neatly with his pop sensibility, imbuing this with an art-house intelligence without diluting its summer blockbuster appeal. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Jul 20, 2007
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Amu (2005) |
In Shonali Bose's tightly constructed debut feature (2005) a young Indian-American woman from Los Angeles returns to Delhi for the first time since childhood to visit her relatives. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted May 25, 2007
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Triad Election (2006) |
As in the first movie, To deftly references the Godfather trilogy, examining the moral equivocation and shifting alliances among various syndicate members. - Chicago Reader
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| Posted Apr 24, 2007
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