Cinemayward

Cinemayward is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Joel Mayward
Rating Title/Year Author
2.5/5 Bombshell (2019) Joel Mayward Bombshell fails to be either smart satire or incisive political drama, which makes it just offensively banal. EDIT
Posted Jan 10, 2020
4/5 Little Women (2019) Joel Mayward It's a warm hug of a film, comforting and life-giving in its graciousness. EDIT
Posted Dec 29, 2019
3/5 1917 (2019) Joel Mayward ...an ambitious and thrilling war film, a filmic formal exercise with gumption. EDIT
Posted Dec 26, 2019
2/5 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Joel Mayward I find its lack of faith-in its audience, in its predecessors, in itself-disturbing. EDIT
Posted Dec 19, 2019
3.5/5 The Two Popes (2019) Joel Mayward I still found myself converted by Hopkins and Pryce skillfully portraying this divine bromance. EDIT
Posted Dec 19, 2019
0/5 6 Underground (2019) Joel Mayward By being exceedingly stupid, morally depraved, and dreadfully dull, "6 Underground" pulls off a hat-trick of Very Bad Filmmaking. EDIT
Posted Dec 14, 2019
4/5 Marriage Story (2019) Joel Mayward Though it does get ugly, it's also paradoxically beautiful in its raw sincerity. EDIT
Posted Dec 8, 2019
4.5/5 The Irishman (2019) Joel Mayward A cinematic memento mori, "The Irishman" (aka "I Heard You Paint Houses") is one of Martin Scorsese's all-time greatest films. EDIT
Posted Dec 6, 2019
1.5/5 Jojo Rabbit (2019) Joel Mayward Rather than laughter or tears, "JoJo Rabbit" elicits only cringes, groans, and yawns. EDIT
Posted Dec 6, 2019
3.5/5 Knives Out (2019) Joel Mayward Sharp and cutting in its not-so-subtle critique of class warfare and ideologies, even as it serves it all up in a rambunctious caper, a hilarious whodunit (or whodonut). EDIT
Posted Dec 1, 2019
4/5 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) Joel Mayward Like Fred Rogers himself, the film is disarming and subversive in its optimism and hope. EDIT
Posted Nov 24, 2019
3/5 Missing Link (2019) Joel Mayward An underrated delightful romp, "Missing Link" takes a conventional adventure story and infuses it with a progressive ethos. EDIT
Posted Nov 17, 2019
4.5/5 Light From Light (2019) Joel Mayward Paul Harrill's radiant Light from Light dazzles gradually, illuminating our minds and hearts through its quietly affecting aesthetic. EDIT
Posted Oct 25, 2019
Something, Anything (2014) Joel Mayward Quiet piano music accompanies the beautiful, intimate cinematography, eliciting comparisons to Kieslowski's "Three Colors: Blue" in its affecting and melancholy portrayal of a woman walking through a season of grief. EDIT
Posted Oct 24, 2019
1/5 The Laundromat (2019) Joel Mayward Even if you buy into its message, The Laundromat is an embarrassment. EDIT
Posted Oct 21, 2019
3/5 Emanuel (2019) Joel Mayward A good, if simple, reminder that grace truly is amazing, especially when we've walked in the shadow of death. EDIT
Posted Oct 16, 2019
2.5/5 Joker (2019) Joel Mayward It's an appropriate film for its eponymous antagonist...repellent in its wanton depravity, it's still maddeningly captivating, and sure to spark strong reactions. EDIT
Posted Oct 6, 2019
4/5 High Life (2018) Joel Mayward High Life is willing to stare into the hopeless void and discern a particle of optimism. EDIT
Posted Sep 22, 2019
3.5/5 Ad Astra (2019) Joel Mayward We may look to the stars for answers, but Ad Astra suggests that they, too, are only human. EDIT
Posted Sep 18, 2019
2/5 Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019) Joel Mayward Like much of the Cult of Tarantino that eager audiences worship, "Once Upon a Time" might be meaningful and/or shocking if it weren't so barbaric, predictable, and vapid. EDIT
Posted Aug 26, 2019
2/5 Her Smell (2018) Joel Mayward Like its lead character, Alex Ross Perry's Her Smell is a chaotic, draining mess, an emotional rollercoaster where they forgot to buckle the safety belts. EDIT
Posted Aug 24, 2019
3.5/5 Wild Rose (2018) Joel Mayward With Jessie Buckley's performance in Wild Rose, a star is born. EDIT
Posted Aug 2, 2019
3/5 Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) Joel Mayward 'Far From Home' may not be the *best* Spider-Man film...but it's perhaps the one most fitting for our media- and CGI-saturated era. EDIT
Posted Jul 3, 2019
3/5 Toy Story 4 (2019) Joel Mayward Toy Story 4 is wholly superfluous, albeit often funny and nice to look at. EDIT
Posted Jun 21, 2019
4/5 Transit (2018) Joel Mayward Sartre declared that hell is other people; Christian Petzold's 'Transit' suggests that hell is waiting for other people. EDIT
Posted Jun 10, 2019
3/5 Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Joel Mayward This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to Godzilla. EDIT
Posted Jun 6, 2019
2/5 The Biggest Little Farm (2018) Joel Mayward For all its focus on being organic and authentic, there is something distinctly artificial and performative about the film's polished aesthetic and narrative. It's like a Thomas Kinkade painting as brought to you by the Hallmark Channel EDIT
Posted May 30, 2019
5/5 Amazing Grace (2018) Joel Mayward Without exaggeration, one of the greatest concert films I have ever seen. The raw authenticity of the edited footage perfectly accompanies Franklin's transcendent vocals. EDIT
Posted May 25, 2019
4.5/5 Parasite (2019) Joel Mayward Imagine the premise and empathy of Hirokazu Koreeda's Shoplifters, but with the genre-defying tone and brash ambition of Jordan Peele's Us. Such is Parasite, a work of maniacal cinematic genius. EDIT
Posted May 22, 2019
3.5/5 Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Joel Mayward This is simply a beautiful film to behold, with exquisite attention to detail and lighting. EDIT
Posted May 22, 2019
4.5/5 Young Ahmed (2019) Joel Mayward Young Ahmed is...certain to be the Dardenne brothers' most divisive film in its empathetic-yet-opaque exploration of Islamic extremism . EDIT
Posted May 21, 2019
4/5 Little Joe (2019) Joel Mayward Jessica Hausner's odd and ominous Little Joe feels like a film-length episode of Black Mirror with an IKEA aesthetic. EDIT
Posted May 21, 2019
4.5/5 The Lighthouse (2019) Joel Mayward Eggers' vision here transcends conventional categorization-it is a historico-psychological-existential thriller; a bewildering, boozy bloody bromance; a sea-soaked single-location supernatural suspense story. It is, in short, A Lot To Take In. EDIT
Posted May 19, 2019
5/5 A Hidden Life (2019) Joel Mayward A Hidden Life is both the most Christian and the most political of Terrence Malick's films. EDIT
Posted May 19, 2019
4.5/5 The Climb (2017) Joel Mayward Both tender and rib-tickling, The Climb is a terrific comedy which is deadly serious about cinematography and mise-en-scène. EDIT
Posted May 18, 2019
3/5 Joan of Arc (2019) Joel Mayward The cinematography is often strikingly beautiful still frames or slow zooms on Prudhomme's face, her visage both captivating and confrontational. EDIT
Posted May 18, 2019
2.5/5 Sorry We Missed You (2019) Joel Mayward After 50 years of making movies, English director Ken Loach just keeps making the same film. EDIT
Posted May 17, 2019
4/5 Atlantics (2019) Joel Mayward Diop is the first black woman to have a film in competition at Cannes, and her debut feature is the work of a confident, perceptive filmmaker [...] Diop is like a building wave of creativity rushing forward towards a bright future. EDIT
Posted May 17, 2019
3/5 The Dead Don't Die (2019) Joel Mayward Dead is an homage to B-movies and better times shot through with signature Jarmusch deadpan goofiness. EDIT
Posted May 16, 2019
3.5/5 The Unknown Saint (2019) Joel Mayward Though ostensibly a drama, The Unknown Saint has a droll, whimsical sense of humor about it. EDIT
Posted May 16, 2019
4/5 Bull (2019) Joel Mayward Bull is a haptic film, focusing on the care and abuse of bodies, both human and animal-it is a realm of bruises, both historical and personal. EDIT
Posted May 16, 2019
3.5/5 Knock Down the House (2019) Joel Mayward Even knowing the outcome of these campaigns, the film is nevertheless thrilling and inspirational, imbued with the verve and vision of the candidates. EDIT
Posted May 3, 2019
3/5 Avengers: Endgame (2019) Joel Mayward The Superhero film has truly become our Western. EDIT
Posted Apr 26, 2019
2.5/5 Us (2019) Joel Mayward Jordan Peele's follow up to his excellent Oscar-winning debut Get Out is a go-for-broke ambitious mess of a film. EDIT
Posted Apr 24, 2019
3/5 Triple Frontier (2019) Joel Mayward The idea to cast Hedlund and Hunnam as brothers is downright brilliant - if Boyd Holbrook were in this film, it'd be like looking at triplets. EDIT
Posted Mar 13, 2019
3.5/5 Captain Marvel (2019) Joel Mayward It's marvelous. EDIT
Posted Mar 10, 2019
3.5/5 The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019) Joel Mayward Not a sophomore slump, but certainly nowhere near as transcendently awesome as the original, The LEGO Movie 2 is like the electro-remix of your favorite pop song, relying heavily on your love for the first film EDIT
Posted Feb 24, 2019
4/5 High Flying Bird (2019) Joel Mayward Those expecting a traditional sports film will be disappointed ... this is an Ocean's 11-esque caper driven more by dialogue than dunks, verbal maneuvering than athletic prowess. EDIT
Posted Feb 16, 2019
3/5 How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) Joel Mayward The detail in the animation is the strongest I've seen in these films. Swarms (flocks? herds?) of dragons in flight outlined against the sky never cease to amaze. EDIT
Posted Feb 3, 2019
2/5 Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) Joel Mayward Not thrilling enough as a thriller and not outrageous enough as satire, Velvet Buzzsaw is merely a Netflix-level Nocturnal Animals . EDIT
Posted Feb 2, 2019