Sara Maria Vizcarrondo
Tomatometer-approved critic
Slant Magazine film critic.
Vivre sa vie, Ikiru, Brief Encounter, Rabbit Moon, Lawrence of Arabia
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Applause (2009) |
Applause has moments of flourish and moments that reach towards something as pared down as Thea's play, but it ultimately can't match the candor Steen brings to the screen. Really, little can. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Apr 07, 2016
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Obvious Child (2014) |
If you see disregard or irresponsibility when you watch OBVIOUS CHILD, you're not looking hard enough. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 05, 2014
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Edge of Tomorrow (2014) |
The sharp script makes ineffectual carnage pretty hilarious, with laughter due in part to the fact we've seen so much of Tom Cruise in BS battle mode there's something cathartic about watching him die on a loop. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 04, 2014
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NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage (2014) |
While NOW is an echo of Spacey's hubris and chicanery, it's also an object lesson on being in charge of your career. As such, it's a doc actors shouldn't miss. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 06, 2014
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Chef (2014) |
Lodged somewhere between Jimmy Kimmel's "Mean Tweets" segment and Ratatoulle, this family movie (with a few too many f-bombs) has become a high speed commercial success before it's even hit theaters and the way it's uncompromising will blindside you. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 06, 2014
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Palo Alto (2013) |
Gia Coppola has taken the hazy danger of the well-heeled teen into another era of whatever-glam. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 06, 2014
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Fading Gigolo (2013) |
Manhattan's economy is forcing one florist's head down-and Woody Allen figures that head might as well land in a soft place. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Apr 18, 2014
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Nymphomaniac: Volume I (2014) |
Aims to prove you can't spell "meaningless" without M-E-N. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Mar 24, 2014
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Anita (2013) |
Anita is not just a film about an activist who made a difference, it's a model of transforming struggle into a more meaningful future. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Mar 24, 2014
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No God, No Master (2012) |
Strathairn delivers even canned lines like they're fresh from the vine, and Ray Wise, as one of two characters without an accent, is again brilliant at being the most duplicitous man you can't beat with common sense or a stick. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Feb 27, 2014
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The Nut Job (2014) |
Like The Italian Job but terrible. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jan 16, 2014
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August: Osage County (2013) |
Would resemble a senior version of Valley of the Dolls if it had even a smidge of desiccated glamor (a la Sunset Boulevard) or really any justification for the addictions on display-but such moralizations are void here. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Dec 30, 2013
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Labor Day (2013) |
The most impressively cultivated tension director Jason Reitman's made to date. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Dec 30, 2013
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Saving Mr. Banks (2013) |
A surprisingly apologetic celebration of Papa Walt and the herculean effort required to bring Mary Poppins to screen. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Dec 30, 2013
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The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) |
Wolf of Wall Street is a cinematic amphetamine. It moves at break neck speed for almost three hours and after, you'll leave the theater wanting the gym. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Dec 26, 2013
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American Hustle (2013) |
The most exciting thing about David O. Russell's operatic-comedy American Hustle is how every piece of it double plays us. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Dec 20, 2013
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Thor: The Dark World (2013) |
Delightful. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Nov 11, 2013
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Dallas Buyers Club (2013) |
Dallas Buyer's Club doesn't want your love, it wants your respect and all the work's on the screen. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Oct 25, 2013
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All Is Lost (2013) |
As an actor, Redford feels impenetrable which may be why it's easy to project yourself onto him, but the title, like the protagonist, stands like a dare to reverse fate. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Oct 21, 2013
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12 Years a Slave (2013) |
A parable about the fragility of the middle class. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Oct 21, 2013
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Don Jon (2013) |
Sexy, insightful and maybe a little twee, Don Jon is about to hit its demographic like a toy commercial on Saturday Morning. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 25, 2013
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Prisoners (2013) |
Gravity to spare and performances to talk about...worth a risk, even if you're prone to nightmares. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 20, 2013
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Enough Said (2013) |
The way Holofcener redeems tiny tragedies from the wastebasket and gives them a saltbath in sidelong humor is a gently heroic gesture. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 19, 2013
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Parkland (2013) |
Embracing ambiguity in a story of this magnitude is plain cowardly. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 13, 2013
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Touchy Feely (2013) |
Shelton's gift is her naturalism. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 05, 2013
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Getaway (2013) |
It's as if the director saw a Paul Greengrass fight and figured excitement is the result of confusion and loud noises. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 30, 2013
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Adore (2013) |
Depicted believably, painfully, and poignantly, we could reread this as a horror story-this could be the Winter Romance Caroline Schumacher (Cindy Grover) pined for in Network, and she's fortunate she missed it. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 29, 2013
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Austenland (2013) |
Jennifer Coolidge's accent goes from Australian to pirate in six seconds and the paid cast members sidestep her errors like turds on a hunting green...If only it were funnier. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 12, 2013
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Elysium (2013) |
Beset with enough wonky stepping stones to undermine its use as a political rabble rouser. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 09, 2013
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We're the Millers (2013) |
If you buy Sudeikis as a black-marketeer (he's an Ivy League stripper at best) maybe you'll buy Helms as a killer whale collecting king pin. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 07, 2013
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Lovelace (2013) |
Operatic and heartbreaking. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 05, 2013
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La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus (2012) |
Though Mark Kendall's documentary only alludes to the condition of "public" transportation in Guatemala, he gives us a clear feeling for the imminent danger of the job. - Flick Nation
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| Posted Aug 02, 2013
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Blue Jasmine (2013) |
This is the closest to Eric Rohmer Allen's ever got. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jul 24, 2013
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The Conjuring (2013) |
It's glorious and a reminder that the scares of a haunted house are visceral and, like Chucky, live on the cusp of childhood, frivolous and frightening. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jul 22, 2013
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Grown Ups 2 (2013) |
For a film about facing irrelevance, Grown Ups 2 isn't fighting for a place in the race. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jul 12, 2013
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Pacific Rim (2013) |
Suffers the same syndrome as Tim Burton's Ed Wood: maybe it's disrespectful to make a probing movie homage to goofy source material. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jul 12, 2013
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The Lone Ranger (2013) |
This is a world too fanciful to be dragged down by anything as crucial as history-it's a world buoyed by faith, and for the faith you give it, it might buoy you right back. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jul 10, 2013
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White House Down (2013) |
The film reassures us it is Americana (Emmericana?)...despite the film's resemblance to some Anti-American propaganda, it's determined to show us America will rise from its own ashes. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 28, 2013
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Byzantium (2012) |
Byzantium might voice a quiet "serves you right" to a world power that shows scars where lands have been cut away. Or perhaps Vampire and Empire are words too rhyme-y not to compare. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 28, 2013
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World War Z (2013) |
Is for zombie movies what Reddit is for news: no context, no orientation, credible sources and whackjobs dispense equally implausible information of crucial importance. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 22, 2013
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This Is the End (2013) |
A playful metaphor for acting and the hell-fire of public opinion. That or they're comparing adulthood to Armageddon, in which case it's a little ironic to let [Michael] Cera die first. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 13, 2013
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At Any Price (2012) |
We don't need to love the characters to care for them but not hating them will help us build a bridge to apathy PDQ. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 23, 2013
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Frances Ha (2012) |
It gives you two choices: find it delightful or don't: there is no unique, self-guided option. As frustrating as that conundrum may be, it's still hard not to take option one. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 23, 2013
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The Hangover Part III (2013) |
The script groans with every plot twist and sighs with every joke. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 23, 2013
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Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) |
Shiny all over: the explosions (MANY), the destruction (MUCH) and the death toll (HIGH) feel like someone demanded this sequel "take it up a notch." - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 19, 2013
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Before Midnight (2013) |
It's painful and beautiful and true, and like many relationships, you'll ask yourself: "WHY AM I STILL IN THIS?" - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 10, 2013
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The Great Gatsby (2013) |
DiCaprio plays Gatsby in a way that recalls Homer Simpson's description of God: "Like Barbara Streisand before James Brolin: all powerful but insecure." - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 10, 2013
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Disconnect (2012) |
Some of the rawest and most energetic filmmaking I've seen in some time. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Apr 12, 2013
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Love Is All You Need (2012) |
This is the loveliest, most patient and gentle romance I've seen in some time. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Apr 12, 2013
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Upstream Color (2013) |
This is a very sensory world, and it's demanding we interpret its tactile realities to understand it. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Apr 12, 2013
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