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Marjorie Baumgarten
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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All That Breathes (2022) |
All That Breathes instills admiration and wonder while also subtly implicating human beings in a responsibility for the upkeep and furtherance of life. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 30, 2023
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Joy Ride (2023) |
Despite the narrative through line being somewhat disjointed, the individual sequences shine like comedic jewels that further cement the characters’ relationships. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes (2023) |
The film uses a vast array of archival footage and interviews to bring the recent past to life, often building sections into pulsating impressions that reflect its subject and an overall musicality. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Infinity Pool (2023) |
Infinity Pool is a film that does not shrink from its transgressions. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 26, 2023
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Empire of Light (2022) |
We may come to Empire of Light like moths to a flame but, ultimately, the film’s glow lacks incandescence. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 08, 2022
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The Fabelmans (2022) |
Inevitably a self-indulgent yet delightful origin story, - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 23, 2022
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Bones and All (2022) |
Dark and bloody, definitely; but also, at times, sweet and hopeful. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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Holy Spider (2022) |
A very effective thriller. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 10, 2022
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Armageddon Time (2022) |
What it lacks in explicit moral structure the film more than makes up for in historic sensibility. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 03, 2022
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Tár (2022) |
As masterful as the character it portrays, TÁR is a textured, finely calibrated, stunningly composed, and thoroughly contemporary study. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Oct 20, 2022
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Triangle of Sadness (2022) |
Instead of skipping lightly over rough seas, Triangle of Sadness bobs to shore like a floating sarcophagus. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Oct 13, 2022
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Carmen (2022) |
The final warm embrace of the people who had previously scorned Carmen wraps the film in a feel-good ending that rewards the viewer’s concern for her general welfare and erases the sting of the repressive and patriarchal customs. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Sep 22, 2022
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The Silent Twins (2022) |
The twins’ baffling but compelling story is one that touches on artistic impulses, racial division, female identity, idiopathic psychology, the inadequacies of our educational and psychiatric institutions, and so much more. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Sep 15, 2022
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Fanny: The Right to Rock (2021) |
The movie serves as an eye-opening look into one of the most important bands of whom too few people have heard...Heavily punctuated with performance clips, the film gives the kind of visual and aural testimony that mere history books cannot. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jun 09, 2022
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Happening (2021) |
A smart, engaging, and well-made film. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted May 12, 2022
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Infinite Storm (2022) |
The details of the story are emotionally draining, but that sensation derives mostly from the situation rather than the characters. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 24, 2022
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I Love My Dad (2022) |
I Love My Dad finds the humor in the situation, mostly due to terrific performances... - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 16, 2022
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2022 Oscar Nominated Shorts - Live Action (2022) |
Viewers can be assured of a program that presents the best of the best. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 24, 2022
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The Worst Person in the World (2021) |
In the end, we learn enough about Julie to see that she is much like us, yet never enough to be fully known. Life will always be a relentless process of becoming. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 17, 2022
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Thousand Pieces of Gold (1990) |
1000 Pieces of Gold is a small story about real people and situations that has a genuineness and honesty but lacks dramatic tension. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 15, 2022
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Parallel Mothers (2021) |
Melodrama mixes with light-hearted touches, moral dilemmas, and historical reckoning in Almodóvar's latest. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 20, 2022
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Searching for Paradise (2002) |
Relative newcomer Pratt delivers a confident performance in this film bolstered by an array of good work. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Oct 20, 2021
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Nomadland (2020) |
McDormand turns Fern into a great protagonist, but she lacks narrative direction. By the end, Nomadland frustratingly wanders off the edge of the map. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 18, 2021
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American Job (1996) |
Director Chris Smith manages to situate the film within a mixture of tones -- it is simultaneously deadpan, stark, weird, realistic, provocative, and funny. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 02, 2021
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The Reason I Jump (2020) |
The Reason I Jump will be revelatory for viewers who know little about the subject, and affirmative for caregivers and parents of children on the autism spectrum. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 12, 2021
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Farewell Amor (2020) |
In her feature film debut, writer/director Msangi reveals the maturity of her storytelling talent and her strong aptitude for eliciting terrific performances from her actors. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 12, 2020
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Sunset (2018) |
Stripped of life-and-death consequences, Sunset never convinces us that its protagonist can sustain such unrelenting scrutiny. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 02, 2020
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Stardust (2020) |
Even though Stardust is not coated in gossamer, the film still has some glittery moments. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 16, 2020
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Kárhozat, (Damnation) (1988) |
Filmed in black & white during the waning days of the Soviet socialist occupation, Damnation is infused with a gloomy fatalism. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 12, 2020
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Let Him Go (2020) |
The performances in Let Him Go are engrossing (even if the characters are a bit underdeveloped), but the film's gear change between mournfulness and madness is stuck in idle. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 05, 2020
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On the Rocks (2020) |
The story is slight, but in Coppola's hands the film is infused with small moments that provide gateways to deeper emotions. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Oct 02, 2020
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The Way I See It (2020) |
Photographers, like writers, do not usually make the best film subjects. Director Dawn Porter, who also directed John Lewis: Good Trouble, doesn't find a good way around this. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Sep 25, 2020
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Our Time Machine (2019) |
Maleonn somehow finds an anchor of optimism amidst the situation, despite his father's steady memory decline. That, too, is part of this film's gift. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Sep 10, 2020
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(undefined) |
The seamless performances and the story's quirky progression make King of the Ants an intriguing indie effort. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Aug 21, 2020
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Desert One (2019) |
Desert One does accomplish in shining a light on this epic national failure is to celebrate the American can-do spirit and a noble willingness to go down trying. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Aug 20, 2020
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The Last Tree (2019) |
Rich with technical strategies that enhance our view into Femi's emotions, The Last Tree uses slow-motion, diffused sound, and many Spike Lee-like camera shots to make the story extremely personal and unique. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jul 16, 2020
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The Truth (2019) |
While the performances are total delights, there remains the nagging feeling that Kore-eda is not working at his peak. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jul 02, 2020
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Losing Ground (1982) |
Part of the film's originality lies in its portrayal of black middle-class artists and academics. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jun 06, 2020
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Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives (1993) |
Their oral recollections are informative, absorbing, funny and insightful and open the curtain for a closer look at hidden aspects of lesbian cultural history. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted May 21, 2020
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Greed (2019) |
Despite the bright spots of humor provided by the film's game actors, Greed chintzes on unexpected barbs. Its satire hits every target but the film never aims at anything that doesn't already have a giant target on its back. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 05, 2020
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Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band (2019) |
In most ways, the film is a conventional rock doc, a nostalgic and valorizing chronicle of a group's rise and fall. The Band is one group that deserves the deep dive. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 05, 2020
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Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) |
What the film excels at, however, is the anticipatory desire. It builds slowly, concluding with a stunning sequence that is all breathless remembrance and self-satisfaction that is both wordless and impalpable - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 20, 2020
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The Assistant (2019) |
Making her feature debut after directing a couple of documentaries, Kitty Green sustains the story's pressure-cooker feel throughout. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 13, 2020
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Becoming Leslie (2019) |
Like most portraits of icons, Becoming Leslie dips into hagiography, although the film does not seem as worshipful as it is surface-deep. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 06, 2020
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Just Mercy (2019) |
Cretton's filmmaking technique is straightforward, but his lack of frills allows the viewer to soak in the emotions of every situation. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 09, 2020
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Bombshell (2019) |
Bombshell's ultimate punch lands more like a spectacular bottle rocket than a scorching Molotov cocktail. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 19, 2019
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Queen & Slim (2019) |
Queen & Slim artfully weaves together a lovers-on-the-lam crime story with very trenchant Black Lives Matter thematic content. It is a perfect movie for our times. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 27, 2019
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Marriage Story (2019) |
[T]he keen observations and sharp wit of Marriage Story are likely to wed the audience to the film until death do us part. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 27, 2019
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The Report (2019) |
[Scott Z.] Burns seems better positioned than most to straddle this intrinsic paradox concerning fact-based, politically charged dramas. However, in favoring datelines and details over personalities and concision, Burns does his film few favors. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 14, 2019
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Motherless Brooklyn (2019) |
Motherless Brooklyn may have no solid direction home, but it indeed walks the walk of a movie that knows the way. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Oct 31, 2019
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