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The Big Lebowski
(1998)
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Godfrey Cheshire
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Credit the Coens and Bridges, one of our best actors, that all obvious Cheech-and-Chongness is blithely skirted and a certain daffy grace achieved. Even if "Lebowski" is finally a minor movie, Bridges is, without question, a major Dude.
Posted Jan 19, 2023
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Gladiator
(2000)
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Godfrey Cheshire
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Somewhere between De Chirico and Disney, the film's Forum and Colosseum are foreshortened, overstuffed, overstylized, sternly insubstantial; it's hard to be impressed with impossible vistas that are so clearly cartoonish.
Posted Nov 01, 2022
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A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
(2001)
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Armond White
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It's Spielberg's distinct sensibility that makes the difference. Rejecting the cynical trickery some people prefer in drama, his A.I. is equal to Kubrick's finest work.
Posted Jun 30, 2021
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Family Fundamentals
(2002)
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Matt Zoller Seitz
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While Family Fundamentals will have special significance for homosexuals and their parents, its emotional honesty echoes beyond cultural niches.
Posted Jun 09, 2020
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Lovers of the Arctic Circle
(1998)
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Ed Halter
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Its characters belong less to any recognizable social reality than to the obvious wheezings of an imagination that, having decided that Arctic Circle necessitates making the male lover a pilot, thinks it's clever to name the pilot Otto...
Posted Jul 15, 2019
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The Underground Orchestra
(1998)
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Ed Halter
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The Underground Orchestra is an agreeably offbeat documentary that comes with certain built-in but easily forgiven frustrations.
Posted Jul 15, 2019
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Toy Story 2
(1999)
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Armond White
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Toy Story 2 shows how pop art can disarm your loftiest objections with unexpected wit and genuine insight. "Magical" describes it but not its aspects that are superlatively humane.
Posted Jul 01, 2019
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Control Room
(2004)
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Armond White
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Control Room leave viewers susceptible to the deceptions of politicians and media charlatans.
Posted Jun 28, 2019
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Liberty Heights
(1999)
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Armond White
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It's atrocious. Twisted sociology.
Posted Jun 28, 2019
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The Iron Giant
(1999)
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Armond White
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The Iron Giant should have been immediately recognized as a near-perfect, classical expression of imagination, combining childlike wonder and adult sophistication.
Posted May 14, 2019
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Being John Malkovich
(1999)
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Armond White
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For two hours, it works like the best music videos: making high-concept philosophies graspable, marvelous and fun.
Posted Apr 30, 2019
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American Honey
(2016)
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Armond White
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American Honey...struck me as unbearably phony...Each scene is a provocation and an indictment, but the film's also an offense to the principles of cinéma vérité and social realism.
Posted Nov 04, 2016
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Frost/Nixon
(2008)
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Armond White
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It takes a nincompoop like Howard to imagine depth in this silliness.
Posted Oct 28, 2014
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The Orphanage
(2007)
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Eric Kohn
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Let the anticipation of Bayona's next move begin.
Posted Oct 14, 2014
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A-
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The To Do List
(2013)
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Eric Kohn
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Carey's celebratory approach to bawdy one-liners marries form with content.
Posted Jul 26, 2013
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A Man Escaped
(1956)
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Godfrey Cheshire
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Coming from a director renowned as spartanly anti-dramatic, the film's escape is almost preternaturally gripping.
Posted Mar 05, 2013
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5/5
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The Central Park Five
(2012)
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Jennifer Merin
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Exclusive interviews with former heads of Israel's counter terrorism agency reveal insiders' analysis about the country's policies. Fascinating. Frightening.
Posted Dec 16, 2012
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5/5
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How to Survive a Plague
(2012)
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Jennifer Merin
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What making a difference is really all about!
Posted Dec 16, 2012
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5/5
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Pink Ribbons, Inc.
(2011)
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Jennifer Merin
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An alarming look at the profitable industry that has grown up around nonprofit fund raising for breast cancer research. Must see!
Posted May 28, 2012
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The Forgiveness of Blood
(2011)
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Eric Kohn
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Marston examines the barriers of ritual and the passage from youth to adulthood in Albanian society with the perceptive detail of a grand literary feat.
Posted Feb 24, 2012
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Love Crime
(2010)
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John Blahnik
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Corneau got his start directing simple, effective cop movies and Love Crime's second half is sort of a return to form.
Posted Sep 01, 2011
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The Family Tree
(2010)
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Mark Peikert
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Like the body of a peeping tom high school student that hangs hidden in the Burnett's tree for the duration of the film, the direction of the movie remains dangling over audiences.
Posted Aug 26, 2011
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Special Treatment
(2010)
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John Blahnik
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Huppert's performance is strong and Labrune's previous films show she's not without talent. You wish she hadn't so stubbornly adhered to one tiresome idea.
Posted Aug 25, 2011
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Tales From the Golden Age
(2009)
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Armond White
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Puiu's a skillful widescreen filmmaker, but he's also an urban snob who finds farm animals backward and funny.
Posted Aug 24, 2011
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Gainsbourg
(2010)
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Armond White
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Sfar rescues Gainsbourg from hipsters' self-satisfied claims.
Posted Aug 24, 2011
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Our Idiot Brother
(2011)
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Armond White
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Usually movies this slick and contrived have a shiny, Hollywood look, but Our Idiot Brother's unslick look is dreadful. It lacks the professionalism of mumblecore.
Posted Aug 24, 2011
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Griff the Invisible
(2010)
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John Blahnik
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What at first seemed to be a superhero film is actually a melancholy portrait of the maladjusted.
Posted Aug 18, 2011
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One Day
(2011)
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Armond White
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One Day is neither comedy nor satire; it uses numerous narrative gimmicks to avoid the fact of its humdrum banality.
Posted Aug 18, 2011
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30 Minutes or Less
(2011)
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Armond White
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Sexism may be inseparable from the imperatives of male aggression. 30 Minutes or Less ridicules this...
Posted Aug 17, 2011
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The Help
(2011)
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Armond White
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The Help demonstrates the conned intelligence of the "post-racial" and "postblack" Obama era, where the anxieties of unequal yet mutually beneficial black-white relationships are conveniently, speciously, put behind us.
Posted Aug 10, 2011
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Rise of the Planet of the Apes
(2011)
|
Armond White
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It is easily the best American movie of this corrupted summer.
Posted Aug 08, 2011
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The Whistleblower
(2010)
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Leslie Stonebraker
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The film is not good or bad, but utterly affecting and incredibly timely.
Posted Aug 05, 2011
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Good Neighbours
(2010)
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John Blahnik
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Thankfully Tierney saves the film from becoming a prosaic whodunit by casually revealing the murder's identity 40 minutes in, forcing Good Neighbors to succeed as all films should, through character and style.
Posted Aug 04, 2011
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Cowboys & Aliens
(2011)
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Armond White
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Cowboys and Aliens is an uninspired, third-rate rehash of Western and monster movie lore. It turns genre into formula.
Posted Aug 03, 2011
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Mysteries of Lisbon
(2010)
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Armond White
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If the title suggests soap opera rather than political history, that's part of Ruiz's game -- but it's also why this art project feels overlong for its purpose.
Posted Aug 03, 2011
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The Devil's Double
(2011)
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Armond White
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The film disastrously focuses on Uday's outrages and does so without any moral perspective. "Rape, torture, disembowelment, killing, drinking, drugs and decadence" is practically the film's synopsis. Madness is its misjudged rationale.
Posted Aug 03, 2011
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The Guard
(2011)
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Emilia Barrosse
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McDonaugh's reflective script and darker tone separates it from the usual pacing of the standard cop film.
Posted Aug 03, 2011
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Attack the Block
(2011)
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Armond White
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It enhances a sense of the world rather than peddling distraction from it.
Posted Jul 27, 2011
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Project Nim
(2011)
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Leslie Stonebraker
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Project Nim provides the much needed backstory to modern scientific achievement unavoidably earned on the backs of innocent apes.
Posted Jul 26, 2011
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Fire in Babylon
(2010)
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Leslie Stonebraker
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Rather than explore the nuanced reality of playing a white man's game with white teammates, Riley simply plays the race card and tells the tale in monochrome.
Posted Jul 26, 2011
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Me and My Gal
(1932)
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Armond White
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Me and My Gal justifies the loftiest standards of realism and entertainment.
Posted Jul 22, 2011
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Captain America: The First Avenger
(2011)
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Armond White
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When all these bland Marvel Comics franchise movies blur together in memory, it won't prove that they amounted to one great epic master narrative, but that they're all indistinguishable.
Posted Jul 22, 2011
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Farmageddon
(2011)
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Mark Peikert
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For a film about the benefits of natural food and raw milk, there is ironically nothing organic about Farmageddon.
Posted Jul 19, 2011
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
(2011)
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Armond White
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Now that the Harry Potter series is over, maybe the truth can be realized: This has been the dullest franchise in the history of movie franchises.
Posted Jul 13, 2011
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Winnie the Pooh
(2011)
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Armond White
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Although this is an adaptation of the A.A. Milne tales first published in 1926, it unleashes an essential quality of dreaming -- and of cinema.
Posted Jul 13, 2011
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Tabloid
(2010)
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Armond White
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Evading the issue of what used to be called "yellow journalism," Morris' depraved method prevents us from ever getting out of this swamp.
Posted Jul 13, 2011
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Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
(2011)
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Armond White
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Tribe's music takes a backseat to power struggle and personality conflict.
Posted Jul 11, 2011
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Love Etc.
(2010)
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Leslie Stonebraker
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Each of the six protagonists in Love Etc. are sweet and hopeful in a genuinely human way that fictional films simply cannot touch.
Posted Jul 04, 2011
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Transformers: Dark of the Moon
(2011)
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Armond White
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By avoiding contemplation about the emotional nature of its clanging, morphing, warring creatures ... Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg accommodate the insensitivity that characterizes post-9/11 culture.
Posted Jun 30, 2011
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Larry Crowne
(2011)
|
Armond White
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The humanist opposite to Hollywood's self-congratulatory snark.
Posted Jun 29, 2011
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