Lisa Rosman
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Fading Gigolo (2013) |
Fading Gigolo, John Turturro's fifth directorial effort, is a wonderful film. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Noah (2014) |
Really, Noah works so well because it is such a personal take on this biblical story. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Divergent (2014) |
[Divergent] is faithful enough to the book -- but doesn't work well unto itself. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Hateship Loveship (2013) |
The film Hateship Loveship is a study in earnestness. To some degree that is a function of our times. - Signature
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| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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God's Pocket (2014) |
So long as Slattery trains his lens on the bars and back rooms of this salty-dog slum, this film is great fun, if an acquired taste. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Palo Alto (2013) |
The real headline is Coppola herself, though. I may not love Palo Alto but its substance and style are singular enough that I am keen to see what she does next. - Signature
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| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Maleficent (2014) |
As Maleficent dawdles along, it not only veers from Disney's traditional values but also - alas, alack - from the studio's recent foray into girl power. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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The Fault in Our Stars (2014) |
It's safe to declare the adaptation of the popular young adult novel a wild success. - Signature
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| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Snowpiercer (2013) |
Snowpiercer is a fantastic dumb movie for smart people. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Venus in Fur (2013) |
The ideological messages may continue to shift beneath our feet long after we leave the theater but the solidity of the impact of Venus in Fur will be what sticks. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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The Congress (2013) |
In these hyper-dissociative times, [The Congress] may be just what the doctor ordered. - Signature
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| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger (2014) |
For those interested in crime procedurals, Whitey offers a compelling - and admirably comprehensive - look at the fraught dynamics within and between federal agencies. - Signature
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| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Life Itself (2014) |
This is an extraordinary biopic not just because it is about an extraordinary life but because it advocates living - and dying - with candor and grace. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Mood Indigo (2013) |
These surfaces, however splendid, are just surfaces, and we fuse no emotional connection to these characters or this story, not even as an allegory. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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If I Stay (2014) |
For long stretches, [If I Stay] seems like a TV pilot for a WB show that, rightfully, did not get picked up. - Signature
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| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Magic in the Moonlight (2014) |
Even ignoring the elephant on the screen that is male privilege, the ever-widening age gap between men and their female costars makes for less interesting films. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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The Giver (2014) |
This movie adaption does not live up to the book. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Love Is Strange (2014) |
Love Is Strange is an extraordinary achievement in the purest sense of the word extraordinary, for it transcends the ordinary by luxuriating in it with wonderfully oddball rhythms. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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The Notebook (2013) |
Notebook frames the evil revealed by the region's Nazi Occupation as the most treacherous of fairy tales: one that realizes our childhood fear that there really are no trustworthy grownups. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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The Two Faces of January (2014) |
Still, there's no shortage of visual pleasures to distract us from the existential boredom of a sinking ship. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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Wetlands (2013) |
This story is entirely Helen's, and there has never been a character like her in the history of film or literature. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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The Drop (2014) |
Happily, The Drop packs an emotional wallop. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 04, 2017
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This Is Where I Leave You (2014) |
Somewhere in its two hours, This Is Where I Leave You morphs into the well-considered, emotionally resonant fare that we should still expect from our multiplexes. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Tracks (2013) |
Tracks is an invitation rarely proffered by a modern film: one that asks us to consider what we really need. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959) |
Gorgeous and yearning, Hiroshima Mon Amour offers a still-modern thesis: Memory, like love, is a commodity that no one fully possesses. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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St. Vincent (2014) |
As much as St. Vincent is a crowd-pleaser with real subtlety, a sympathetic portrayal of working-class people, and a legitimately tender heart, it may go under the radar, too. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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White Bird in a Blizzard (2014) |
Events are ultimately spelled out in a way that betrays a novel one would have thought was not good enough to be betrayed. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Low Down (2014) |
As a biopic, though, [Low Down] is both too much and too little. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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The Theory of Everything (2014) |
Even in her own account, Jane Hawking is not a compelling woman. This does not make her unimportant - just not an ideal subject for a feature-length film. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Horns (2013) |
No one's going to pretend that Horns lives up to its source material, or even achieves any tonal consistency. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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The Homesman (2014) |
Clear-eyed but never discompassionate, The Homesman collects uneasy truths that are all too often left by the wayside of our nation's road to success. - Signature
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| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (2014) |
[Mockingjay Part 1] is quite good - if also the darkest and least accommodating in the series so far. - Signature
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| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Wild (2014) |
Wild is doggedly interior, as if to remind us that we never can see anything so long as we're blinded by the ghosts of our pasts. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Still Alice (2014) |
What works beyond a shadow of a doubt is Julianne Moore herself. For a long time now, she has demonstrated an uncanny range and power. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Inherent Vice (2014) |
This affable paean to absurdism will be revered in years to come no matter what hostility it engenders now. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Unbroken (2014) |
Unbroken is by far Angelina Jolie's strongest directorial effort. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Two Days One Night (2014) |
There are few pleasures in contemporary cinema comparable to those of watching Marion Cotillard. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Selma (2014) |
As protests continue to erupt, it becomes ever more apparent that we need models of effective change. Selma fits that bill stirringly. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Blackhat (2015) |
I'd never suggest [Blackhat] is a perfect movie - but there's a significant amount of odd, stirring stuff here. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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The Humbling (2014) |
[The Humbling] is too impolitic to be celebrated in art-house theaters and too esoteric to be featured in today's sequel-driven multiplexes. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Cake (2014) |
Cake is a particular disappointment, though the blame cannot entirely be assigned to Jennifer Aniston. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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The Last Five Years (2014) |
The Last Five Years is Anna Kendrick's tour de force, and she sings her heart out, nearly breaking ours in the process. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Cinderella (2015) |
We shall have this good, slightly bland Cinderella. Sometimes that's more than enough. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015) |
Insurgent, the second film in what's now officially known as The Divergent Series, is much better than its predecessor. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Cymbeline (2014) |
Haunting and richly layered, tis such stuff as dreams are made on. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2017
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Serena (2014) |
As a film, [Serena] translates into a melodrama that makes little sense and fewer friends. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2017
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Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief (2015) |
The picture it manages to assemble packs such a punch that it gives new meaning to "going clear." Jaw-dropping, indeed. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2017
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White God (2014) |
White God may be about the adventures of a dog and a young girl, but it's far from a Disney tooth-decayer. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2017
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Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) |
Though it's a respectable two hours, I was disappointed when this film quietly shuttered to a stop. I could have floated on it forever. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2017
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Effie Gray (2014) |
Everything about this potentially vibrant period drama is a washed-out watercolor. - Signature
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2017
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