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Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): John Beifuss.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
3/4
Gladiator (2000) John Beifuss No matter how much the film may seem to condemn the life-wasting brutality of the arena, there's no denying that these grisly onscreen struggles offer moviegoers an approximation of the thrill the ancient Romans must have felt.
Posted Feb 18, 2026  Edit critic review
1.5/4
Chocolat (2000) John Beifuss Chocolat stacks the deck in favor of a heroine who doesn't really need anybody's help in the first place. It's all extremely pointless, and especially disappointing coming from director Lasse Hallström.
Posted Feb 17, 2026  Edit critic review
4/4
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) John Beifuss This is a classically constructed, almost old-fashioned movie-movie that offers all the pleasures of any superbly contrived romantic adventure, from She Wore a Yellow Ribbon to Lawrence of Arabia to Star Wars.
Posted Feb 11, 2026  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) John Beifuss There is much to enjoy in Attack of the Clones... But there's much to regret too, in the way the Star Wars series seems to have ossified.
Posted Feb 09, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
Mission: Impossible (1996) John Beifuss At 108 minutes, the movie is brisk and never boring.
Posted Feb 09, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
Final Destination (2000) John Beifuss The film is able to milk the suspense unmercifully.
Posted Feb 09, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
American Psycho (2000) John Beifuss Harron deserves credit for figuring out how to make an American Psycho that retains its integrity while also standing a chance of earning a more-than-cult audience.
Posted Feb 09, 2026  Edit critic review
1.5/4
Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) John Beifuss Director Rob Reiner may have gotten most of the facts right, but his film seems as phony as his actors' Southern accents.
Posted Feb 09, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
John Carpenter's Escape From L.A. (1996) John Beifuss It's a mix of goofy parody, poorly staged action, fun if unconvincing special effects and leftist, even subversive satire.
Posted Feb 09, 2026  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Mars Attacks! (1996) John Beifuss Mars Attacks is a candy-colored comic book come to life.
Posted Feb 09, 2026  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Requiem for a Dream (2000) John Beifuss Director Darren Aronofsky's relentless use of disorienting visual techniques and unnerving sonic effects is so successful at achieving the desired emotional impact that the film can be pretty much digested in one viewing...
Posted Aug 20, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Amélie (2001) John Beifuss Admittedly there's something somewhat dubious about Amelie's self-congratulatory nature and self-conscious cuteness... But my advice is to accept Amelie gratefully for the cinematic bonbon it is. It may not be nutritious, but it sure is sweet.
Posted Feb 13, 2024  Edit critic review
3/4
Traffic (2000) John Beifuss Epic in scope, intimate in detail, and as overpraised as it is engrossing.
Posted Sep 06, 2023  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Lone Star (1996) John Beifuss Ultimately, Lone Star is an appreciation of the cultural mix that makes Texas -- and America -- unique. The film says violence and prejudice are no match for love respect and humanity.
Posted Sep 06, 2023  Edit critic review
2/4
Moulin Rouge (2001) John Beifuss The story and script by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce... is intentionally bare-boned, in contrast to the excessive visuals. But did it have to be so unwitty and uninteresting?
Posted Sep 05, 2023  Edit critic review
4/4
Mulholland Dr. (2001) John Beifuss It is part film noir homage, part failed-TV pilot salvage job, part Persona-style art film and altogether utterly unique except, of course, in comparison to the past movies of David Lynch.
Posted Jul 11, 2023  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Magnolia (1999) John Beifuss Is Magnolia -- writer-director Paul Thomas sprawling, emotionally supercharged follow-up to Boogie Nights -- a flawed triumph or a bold failure? It's a bit of both -- or at three hours in length, a lot of both.
Posted Jun 30, 2023  Edit critic review
4/4
The Truman Show (1998) John Beifuss It is so perfectly realized, it's hard to believe someone hasn't presented this concept on the big screen before.
Posted Feb 14, 2023  Edit critic review
3/4
Eve's Bayou (1997) John Beifuss Smollett gives a tough but endearing performance as the King girl who learns, tragically, that families are not inviolable and invincible.
Posted Jan 09, 2023  Edit critic review
4/4
Rapture (1979) John Beifuss A masterwork of Bava-esque colors, Bergmanesque dislocation and Cronenbergian raptures.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
The Souvenir Part II (2021) John Beifuss In a decision that naysayers may find more ouroboros than onion (more self-cannibalizing than multi-layered), Hogg in her new film depicts the attempt to make a movie about her experiences (i.e., the first 'The Souvenir').
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
The Suicide Squad (2021) John Beifuss Gunn's smart-aleck supervillain team adventure is a labor of twisted love bursting with genuinely funny sick jokes and sicker characters (Polka-Dot Man shoots out lethal polka dots).
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
Cryptozoo (2021) John Beifuss The filmmakers employ watercolor, pencil and other techniques to painstakingly craft a not-safe-for-kids cartoon about a sort of 'Jurassic Park' for 'cryptids.'
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Candyman (2021) John Beifuss Nia DaCosta's reboot/sequel retains the Chicago setting of its influential 1992 predecessor but relocates the shocks to a bougie-artsy 2021 milieu where talent and education ultimately provide no escape or defense from the racist past or present.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
The Card Counter (2020) John Beifuss Another of Schrader's portraits of fracturing loner diarists trundling toward penitential violence.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Old (2021) John Beifuss Fearsomely compelling until the final unnecessary 'twist' transforms a terrifying metaphor about the pitilessness of old age into what seems to be a pitch for a cable sci-fi series.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
Vortex (2021) John Beifuss 'Vortex' casts Franoise Lebru and horror auteur Dario Argento as an elderly couple whose brains become as disordered as their book-and-memorabilia-crammed Paris apartment after the wife is stricken with dementia.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Petite Maman (2021) John Beifuss Part fairy tale, part "Twilight Zone."
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Memoria (2021) John Beifuss The climactic revelation is both awe-inspiring and deflating, retroactively and reductively recasting the woman's experience as more a puzzle than a mystery.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Dune (2021) John Beifuss Mesmerizing for much of its 3-hour length - especially during its first half, when it prioritizes statecraft and intrigue and augurs and artful arrangements of strangely costumed individuals and strikingly designed alien vessels over fights and chases.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
The Last Duel (2021) John Beifuss The climactic combat is motivated more by the knight's ego than by his concern for the welfare and honor of his wife.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
The Green Knight (2021) John Beifuss Another haunting and profound enchantment from David Lowery.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Passing (2021) John Beifuss The black-and-white photography exposes the absurdity of racial codification by reproducing every actors face in scales of gray.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) John Beifuss A vivid reimagining of history...
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
The Power of the Dog (2021) John Beifuss False fronts and concealed identities poison lives and thus communities like a virus...
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) John Beifuss The film arguably does little that Welles didn't do in 1948 under the parsimonious oversight of Republic Pictures; but why argue with a new opportunity to experience the unbeatable combination of cinematic expressionism and Shakespearean expression?
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Spencer (2021) John Beifuss Kristen Stewart is a nerve-racked Diana, Princess of Wales, who endures a torturous Christmas weekend with her scornful royal in-laws while in a state of glam delirium. Something wicked this way comes? No, it's just the queen, trailed by her corgis.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Annette (2021) John Beifuss Carax asks whether a standup-comic 'Ape of God' (Adam Driver) with a death on his conscience and a living puppet in his nursery deserves redemption.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
West Side Story (2021) John Beifuss Spielberg demonstrates that bodies in motion especially when moving in partnership with a sympathetic and perceptive camera remain the most thrilling movie special effect.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
The Velvet Underground (2021) John Beifuss Todd Haynes documentary, sculpted largely from vintage materials, persuasively presents the Warhol-abetted, New York-incubated band as avatars of an enviable rock-and-roll authenticity.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021) John Beifuss The event seems less a 'Black Woodstock' (as it once was promoted) than a Utopian vision of Black art and community that a larger white establishment was too hostile or disinterested to validate.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Licorice Pizza (2021) John Beifuss The vibe suggests "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," but goofy.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
The French Dispatch (2021) John Beifuss The lapidary, peripatetic creativity which includes animation, multiple frame ratios, and many digital effects illuminates rather than obscures a hopeful but not nave message about the agonizing joy of making art.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) John Beifuss Hamaguchi manifests his ideas with images that are as uncluttered and direct as his stories are rich and his characters complex.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
Drive My Car (2021) John Beifuss In Hamaguchi's films, men and women turn to art to redirect the unsatisfying narratives of their lives.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021) John Beifuss With its debates about privacy, its street scenes of pedestrians in protective masks, and its chaotic school conferences filled with preening mothers and leering fathers, Radu Jude's comedy taps like an intubator into a culture gasping for breath.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
4/4
Red Rocket (2021) John Beifuss Nobody is making movies that feel more alive than those of Sean Baker.
Posted Feb 03, 2022  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) John Beifuss The marketplace of ideas and the literal marketplace overlap, with devastating consequences...
Posted Feb 24, 2021  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Sorry We Missed You (2019) John Beifuss Digs dig deep into a subject filmmakers usually ignore: the struggle to make an honest living.
Posted Feb 24, 2021  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Les misérables (2019) John Beifuss A harrowing thriller...
Posted Feb 24, 2021  Edit critic review
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