Max Weiss
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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You Hurt My Feelings (2023) |
It’s wonderful to watch these great actors living out this minor (to us), but major (to them) crisis. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jun 02, 2023
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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023) |
Indeed, the film’s gentleness, its goodness, feels like a bit like a tonic. Fifty-three years after its publication, they finally made a film out of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. And not a moment too soon. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Apr 27, 2023
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Air (2023) |
Only Affleck and Damon could turn this tale of corporate triumph into a scrappy underdog story. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Apr 03, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) |
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was a blast. Not sure if hardcore D&D Heads are going to love it, but I sure as heck did. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Mar 30, 2023
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I Got a Monster (2023) |
The film leaves room for at least a shred of optimism. As long as there are people willing to work toward justice, all hope is not lost. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Mar 09, 2023
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Cocaine Bear (2023) |
The film is well made, efficient, clever, and some of its funny lines will have you, um, snorting. But in the end, it’s still about a bear on a coke binge. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Close (2022) |
Out of the gate, I didn’t really buy this friendship: It seemed too idealized and overly aestheticized. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin (2023) |
I can mildly recommend A Knock at the Cabin as a slick, shallow crowd pleaser, but it feels like a wasted opportunity. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Feb 02, 2023
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Living (2022) |
The quietly powerful Living defies expectations at every turn. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jan 26, 2023
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Babylon (2022) |
I admire Chazelle’s ambition. He swings for the fences here -- and he’s obviously an enormously gifted director. But to me, this is a swing and a miss. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Dec 22, 2022
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Empire of Light (2022) |
Empire of Light is so dewy and sentimental, it’s practically moist. What’s more, it’s almost desperate to be the kind of film that wins awards. A shame, because it wastes an excellent Colman performance. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Dec 16, 2022
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The Menu (2022) |
Foodie culture is slayed, literally, in this expert black comedy. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Nov 30, 2022
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The Fabelmans (2022) |
The Fabelmans is beautiful, involving, often spellbinding. Spielberg has now demonstrated that he can look inward, as well as outward, and still command every frame. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Nov 30, 2022
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
The film toggles masterfully between comedy and tragedy; realism and fable. It manages to be both of the moment and completely timeless. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Nov 18, 2022
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Armageddon Time (2022) |
The real nourishment comes from unflinching honesty, served with compassion, insight, and a bit of sadness. In that sense, Armageddon Time is a full meal. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Nov 12, 2022
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Tár (2022) |
Tár had me in its clutches from the overture. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Oct 20, 2022
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Bros (2022) |
I want to be clear about something -- Bros is radical in its own way and a cultural breakthrough. It’s also just a damn good rom-com. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Sep 30, 2022
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Don't Worry Darling (2022) |
That said, while the film isn’t adding anything new to the conversation about gender imbalance in our society, it’s a conversation we need to keep having... again... and again... and again. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Sep 23, 2022
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Nope (2022) |
Nope grapples with enough issues of representation, voyeurism, exploitation, and spectacle to fill up 10 philosophy classes. Which is not to say it’s not just a straight-up thrilling and hilariously unhinged horror/sci-fi. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jul 22, 2022
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Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) |
If you’re allergic to this sort of thing it all sounds insufferable. But the film is very good at what it does -- gorgeous to look at and put together with manifest affection and care by director Anthony Fabian and crew. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jul 14, 2022
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Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) |
In the hands of Slate and her director and creative partner Dean Fleischer-Camp, it’s charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and surprisingly poignant. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jul 01, 2022
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Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022) |
Sophie Hyde’s [film is] delightful -- and sneakily radical. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jun 23, 2022
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Elvis (2022) |
Elvis is too long, too melodramatic, too everything. But it’s also often wildly entertaining. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jun 16, 2022
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Hit the Road (2021) |
Panah Panahi’s debut feature is remarkably assured—tender, funny, artfully shot, and wise. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jun 06, 2022
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Sirens (2022) |
Lilas is a fascinating figure, straight out of a work of fiction. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jun 06, 2022
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Neptune Frost (2021) |
The film Neptune Frost is best enjoyed as a thoroughly immersive experience. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jun 06, 2022
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Fire of Love (2022) |
Directed with care, curiosity, and insight by Sara Dosa. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jun 06, 2022
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Top Gun: Maverick (2022) |
All in all, I have to hand it to Cruise, director Joseph Kosinksi, and all the folks behind Top Gun: Maverick. They channeled ’80s nostalgia into a clever, exciting, and fun package that reminds us why we loved those cheesy movies to begin with. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted May 25, 2022
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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) |
There’s lots to recommend about Everything Everywhere All at Once, but the film’s frenetic busy-ness wore me down. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Apr 21, 2022
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Deep Water (2022) |
In some ways, I’m happy to have even a simulacrum of a movie for grownups. But I’ve been waiting 20 years for the new Adrian Lyne to drop, as it were. This wasn’t worth the wait. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Mar 25, 2022
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Cyrano (2021) |
This Cyrano is a beautiful bummer. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Mar 03, 2022
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Marry Me (2022) |
Look, Marry Me is no Notting Hill, the ne plus ultra of “regular schmo dates celebrity” movies. But it gets the job done. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Feb 18, 2022
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Parallel Mothers (2021) |
There are more twists and turns in Parallel Mothers that I won't disclose but the film is mesmerizing. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jan 14, 2022
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Don't Look Up (2021) |
Ultimately, Don't Look Up is more than just mean-spirited and smug. It's aggressively those things -- that is, until that sentimental coda. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jan 06, 2022
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Being the Ricardos (2021) |
It's fun -- particularly to see such accomplished actors embodying the roles. But it feels shallow and showy. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Dec 17, 2021
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House of Gucci (2021) |
It gave me everything I needed -- and then some. I wanted the film to be over-the-top, messy, silly, involving, gorgeous, stylish -- and it's all those things. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Dec 10, 2021
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King Richard (2021) |
This is a dream role for Will Smith and he attacks it with gusto. Williams is a larger-than-life character who just happens to be real, and Smith embodies his underdog, combative, indefatigable spirit to perfection. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Dec 10, 2021
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Belfast (2021) |
Belfast is Branagh's love letter to his family, his neighborhood, a way of life that doesn't exist any longer. It's neither complex nor rigorous -- nostalgia rarely is -- but it does leave a lump in the throat. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Nov 18, 2021
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Spencer (2021) |
There is an adult's bitterness and knowingness that gives her Diana more gravitas than Stewart's previous characters. What's more, especially in some of Diana's more iconic outfits (she had many), she really does look like her. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Nov 12, 2021
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The French Dispatch (2021) |
It's hard to describe how ingenious, creative, and bold this work is. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Oct 28, 2021
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Dune (2021) |
Oover the course of its two hours and 35 minutes (!), the film won me over. Had part two been immediately available, I would've nuked another bag of popcorn, leaned back, and clicked play. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Oct 28, 2021
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The Many Saints of Newark (2021) |
All of this is done well enough (although the late '60s and early '70s costuming feels a bit exaggerated, too on the nose) but it's certainly not enough to elevate this film to the level of The Sopranos. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Oct 07, 2021
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I'm Your Man (2021) |
I'm Your Man is the mashup we never knew we needed-the sci-fi rom-com. It manages to be smart, witty, and, yes, even romantic, while exploring a love affair between an uptight archeologist and a handsome robot. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Oct 01, 2021
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The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) |
Most things I thought I knew about Tammy Faye Bakker were wrong. And I really enjoyed getting to know her. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Sep 23, 2021
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Queenpins (2021) |
Queenpins is mostly silly fun, and it zips along a nice clip. It made me LOL several times -- but considering the richness of the source material, it's a bit disappointing that it never made me think. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Sep 16, 2021
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Annette (2021) |
Clearly Annette is aiming for something surreal, thought-provoking, sexually intense, and tantalizingly dangerous. But I don't think it really has anything interesting to say at all. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Aug 06, 2021
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The Sparks Brothers (2021) |
The Sparks Brothers film is smart, funny, infectiously weird, a little geeky, a little too long, a little niche, and consistently entertaining. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jul 30, 2021
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Shiva Baby (2020) |
Shiva Baby is an extremely exaggerated version of a certain reality, which is precisely why it's so damn funny. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jul 16, 2021
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Zola (2020) |
The film is a ride -- both in the literal and metaphorical sense. I never wanted to get off. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jul 02, 2021
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Luca (2021) |
Luca is a sweet, gentle, sun-kissed film, with gentle rhythms and a generous spirit. - Baltimore Magazine
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| Posted Jun 25, 2021
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