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Nicolas Rapold
Nicolas Rapold's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
Biography:
Nicolas Rapold is a writer and editor based in New York City. His work can be found in The New York Times, Sight & Sound, Artforum, and other publications. He runs the film podcast The Last Thing I Saw. Find him on Twitter, @NicolasRapold, and Substack.
Publications:
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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From Ground Zero (2024) |
The most moving entry might be Etimad Washah’s “Taxi Wanissa,” which begins as the story of a cart driver and a donkey. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Jan 03, 2025
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It's Not Me (2024) |
Leos Carax’s “It’s Not Me” is pure cinema as it dances through its dense 42 minutes.
- New York Times
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| Posted Dec 13, 2024
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Unstoppable (2024) |
William Goldenberg’s feature directing debut comes to life more often as a conventional family drama than as a conventional sports movie. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Dec 09, 2024
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Porcelain War (2024) |
As the filmmakers repeatedly tie an inspirational bow on art and beauty, the good intentions yield cold comfort. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Nov 21, 2024
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Youth (Hard Times) (2024) |
Shot in a present-tense vérité style, it stitches together micro-stories into a larger narrative in which negotiation can’t undo exploitation. Some tales are mundane but maddening... - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Nov 05, 2024
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My Name is Alfred Hitchcock (2022) |
The impressionist Alistair McGowan reproduces Hitchcock’s plummy drawl. But the insights belong to Cousins, a world-class close reader known for his mellifluous journeys through film history and cinephilia. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Oct 29, 2024
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Nocturnes (2024) |
Dutta and Srinivasan’s understated approach shows research and nature in action without pretending to make a forest give up its secrets. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Oct 17, 2024
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Blink (2024) |
Life comes at you fast, after all, and “Blink” reminds us to look at each day as if it might be the last. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Oct 03, 2024
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Rez Ball (2024) |
The movie tends to race through actual game play — though the actors at least can handle the ball — and so the film’s strength lies more in the players’ easy rapport and the New Mexico location shooting. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Sep 27, 2024
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Friendship (2024) |
Robinson’s foot-in-mouth persona is presented with perfect comic timing and written with inventive absurdism, but this is also a satirical portrait of suburban humiliations and swaggering beta males that surpasses many po-faced dramas on that subject. - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Sep 12, 2024
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Relay (2024) |
Director David Mackenzie brilliantly turns the streets and apartments of New York into a workaday battleground... - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Sep 12, 2024
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Heretic (2024) |
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who also co-wrote A Quiet Place, preserve a riddling sense of dark mysteries rather than solely relying on gore. - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Sep 12, 2024
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On Swift Horses (2024) |
The handsome stars and tony production values of On Swift Horses are put in the service of something that at times can feel even rarer — ordinary emotional truths. - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Sep 09, 2024
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Conclave (2024) |
The genuinely unpredictable drama unfolds amid the monumental architecture and ethereal murals of the Vatican, and Berger likes to make us privy to arcane details of the conclave, such as the way ballots are handled.
- Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Sep 09, 2024
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Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln (2024) |
The general effort of bringing to light (and potentially to history books) an underrepresented part of American experience remains vital beyond defining Lincoln’s identity. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Sep 05, 2024
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In the Rearview (2023) |
The van's familiar interior has a way of underlining how many other millions across history have had to escape military aggression. Hamela's work as driver and documentarian reflects that reality while offering a spirit of resilience. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Aug 15, 2024
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Dandelion (2024) |
Riegel and the cinematographer, Lauren Guiteras, use the camera like a vessel for Dandelion’s sense memories. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Jul 11, 2024
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Last Summer (2023) |
If anything, “Last Summer” is more commercial-looking and less shocking than much of Breillat’s previous work, but her eye and her insights are sharp as ever. - Los Angeles Times
Read More
| Posted Jul 03, 2024
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June Zero (2022) |
"June Zero” sticks to its characters’ specific experiences of these events. But the resourceful narrative, with some surprising grace notes, tends to invite questioning and reflection. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Jun 27, 2024
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The Beach Boys (2024) |
And for the pop romantics among us, the Beach Boys can still cast a spell with those four little words: Wouldn’t it be nice? - New York Times
Read More
| Posted May 24, 2024
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Poolman (2023) |
Pine wisely avoids winks to the audience. But he whiffs at making the mystery especially gripping... - New York Times
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| Posted May 10, 2024
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Unsung Hero (2023) |
Despite the fuzzy good intentions, it’s tough to make much of this making-of story. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Apr 25, 2024
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The American Society of Magical Negroes (2024) |
Smith’s nimble performance is such a pleasure to watch that it almost doesn’t matter, but it’s fair to say that this film could have gone even further with its bold scenario. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Mar 15, 2024
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Irish Wish (2024) |
Mostly the movie is a determinedly mild addition to the Lindsay Lohan “what-if” universe. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Mar 15, 2024
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Kiss the Future (2023) |
This is history told through emotions as much as through well-documented events, conveying both the resilience of Sarajevans and the power of pop music (without falling into too much celebrity self-regard). - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Feb 22, 2024
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God & Country (2024) |
The film’s insights about the role of religion in politics feel especially well-informed because many of its commentators draw on their own personal and professional experiences with the Christian church. They’re believers, too, and they’re worried. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Feb 15, 2024
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Molli and Max in the Future (2023) |
Science fiction has become such a mainstay of lumbering franchises that it’s hard not to root for left-field small-scale twists on the genre like the fizzy, funny “Molli and Max in the Future.” - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Feb 08, 2024
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I Saw the TV Glow (2024) |
As powerful as individual sequences can be and granting the urge not to give the film a smooth surface, the movie still feels balky in its assembly and direction. There’s the awed sense of a blueprint that is insisted upon without entirely being executed. - Sight & Sound
Read More
| Posted Feb 02, 2024
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A Different Man (2024) |
It’s a curious story that doubles as a parable on identity and a bizarre tale to be recounted at an East Village bar. - Financial Times
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| Posted Jan 24, 2024
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My Old Ass (2024) |
It’s a breezy, joyfully slangy confection that leaves audiences pondering what to ask if given similar time-bending access to hindsight. - Financial Times
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| Posted Jan 24, 2024
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Black Box Diaries (2024) |
It’s a genuinely empowering film but also absolutely clear-eyed about the challenges that remain for women in Japan. - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Jan 24, 2024
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Presence (2024) |
Shot entirely from the first-person perspective of a haunting spirit, the slow-burn thriller might have collapsed in less experienced hands, but Soderbergh expertly puts a terrific ensemble through their paces. - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Jan 24, 2024
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A Real Pain (2024) |
It’s arguably a little slick, though that can be another word for smoothly executed. - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Jan 24, 2024
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Union (2024) |
Union adds a new chapter to a documentary lineage that includes Harlan County USA (1976), about striking coal miners in Kentucky. You won’t see gun-toting thugs beating up workers here, but you will witness the grind of union work... - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Jan 23, 2024
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It's What's Inside (2024) |
It’s definitely a movie that requires audiences to keep their wits about them, and the reach of its plotting might exceed its grasp, but, as with any Sundance movie pushing its vision to the hilt, the gusto is gratifying. - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Jan 22, 2024
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Stress Positions (2024) |
With its wrecking-ball approach to sensitivities around identity issues, the film is a spicy antidote to the pieties that can bog down some Sundance selections. - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Jan 22, 2024
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Power (2024) |
[Ford's] ideas elaborate on arguments familiar from several generations of activism. But the film's lucid presentation of these ideas makes it feel like seeing a gun being taken apart and put back together again. - Financial Times
Read More
| Posted Jan 22, 2024
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Godzilla Minus One (2023) |
The writer-director, Takashi Yamazaki, integrates crowds and effects with a sure hand, and endows the violence with a dour air. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
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Bad Press (2023) |
Landsberry-Baker and Peeler could linger more on details about the people involved instead of the horse-race suspense of vote counts. But who can blame them when freedom is in the balance... - New York Times
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| Posted Nov 30, 2023
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The Stones and Brian Jones (2023) |
The tender twist to this film is that some of his exes — who included Anita Pallenberg and Zouzou, the French actress — help narrate much of his drug-aided decline, most with fondness. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Nov 16, 2023
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Sly (2023) |
Zimny excavates the acts of self-creation behind a career that minted two indelible titular characters in “Rocky” and “Rambo” — whose underdog narratives proved highly influential. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Nov 02, 2023
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After Death (2023) |
Whether you believe these phenomena are spiritual journeys or visions created by the human mind (or both), the film loses its sense of epiphany in the lackluster jumble of its moviemaking. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Oct 26, 2023
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Silver Dollar Road (2023) |
No one here is defined by this struggle, and amid the looming threats to a cherished home, Peck’s accomplishment is to let the Reels family own their emotional space. - New York Times
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| Posted Oct 19, 2023
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The Insurrectionist Next Door (2023) |
In the end, as a document, it’s undeniable: The unvarnished human detail gives the film a life of its own that escapes any particular polemic or hope. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Oct 17, 2023
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No Accident (2023) |
Jacobson’s account does the necessary work of restating the facts and showing that people can be held accountable for fomenting this kind of terror and harm. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Oct 10, 2023
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Last Stop Larrimah (2023) |
The movie resembles reality shows that string together insinuations and trash-talk without knowing when to quit. - New York Times
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| Posted Oct 08, 2023
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The World's Greatest Sinner (1962) |
Doubling as the director, Carey stokes the off-kilter mood with heady camera angles and looming shadows, lingering on Clarence as he goes berserk. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Oct 05, 2023
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Victims of Sin (1950) |
Goes full throttle with an engrossing redemption melodrama about a nightclub dancer who raises an abandoned baby. - New York Times
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| Posted Oct 05, 2023
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The Creator (2023) |
Above all, the film’s tone is uneven: Edwards pushes the relatable ordinariness of the androids and hybrid “simulants,” but the potential menace of A.I. inescapably looms. - New York Times
Read More
| Posted Sep 28, 2023
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The Trial (2023) |
Crafted entirely out of the televised 1985 trial of Argentina’s military junta, “The Trial” lays bare horrific crimes while showing the courage of victims, survivors and their families. - New York Times
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| Posted Sep 21, 2023
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