1
|
A-
|
Derek DelGaudio's In & of Itself (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Card tricks you won't believe, and yet, the film is more about our identities than about magic.
EDIT
Posted Jan 17, 2021
|
2
|
B+
|
Sacred Cow (2021)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Gently but convincingly makes the case for vegan diets.
EDIT
Posted Dec 27, 2020
|
3
|
A-
|
Promising Young Woman (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Carey Mulligan again shows why she is one of the world's greatest actresses.
EDIT
Posted Dec 13, 2020
|
4
|
B+
|
Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A criminal's trial plays like a bouncy reality show.
EDIT
Posted Dec 6, 2020
|
5
|
B+
|
To the Ends of the Earth (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Highlights the acting of a petite Japanese woman.
EDIT
Posted Dec 6, 2020
|
6
|
B+
|
Assassins (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Portrays our president's boyfriend as not a nice man.
EDIT
Posted Dec 6, 2020
|
7
|
B+
|
The Black Book of Father Dinis (2018)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Grand, romantic and melodramatic historical fiction.
EDIT
Posted Dec 2, 2020
|
8
|
B
|
Mayor (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Here is the kind of city executive that Gaza could use.
EDIT
Posted Nov 29, 2020
|
9
|
C+
|
Another Round (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Mads is a great Danish actor, but here his character is a bore.
EDIT
Posted Nov 29, 2020
|
10
|
B+
|
The Last Vermeer (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A first-class melodrama on one of history's great art forgeries.
EDIT
Posted Nov 19, 2020
|
11
|
B+
|
The Test and the Art of Thinking (2018)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Made me realize that the SAT is as useful to colleges as trigonometry has been to me.
EDIT
Posted Nov 15, 2020
|
12
|
B+
|
Collective (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Then again, we never expected health care in Romania to imitate that of Denmark, did we?
EDIT
Posted Nov 15, 2020
|
13
|
A-
|
Crazy, Not Insane (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Chilling look at the psychology of murderers.
EDIT
Posted Nov 15, 2020
|
14
|
B
|
Acasa, My Home (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A heartfelt doc involving the cooperation of eleven people over four years.
EDIT
Posted Nov 10, 2020
|
15
|
B
|
Dirty God (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
The film's best feature is camerawork that contrasts the warmth of Morocco with the frigid ambiance of England.
EDIT
Posted Nov 8, 2020
|
16
|
B
|
Divine Love (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Opines that if you want a baby, never mind the usual methods. Just pray.
EDIT
Posted Nov 1, 2020
|
17
|
A-
|
Alone with Her Dreams (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A child reacts to the departure of her parents in a heart-tugging tale in village Sicily.
EDIT
Posted Oct 26, 2020
|
18
|
B+
|
Disclosure (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Though some of the threats and counterthreats are repetitious, the film at 85 minutes does not overstate its time. It features compact editing, colorful cinematography...
EDIT
Posted Oct 20, 2020
|
19
|
B
|
The Accidental President (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Director James Fletcher's objective, in his words: "How the hell did he win?" The doc, with entertaining archival films and input from talking heads, offers suggestions.
EDIT
Posted Oct 19, 2020
|
20
|
B+
|
On the Rocks (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Bill Murray scores again with his signature dry humor.
EDIT
Posted Oct 18, 2020
|
21
|
B
|
The Sounding (2017)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Makes you want to brush up your Shakespeare: start quoting him now.
EDIT
Posted Oct 14, 2020
|
22
|
B
|
Eternal Beauty (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A frothy comedy about laid-back people.
EDIT
Posted Oct 6, 2020
|
23
|
C
|
Kajillionaire (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
For fans of the super-quirky--and there are many.
EDIT
Posted Sep 21, 2020
|
24
|
C+
|
Blackbird (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A dying wife brings in her family to see her off, but Susan Sarandon's performance looks phoned in.
EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2020
|
25
|
A-
|
The Nest (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A brittle marriage, a disgusted wife, a great performance by Jude Law.
EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2020
|
26
|
A-
|
The Way I See It (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
One of the great photographers of our time exhibits his thousands of pictures of the Obama administration--and he has quite a personality as well.
EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2020
|
27
|
A-
|
Stars and Strife (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Suggestions worth looking into on how we can bridge the political divide.
EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2020
|
28
|
B
|
A Chef's Voyage (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
This might convince you that even an American chef has something to teach the French.
EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2020
|
29
|
B+
|
God of the Piano (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
The piano music is so good you might wish that this 80-minute look at a helicopter parent would go on another half hour.
EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2020
|
30
|
C+
|
Sibyl (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Overly ambitious editing mars a story of a psychoanalyst who needs a psychoanalyst.
EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2020
|
31
|
B+
|
Buoyancy (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A hard-hitting story of modern slavery in the waters of Cambodia and Thailand.
EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2020
|
32
|
B
|
The Mole Agent (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
One of the more heartwarming spy stories you're likely to see has a Chilean 007 gumshoe looking in on an old folks' home.
EDIT
Posted Aug 27, 2020
|
33
|
A
|
#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
With stunning editing and a slew of thorough and reasoned criticism, this could be the nonfiction movie treatment of Trump to beat this year.
EDIT
Posted Aug 26, 2020
|
34
|
B+
|
Made in Bangladesh (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Makes political points about sweatshops without sacrificing entertainment values.
EDIT
Posted Aug 23, 2020
|
35
|
C+
|
Gripped: Climbing the Killer Pillar (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Stunning photography cannot make up for the banality of dialogue.
EDIT
Posted Aug 13, 2020
|
36
|
C
|
The Bay of Silence (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
You may need to read the book to figure out what's going on here.
EDIT
Posted Aug 10, 2020
|
37
|
B
|
Made in Italy (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A father and son bond by working together in beautiful Tuscany.
EDIT
Posted Aug 2, 2020
|
38
|
B+
|
The Fight (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
How the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stands between a growing Fascism and a withering democracy.
EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2020
|
39
|
B
|
Summerland (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A cranky author living in the sticks learns love when drafted to take care of a London boy during World War 2.
EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2020
|
40
|
B+
|
Rebuilding Paradise (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A description of a fiery hell belies the title of this documentary.
EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2020
|
41
|
B+
|
Yes, God, Yes (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Oh so gently satirizes the Catholic church.
EDIT
Posted Jul 23, 2020
|
42
|
C+
|
Most Wanted (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Too much zigging and zagging in the editorial room.
EDIT
Posted Jul 19, 2020
|
43
|
A-
|
The Painted Bird (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Brilliantly captures human beings in extremis.
EDIT
Posted Jul 13, 2020
|
44
|
C+
|
Guest of Honour (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Interesting concept, that of a woman who insists on being punished though she is not guilty, marred by convoluted story telling.
EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2020
|
45
|
A-
|
Two of Us (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Well-acted chamber piece on the subject of lesbianism among seniors.
EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2020
|
46
|
B+
|
My Wonderful Wanda (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Delightful comedy of manners of people living by a Swiss lake.
EDIT
Posted Jul 4, 2020
|
47
|
B
|
Madagasikara (2018)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Illustrates grinding poverty in one of the world's most beautiful islands.
EDIT
Posted Jun 21, 2020
|
48
|
B+
|
Disclosure (1994)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
Makes the case convincingly that women in power can sexually harass men that they manage.
EDIT
Posted Jun 21, 2020
|
49
|
B
|
Das Vorspiel (2020)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
She plays Bach so beautifully that her neuroticism can be excused.
EDIT
Posted Jun 21, 2020
|
50
|
B+
|
Mr. Jones (2019)
|
Harvey S. Karten
|
A first-class journalist exposes the Soviet Union's starvation of millions of Ukrainians.
EDIT
Posted Jun 14, 2020
|