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3/4
|
Air
(2023)
|
James Kendrick
|
moves along at a brisk pace and hits the right notes, giving us the sports-marketing movie we never knew we wanted
Posted Jun 19, 2023
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3/4
|
Samurai Wolf
(1966)
|
James Kendrick
|
a gritty, hard-edged, bloody recalibration of the traditional chambara film
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
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3.5/4
|
Samurai Wolf II: Hell Cut
(1967)
|
James Kendrick
|
Like most good sequels, Samurai Wolf II deepens our understanding of the protagonist and builds on what was good in the first film.
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
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2.5/4
|
Violent Streets
(1974)
|
James Kendrick
|
While not one of Gosha’s best works, it is nevertheless an intriguing example of the shift in the yakuza (gangster) genre
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
All Quiet on the Western Front
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
No new ground is broken here, but Berger directs the film with such skill and the young performers convey the immensity of their challenges with such conviction that it achieves an intense level of emotional engagement
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
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2/4
|
Star Trek Generations
(1994)
|
James Kendrick
|
For every good moment there are two or three awkward ones, and while there is an undeniable thrill of seeing the two “generations” of Enterprise captains working together, it is hard not to wish that the film had more grandeur and more guts.
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
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3/4
|
Star Trek: First Contact
(1996)
|
James Kendrick
|
remains one of the high points in the overall Trek film franchise, an engaging and suspenseful melding of science fiction, horror, and the kind of high drama that comes close to earning all the Moby Dick references
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Star Trek: Insurrection
(1998)
|
James Kendrick
|
the ideas are, not surprisingly, handled without a modicum of subtlety, with the most explicit messages being stated in sometimes ham-handed fashion by various characters making grand speeches
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
To Catch a Killer
(2023)
|
James Kendrick
|
a solid procedural that efficiently and engagingly moves through its relatively predictable plot points
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
|
4/4
|
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
(1974)
|
James Kendrick
|
a masterclass in how to do unrelenting horror right—how to use every tool at your disposal to grip your audience and not let them go
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
The Fisher King
(1991)
|
James Kendrick
|
weaves a uniquely intriguing web, balancing emotional realism with highly stylized artifice in a way that Gilliam has been largely unable to reproduce since
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
|
4/4
|
The Seventh Seal
(1957)
|
James Kendrick
|
the most iconic of Swedish master Ingmar Bergman’s canon of masterpieces, and it is also quite possibly one of the most powerful and memorable examples of late ’50s and early ’60s European art cinema
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Last Hurrah for Chivalry
(1978)
|
James Kendrick
|
stands out as an important transition work, where a future master was working out the interplay of his stylistic and thematic obsessions.
Posted Jun 19, 2023
|
|
1.5/4
|
Babylon
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
Chazelle seems to have abandoned the moving humanism that animated his early films, opting instead to wallow in grotesquerie, absurdity, and debauchery
Posted Apr 04, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Boston Strangler
(2023)
|
James Kendrick
|
The film’s depiction of sexism is blunt, but never preachy or didactic, and the performances by Knightley and Coon ground their characters’ actions in a stark reality of inequality.
Posted Apr 04, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
The Magician's Elephant
(2023)
|
James Kendrick
|
Parts of it are a bit clunky and the animation feels somewhat cheap at times, but The Magician’s Elephant is nonetheless an enjoyable diversion that stays true to the essence of DiCamillo’s novel while also forging its own path.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
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2/4
|
Phenomena
(1985)
|
James Kendrick
|
constantly skirts the edge of being something unique and enthralling, but at each turn Argento turns up the volume a bit too loud or piles on just a bit too much, even for those who appreciate his elaborate excesses
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Romeo and Juliet
(1968)
|
James Kendrick
|
Whiting and Hussey have a powerful screen chemistry, and the way they exchange glances, especially when they first spy each other across the dance floor in the film’s most captivating sequence, is electric.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre
(2023)
|
James Kendrick
|
Were it not for the presence of Hugh Grant, Guy Ritchie’s awkwardly titled international crime thriller would be easily forgotten.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
4/4
|
The Quiet Girl
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
simple and beautiful in its moving evocation of human experience and the depth of its belief in the transformative power of human kindness
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Invaders From Mars
(1953)
|
James Kendrick
|
Although it is hindered by wooden acting and some low-grade effects and costumes, it nonetheless embodies so much cleverness and ingenuity in its overall design and effect that you forgive the visible zippers and hammy lines of dialogue.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
(1989)
|
James Kendrick
|
Sacrifices were made at virtually every turn, meaning that The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, for all its grandeur and beauty and imagination, is a severely compromised work … and it shows.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
The Woman King
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
Viola Davis is a force unleashed, heading up a full-blooded tale of conflict set against the backdrop of the slave trade that offers both a twist on the traditional male-dominated warrior-epic and a look at a part of history Hollywood typically ignores
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Cooley High
(1975)
|
James Kendrick
|
while it does not shy away from the harsh realities of growing up poor and black in the inner city in the early 1960s, it does not wallow in victimhood, either, showing how its characters lead determined, vibrant lives
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
1.5/4
|
Epidemic
(1987)
|
James Kendrick
|
Long, ponderous, amateurish, and remarkably dull, it seeks to be some kind of self-aware hybrid of reflexive meta-film about the film industry and a drama about a rampaging virus
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Europa
(1991)
|
James Kendrick
|
For all its technical and aesthetic brilliance, Europa remains a rather cold and distant film, one that is easy to appreciate, but difficult to love.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
Johnson replaces the insular familial privilege at the heart of Knives Out with an even more obnoxious form of privilege whose odiousness is in direct proportion to how much its characters flaunt it in the public sphere
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
White Noise
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
something of a mess, but in a great, enthralling, engaging kind of way
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
The Seventh Continent
(1989)
|
James Kendrick
|
confounding in its emotional devastation and almost sadistic insistence on presenting such a horrific event while offering no real insight
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Benny's Video
(1992)
|
James Kendrick
|
plays with a cool, clinical sense of detachment that makes its interpersonal and physical horrors resonate in ways that graphic violence and visual bombast simply couldn’t match
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
(1994)
|
James Kendrick
|
certainly makes for a frustrating experience, but that frustration is central to Haneke’s project because it forces you to confront the horrors of the inexplicable
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
The Banshees of Inisherin
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
a delicate balancing act, and McDonagh pulls it off with astonishing grace, punctuating the film’s humanity with heavy doses of ambiguity that keep you thinking and wrestling with the characters long after the credits have rolled
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
The Menu
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
stylish and engrossing and sadistically enjoyable
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Women Talking
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
a great achievement in dramatizing both the power of words and the resilience of victims to throw off the shackles of their oppression and choose a different path
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
The Fabelmans
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
a probing family drama that is also suffused with a genuine love of the art of cinema and all its potentials
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
(1972)
|
James Kendrick
|
the first half is structured as a kind of lumbering black comedy before the ghouls are unleashed, which, despite the general amateurishness of the production, pack quite a punch
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Malcolm X
(1992)
|
James Kendrick
|
Washington’s commanding central performance and the intensity with which the story is told make the film feel both brisk and invigorating, challenging our notions of history and what it means to be black in America, then and now.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
EO
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
a deeply moving, beautifully wrought, and keenly reflective film that finds new avenues of dramatization of, and insight into, all the good and bad that humanity has to offer
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Bones and All
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
doesn’t quite reach the twisted melodramatic heights to which Guadagnino clearly aspires, which makes Bones and All, like his Suspiria remake, more interesting as a concept than it is effective as a film.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Decision to Leave
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
By the time it works its way to its tragic conclusion, Decision to Leave has spun a fully immersive web of romantic intrigue that demonstrates without doubt that Park is just as good in a restrained mode as he is when he lets it all fly.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
When it works, it is because it finds just the right balance between the legitimate form it is parodying and the ridiculousness of the content stuffed into it. In other words, it is like a feature-length “Weird Al” music video.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Eve's Bayou
(1997)
|
James Kendrick
|
both complex and engaging, drawing us into the smoldering, simmering world of the Batiste family and their twisted dynamics without turning them into Gothic grotesquerie
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
The Good Nurse
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
flips the serial-killer narrative on its head, making it all the more enigmatic in refusing to offer up pat assessments or easy explanations
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Soft & Quiet
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
writer/director Beth de Araújo builds the momentum so well and the performances are so insidiously effective that it works despite its obviousness
Posted Nov 14, 2022
|
|
2/4
|
Halloween Ends
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
commendable for its ambition, although said ambition is relentlessly stretched to the breaking point by shoddy plotting, confusing characters, and a general lack of focus
Posted Nov 02, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
Don't Worry Darling
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
finds enough intriguing and compelling means of dramatizing and turning its domestic horrors inside out that it remains engaging right up until the final frames
Posted Nov 02, 2022
|
|
3.5/4
|
Cure
(1997)
|
James Kendrick
|
an effective, deeply unsettling thriller that continues to perplex because it refuses the kinds of restorative satisfaction normally supplied by that genre
Posted Nov 01, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
Smile
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
an effective horror film that is both conventionally scary and engaging in its evocation of memory and trauma
Posted Nov 01, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
Goodnight Mommy
(2022)
|
James Kendrick
|
doesn’t have much that is unique or original to offer visually, but its dramatic conflict is potent enough to carry us through to the eventual revelation we may or may not see coming
Posted Oct 17, 2022
|
|
4/4
|
Exotica
(1994)
|
James Kendrick
|
a master class in complex narrative design in the service of dramatizing the depths of human emotion
Posted Oct 17, 2022
|
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