East Bay Express

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
News of the World (2020) Kelly Vance Hanks' debut oater has one or two dimensions that help it overcome some of the more obvious clichés. EDIT
Posted Dec 23, 2020
Chungking Express (1994) Kelly Vance Almost as much of a thrill as In the Mood for Love. EDIT
Posted Dec 16, 2020
To the Ends of the Earth (2019) Kelly Vance A penetrating portrait of the pitfalls of modern life-but Kurosawa should have ditched the imitation Sound of Music finale. EDIT
Posted Dec 16, 2020
Outrage (1950) Kelly Vance High- and low-angle shots straight out of M and frantic cross-cutting. The rest is therapy. EDIT
Posted Dec 15, 2020
Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan (2020) Kelly Vance Filmmaker Temple... splashes the artist's mad, messy, pin-wheeling career and opinions onto the screen. EDIT
Posted Dec 9, 2020
Mank (2020) Kelly Vance Fascinating idea for a long magazine article, but Mank is a pretty awful movie. EDIT
Posted Dec 2, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy (2020) Kelly Vance Not since I, Tonya or Citizen Ruth or maybe Gummo or even Deliverance, have we been treated to such a gaudy display of miscalculated, down-scale exuberance (read: clichés). EDIT
Posted Nov 30, 2020
Princess of the Row (2019) Kelly Vance Both [Tayler] Buck and [Edi] Gathegi deserve awards for their gratifying performances. EDIT
Posted Nov 30, 2020
The Climb (2019) Kelly Vance If we're going to spend 97 minutes with a pair of thick-headed dolts, they should at least be cuddly and lovable instead of dull and annoying. EDIT
Posted Nov 18, 2020
Coded Bias (2020) Kelly Vance Director [Shalini] Kantayya's rallying cry makes complete sense: "Data rights are human rights." EDIT
Posted Nov 18, 2020
White Noise (2020) Kelly Vance [Filmmaker Daniel] Lombroso's easy-target subjects, gaudy as they are, make a nominally fascinating study. EDIT
Posted Oct 21, 2020
() Kelly Vance A gratifyingly candid portrait of the artist. EDIT
Posted Oct 12, 2020
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) Kelly Vance Sorkin's drama, leavened by Abbie Hoffman's sitcom-style repartee and bloody vintage newsreel footage, can serve as a useful reminder that the more things change, the more they remain the same. EDIT
Posted Oct 6, 2020
Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) Steve Palopoli Okay, I'm not saying it's a great movie. In fact, it seems to get less watchable the farther we get from its original release in 1988. But you gotta love this true cult classic. EDIT
Posted Apr 23, 2020
Trolls World Tour (2020) Steve Palopoli I totally watched this with my 10-year-old when it was released last weekend, and she loved it, so please don't tell her that I told you it's freaking terrible. EDIT
Posted Apr 23, 2020
The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019) Kelly Vance The Burnt Orange Heresy is a simple yet richly illustrated detour to the dark side. EDIT
Posted Mar 13, 2020
Sorry We Missed You (2019) Kelly Vance The performances are as strong as the message: Something's got to change. EDIT
Posted Mar 13, 2020
Human Nature (2019) Kelly Vance Far and away the most intelligent, thought-provoking movie of the young year... See it and be amazed. EDIT
Posted Mar 11, 2020
Greed (2019) Kelly Vance Food for thought, the next time you go shopping. EDIT
Posted Mar 6, 2020
Incitement (2020) Kelly Vance All the usual excuses for violent action in the service of self-righteous ideology get trotted out in Yigal's measured, steady progression toward political murder, and they're familiar to the point of ridiculousness. EDIT
Posted Mar 4, 2020
Zombi Child (2019) Kelly Vance [Filmmaker Bertrand Bonello's] film seems reasonably sincere, but dreadfully awkward. EDIT
Posted Mar 4, 2020
Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band (2019) Kelly Vance The basic lack of big-picture perspective is the only real drawback to Once Were Brothers, but we get over it. Once the music track kicks in, the doc goes up on Cripple Creek and never comes down. EDIT
Posted Feb 26, 2020
Beanpole (2019) Kelly Vance Masha and Iya are slowly settling into a peacetime mood, where there's time for a little tenderness. Their emergence is something to see. EDIT
Posted Feb 21, 2020
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (2018) Kelly Vance Rob Garver's reverential yet incisive documentary tribute to the late film critic, is worth still one more excursion in the Wayback Machine, a device that's seeing a lot of use at the art house these days. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2020
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) Kelly Vance It's a truly mean-spirited piece of work, a nasty ordeal for anyone who cares about characters and why they do what they do. But that doesn't mean it's completely worthless. EDIT
Posted Feb 7, 2020
The Assistant (2019) Kelly Vance [A] provocative character study. EDIT
Posted Feb 5, 2020
The Last Full Measure (2020) Kelly Vance The Last Full Measure shoots itself in the foot. It may deserve a Purple Heart for that, but nothing much more. EDIT
Posted Jan 24, 2020
The Gentlemen (2020) Kelly Vance Good luck with The Gentlemen, you'll need it. EDIT
Posted Jan 24, 2020
Color Out of Space (2019) Kelly Vance Yet there's a restrained helter-skelter to his Lovecraft tribute that ingratiates it as we watch Nathan's farm fall to pieces. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2020
Citizen K (2019) Kelly Vance Veteran documentarian [Alex] Gibney's sure touch with his sources gives the doc an occasional welcome whiff of humor. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2020
Les misérables (2019) Kelly Vance See Les Misèrables and face the facts. EDIT
Posted Jan 15, 2020
Clemency (2019) Kelly Vance Clemency doubles down on the moral and emotional implications in the persons of Bernadine Williams, a prison warden (Alfre Woodard, in a remarkable role), and a death-row inmate named Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge). EDIT
Posted Jan 15, 2020
Just Mercy (2019) Kelly Vance It's a pleasure, after all the high-profile, much-ballyhooed holiday releases, to get wrapped up in such a thoughtfully conceived, well written, stirringly presented display of character acting as Just Mercy. EDIT
Posted Jan 8, 2020
Varda by Agnès (2019) Kelly Vance Like the woman herself, Varda par Agnès is practically irresistible. EDIT
Posted Jan 8, 2020
1917 (2019) Kelly Vance Awe-inspiring, terrifying, yet utterly gorgeous. EDIT
Posted Jan 2, 2020
Invisible Life (2019) Kelly Vance Emotionally vivid, ultra-colorful. EDIT
Posted Jan 2, 2020
Uncut Gems (2019) Kelly Vance Sandler is terrific in this role, a flop-sweat-soaked comedy of brutality punctuated by punches to the face. EDIT
Posted Dec 26, 2019
Little Women (2019) Kelly Vance Gerwig's Little Women disarms with charm, from Saoirse Ronan's performance as Jo, most headstrong of the four March sisters of Concord, Mass., all the way down to the cozy New England settings. EDIT
Posted Dec 26, 2019
Bombshell (2019) Kelly Vance Funny and exhilarating as it is, the film is a placebo for an ache that seems as if it's never going to go away. We can laugh for two hours at Bombshell, but the joke is ultimately on us. EDIT
Posted Dec 18, 2019
A Hidden Life (2019) Kelly Vance Thanks to Malick for using such an emotionally powerful dramatic premise as the basis of his comeback. EDIT
Posted Dec 18, 2019
Richard Jewell (2019) Kelly Vance Food for thought from a filmmaker often derided as a rightwing cheerleader, but more accurately a champion of outsiders and underdogs. EDIT
Posted Dec 11, 2019
The Kingmaker (2019) Kelly Vance The Kingmaker, a film guaranteed to nauseate fans of democracy, is nevertheless a must-see. EDIT
Posted Dec 11, 2019
Knives Out (2019) Kelly Vance A refreshingly witty and suitably busy piece of holiday popcorn-flick entertainment. EDIT
Posted Dec 3, 2019
Shooting the Mafia (2019) Kelly Vance Director Kim Longinotto's portrait of the red-haired, chain-smoking photographer [Letizia] Battaglia... is a vivid documentary description of a very specific time and place. EDIT
Posted Dec 2, 2019
Dark Waters (2019) Kelly Vance Makes for a dreary, warmed-over-Erin-Brockovich drama. EDIT
Posted Dec 2, 2019
Marriage Story (2019) Kelly Vance Baumbach is the anti-Ozu, and Marriage Story is something we can look at any time we feel too happy about ourselves. Enjoy. EDIT
Posted Nov 27, 2019
Queen & Slim (2019) Kelly Vance Queen & Slim, one of the year's most provocative films, is powerful stuff, neatly wrapped in realistic yet mythological terms by the players and their director, Melina Matsoukas. EDIT
Posted Nov 27, 2019
Ága (2018) Kelly Vance Ága is a subtle yet unmistakable reminder that there are thousands, even millions of stories in the world that have almost nothing to do with anything electronic. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2019
Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer (2019) Kelly Vance As Scandalous suggests in its fascinating dirty-laundry exposé of the once-powerful nameplate, the Enquirer has hardly been missed - except perhaps when it comes to details of the crimes of Tori Spelling. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2019
Ford v Ferrari (2019) Kelly Vance Ford v Ferrari is so much fun it's almost indecent. EDIT
Posted Nov 13, 2019