Steve Davis
Steve Davis's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Austin Chronicle
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Scream VI (2023) |
This latest entry in the ongoing saga of Ghostface demonstrates its premise remains viable, though admittedly showing a few signs of calcification. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 09, 2023
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Jesus Revolution (2023) |
Nothing in this evangelical film about a short-lived religious movement taking root in late Sixties Southern California... is open to chance, much less to any interpretation other than an unequivocal One. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Of an Age (2022) |
On its own, it’s a nicely drawn vignette, tapping a palpable sense of desire between the two leads. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Sharper (2023) |
Sharper ticks so assuredly in execution the hitches won’t distract you – and that may be the biggest con of all. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 09, 2023
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Plane (2023) |
It ain’t Shakespeare, but if the bread-and-butter movies of Butler’s career were as compactly entertaining and as plausible (granted, a relative term) as Plane, he might get a little more respect. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 12, 2023
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Women Talking (2022) |
Polley keeps things moving at a good pace as the looming deadline creates tension. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 22, 2022
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Leonor Will Never Die (2022) |
Although its ambitions often exceed its reach, the meta-mad Filipino film Leonor Will Never Die bursts with imaginative impulses, scoring slightly more hits than misses. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 01, 2022
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) |
Pinocchio thrives on a storytelling imagination that thinks outside the box. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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Till (2022) |
What distinguishes Till from most other well-intentioned films telling similarly themed stories set during this tumultuous era of American history is the absence of white saviors. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Oct 27, 2022
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Loving Highsmith (2022) |
While the documentary offers a few delicate glimpses of a self the writer did not openly share during her 74-year lifetime... it falls short of conveying the vital essence of this modern and enigmatic woman of her time. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Oct 13, 2022
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Moonage Daydream (2022) |
Can only be described as an enormous cinematic collage. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Sep 15, 2022
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Breaking (2022) |
It’s solid, from top to bottom. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Aug 25, 2022
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Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) |
The movie delivers its chuckles and elicits its sighs in a calibrated narrative arc that softens the hard edges of its late bloomer’s life. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jul 14, 2022
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Lost Illusions (2021) |
The only way to avoid a disastrous debut is to shell out a higher fee to the provocateur in return for applause and a standing ovation... Lost Illusions deserves this rave simply based on its commendable merits. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jul 07, 2022
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Attack on Finland (2021) |
This is nothing like the absorbing Nordic noir of modern Scandinavian television and cinema. It more resembles good old-fashioned American mediocrity.
- Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jun 30, 2022
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Benediction (2021) |
Benediction is both expressionistic and vivid in recounting selected particulars of an outwardly fascinating life. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jun 02, 2022
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Vortex (2021) |
Unrelenting and inconsolable, with a smattering of compassionate moments, the superb Vortex brings to mind an observation attributed to actress Bette Davis, no less: Getting old ain’t for sissies. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted May 05, 2022
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The Aviary (2022) |
A beguiling metaphor, but by the end, you’re left with a self-cannibalized movie. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Apr 28, 2022
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Mothering Sunday (2021) |
While the movie’s nonlinear construction is its selling point, at least for those moviegoers who prefer a bit of a challenge, an underlying vibe of melancholy gives Mothering Sunday thematic weight. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Apr 07, 2022
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Compartment No. 6 (2021) |
For a while, you wonder whether the movie will become a thriller about the perils of solo travel, particularly for single females. But the intimacy of director Kuosmanen’s Dogme 95-inspired camerawork hints that something more is happening here. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 17, 2022
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Death on the Nile (2022) |
The cast of characters is a predictable mixed bag of types updated to include persons of color, but Branagh eschews an all-star approach in filling those roles in his pursuit of something other than pomp and circumstance. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 10, 2022
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The Tiger Rising (2022) |
Director/screenwriter Giarratana occasionally summons up a lovely moment, although the overall tone is inconsistent. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 20, 2022
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The Legend of La Llorona (2022) |
This umpteenth time is not a charm. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 06, 2022
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American Underdog (2021) |
American Underdog becomes scarily ecstatic, religious in its fervor for the manufactured thrills of a professional sport many believe has lost sight of its original core values. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 22, 2021
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Nightmare Alley (2021) |
Nightmare Alley is something to be admired, rather than treasured. It's big, classic moviemaking with a moral in the end. And there can be a lot to be said for that. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 16, 2021
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West Side Story (2021) |
Methinks the Bard would be proud. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 09, 2021
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Encanto (2021) |
There's nothing to dislike about this latest animated film in the Disney canon (No. 60!), but there's also not much about it that sticks either... - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 24, 2021
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Belfast (2021) |
A messy, and sometimes glorious, blur. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 11, 2021
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Becoming Cousteau (2021) |
Though this capable documentary is comprehensively informative in so many ways (perhaps to a fault), the one thing it doesn't quite convey is the wonder and marvel of the undersea world of Cousteau, which continued to move him until his death at age 87. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Oct 21, 2021
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The Addams Family 2 (2021) |
With the exception of Kroll's gravelly intoned Uncle Fester, the voicework is sketchy, with Theron's Seven-Sisters elocution bordering on sacrilege. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Oct 15, 2021
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Dating & New York (2021) |
The gap between Gen Y-ers weaned on text messaging and Instagram posts and everyone else ("OK, boomer") may delineate which trespasses you're willing to forgive here, depending on your birth year. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Sep 09, 2021
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Ailey (2021) |
Though Ailey aptly demonstrates why this virtuoso should be remembered, it reveals little about the man himself, only sketchily delving into his adult personal life. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Aug 05, 2021
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The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021) |
Whatever the reason, the pleasures of witnessing a miniaturized bigwig in full-on CEO rant mode are largely denied here. It's a like a version of 30 Rock featuring a Jack Donaghy with only a smidgen of his smarmy charm. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jul 02, 2021
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Into The Darkness (2020) |
You'd think this chapter in Danish history would inspire passion in a native filmmaker, but the movie lacks fervency. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted May 20, 2021
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There Is No Evil (2020) |
It's a comparatively solid quartet of short films that critically examine the country's dehumanizing system of capital punishment, putting a human face on the citizen-executioner asked to carry out the all-too-frequently enacted death penalty. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted May 13, 2021
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The Killing of Two Lovers (2020) |
Director/screenwriter/editor Machoian is firmly in control throughout The Killing of Two Lovers, deftly sustaining a slow-burn tension in this unflinching story of a disintegrating marriage. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted May 13, 2021
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Moffie (2019) |
Although Moffie is competently executed, its genre-straddling will leave you vaguely unsatisfied if you decide too quickly the kind of movie it should be. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Apr 09, 2021
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F.T.A. (1972) |
While the cabaret performances are the documentary's draw, the movie comes most alive in the interspersed interviews with servicemen and women willing to speak their minds. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 11, 2021
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Stray (2021) |
Although Stray is a tonic for dog lovers, it also speaks to something greater than just the humane treatment of its animals. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Mar 06, 2021
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Sin (2019) |
The film leaves you hanging, ending with a puzzling 11th-hour epiphany followed by a cheesy greatest-hits montage of Michelangelo's masterworks. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 18, 2021
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The World to Come (2020) |
When in the presence of Kirby's warm and exotic pre-Raphaelite beauty, Waterston smiles with pure delight (at first, it's a jarring sight), relieved in the discovery that life can be more than everyday drudgery and pain. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Feb 18, 2021
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Supernova (2020) |
With these two actors in command, Supernova doesn't just dare to speak the name of a love between two deeply committed men facing an untenable situation. It shouts it from the rooftops. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 29, 2021
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Our Friend (2019) |
It dares to speak to the rare joys of life in the midst of tragedy. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 22, 2021
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Two Deaths of Henry Baker (2020) |
The no-man-standing conclusion has the whiff of dramatic nihilism, and it's nowhere as perversely operatic as you might hope it would be. Still, the film projects both a strong intelligence and lots of ambition. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Jan 05, 2021
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Fatale (2020) |
The movie requires her to go full on crazy-ass slasher-bitch, much like the character at the end of another movie previously mentioned here. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 18, 2020
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Wild Mountain Thyme (2020) |
The two leads are watchable enough, but the script keeps their characters emotionally separated, so you never see anything remotely like chemistry between them. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 11, 2020
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Nationtime (1972) |
The pleasures of Nationtime are largely observational. Its you-are-there immediacy can be thrilling; you often feel like you're witnessing something important. What you see is what you get. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Dec 01, 2020
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Monsoon (2019) |
Director/screenwriter Khaou evinces a keen sense of geography here, first in a bustling Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh City... and then in the more provincial and less dynamic Hanoi. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 10, 2020
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Pier Kids (2019) |
A sociological offspring of Paris Is Burning. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 10, 2020
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The Arbors (2020) |
It's a fairly sophisticated (almost noirish) psychological narrative for the genre, and director Witmer does a fine job of maintaining a keen sense of anxiety in the film. - Austin Chronicle
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| Posted Nov 10, 2020
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