Battleship Pretension
Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
El Paso (1949)
2
It's useful to remind yourself from time to time that cinema is made to deliver, among other things, sensory delights.
Posted Jan 16, 2019
3
Girl (2018)
4
Glass (2019)
A film every bit as stupefying and meandering as Shyamalan's worst efforts.
Posted Jan 10, 2019
5
La religieuse (The Nun) (1971)
6
Escape Room (2019)
Escape Room lives and dies on its ability to execute its own conceit, which is does more or less flawlessly.
Posted Jan 3, 2019
7
A Twelve-Year Night serves its clearest purpose by illustrating how democracy and changes in policy slowly trickle down to effect everyone.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
8
Stan & Ollie (2019)
Had it more wits, I'd call it cynical, but it's too lifeless to even be that.
Posted Dec 25, 2018
9
Vice (2018)
Maybe McKay has been spending too much time on Twitter. With Vice, he's fallen prey to that platform's preference for smug dunks over insight, persuasion or comedy.
Posted Dec 24, 2018
10
Destroyer (2018)
Destroyer is the best crime film of 2018.
Posted Dec 23, 2018
11
On the Basis of Sex (2019)
Lots and lots of us love Ginsburg and we didn't need two different puff pieces about her this year to make us feel good about that.
Posted Dec 23, 2018
12
Second Act (2018)
This is stuff you've seen and heard before. If you really want to see and hear it again, I'm sure you can get it from a Redbox in a couple of months.
Posted Dec 20, 2018
13
Welcome to Marwen (2018)
Zemeckis is intent on pleasing the most people possible instead of letting Welcome to Marwen fly the freak flag it so desperately wants to.
Posted Dec 20, 2018
14
Aquaman (2018)
Aquaman is the increasingly rare superhero movie that's also a star vehicle, as well as being one hell of a triumph for its director.
Posted Dec 20, 2018
15
Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
Even more than with Marshall, though Mary Poppins Returns lives and dies on the performance of Blunt. She is, in a word, impeccable, just like Mary herself.
Posted Dec 18, 2018
16
Mortal Engines (2018)
I would call Mortal Engines the most stupefyingly wrongheaded post-apocalyptic movie since Kevin Costner's The Postman but I fear its unrelenting drabness makes it even worse.
Posted Dec 13, 2018
17
The movie is lithe, fleet and thoroughly engaging. Basically, it never idles long enough to be pinned down by anything, to mostly positive effect.
Posted Dec 12, 2018
18
If Beale Street Could Talk (2019)
Jenkins has never been a trepidatious filmmaker but we've never seen him in a mode of such supreme confidence as this.
Posted Dec 12, 2018
19
Dumplin' (2018)
20
Vox Lux (2018)
Corbet's ominous yet loving look at 21st century America is timely, poetic, and compelling.
Posted Dec 6, 2018
21
Tyrel (2018)
Tyrel is mumblecore and issues-driven, both at their worst - it lacks the emotional depth of good mumblecore, and the poignancy of a good issues film.
Posted Dec 3, 2018
22
3 Faces (2019)
It's an impressive integration between consumer technology and truly graceful directing.
Posted Nov 29, 2018
23
Candyman (1992)
This is a flick that's as weird, dark, gory and trashy as it is metaphorical and probing.
Posted Nov 27, 2018
24
Single White Female (1992)
25
City Slickers (1991)
Crystal's then-hegemonic stardom constantly realigns the film into his, not his character's, orbit.
Posted Nov 27, 2018
26
Shoplifters (Manbiki kazoku) (2018)
Koreeda expertly twists his usual pleasantries, giving us just enough to let us think this can last forever, buoyed by the innate certainty we bring to our daily lives.
Posted Nov 25, 2018
27
The Favourite (2018)
28
The Bride (1985)
The Bride wields its fanciful melodrama in such a way that it has gotten to the heart of something universal and wounding before you've even realized it.
Posted Nov 19, 2018
29
Piercing (2019)
We're left with more mysteries than resolutions, and while a more mature filmmaker might bind that to a wider desire, it still makes for a damn entertaining 80 minutes.
Posted Nov 19, 2018
30
[The film] makes clear that you can have all the right answers, but they hardly matter when you're missing the questions and in fact aren't even having the same conversation.
Posted Nov 19, 2018
31
Our Time (Nuestro tiempo) (2018)
Like all other Reygadas films, Our Time is beautiful, and his newfound focus on life's pleasures rather than strictly its agonies makes for a unique texture.
Posted Nov 18, 2018
32
At Eternity's Gate (2018)
The film is uniquely incurious about Van Gogh himself beyond the myth of what he represents, which is the last quality we need in a Van Gogh film anymore.
Posted Nov 16, 2018
33
Widows (2018)
A thriller in name only... strong acting and character work, but unfocused and overly mired in theme.
Posted Nov 16, 2018
34
Cold War (Zimna wojna) (2018)
For Wiktor and Zula, their devotion to each other is the one thing in their world not built on sand.
Posted Nov 15, 2018
35
The Favourite (2018)
If you're going to say something trite, you could do worse than to say it with as much magnificent panache as Lanthimos has.
Posted Nov 15, 2018
36
Maya (2018)
37
Styx (2018)
38
Bird Box (2018)
Bier has crafted a horror thriller sturdy enough to keep from being a failure but not one distinct or courageous enough to stand out from the pack.
Posted Nov 14, 2018
39
The Weekend (2018)
The Weekend gets off to a decidedly rough start that eventually becomes just another part of the movie's shaggy dog lovability by which I was, at least partially, won over.
Posted Nov 13, 2018
40
Lemonade (2018)
Ioana Uricaru's Lemonade finds some of the Romanian spirit lost in translation, but makes for a striking first feature centered on the desperation of the immigrant experience.
Posted Nov 13, 2018
41
Hotel by the River (2018)
42
Never Look Away (2019)
It's almost impressive how hypocritical von Donnersmarck is in his dishonesty amidst a movie ostensibly about the importance of truth.
Posted Nov 12, 2018
43
Green Book (2018)
Green Book would rather bury its head in a past that never was than to be relevant to a present it finds too unpleasant to address.
Posted Nov 12, 2018
44
El Angel (El ángel) (2018)
Casts an effective spell, inviting viewers to try their best to extract a character study out of a figure who never even seemed very interested in studying himself.
Posted Nov 8, 2018
45
The Front Runner (2018)
Like Hart himself, The Front Runner had a lot of potential that it mostly squanders. Unlike Hart, it can't stake a strong position on anything.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
46
The Seventh Sign (1988)
The Seventh Sign takes the end of the world and turns it into some sort of Revelation-themed escape room.
Posted Nov 5, 2018
47
48
The Unborn (1991)
49
Greaser's Palace (1972)
Robert Downey Sr. eventually reveals that he's made a comedic satire that's hilarious, ugly and beguiling.
Posted Nov 2, 2018
50
Bodied (2018)