Los Angeles Times

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019) Kenneth Turan That all these characters and then some have distinct personalities is all the more remarkable because no one uses actual words, instead making do quite nicely with assorted grunts, groans and indefinable grumbles. EDIT
Posted Feb 14, 2020
And Then We Danced (2019) Justin Chang [T]he story is rescued from its somewhat formulaic groove by the vividness of its milieu and the vitality of the performances. EDIT
Posted Feb 14, 2020
Beanpole (2019) Justin Chang Will they ever know this kind of brightness and cheer again, or are their clothes and peeling wallpaper expressing emotions that they cannot? Balagov doesn't say, but in spite of it all he leaves you with a shred of hope. EDIT
Posted Feb 14, 2020
Fantasy Island (2020) Kimber Myers The movie can only be classified as something truly terrible, escaping any other categorization that would make it resemble an actual film. EDIT
Posted Feb 14, 2020
After Midnight (2019) Noel Murray By the end of "After Midnight," he and the audience both may wonder whether the bogeyman and true love are equally mythical. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
Buffaloed (2019) Kimber Myers [I]t's hard to begrudge "Buffaloed" too much; this is a fast, fun watch that succeeds largely on the charms of its star and the able hands of its director. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
Camp Cold Brook (2018) Noel Murray Very little about this movie feels fresh or original; but a talented cast, a solid Alex Carl script, and director Andy Palmer's energetic pace and playful tone do make "Camp Cold Brook" unusually fun. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
() Michael Rechtshaffen Ultimately, just as the events tread a fine line between fantasy and reality, so does the film teeter precipitously between promise and pretense. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
The Last Thing He Wanted (2020) Gary Goldstein There's some overreach and muddle here - you wouldn't want a pop quiz on the plot - but "Last Thing" remains an intriguing, visually diverting piece, well shot by Bobby Bukowski. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
Come as You Are (2019) Michael Rechtshaffen At once frank, tender and unapologetically funny, "Come as You Are" is a sweet surprise. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
Olympic Dreams (2019) Gary Goldstein "Olympic Dreams" is a wispy, quasi-romantic dramedy whose affecting moments are eclipsed by its overly random, sometimes awkwardly played and constructed narrative. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
A Simple Wedding (2018) Gary Goldstein The film's second act ends too soon leaving an overlong third act more focused on the predictable romance between Alex's divorced mother and Nousha's visiting uncle than on the Nousha-Alex dynamic. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
I Wish I Knew (2010) Robert Abele The resulting mix of image and interview, weariness and wonder, makes for a sober assessment of just how much change China's largest city has been through since the 1930s... EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
The Innocent (1976) Kevin Thomas "L'Innocente" is the kind of opulent, passionate drama that risks folly to attain the sublime. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
Ordinary Love (2019) Kenneth Turan Manville's gifts and accomplishments are no surprise, but she's never been better than she is here. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
The Photograph (2020) Justin Chang "The Photograph" is a movie of seductive, slow-savored pleasures. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2020
To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020) Katie Walsh The real draw to the "To All The Boys" cinematic universe is the connection between Condor and Centineo, who have intoxicating chemistry, keeping things interesting as "P.S. I Still Love You" ambles to its inevitable conclusion. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2020
Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003) Kevin Thomas This engrossing work, at once compassionate and rigorous, comprehensive and succinct, would be the centerpiece of any festival for the way it illuminates the life and times of the enigmatic, diminutive Bingenheimer... EDIT
Posted Feb 10, 2020
Particles of Truth (2003) Kevin Thomas As taut as a suspension bridge cable, Particles of Truth, a notably assured and ambitious first film, builds tension as it involves us deeper and deeper in Lilli's destiny. EDIT
Posted Feb 10, 2020
Horse Girl (2020) Katie Walsh Ostensibly, this is a tragedy about mental illness... But "Horse Girl" is far more subversive and playful than just that, allowing for Sarah's peculiar reality to envelope our own. EDIT
Posted Feb 10, 2020
Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020) Kevin Crust There's a sequence about an hour in when "Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made" is briefly jolted from its hard-boiled slumber... More such scenes may have elevated it from simply being fodder for a streaming service. EDIT
Posted Feb 7, 2020
José (2018) Gary Goldstein "José" is hardly the first movie to spotlight a young person navigating their homosexuality... Nonetheless... this sophomore feature.. feels like a singular and essential entry in that subset of LGBTQ coming-of-age films with an international beat. EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
The Lodge (2019) Justin Chang The key to her insidious and frightening performance is that by the end you're not sure whether to fear her or fear for her. EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
Vitalina Varela (2019) Justin Chang [A] slow-building, haunting portrait of a woman who has returned to Lisbon from Cape Verde to bury the husband who abandoned her years earlier. EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
Earth (Erde) (2019) Kenneth Turan [A] completely fascinating, unexpectedly compelling documentary... EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
Incitement (2020) Kenneth Turan A chilling portrait of how fanaticism can grow and be enabled, this is a matter-of-fact film that moves with an awful inexorability toward its foregone conclusion. EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
Waiting for Anya (2020) Kimber Myers This adaptation of Michael Morpugo's children's novel means well, but its insipid approach to history makes watching it feel like a homework assignment. EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words (2020) Gary Goldstein With its shrewdly chosen archival clips and lack of opposing voices, this lengthy, often tone-deaf section (especially from today's #MeToo vantage point) plays as if Thomas simply wanted his say for a new generation and got it... EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
Goalie (2019) Michael Rechtshaffen Dramatically speaking, despite its loftier ambitions, "Goalie" remains stuck in the neutral zone. EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
Come to Daddy (2019) Noel Murray "Come to Daddy..." does deliver a good, sick twist; and sometimes that's enough. EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) Justin Chang It's all as tasty, chewy and disposable as bubble gum. EDIT
Posted Feb 5, 2020
Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon (2011) Mark Olsen "War of The Arrows" is part romantic drama, part family story and part historical action epic all underscored by a sweeping vision that is somehow both grand and grubby. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2020
VHYes (2019) Noel Murray Throughout, "VHYes" laces its nostalgia with bitter poison, reminding its audience that even in the carefree couch potato days of 1987, the end-times always loomed. EDIT
Posted Feb 3, 2020
37 Seconds (2019) Kimber Myers This isn't the anodyne, awards-baiting film about disability that viewers might be used to; instead, Hikari's feature debut is sensitive and empathetic, showing a young woman who is more than just her cerebral palsy. EDIT
Posted Jan 31, 2020
The World Is Full of Secrets (2019) Carlos Aguilar As it explores the intersection between the occult and mankind's brutal cruelty in relation to women, "The World Is Full of Secrets" grips us with its minimalist, calibrated and cerebral scare tactics. EDIT
Posted Jan 30, 2020
Heavy Water (2015) Michael Rechtshaffen But by the time the film finally gets to Fletcher's dark and stormy, death-defying stunt, its greater liability is a talking heads-intensive structure aimed squarely at aficionados while certain to leave the uninitiated a little surf-bored. EDIT
Posted Jan 30, 2020
2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts - Documentary (2020) Robert Abele On the nonfiction side, this year's short documentaries explore grim subjects with a variety of tones. EDIT
Posted Jan 30, 2020
2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts - Live Action (2020) Robert Abele The live action shorts aren't as sturdy in matching emotions and ideas with execution, but they have their moments. EDIT
Posted Jan 30, 2020
2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts - Animation (2020) Robert Abele The animation category is a quintet of clever two-handers about bonds new and old, perhaps tenuous but usually healing. EDIT
Posted Jan 30, 2020
Matador (1986) Kevin Thomas For all its jolts and bizarre flights of fancy, Matador is a marvelously fluid and darkly sensual film in which Almodovar elicits exquisitely controlled performances. EDIT
Posted Jan 30, 2020
The Traitor (2019) Gary Goldstein [I]t ultimately seems as if there was a more economical, propulsive and entertaining way for a master such as Bellocchio to recount this explosive and pivotal chapter of Mafia history. EDIT
Posted Jan 30, 2020
The Assistant (2019) Kenneth Turan Its restrained, deliberate style is ideally suited to making the point that people without restraints are capable of anything. EDIT
Posted Jan 30, 2020
Gretel & Hansel (2020) Kimber Myers While [Perkins] offers a stunning feast for the eyes, the substance is likely to leave viewers still hungry. EDIT
Posted Jan 30, 2020
The Assistant (2019) Justin Chang Few movies have spoken more quietly, and consequently more damningly, than "The Assistant." The silence of this movie is devastating because we recognize it all too clearly as our own. EDIT
Posted Jan 27, 2020
() Justin Chang A thoughtful, sharply argued recalibration of how we think about truth telling in the age of #MeToo, specifically the difficulties that face women - especially women of color - who seek to come forward. EDIT
Posted Jan 27, 2020
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) Justin Chang Hittman captures the feeling of what it's like to be adrift in one of the world's biggest cities, where the Port Authority Bus Terminal takes on the quality of a metropolitan purgatory. EDIT
Posted Jan 25, 2020
Zola (2020) Justin Chang But as funny and ferocious as much of "Zola" is, it's let down by an increasingly haphazard script that doesn't know how to either sustain its humor or negotiate its turn into darker territory - and so, disappointingly, it waffles. EDIT
Posted Jan 25, 2020
Secret Zoo (2020) Michael Rechtshaffen Resistance might not be futile, but to deny oneself the amiably goofy charms of South Korea's "Secret Zoo," an inspired family comedy that gives fresh meaning to faux fur, would be a real shame. EDIT
Posted Jan 25, 2020
Get Gone (2019) Noel Murray There's nothing notably new - or especially scary - about any of it. EDIT
Posted Jan 23, 2020
John Henry (2020) Michael Rechtshaffen "John Henry" is a lead-footed revenge thriller that lands with all the subtlety of the mighty steel-driving man's sledgehammer. EDIT
Posted Jan 23, 2020