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5/5
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The Decalogue
(1989)
|
Jason Anderson
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The original series of 10 hour-long films has all of the qualities that mark Kieslowski's better-known work.
Posted May 01, 2021
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3/5
|
Pitch
(1997)
|
Gemma Files
|
A non-fiction first feature that pits two homegrown obsessives against the Hollywood elite.
Posted May 08, 2013
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|
3/5
|
Daydream Nation
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
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An alternately heady and queasy portrait of a small town slipping into madness.
Posted May 11, 2011
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3/5
|
Thor
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Thor's level of visual opulence is one sure indication that director Kenneth Branagh is unafraid of embracing the potential for camp inherent in any superhero blockbuster but generally avoided amid the current vogue for Dark Knight-style solemnity.
Posted May 06, 2011
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2/5
|
Even the Rain
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
The film, meanwhile, remains mired in the middle ground between meta-cinematic cleverness and earnest good intentions.
Posted May 05, 2011
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2/5
|
The Bang Bang Club
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
The Bang Bang Club seems to imply that the real tragedy was how a group of talented, committed young men were broken by a dangerous professional environment -- a dubious conclusion for a dubious movie.
Posted May 05, 2011
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3/5
|
Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
The director finds time in between making cold calls, creating spoof ads and having some fun at the expense of Mane 'n Tail horse shampoo to provide a few valuable insights about the rampant commercialization of nearly every corner of our culture.
Posted May 05, 2011
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|
2/5
|
The Beaver
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Jodie Foster's drama The Beaver, starring Mel Gibson as a depressed man who communicates via a hand puppet, is many things: admirably sincere, occasionally poignant, often trite and perversely wrong-headed.
Posted May 05, 2011
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|
4/5
|
Bill Cunningham New York
(2010)
|
Katrina Onstad
|
Posted Apr 22, 2011
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|
2/5
|
The High Cost of Living
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Chow's direction shows a good eye for locations, but her gritty nighttime aesthetic can't cloak the predictable nature of the material, which only really has one way to go and staggers there down the home stretch.
Posted Apr 22, 2011
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2/5
|
African Cats
(2011)
|
Adam Nayman
|
That African Cats baldly assigns human personality traits to its feline stars is no surprise; what's shocking is that a nature documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson could be so bland.
Posted Apr 20, 2011
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5/5
|
Chungking Express
(1994)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Quentin Tarantino and Xavier Dolan are just two of the directors who've worshipped at the altar of Wong Kar-wai. Chungking Express remains the best reason why.
Posted Apr 20, 2011
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|
2/5
|
The Round Up
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
|
In her efforts to compel French viewers to confront a very ugly moment in their history, Bosch doesn't leave time to develop her characters or their individual stories beyond the most cursory strokes.
Posted Apr 20, 2011
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4/5
|
Mulroney: The Opera
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
If you're going to write an opera about Brian Mulroney, there can be no rhyming lyric more inevitable than this one: "I have the chin / I'm going to win!"
Posted Apr 15, 2011
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4/5
|
Beeswax
(2009)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Andrew Bujalski ought to be more than a critical darling by this point.
Posted Apr 06, 2011
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|
3/5
|
Kaboom
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Any aging hipster harbouring feelings of nostalgia for the scrappy movies Gregg Araki made before the relative maturity of his 2004 molestation drama Mysterious Skin will be thrilled by the American director's latest salacious story of youth gone wild.
Posted Apr 06, 2011
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4/5
|
Rubber
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Dupieux's third feature (and first in English) is a surrealist comedy with a singular sensibility.
Posted Apr 06, 2011
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|
4/5
|
Hanna
(2011)
|
Katrina Onstad
|
A pulsating, whip-smart action film.
Posted Apr 06, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
Littlerock
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Ott's knack for telling observations and beguiling ambiguities make him a director to watch.
Posted Apr 06, 2011
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|
2/5
|
Soul Surfer
(2011)
|
Adam Nayman
|
There's a beatific quality to AnnaSophia Robb's performance as Bethany: it's as if the character is being canonized onscreen rather than plausibly feeling her way through a massive loss.
Posted Apr 06, 2011
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|
5/5
|
Curling
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Posted Apr 04, 2011
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|
4/5
|
Buried
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Buried may well be an allegory for the fates of so many Americans waylaid in sandier climes, but it works first and foremost as an experiential horror film -- the best of its kind in some time.
Posted Apr 04, 2011
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|
4/5
|
I Don't Hear the Guitar Anymore
(1991)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Garrel's nakedly personal disappointment bleeds into an unsentimental elegy for an elegantly wasted generation. Instead of shallow self-pity, he gives us a melancholy deep enough to drown in.
Posted Apr 04, 2011
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|
3/5
|
Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Posted Apr 04, 2011
|
|
1/5
|
Monsters
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
It's a journey that involves plenty of hazards, none more dire than the prospect of romantic scenes between two actors with zero chemistry.
Posted Apr 04, 2011
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|
2/5
|
Our Life
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
The result is a blandly schizophrenic melodrama.
Posted Apr 01, 2011
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|
3/5
|
Winter in Wartime
(2008)
|
Jason Anderson
|
An adaptation of a well-loved Dutch young-adult novel by Jan Terlouw, Winter in Wartime embodies both a traditional style for WWII dramas and a more troubling contemporary strain.
Posted Apr 01, 2011
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|
3/5
|
Essential Killing
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
The stark, propulsive filmmaking and Gallo's impressively committed performance must be judged against the evasiveness of its maker's motivations.
Posted Apr 01, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
Monogamy
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Jones has little to do besides look fed up, and justifiably so.
Posted Apr 01, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
Source Code
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
One of the problems is Gyllenhaal's inability to make his character seem coherent, sympathetic or particularly interesting.
Posted Apr 01, 2011
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|
3/5
|
Hobo With a Shotgun
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Eisener displays considerable finesse as an action director. His movie's occasional moments of wit also take some of the edge off the otherwise assaultive nature of this exercise in scumbag cinema.
Posted Mar 25, 2011
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|
3/5
|
Win Win
(2011)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Giamatti has become predictable as an avatar of middle-aged anxiety, but he's less self-conscious than he was in Barney's Version, and plays amusingly off McCarthy regular Bobby Cannavale.
Posted Mar 25, 2011
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|
2/5
|
White Irish Drinkers
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
|
White Irish Drinkers contains a cast of characters who are as loud, brash and pugnacious as that title would suggest. They also represent just about every Irish-American stereotype.
Posted Mar 25, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
Mr. 3000
(2004)
|
Adam Nayman
|
This feature-length commercial for Major League Baseball covers all the cross-marketing bases.
Posted Mar 21, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
Cosmonaut
(2009)
|
Adam Nayman
|
A wry, sensitive coming-of-age comedy set against a very specific historical backdrop.
Posted Mar 18, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Unfortunately, Johns' movie is less satisfying when it comes to matters not directly pertaining to Dolly Parton.
Posted Mar 18, 2011
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|
3/5
|
Paul
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
In its efforts to please those nerds, Hollywood may actually be selling them short with films that have little of the ingenuity that used to be the lifeblood of genre moviemaking.
Posted Mar 17, 2011
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|
4/5
|
A Screaming Man
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
|
A moving new film by one of Africa's best directors, A Screaming Man won the jury prize at Cannes last year and deserves a wider audience than the continent's great movies often achieve.
Posted Mar 17, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
I Saw the Devil
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Though compelling as a kind of live-action Road Runner cartoon where the coyote really deserves his comeuppance, I Saw the Devil is finally and literally too bludgeoning for its own good.
Posted Mar 17, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
Limitless
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
[An] erratic but often wickedly sly thriller.
Posted Mar 17, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
The Lincoln Lawyer
(2011)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Blessed with a character who loves to showboat, McConaughey is a pleasure to behold -- not since the actor was battling dragons in Reign of Fire has he been so much fun to watch.
Posted Mar 17, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
New Year Baby
(2006)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Posted Mar 11, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
Rango
(2011)
|
Adam Nayman
|
There's more visual wit in Gore Verbinski's Rango than the last two Pixar films combined.
Posted Mar 05, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
Five Days Without Nora
(2008)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Chenillo is a smart filmmaker, but the film is too tidy. Maybe next time out, she'll really get her hands dirty.
Posted Mar 04, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
(2009)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Posted Mar 03, 2011
|
|
5/5
|
Alamar
(2009)
|
Adam Nayman
|
It's hard to tell whether this line has been scripted or captured, but it packs an emotional punch all the same.
Posted Feb 25, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
The Arbor
(2010)
|
Adam Nayman
|
The Arbor is not an easy film, but it's a rewarding one.
Posted Feb 25, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
Gabi on the Roof in July
(2009)
|
Adam Nayman
|
Posted Feb 18, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
Small Town Murder Songs
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
|
The force in Stormare's performance is enough to suggest we've witnessed only a fraction of the character's anguish.
Posted Feb 18, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune
(2010)
|
Jason Anderson
|
Despite all the sadness and disappointment in his story, Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune is an invigorating survey of its subject's life and times.
Posted Feb 18, 2011
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