Stephen Farber
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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El estudiante (The Student) (2013) |
A dynamic piece of filmmaking that promises a bright future for Santiago Mitre. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Mar 21, 2023
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Rachel Hendrix (2023) |
A shade more ruthlessness in the editing would have given this touching drama of regret and renewal an even stronger impact. But viewers will not forget the sadness and wisdom of Singer’s Rachel Hendrix. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 28, 2023
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Seneca - On the Creation of Earthquakes (2023) |
The problem is with the underlying conception. Schwentke’s attempt to create a parable of the decline of the American empire seems mainly forced and fatuous. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 21, 2023
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Of an Age (2022) |
A brief but vivid encounter. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 08, 2023
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On Borrowed Time (2018) |
A tender, humane comedy that might have been set in any country where a group of aging citizens struggle to retain their dignity and their vitality. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Oct 29, 2022
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Wildcat (2022) |
A riveting journey into the wild. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 07, 2022
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The Corridors of Power (2022) |
An illuminating look at very dark events. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 07, 2022
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"Sr." (2022) |
Perhaps inevitably, the film moves toward a deeply poignant conclusion, but there are enough rambunctious and slightly zonked-out moments to provide a vivid, full-blooded portrait. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 07, 2022
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Merkel (2022) |
An apt tribute to a political ground-breaker. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 05, 2022
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The Wonder (2022) |
An illuminating study of dark prejudices. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 04, 2022
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Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy (2022) |
Sporadically illuminating. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 02, 2022
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The Deer Hunter (1978) |
In terms of sheer impact, this is the best movie of 1978; it restores power and urgency to the screen. - New West/California
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| Posted Aug 30, 2022
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Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) |
The movies have given us scores of courtroom dramas; Kramer vs. Kramer is one of the few that draw real blood. - New West/California
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| Posted Aug 05, 2022
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Ordinary People (1980) |
No doubt Redford and company thought they were making a liberal humanistic statement, and that's why the film's misogynous blind spot is so unsettling. But this weakness exposes the simplistic nature of the entire film. - New York Daily News
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| Posted Jul 12, 2022
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Father Stu (2022) |
Despite some R-rated language, the whole enterprise seems bland and perfunctory. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Apr 12, 2022
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Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) |
Spacek and Jones are a pleasure to watch, but we still come away feeling that a great deal of the dramatic potential of this extraordinary story has been betrayed. - New West/California
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| Posted Apr 07, 2022
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Juniper (2021) |
The film suffers from a certain predictability, but it is well-made and affecting, and positively thrilling when Rampling is on screen. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Mar 22, 2022
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Bruised (2020) |
While viewers will be impressed by Berry's performance, other elements of the film are problematic. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Nov 15, 2021
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The Tin Drum (1979) |
The film is done with such grace and control that we quickly accept the singular perspective of this bizarre tale. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 04, 2021
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Wise Blood (1979) |
Wise Blood is as sly and nimble as some of the late films of Bunuel. Huston is now 73, so this is an old man's film, but it has a vigor and audacity that most young directors should envy. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 04, 2021
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Serial (1980) |
The games played by swinging young marrieds were satirized ten years ago in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, while the estian jargon was skewered more savagely in Semi-Tough. Serial fails to find new twists on these tired old jokes. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 04, 2021
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Martin (1978) |
Martin is not quite terrifying or riveting enough to rank with the classic horror films, but it teases the imagination in unexpected ways. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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Violette (1978) |
The film is not as involving as one might wish, but it's worth seeing for its intelligent, icy dissection of a chilling, true crime story. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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No Time for Breakfast (1975) |
No Time for Breakfast doesn't do justice to its subject or to the talents of its star. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979) |
The entire movie seems slightly bloodless. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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Tattooed Tears (1979) |
Broomfield and Churchill capture the oppressiveness of the daily routines, along with some hair-raising dramatic encounters that illustrate the tension between the inmates and their guardians. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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Players (1979) |
I don't think I've ever seen a film in which so much time is spent on irrelevant actions. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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Prophecy (1979) |
The problem with Prophecy is that it can't decide whether it wants to be a serious indictment of corporate corruption or a campy, old-fashioned monster marathon. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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The Muppet Movie (1979) |
Suffice it to say that I think this movie is funnier than Manhattan, more romantic than Hurricane, and a more sophisticated speculation on illusion and reality than Last Year at Marienbad. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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A Perfect Couple (1979) |
Altman has a new movie called A Perfect Couple, and it turns out to be one of his finest achievements. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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The Champ (1979) |
This film has only two moods: the mawkish and the maudlin. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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Fame (1980) |
With a lot of energy and talent going for it, you can't help wanting to like Fame. Yet the sad truth is that the film falls short of its potential in almost every way. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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Tom Horn (1980) |
The movie has no poetry and no vitality. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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The Long Riders (1980) |
The Long Riders is exceptionally well made, but I came out feeling that there was no pressing reason to make it at all. - New West/California
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| Posted Nov 03, 2021
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Citizen Ashe (2021) |
Citizen Ashe honors a man who went through something of a learning curve while undergoing more than his share of triumph as well as tragedy. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 14, 2021
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The Same Storm (2021) |
This film leaves us moved and provoked - and impressed with its technical accomplishments - even if it isn't a perfect distillation of our ongoing national nightmare. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 09, 2021
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Cyrano (2021) |
I think it is Wright's best film, even though it has some problematic elements. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 08, 2021
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The Automat (2021) |
This is no more than a minor piece of social history, but it wins us over with humor and a pointed touch of melancholy. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 06, 2021
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The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021) |
The Electrical Life may not always sizzle, but it hums along pleasingly. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 05, 2021
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Belfast (2021) |
Branagh's most personal film is imperfect, but the emotion that it builds in the final section, as the family plays out a wrenching universal drama of emigration, is searing. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 05, 2021
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King Richard (2021) |
It is far from a perfect film, but it tantalizes, thanks to the strong subject matter and the sharp characterizations and performances. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 03, 2021
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The Auschwitz Report (2020) |
Harrowing but effective. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 21, 2021
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No Man's Land (2021) |
Western myths and characters, tellingly revived. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 19, 2021
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The Way I See It (2020) |
These pictures tell a poignant story. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 10, 2020
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Cured (2020) |
Fascinating doc about doctors who took too long to heal themselves. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Aug 26, 2020
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Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (2020) |
The title may sound incendiary, something left over from the Russ Meyer era, but Danny Wolf's Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies turns out to be informative and even-handed as well as entertaining. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Aug 13, 2020
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The Dirty Dozen (1967) |
The Dirty Dozen is not the first movie to treat its audience with contempt. But the film is uncannily, frighteningly in keeping with today's military mentality. - Film Quarterly
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| Posted Jul 18, 2020
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Rosemary's Baby (1968) |
How reassuring, really, to find a moderately sophisticated film where the colors are black and white again instead of that infuriating grey, where the evil is NOT banal but truely hellish. - Los Angeles Free Press
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| Posted Jan 30, 2020
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The Detective (1968) |
The Detective belongs to its writer, Abby Mann, and he has made it into the kind of "tough," "hard-hitting," "socially conscious" picture that Hollywood used to pride itself on. - Los Angeles Free Press
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| Posted Jan 30, 2020
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The Green Berets (1968) |
No movie so archaic can have a dangerous effect on an audience. - Los Angeles Free Press
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| Posted Jan 30, 2020
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