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Nancy DeWolf Smith

Nancy DeWolf Smith's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
Publications:

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
The Sunset Limited (2011) 68% EDIT “The contest between the two men can be painful -- but is it meant to be laughable too?” – Wall Street Journal Aug 7, 2020 Full Review The Girl (2012) 70% EDIT “That director Julian Jarrold (with screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes) has filmed an original masterpiece that pays tribute to Hitchcock's talent and vision is a miracle worth celebrating.” – Wall Street Journal Aug 4, 2020 Full Review EDIT “As fun as it is to learn where these characters (and Ms. Ullman) came from, it's sad to see her pack their wigs back into a trunk as "Live and Exposed" ends. We can never get enough of the gentle skewering they provide.” – Wall Street Journal Aug 6, 2019 Full Review Grey Gardens (2009) 88% EDIT “How strange, though, and how marvelous, to discover that a documentary camera is not always a reliable recorder, that it takes more than that to show us people in the fullness of life.” – Wall Street Journal Jul 25, 2018 Full Review Too Big to Fail (2011) 77% EDIT “The ride is engrossing. And successful, in that it is bound to leave most viewers with a better grasp of the sequence of events that unfolded in 2008.” – Wall Street Journal Jun 25, 2018 Full Review Recount (2008) 78% EDIT “What's in it for viewers just looking for a good time? Since this is only a movie, with imagined dialogue and Hollywood stars, it must pass the entertainment test. Mostly, it does.” – Wall Street Journal Jun 13, 2018 Full Review Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015) 96% EDIT “Pretension is always with us, but the documentary's main effect will surely be to make you want to see Hitchcock's films (including the marvel that is Marnie) all over again.” – Wall Street Journal Aug 8, 2016 Full Review Looking: The Movie (2016) 89% EDIT “The movie makes anybody who watches it at least glimpse the deeper, disconcerting, questions.” – Wall Street Journal Jul 22, 2016 Full Review Everything Is Copy (2015) 100% EDIT “Jacob Bernstein's documentary about his mother is thus a chance to linger over and re-enjoy Ms. Ephron's insights, which so often created happiness and then ended with her death at 71 from leukemia in 2012.” – Wall Street Journal Mar 18, 2016 Full Review A Very Murray Christmas (2015) 68% EDIT “A Very Murray Christmas, a combination surrealist nightmare and Perry Como yuletide extravaganza with the aesthetics of a late-'80s cable-access art show, has all the makings of a Christmas perennial.” – Wall Street Journal Dec 4, 2015 Full Review Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief (2015) 95% EDIT “Whether you come away seeing Scientology as a cult that ensnares vulnerable people or as a faith of self-empowerment, the film leaves a terrible taste of too much information. This must be its point, but take heed just the same.” – Wall Street Journal Apr 3, 2015 Full Review The Last Patrol (2014) EDIT “In an era when documentaries about soldiers tend to focus on their injuries or mental illness, The Last Patrol opens wide a different vista that is moving and beautiful -- and abundantly life affirming.” – Wall Street Journal Nov 6, 2014 Full Review The Newburgh Sting (2014) EDIT “All this is a lot more powerful in the film than it looks in writing here.” – Wall Street Journal Jul 18, 2014 Full Review The Normal Heart (2014) 94% EDIT “In a film directed by Ryan Murphy and with strong performances, including those by Mr. Ruffalo, Ms. Roberts, Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons and Alfred Molina, Mr. Mantello's anguished lament may be the most haunting.” – Wall Street Journal May 23, 2014 Full Review Six by Sondheim (2013) 100% EDIT “Despite the music in James Lapine's documentary, Six By Sondheim, it is archival clips of Mr. Sondheim describing how he writes that make the film a treasure.” – Wall Street Journal Dec 6, 2013 Full Review Killing Kennedy (2013) 56% EDIT “Killing Kennedy is subversive in a great way. The more the pathology of Oswald is developed...the more it resembles what propels many conspiracy theorists.” – Wall Street Journal Nov 12, 2013 Full Review Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story (2013) 63% EDIT “There are some wonderful moments in this film by Barry Avrich.” – Wall Street Journal Nov 8, 2013 Full Review Treasure Island (2012) 56% EDIT “Stands out as a gem - although some plot changes for the sake of agitprop make it a flawed one.” – Wall Street Journal Aug 14, 2013 Full Review Behind the Candelabra (2013) 94% EDIT “The glitter and kitsch, and jaw-dropping performances by Michael Douglas as the middle-age Liberace and Matt Damon as his much younger boy-toy Scott Thorson, make this a wild ride without compare.” – Wall Street Journal May 24, 2013 Full Review Orchestra of Exiles (2012) 80% EDIT “It is a moving tale -- especially because so many of the people interviewed are descendants of the violinists, French horn players, pianists and others who escaped Nazi Germany and other countries of prewar Europe.” – Wall Street Journal Apr 15, 2013 Full Review EDIT “The gorgeous scenery around the silvery lake, alpine yet not in a welcoming way, makes all the pools of psychic pain seem even blacker.” – Wall Street Journal Mar 22, 2013 Full Review Alice (2010) 22% EDIT “Despite these diversions and whiz-bang special effects, the movie drags at times.” – Wall Street Journal Mar 8, 2013 Full Review The Central Park Effect (2012) 100% EDIT “Bird watchers will find affirmation and even explanation for their avocation. People who can't tell a towhee from a titmouse will still wonder at the beauty of it all.” – Wall Street Journal Jan 9, 2013 Full Review Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis (2012) 67% EDIT “Strong too is a desire to praise him by fellow comedians, who may have regarded the making of this film as a chance to pay tribute while the object of their admiration was fully able to appreciate it.” – Wall Street Journal Aug 13, 2012 Full Review Game Change (2012) 67% EDIT “The theme of women who are unobjectionable (and even sexy) until they have real power, at which point they are labeled mentally unstable and must be shut down, isn't new.” – Wall Street Journal Aug 3, 2012 Full Review
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