The Brooklyn Rail

The Brooklyn Rail is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Leo Goldsmith, Lisa Rosman, Nona Willis-Aronowitz
Rating Title/Year Author
Ouroboros (2017) Lydia Ogwang It's the film's own ephemerality that bolsters its lingering force, leaving us with a feeling rather than a message. EDIT
Posted Jun 18, 2018
The Missing Picture (2013) Genevieve Yue However ambivalently the film treats the Khmer Rouge footage, it prompts Panh's memories, and allows his clay figures to come to a kind of solemn, unmoving life. EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2017
Bovines (2011) Daniel Walber This small French documentary blends beautifully with the open air and erases the boundaries between cinema and the natural world. EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2017
Kékszakállú (2016) Daniel Walber [The end of Kékszakállú is] a cinematic abyss beyond Balázs's dreams. EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2017
The Corporation (2003) Saul Austerlitz The Corporation presents such a powerful case for increased regulation and awareness of corporate power that its occasional missteps-- such as its reliance on overused talking heads like Noam Chomsky's-- do not matter much. EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2017
I Am Cuba (1964) Nona Willis-Aronowitz From the swaying palm trees in the beginning credits to the final victory march, the temperament of the revolution in I Am Cuba is uniformly passionate and determined. EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2017
Cassandra's Dream (2007) Sophie Gilbert It's hard to say what's most galling about this film, and even harder to find redeeming aspects. EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2017
The Eye (2008) Sophie Gilbert The Eye isn't as bad as has been made out (if you like being frightened a lot) but it could be much better, and much smarter. EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2017
65 Revisited (2007) Sophie Gilbert The majority of the film is Dylan singing, and while it's magical in moments, it can also be lacklustre and boring. EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2017
I'm Not There (2007) Sophie Gilbert Haynes is no ordinary filmmaker, and I'm Not There is no ordinary biopic. Tricky, powerful, sometimes ridiculous, it eludes definition. EDIT
Posted Sep 26, 2017
Casa de los Babys (2003) Lisa Rosman This movie looks and feels like the dutiful labors of a good man who should have vacationed at this gorgeous mythical land rather than filmed a movie at the site. EDIT
Posted Jul 25, 2017
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) Lisa Rosman All laurels eventually become resting grounds, and with Coffee and Cigarettes, Jim Jarmusch rides his own coattails, with none of the panache that defined his earlier work. EDIT
Posted Jul 25, 2017
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002) Lisa Rosman What's most intriguing about director Lone Scherfig's first post-Dogme 95 feature, the admittedly appealing Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, is where and how it falls short. EDIT
Posted Jul 25, 2017
American Splendor (2003) Lisa Rosman Underneath all this schtick pulses a restrained, pensive take on how the terrific loneliness of the modern human condition can be ameliorated through its narration. Misery loves company, in other words, especially if it's comically described. EDIT
Posted Jun 18, 2012
The Shape of Things (2003) Lisa Rosman All four actors, reprising their roles from the stage production, wear the slightly glazed expressions of those phoning in their performances. EDIT
Posted Mar 17, 2004
The Passion of the Christ (2004) Lisa Rosman Gibson is just like all the other hateful men who've been successful -- he's the right guy at the right weak moment. EDIT
Posted Mar 16, 2004
Capturing the Friedmans (2003) Lisa Rosman The result intersperses interviews with the family and its accusers with footage from the enormous store of home video and film that the Friedmans themselves shot over 30 years to poke at both the accuracy of the charges and the elusive nature of memory. EDIT
Posted Mar 3, 2004
21 Grams (2003) Lisa Rosman If all this sounds lofty, it sometimes is. But Rodrigo Prieto's taut cinematography cuts through the storyline's ether, as the very physically gifted actors inject it with much-needed flesh and blood. EDIT
Posted Mar 2, 2004
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) Lisa Rosman Matrix Reloaded [looks] as good as [its] politics, matching aesthetic and ideological innovations blow for blow. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2003
Lost in Translation (2003) Lisa Rosman In interviews, writer/director Sofia Coppola has said she wrote the part of Harris for Murray, and it makes sense. He's the perfect candidate to paint a portrait of resignation and still render it funny. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2003
X2 (2003) Lisa Rosman This is a major Hollywood movie, I thought, and it's successfully sending up the oppressor, not the oppressed. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2003
Adaptation (2002) Lisa Rosman Right now, we are drowning in metaculture. We have enough analysis in lieu of action, enough pondering in lieu of producing -- enough futile idling at the gate. The last thing we need are metamovies, especially ones that put us down for watching them. EDIT
Posted Feb 11, 2003