Stephen Marche
Stephen Marche's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Esquire Magazine
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Nightingale (2014) |
It captures the anomie of screened-in life only too well. It seethes with the sense of boredom and self-obsession and confusion we all live with. But how much of that do you really want to surround yourself with? - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 19, 2018
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Any Given Sunday (1999) |
After you've seen the first ten minutes, you could probably write out the plot yourself, beat by beat. But inside all that cliche is actually a very interesting, and very pertinent, vision of football. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 18, 2018
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Lincoln (2012) |
Day-Lewis appears historical even when he's cuddling his son. He just can't manage to seem normal. Both aspects of the character seem hokey, and empty - missing the essential humanness that saves historical drama from just being costumes and ideas. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 18, 2018
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The Master (2012) |
The Master is a perfectly articulated, perfectly plotted, perfectly acted depiction of the origin of a religion. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 18, 2018
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Argo (2012) |
A film supposedly about the Middle East that actually turns out to be a film about the relationship between Canada and the United States and yet somehow remains interesting. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 18, 2018
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) |
the movie is so visually entrancing, thrilling really... It's truly a pity that all this loveliness should go to serve such a slight, badly-made waste of a story. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 18, 2018
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The Lone Ranger (2013) |
The Lone Ranger is a film that manages to be bad in many ordinary ways and, also, to be bad in a rather extraordinary way. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 18, 2018
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The Great Gatsby (2013) |
The illusions that Gatsby and Luhrmann create are lies and ultimately cheap and corrupt, but their spell is nonetheless powerful. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 18, 2018
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Room 237 (2012) |
The people behind the theories in Room 237 all share an intense capacity to infer connections. What is so maddening is that those connections are clearly there, though their significance is ultimately hidden. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 17, 2018
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Gravity (2013) |
May be the densest visual experience ever made. The disorientation is physical, visceral -- the audience I was with limped out of the cinema grasping at chair arms for balance. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 17, 2018
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The Paperboy (2012) |
Whether you want to see it or not is more or less the same the decision as whether you want to go to Florida itself. You probably do, even if you don't care to admit it. Like the state itself, it's just so much trashy fun. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 17, 2018
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To the Wonder (2012) |
To the Wonder is intoxicating, no doubt, but not as a movie. Watched in a theater, it's boring and pretentious. It would actually serve much better playing on a wall at a party. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 17, 2018
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A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015) |
The birth of Israel is so much more than a setting here -- it is the existential reality that shapes the characters. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 17, 2018
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Phil Spector (2013) |
Victims' rights groups have openly worried that the movie will call into question the nineteen-year sentence Spector received... They needn't worry. The film is no challenge to anything except the careers of those involved with it. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 17, 2018
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Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie (2016) |
This is the moment to declare it official: Political satire in the United States in 2016 is impossible. No one should even try. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 17, 2018
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Skyfall (2012) |
Bond has doubled down on the blandness. Skyfall is one of the most smoothly manufactured acts of purely forgettable filmmaking we are likely to see this or any year. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Oct 16, 2018
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The Ivory Game (2016) |
It is a film that explains more than it judges, which makes it much more powerful than the standard hand-wringing environmental documentary. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Nov 08, 2016
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Amanda Knox (2016) |
It is fascinating, if only for the clarity of vision that the young woman at the center of the lunacy possesses. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Sep 30, 2016
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Bleed for This (2016) |
Bleed for This is macho taken to the point of existential absurdity. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Sep 19, 2016
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Brain on Fire (2016) |
Brain on Fire could also serve as an SNL parody. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Sep 19, 2016
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Author: The JT LeRoy Story (2016) |
Celebrity culture eventually swallows everything. It's swallowing American politics right now. The JT LRroy story was the moment it swallowed American literature. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Sep 14, 2016
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The Birth of a Nation (2016) |
The Birth of a Nation is a great and necessary film, essential to understanding both American history and our current moment. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Sep 14, 2016
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La La Land (2016) |
There is no way for me to explain this movie's pleasures in a way that makes sense. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Sep 14, 2016
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Pervert Park (2014) |
Pervert Park is full of unforgivable people, but the unforgivable is part of us, part of who we are collectively. And the unforgivable have to live somewhere, too. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jul 11, 2016
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Deadpool (2016) |
It's a meta-superhero movie in which the superhero is aware that he is in a superhero movie. The hate-written script is crafted with love. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Feb 18, 2016
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The Drop (2014) |
The world could use another ten films like this one, and it won't get them. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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The Trip to Italy (2014) |
A smart comedy about smart men having smart conversations. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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Foxcatcher (2014) |
One of the best films of the year, a quiet but riveting study of the desperation of men. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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American Sniper (2014) |
It is the first great film made about the war in Iraq. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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Victoria (2015) |
It is incredibly thrilling to watch, on at least two levels. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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Trumbo (2015) |
It's an Oscar-bait movie about how important and wonderful the Oscars are. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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Sicario (2015) |
Though the plot of Sicario may be, by now, well-trod, nobody has told it quite as stylishly. Of all working directors, Villeneuve is emerging as the best maker of straight thrillers. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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The Lobster (2015) |
It's easily the year's most original film, and genuinely unforgettable in places. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) |
If space operas appeal to you in any way, if Star Wars ever meant a thing to you, watching The Force Awakens will bring a messy amount of pleasure into your life. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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The Revenant (2015) |
It breathes with the agony of its making. It is the kind of film that justifies, in its joyful exploration of the possibilities of the medium, the unique glories of cinema and all that it can be. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2016
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Joy (2015) |
Russell wants you to know that his intentions are good. And I have no doubt that he's right. But Joy is a lousy, nearly unwatchable movie. - Esquire Magazine
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| Posted Dec 30, 2015
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