Maggie Lee
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Ride or Die (2021) |
[Has a] liberating, inexhaustible energy. - Variety
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| Posted Apr 15, 2021
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The Dark and the Wicked (2020) |
[Bertino's] evocation of a familiar, domestic world mysteriously sliding into chaos feels all the more blood-curdling because the protagonists' distress and helplessness are emotionally relatable. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 18, 2020
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Under the Open Sky (2020) |
In his portrayal of a flawed hero who wears his heart on his sleeve, Yakusho is a towering presence delivering his career-best performance. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 16, 2020
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The Eight Hundred (2020) |
Plunges audiences into both the intimacy and magnitude of brutal war spectacle while immersing them in a stunningly mounted period canvas. - Variety
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| Posted Aug 26, 2020
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Special Actors (2019) |
A daffy ensemble trickster comedy with a few "gotcha" twists. - Variety
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| Posted Aug 11, 2020
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I WeirDO (2020) |
The age-old message that love ails without change and tolerance is given such a fresh spin, it attests to the creativity and increased sophistication of Taiwan's new generation of filmmakers. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 29, 2020
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Romance Doll (2020) |
Although its underlying attitudes about female sexuality might be problematic for female and feminist viewers, its suggestive subject matter (handled without offensive kinkiness) will set many an imaginative mind sprinting. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 15, 2020
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Lupin III: The First (2019) |
This lavish, technically polished animated caper featuring the beloved gentleman thief of Japanese manga delivers high-octane entertainment but plays safe with the canon. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 06, 2020
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On-Gaku: Our Sound (2019) |
"On-Gaku: Our Sound," an oddball music comedy directed by Kenji Iwaisawa, upends all that is typical of Japanese animation. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 26, 2020
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Haunters (2010) |
Kim Min-seok's Haunters has more loose strands and gaping holes than an old fishing net. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 08, 2020
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Steel Rain (2017) |
Whips up the sort of worst-case-scenario, anti-Communist hysteria that's a hilarious throwback to the Cold War propaganda of 1970s cloak-and-dagger movies. - Variety
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| Posted Oct 27, 2019
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Chasuke's Journey (2015) |
Sabu might have branched out from his crime thrillers in his previous four films, but he still hasn't lost his flair for kinetic action. - Variety
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| Posted May 16, 2019
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Default (2018) |
Manages to make currency crashes and the Asian Financial Crisis a juicy subject onscreen. - Variety
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| Posted Dec 25, 2018
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Shoplifters (2018) |
At once charming and heart-wrenching, this exquisitely performed film will steal the hearts of both art-house and mainstream audiences. - Variety
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| Posted Dec 21, 2018
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The Shaman Sorceress (2018) |
The finished product doesn't disappoint and should cast its spell on specialist anime fans, though the protagonists' fates may be too cruel to target young or mainstream audiences. - Variety
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| Posted Oct 07, 2018
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Baby (2016) |
Writer-director Liu Jie's vérité style captures China's new working-class milieu, imbuing the gripping plot turns with gritty authenticity. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 10, 2018
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Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings (2018) |
The Hong Kong genre maestro's childlike imagination and technical inventiveness seems inexhaustible. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 26, 2018
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The Pluto Moment (2018) |
This deceptively simple yet quietly revelatory drama features engaging characters and offers wryly ironic comments on the unpredictable nature of film production. - Variety
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| Posted May 23, 2018
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Manto (2018) |
"Manto" is elegant and old school, epic without losing sight of the personal. - Variety
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| Posted May 19, 2018
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Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018) |
Comes up short in substance. - Variety
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| Posted May 19, 2018
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Ten Years Thailand (2018) |
A quartet of Thai directors offer a dystopian vision of their nation, steeped in a mood of collective paralysis. - Variety
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| Posted May 17, 2018
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The Spy Gone North (2018) |
This well-crafted work deserves to be seen for its thorough account of intricate workings of secret service and political skullduggery. - Variety
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| Posted May 17, 2018
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Sir (2018) |
A Cinderella tale of sorts, the film nonetheless gains gravity for its insight into Indian social rigidities that tether both impoverished villagers and well-heeled urbanites. - Variety
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| Posted May 17, 2018
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Ugly (2014) |
Kashyap's brilliant five-hour-plus epic is a hard act to follow, and this more pedestrian outing may well disappoint some critics. Still, as genre films go, it's punchy enough to enjoy a charmed life on the fest circuit. - Variety
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| Posted May 15, 2018
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Asako I & II (2018) |
Hamaguchi extols his source for a compelling representation of love as a mystic experience. However, what gets transferred to the screen becomes more like banal indecision. - Variety
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| Posted May 15, 2018
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Ash Is Purest White (2018) |
At 141 minutes, the work has its intellectually ponderous moments but is ultimately saved by Jia's muse and wife, Zhao Tao, who surpasses herself in a role of mesmerizing complexity. - Variety
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| Posted May 12, 2018
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Inuyashiki (2018) |
Sato...foregrounds interpersonal relationships and human emotion over action and effects. - Variety
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| Posted May 01, 2018
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Detective Chinatown 2 (2018) |
Though less of a brainteaser than the original film, director-writer Chen Sicheng infuses Chinese color into a plot that solves crimes by using feng shui as clues, making things accessible and intriguing to local and international audiences alike. - Variety
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| Posted Mar 08, 2018
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Operation Red Sea (2018) |
Neither the story nor characters have any moral ambiguity or psychological shadings. - Variety
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| Posted Mar 03, 2018
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Ramen Shop (2018) |
More comfort food than haute cuisine. - Variety
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| Posted Feb 22, 2018
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1987: When the Day Comes (2017) |
A compelling depiction of how brave individuals from all walks of life mobilized a whole nation to bring a recalcitrant dictator and his henchmen to their knees. - Variety
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| Posted Jan 12, 2018
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Legend of the Demon Cat (2017) |
This stunning blockbuster shows that a superior original source, vaunting artistic ambition and a $170 million budget can turn a potboiler supernatural whodunit into something of ravishing beauty. - Variety
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| Posted Jan 05, 2018
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Bleeding Steel (2017) |
Features all the zesty fights, slick effects and goofy slapstick one expects from a Jackie Chan family movie ... though the film's corny cyberpunk pastiche appeals exclusively to kids. - Variety
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| Posted Jan 01, 2018
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The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017) |
As with so many of Tsui's works, subplots and characters multiply out of control after the first act. - Variety
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| Posted Dec 18, 2017
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Gurgaon (2017) |
What's more interesting is his insight into how extreme gender inequality is in Indian society. The film's moody noir sheen may help it travel beyond the domestic market, where it stands small chance against mainstream entertainment. - Variety
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| Posted Dec 15, 2017
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Monsoon Shootout (2013) |
The dark, tempestuous mise-en-scene serves to underscore the story's moral confusion. American-born Indian composer-singer Gingger Shankar's tensile score moves fluidly between heart-pounding and lyrical. - Variety
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| Posted Dec 14, 2017
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Filmistaan (2012) |
Although the film wears its utopian ideals on its sleeve, helmer Nitin Kakkar leavens the political content with an absurdist sense of humor and a heartwarming turn of events - Variety
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| Posted Dec 11, 2017
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End of Summer (2017) |
Huang Yimei's predictable screenplay soft-pedals its social and emotional elements, making "Summer" nothing more than a pleasant diversion. - Variety
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| Posted Nov 01, 2017
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Dark Is the Night (2017) |
The story draws viewers in by laying out an intricate web of crime that holds Philippine society in a tight grip. - Variety
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| Posted Oct 24, 2017
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The Great Buddha+ (2017) |
This ballad of sad losers mixed with satire on parochial politics is convulsively funny yet uncompromisingly bleak, bridging art with entertainment. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 29, 2017
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The Seen and Unseen (2017) |
A haunting and hypnotic interpretation of the child subconscious rooted in Balinese arts and culture. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 22, 2017
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Village Rockstars (2017) |
Pluckily optimistic and unsentimental to a fault, writer-director Rima Das' second film is a tonic to third world poverty porn. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 14, 2017
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Samui Song (2017) |
Mystery and danger percolate in "Samui Song" all the way till the elliptical ending, which leaves audiences with a sense of lingering disquiet. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 10, 2017
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Youth (2017) |
The film serves as a paean to idealism and endurance, yet the word "heart-breaking" comes to mind scene after scene. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 09, 2017
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Angels Wear White (2017) |
A brave and hard-hitting drama that provides a social context for violence against women. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 07, 2017
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A Taxi Driver (2017) |
An entertaining journey into a tragic and violent chapter of Korean modern history. - Variety
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| Posted Aug 16, 2017
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Love and Goodbye and Hawaii (Koi to sayonara to Hawai) (2017) |
[Love and Goodbye and Hawaii] takes the timeworn premise "Can ex-lovers still be friends?" and fills it up with a delectable sundae of character quirks, deadpan dialogue and gently heart-tugging wistfulness. - Variety
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| Posted Aug 01, 2017
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Doob: No Bed of Roses (2017) |
The screenplay is dotted with tantalizing ellipses at key points when others might have dialed up the melodrama. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 28, 2017
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Bad Genius (2017) |
Offers subtle yet stinging insight into Thailand's class inequalities and corrupt school system. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 02, 2017
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The Villainess (2017) |
"The Villainess" ... succeeds in being one-of-a-kind for its delirious action choreography and overall narrative dementia. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 02, 2017
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