Jourdain Searles
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Late Bloomers (2023) |
All the pieces are there, but Late Bloomers ultimately fails to sell the film’s core relationship. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Mar 18, 2023
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Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023) |
The Vuvv are not unlike the wealthy class we already have now — using technological advancement as an excuse for the rapid destruction of empathy. It’s a blunt indictment of capitalism’s cruelty, which constantly asks us to pay for our freedom. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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Run Rabbit Run (2023) |
Ultimately, the film feels like a missed opportunity to explore the ways childhood never really leaves us, and how having children can force a mother to question who she really is. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 29, 2023
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The Starling Girl (2023) |
An insightful portrait of coming of age Christian. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 25, 2023
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Devotion (2022) |
A cut above the usual Hollywood biopic, allowing for a more contemplative portrait of a soft-spoken, courageous man who deserves to be remembered. - The Playlist
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| Posted Sep 28, 2022
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How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) |
"How to Blow Up a Pipeline” puts a spotlight on true heroism - The Playlist
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| Posted Sep 21, 2022
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Catherine Called Birdy (2022) |
Despite the inherent darkness of a girl being pushed to grow up faster than she would like, Dunham finds humor in the absurdity of gender roles. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 11, 2022
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Losing Ground (1982) |
Ignored and undistributed upon its debut in 1982, in the decades since, the film “Losing Ground” has slowly gained the recognition it deserves. - Hyperallergic
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| Posted Aug 22, 2022
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Apples (2020) |
Nikou blends subtle comedy and tragedy to create a quietly moving cinematic experience. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Jun 24, 2022
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The Power of the Dog (2021) |
A brutal meditation on masculinity. - Bitch Media
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| Posted Apr 01, 2022
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Emily the Criminal (2022) |
With her steely demeanor and large, intense eyes, Plaza is a force to be reckoned with a hidden brutality just waiting to be unleashed. - Little White Lies
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| Posted Jan 31, 2022
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Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. (2022) |
Despite its subject matter, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul refuses to preach to us, instead using comedy as a chisel, slowly chipping away at evangelical hypocrisy. - Little White Lies
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| Posted Jan 31, 2022
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Nanny (2022) |
It's the kind of film where the viewer loses sense of time itself, mesmerized by the beauty and melancholy of each shot. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 27, 2022
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Sharp Stick (2022) |
None of it adds up to a coherent thesis on love or sex, but it doesn't really need to. And there's something thrilling about Dunham's refusal to give her film a clear social intent. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 23, 2022
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Prism (2021) |
"Prism" doesn't provide us with easy answers, because it can't. This is something that we all must confront together, and that confrontation is on-going. - indieWire
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| Posted Oct 28, 2021
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Good Madam (2021) |
A reckoning both for Bass and for all the clueless white children who never thought about the Black women who served them at the expense of their own lives. - Hyperallergic
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| Posted Oct 18, 2021
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Earwig (2021) |
An odd but assured film about the relationships between children and their guardians. - Hyperallergic
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| Posted Oct 18, 2021
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Neptune Frost (2021) |
Neptune Frost utilizes everything the medium of film has to offer - visually, sonically, and emotionally. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 21, 2021
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The Novice (2021) |
A film this raw made with such a steady, assured hand only comes along once in a while. We should take notice. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 07, 2021
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Les Nôtres (2020) |
A coming-of-age drama noticeably lacking in a truthful adolescent perspective. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Jun 18, 2021
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Ammonite (2020) |
There's something so "complete" about Ammonite, with a resonant ending that is poetic in its refusal to give us what we want. - Little White Lies
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| Posted Mar 24, 2021
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Late Night (2019) |
All the while, Molly doesn't grow much at all. Her dream job simply falls in her lap, forgoing the possibly compelling journey that it would take to get it in the real world. - Bitch Media
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| Posted Mar 15, 2021
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The Scary of Sixty-First (2021) |
A shallow provocation. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Mar 04, 2021
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Test Pattern (2021) |
A dazzling, devastating feature debut. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 19, 2021
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The Pink Cloud (2021) |
It's strange how something written in 2017 and shot in 2019 can fully encapsulate so many of the feelings brought on by the pandemic of 2020. - Hyperallergic
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| Posted Feb 10, 2021
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Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) |
Rainey's relationship to the narrative is a great example of the way Black male writers portray Black mothers - watching from the sidelines, only intervening when needed. - Hyperallergic
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| Posted Feb 08, 2021
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We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021) |
A tender and intimate teenage journey. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 02, 2021
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Strawberry Mansion (2021) |
It's a candy-colored storybook that wants nothing more than to put you at ease. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 30, 2021
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Her Socialist Smile (2020) |
John Gianvito's new documentary Her Socialist Smile aims to change that image, giving us a full portrait of Keller as a dedicated scholar of socialism. - Fishnet Cinema
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| Posted Dec 24, 2020
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Shadow in the Cloud (2020) |
Moretz is incredible as Maude, using vulnerability as her greatest weapon. With a strikingly emotive face, a cathartic scream, and the steely eyes of a much older performer, Moretz gives the performance of her career. - Daily Grindhouse
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| Posted Dec 24, 2020
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Pieces of a Woman (2020) |
In the end, the only thing that Pieces of a Woman shows us is that Kirby is a tremendous actress and Martha was merely an exercise. - Bitch Media
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| Posted Dec 24, 2020
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Pink Skies Ahead (2020) |
A refreshing spin on Mumblecore tropes. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Oct 28, 2020
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Materna (2020) |
A thought-provoking debut. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Oct 14, 2020
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One Night in Miami (2020) |
One Night in Miami forgoes a traditional plot to create what is essentially a feature-length ideological debate regarding the future of Black people in America. - Thrillist
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| Posted Sep 19, 2020
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MLK/FBI (2020) |
Tough and to the point. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 15, 2020
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Holler (2020) |
Riegel seems to still be hung up on Winter's Bone, making a slavishly imitative film with few flourishes that allow it to stand on its own. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 11, 2020
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Vision Portraits (2019) |
There's a sense of poetry, light, and movement in Vision Portraits, a full sensual experience. - Fishnet Cinema
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| Posted Sep 11, 2020
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She Dies Tomorrow (2020) |
She Dies Tomorrow is a crowning achievement of cinematic self-reflection. - Fishnet Cinema
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| Posted Sep 11, 2020
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Black Is King (2020) |
Though produced in collaboration with creatives from around the globe, there's an unmistakable feeling that the film is meant more for Black Americans than the wider African diaspora. - Fishnet Cinema
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| Posted Sep 11, 2020
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Antebellum (2020) |
In the end, Antebellum is undone by a lack of empathy and emotion. It has no real perspective on the past and thus fails to make any real impact on the present. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Aug 31, 2020
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Shirley (2020) |
What they find is short-lived, but riveting to watch. Despite the absence of men, their relationship is far from equal; but their bond still feels like a profound meeting of the minds. - Bitch Media
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| Posted Apr 28, 2020
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Saint Frances (2019) |
Saint Frances feels like the beginning of a trend where lesbians of color can be portrayed as matriarchs of an average American family, with mundane and universal marital woes. - Autostraddle
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| Posted Mar 12, 2020
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Zola (2020) |
Zola, while fun, fails at interrogating why we consume these stories as entertainment without examining the gray areas that these events tend to live in. - okayplayer
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| Posted Feb 24, 2020
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Bad Hair (2020) |
Films like Bad Hair reveal how much Black men don't seem to know about Black women. - okayplayer
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| Posted Feb 11, 2020
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On the Record (2020) |
The film serves as a compelling reminder of what Black women lose when we put Black men before our own safety. - okayplayer
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| Posted Feb 04, 2020
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Little Women (2019) |
Moments like these are reminders of the urgency of the text, and of how rewarding it can be for a contemporary audience to re-examine the classic stories we read in our childhood. - Bitch Media
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| Posted Jan 16, 2020
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Queen & Slim (2019) |
Ultimately, Queen & Slim seems to bolster a belief-women should be quiet and support their men-that's both inherently conservative and especially frustrating given the nature of the lovers-on-the-run genre. - Bitch Media
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| Posted Dec 11, 2019
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Hustlers (2019) |
It's easy to get lost in the visceral joy that comes with watching women move this way. - Bitch Media
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| Posted Dec 03, 2019
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Spiral (2019) |
To see a story like this was a breath of fresh air. - Autostraddle
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| Posted Nov 13, 2019
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Joker (2019) |
It's a ripoff of the highest order, borrowing from greater filmmakers without the nuance or intelligence to make the entire enterprise worthwhile. - okayplayer
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| Posted Oct 07, 2019
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