|
A+
|
Rear Window
(1954)
|
Beth McDonough
|
He (Stewart) carries the momentum of the story from beginning to end, using the subtle nuances in his voice and facial expressions to convey nonchalance, frustration, determination, then borderline obsession, and finally, naked fear.
Posted May 13, 2019
|
|
C-
|
The Girl on the Train
(2016)
|
Beth McDonough
|
The result is a film written and based on a novel by a female author that does little for women but overtly sexualize and dumb them down.
Posted Mar 15, 2019
|
|
D
|
The Road to Mandalay
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Miki Z further ruins his chances for profundity with an unnecessarily cruel, unexpectedly violent denouement that seems added as an afterthought...
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
Mon Mon Mon Monsters
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Mon Mon Monsters is a fine-tuned, grotesquely gory test of audience endurance. It's hatefulness is stunning, but that hatefulness is deliberate.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
C-
|
Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Zombiology doesn't have the preposterous gore, over-the-top death scenes, or self-aware silliness of the truly great zombie movies where the characters know they're in a zombie movie.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
McDormand is a shoo-in for Best Actress.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A-
|
Mansfield 66/67
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Mansfield 66/67 is an odd little documentary with pink paint and glitter running through its veins.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A-
|
Suffering of Ninko
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
...a stylistic shot of adrenaline...
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A
|
The Truth Beneath
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Don't miss this one.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B-
|
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
But for a film that fumbles its last act like a greased football, it still remains a funny, penetrating look into familial dysfunction.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
D+
|
Te Ata
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Te-Ata is not a good film, but it comes from a good place.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
With Prisoners
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
[Director Kwok-kuen] gives the film unexpected depth...
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B
|
Happiness
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
It's an auteurist train wreck in the best way possible.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
Sid & Nancy
(1986)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Sid & Nancy is a brutal tour de force.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B-
|
Certain Women
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
There's no arguing that Certain Women has moments of incredible power. But the film itself can be greatly uneven.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A
|
Birdshot
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Birdshot is a slow-burning drama that's mistakenly described as a thriller because it happens to involve shoot-outs, stand-offs, and moments of unbearable suspense.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
Shaowu the Bad
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Though occasionally dry and slow, it's an effective drama that's fascinating for how it reconfigures the gangster genre to suit its own reflective needs.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A
|
Hello Destroyer
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Hello Destroyer is an essential piece of contemporary Canadian cinema.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A
|
Bad Genius
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
One of the most scrupulously envisioned and perfectly executed capers in recent cinematic memory.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A
|
Three Lives and Only One Death
(1996)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Three Lives and Only One Death may be a puzzle. But don't look too hard at the image at its center. You'll miss all the beautiful pieces.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
C-
|
Double Life
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
..instead of a reflective treatise on urban isolation and existential longing, it becomes a tepid melodrama.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
C-
|
Duckweed
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
The film feels unfinished and unfocused, poorly establishing characters and their motivations.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A-
|
Abundant Acreage Available
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
It might seem deceptively simple and straightforward, but this is a film with great depths that demands attentive rewatches.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
C
|
Someone to Talk To
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
...one wishes that [Liu Yulin] could have notched a few more films under her belt before attempting such a complex, delicate, and difficult project.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B-
|
Poison
(1951)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
The film is useful as a guide to Sacha Guitry's neuroses and charming for Michel Simon's thundering performance
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
Meantime
(1983)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
A crucial glimpse into the societal ennui felt by Britain's working class during the 1980s.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B
|
Soul on a String
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
...undeniably ambitious...
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B-
|
Savage Dog
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Savage Dog is dumb, but entertaining.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
C
|
Extraordinary Mission
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Yet all Extraordinary Mission does is reveal how stylistically indistinct much Chinese action cinema has become from its Western counterparts.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
10/10
|
Funeral Parade
(1969)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
At times it feels like we're watching the birth pains of a new strain of queer cinema, one both beautiful and tragic, unapologetic and glorious.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
C
|
Person to Person
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Person to Person is gentle, occasionally sweet, sometimes charming, but wholly unoriginal and undistinguished.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
D
|
Battle of Memories
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Battle of Memories sacrifices itself with every new reveal, confusing us and making us question everything we've seen until then-and for the entirely wrong reasons.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
C-
|
Abu: Father
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
...it left me with little more emotional or artistic fulfillment than one of those banal objective documentaries that are the bane of film critics.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B-
|
The Dunning Man
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
But for all its flaws and unevenness, The Dunning Man isn't without its charms.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
The Lure
(2015)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
...a lively musical jam-packed with 80s dance-floor tunes, show-stopping ballads, and even a garish Busby Berkeley-esque number...
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
D
|
96 Souls
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Worst of all, it's boring. And that's the kiss of death for a film about super-powers.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
10/10
|
The Shape of Water
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Neil Gaiman once wrote that America is no place for gods. But is it no place for fairy tales? Guillermo del Toro would say no.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B
|
Blame!
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Despite some unfortunately janky animation...and a predictable plot, Blame! is an effective film.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B-
|
Canoa: A Shameful Memory
(1976)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
...stripped from all this historical and cultural context, many modern viewers unfamiliar with Mexican cinema might find the film ponderous, uneven, and even disengaging.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
45 Years
(2015)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Visually stunning and exquisitely acted, 45 Years transcends its own occasional sleepiness to become one of the more poignant British dramas in some years.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A-
|
A Thousand Junkies
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
A Thousand Junkies is that rare film to expertly balance lunacy with pathos, dread and light-heartedness.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
Desert Hearts
(1985)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
It's this evocation of a homophobia-free universe that elevates Desert Hearts from mere lesbian melodrama to the most tantalizing of wish-fulfillment fantasies.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B+
|
The Last Laugh
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
The Last Laugh doesn't have many answers. But the questions it raises are worth their own sake.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
D+
|
Salt and Fire
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Though his documentaries remain as vital as any in his career, Salt and Fire signals the further deterioration of Werner Herzog as a narrative filmmaker.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B
|
Brimstone
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
If you can handle the films of the aforementioned von Trier, you can probably make it through Brimstone and find it a rewarding sit.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
C
|
Dig Two Graves
(2014)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Dig Two Graves simply isn't a good film.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A-
|
Only the Brave
(2017)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
The advertising may make it look like a disposable drama or award season bait, but it's so much more.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A-
|
Ghost in the Shell
(1995)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
Ghost in the Shell is one of the few true watershed moments of anime here in the West...
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
B-
|
Fellini's Roma
(1972)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
But it is a film worth seeing, if only to get the opportunity to see one of the world's greatest cities through the eyes of one of the world's greatest artists.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
|
A-
|
Tower
(2016)
|
Nathanael Hood
|
The shooting is brought to life without being trivialized, the survivors venerated and mourned without being reduced to mechanical talking heads.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
|
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