european-films.net - Rotten Tomatoes

european-films.net

european-films.net is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Boyd van Hoeij
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
O' Horten (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

The decidedly Nordic -- though not at all glacial -- O'Horten is a mixture of sweetness and deadpan that proves the Kaurismäki/Andersson school of filmmaking still has new delights in store.
Posted Aug 16, 2009
2
Venkovský Ucitel (The Country Teacher) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

This small, contemporary Czech marvel showcases two bright talents and a sentiment not seen often enough on screen nowadays: sincerity.
Posted Aug 14, 2009
3
Boogie (Summer Holiday) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Three 30-somethings relive their gloriously lurid college days for one night only in Radu Muntean's Boogie, a restrained and honest look at the male midlife crisis in an embryonic state.
Posted Jan 20, 2009
4
Un Secret (A Secret) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Makes for compelling viewing despite many familiar elements.
Posted Sep 6, 2008
5
La Fille Coupée en Deux (The Girl Cut in Two) (A Girl Cut in Two) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Snappy timing, focused writing and pitch-perfect acting.
Posted Aug 11, 2008
6
Ca$h (Cash) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Feels more like a cheap hypermarché knock-off with a fancily designed label than the real deal.
Posted Jul 2, 2008
7
Mataharis (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

Having three different protagonists is perhaps too much, as Bollain and Rodríguez' screenplay only succeeds in reducing each woman's story to its soap-opera essentials.
Posted Jun 30, 2008
8
Moscow, Belgium (Aanrijding in Moscou) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Crossover hits from Flanders are rare and Flemish working-class romantic comedies even less so, but van Rompaey may have actually made both when he made Aanrijding in Moscou (Moscow, Belgium).
Posted Jun 25, 2008
9
Tulpan (2009)

Boyd van Hoeij

The details of the exotic trappings on display may be relatively new but the rites-of-passage story is as old as civilisation itself in Tulpan, a timeless and endearing coming-of-age tale for the Story of the Weeping Camel crowd.
Posted Jun 24, 2008
10
Il Divo (2009)

Boyd van Hoeij

The uncrowned king of post-war Italian politics, Giulio Andreotti, might be the subject of Paolo Sorrentino's nominal biopic Il Divo, but it is as an incisive portrait of Italian politics in general that it impresses.
Posted Jun 24, 2008
11
Gomorrah (Gomorra) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

The Neapolitan mafia, known as the Camorra, gets the Syriana treatment in Matteo Garrone's Gomorra (Gomorrah), one of the most incisive organised-crime films to emerge from any country since the 1970s.
Posted Jun 23, 2008
12
The Class (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Again an austere but acutely observed drama with a quasi-documentary style, Entre les murs (The Class) impresses with its veracious tone and nuanced characterisations.
Posted Jun 19, 2008
13
Welcome to the Sticks (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

A winner. Puts its tale of a southern postal worker hoping for a transfer to the Côte d'Azur through the very effective reverse psychology wringer when he ends up in the dreaded north instead - but discovers he loves it.
Posted Apr 25, 2008
14
L...Kot Ljubezen (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

A willingly schizoid portrait of a generation growing up on a continent where distances count for nothing but some gaps are still impossible to close.
Posted Apr 9, 2008
15
Paris (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

After two continent-wide trips and a plunge into the French capital's underworld, French director Cédric Klapisch stays close to home and well above the ground for Paris, his valentine to the City of Lights.
Posted Mar 31, 2008
16
Revanche (2009)

Boyd van Hoeij

A meandering first half gives way to a spectacular psychological portrait of the deafening silence of pain and loneliness in Austrian writer-director Götz Spielmann's Revanche.
Posted Mar 31, 2008
17
Chiko (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

A gentle character sketch gradually makes way for a high-energy tale of loyalty and betrayal that is perhaps rife with clichés but works because Yildirim has established his characters properly.
Posted Mar 24, 2008
18
Musta jää (Black Ice) (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

A showcase for Finnish acting talent and a significant step forward for Kotwica, though the closing reels of Musta Jää dilute its power as a psychological thriller in favour of plot twists more at home in a soap opera.
Posted Mar 24, 2008
19
Tiramisu (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Tiramisu walks a fine line between feel-good clichés and true character development, though Van der Oest finally makes it all believable because of her direction of the actors.
Posted Mar 24, 2008
20
Leo (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

Especially the first hour of Leo is a promising debut in full-out Scandinavian drama for the comedy director after his first try at something more dramatic with his charming displaced children's tale Zozo.
Posted Mar 24, 2008
21
Windkracht 10: Koksijde Rescue (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

This Flemish spin-off from a successful TV series never completely relinquishes its tube roots (especially in the script department) but its acting and technical prowess shout out for big-screen projection.
Posted Mar 19, 2008
22
Love Songs (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Are the characters completely believable? No. Are the feelings the characters talk and sing about pinpointed with a precision that seems to have become a Honoré trademark? Very much so.
Posted Mar 17, 2008
23
Le Papier ne Peut pas Envelopper la Braise(Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers) (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

If the film makes quite an impact, it is because of its candidness and the way Panh creates a heart-breaking portrait of these 'women of joy' without once resorting to voice-over or off-camera remarks.
Posted Mar 12, 2008
24
Let the Right One In (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Quiet, touching and poetic are not normally terms associated with vampire films, but there are no better words to describe Lat den rätte komma in (Let the Right One in) from director Tomas Alfredson.
Posted Mar 12, 2008
25
Love and Other Crimes (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

A classroom example of how to mix different genres into a coherent whole, with some of the more daring scenes -- including a planned suicide saved by a serenade on a rooftop -- working according to their own logic.
Posted Mar 12, 2008
26
Outside Love (Uden for kærligheden) (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

Might at first seem like the umpteenth modern update of Romeo and Juliet, though in reality Uden for kærligheden (Outside Love) tries to grapple with complex issues as a reflection of our complex times.
Posted Mar 10, 2008
27
Animals in Love (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

The documentary Les animaux amoureux (Animals in Love) might seem cute on paper but lacks the rigour of recent documentary hits such as La marche de l'empereur (March of the Penguins) and Earth.
Posted Mar 10, 2008
28
Go With Peace Jamil (Ga med fred Jamil - Ma salama Jamil) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

In all likelihood, Ma salama Jamil is one of the first Dogme-inspired films mostly spoken in Arabic.
Posted Mar 3, 2008
29
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

'Enormous crowd-pleaser' and 'directed by Mike Leigh' were not phrases this critic ever thought he would be putting together in the same sentence, but Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky is exactly that.
Posted Mar 3, 2008
30
Caos Calmo (Quiet Chaos) (2009)

Boyd van Hoeij

Grimaldi, Moretti and their co-screenwriters have cunningly opened up the narrative cinematically.
Posted Mar 3, 2008
31
Filth and Wisdom (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

A grungy ensemble piece that casts a fascinating spell despite its many shortcomings, Madonna's directorial debut Filth and Wisdom is equal parts naughty and nice (or filthy and wise, as the title would have it).
Posted Mar 1, 2008
32
Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

The greatest indication that a director is in complete control of his material is when everything seems to be casually in the right place, which certainly seems to be the case in Les amours d'Astree et de Celadon.
Posted Feb 28, 2008
33
The Duchess of Langeais (Ne Touchez Pas La Hache)(Don't Touch the Axe) (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

It may sound like silly wordplay, but this film is nothing short of rivetting.
Posted Feb 18, 2008
34
The Silence Before Bach (Die Stille vor Bach) (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

About as far away from a conventional composer biopic as Kraft's products are from real cheese.
Posted Feb 3, 2008
35
L' Avocat de la Terreur (Terror's Advocate) (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

Though the film comes with a warning that it expresses only the point of view of its director, in reality, what Schroeder seems to offer is a portrait of a glib man who simply defies any conclusive description.
Posted Jan 30, 2008
36
King of Ping Pong (Ping-Pongkingen) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

A pleasant if not entirely successful addition to the Scandinavian tragicomedy genre.
Posted Jan 28, 2008
37
Herbstzeitlosen (2006)

Boyd van Hoeij

As a grey-haired feel-good movie, the film is a winner. But who thinks this might be Calendar Girls with mountains is wrong; it never quite reaches that level of sophistication or bite.
Posted Jan 22, 2008
38
Ben X (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

It would be hard to guess from the final result that Balthazar has never made a film before; Ben X takes full advantage of all that the medium has to offer.
Posted Jan 18, 2008
39
The Fox & the Child (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

A cute bedtime story that features spectacular photography and unaffected performances from both protagonists.
Posted Jan 14, 2008
40
Gone with the Woman (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

Tatt av kvinnen is much like a musical but only without the songs; the form has to be accepted no questions asked for the film to function. And any detected realism is surely unintended.
Posted Dec 20, 2007
41
Inside Planet Earth (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

Mix the grave but clear message of An Inconvenient Truth with the alternatively raw and cute look at wildlife of La marche de l'empereur (March of the Penguins) and you will get Earth, a bona fide documentary hit.
Posted Dec 13, 2007
42
Eduart (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

The true interest of Eduart lies in the way it offers an Albanian immigrant's point of view as presented through Greek eyes, with the Stockholm syndrome and Freudian and ancient Greek concepts playing out in the background.
Posted Nov 21, 2007
43
Le fils de l'épicier (The Grocer's Son) (2008)

Boyd van Hoeij

The lead actors are hot and the living is easy in the French summertime idyll Le fils de l'epicier (The Grocer's Son).
Posted Nov 5, 2007
44
Summer '04 (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

If Krohmer and Knocke meticulously crafted the world Miriam inhabits, it is Gedeck's presence that makes it such a tangible mess -- which is meant as high praise indeed.
Posted Oct 30, 2007
45
Vivere (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

Vivere is a study in contrasts that, though it has a somewhat laborious narrative structure, continues Maccarone's ascent as a strong new voice in European cinema.
Posted Oct 29, 2007
46
In Mom's Head (La tête de maman) (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

Seduces with a surprisingly dense narrative and a decidedly French take on the role of extramarital affairs and everyone's undeniable right to happiness.
Posted Oct 22, 2007
47
Nadine (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

As a refracted psychological portrait of longed-for motherhood, Nadine offers a revealing glimpse of a subject not often seen on the big screen.
Posted Oct 22, 2007
48
La Graine et le Mulet (The Secret of the Grain) (Couscous) (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

Though not all of the film's 151 minutes feel indispensable, the story and mise-en-scene of this immigrant family's daily struggles are so involving that it is still well worth seeing on the big screen.
Posted Oct 22, 2007
49
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Boyd van Hoeij

An Elizabethan-era version of the madcap energy, penny-novel intrigue and intentional historical inaccuracies of Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge!.
Posted Oct 21, 2007
50
Akamas (2006)

Boyd van Hoeij

Deftly reunites the emotional and the political, the historical and the natural into a familiar story infused with the particular details of Cypriot and Greek-language culture.
Posted Oct 20, 2007