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
4.5/5 () 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 () 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 () 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 () 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 () 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 () 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 () 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 () 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 () 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 () 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 () 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
5/5 World of Tomorrow (2015) Joel Mayward When a film can be prophetic, humorous, elegant, simple, quirky, and ambitious all at once, without ever devolving into incoherence, that's something worth viewing. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2019
2.5/5 The Big Short (2015) Joel Mayward Is this film supposed to be funny? Dramatic? Condemning? Satirical? Heartbreaking? A documentary? Oscar-bait? It aims to be all of the above, which makes it ultimately feel inert and draining. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2019
4/5 Creed (2015) Joel Mayward In short, it's a knockout. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2019
2.5/5 The Revenant (2015) Joel Mayward ...it's a drawn out exercise in excruciation. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2019
4/5 Mustang (2015) Joel Mayward In a cinematic year filled with excellent stories about young women growing up...Mustang is the best coming-of-age film in 2015. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2019
3/5 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) Joel Mayward With [Krasinski's] winsome presence as the central character, 13 Hours has far more pathos and charm than I anticipated from a Bay military spectacle. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2019
2.5/5 Cartel Land (2015) Joel Mayward Raw, brutal, and ambitious, Cartel Land may be a real life story, but its limited scope in truly exploring the ideas it raised left me wanting more. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2019
3/5 Hail, Caesar! (2016) Joel Mayward Catholics, Communists, and classic Hollywood are all equally celebrated and caricatured in the Coen Brothers' latest comedy caper. After all, it's a Christ tale. And a musical. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2019
5/5 Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (2014) Joel Mayward Gett is holistic in its emotional captivation-it's funny, heart-warming, painful, saddening, tense, contemplative, and cathartic. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2019
3/5 The Favourite (2018) Joel Mayward The Favourite is like Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve meets Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, blurring the lines between pastiche and parody of period-piece chamber dramas. EDIT
Posted Jan 7, 2019
1.5/5 Green Book (2018) Joel Mayward ...the film merely skims the surface of systemic American racism, choosing to forgo depth for formulaic feel-good tropes. EDIT
Posted Jan 7, 2019
4/5 The Witch (2015) Joel Mayward The Witch isn't just a great horror film; it's a great film, period. EDIT
Posted Dec 31, 2018
3.5/5 Bridge of Spies (2015) Joel Mayward A muted, steady spy story, Spies feels classic in both form and content, a throwback to a previous era in its style and storytelling. EDIT
Posted Dec 31, 2018
3.5/5 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Joel Mayward It's thrilling and unique, perfectly holding the line between action/thriller and a cerebral chamber drama. When the film does finally reveal all its cards, it's a satisfying adrenaline rush. EDIT
Posted Dec 31, 2018
2.5/5 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) Joel Mayward ...akin to a Philosophy 101 thesis read aloud while you're being punched repeatedly in the face. EDIT
Posted Dec 31, 2018
1.5/5 Zoolander No. 2 (2016) Joel Mayward [Stiller and Wilson] emerge...wearing orange jumpsuits bearing the labels "Old" and "Lame." Those labels are perfect descriptions of this unnecessary sequel. EDIT
Posted Dec 31, 2018
4/5 Love & Friendship (2016) Joel Mayward Whit Stillman was meant to make a Jane Austen adaptation. EDIT
Posted Dec 31, 2018
4/5 Green Room (2015) Joel Mayward Its images of extraordinary violence in (mostly) ordinary circumstances is deeply unsettling, and it lingers in your mind and skin long after the credits roll. EDIT
Posted Dec 31, 2018
3/5 Finding Dory (2016) Joel Mayward What Finding Dory does get right is its Pixar pathos, eliciting tears at just the right moments, even when one is expecting it. EDIT
Posted Dec 31, 2018
4/5 Swiss Army Man (2016) Joel Mayward Swiss Army Man dares to look at some of the darker or stranger parts of ordinary reality and examine them in the light of imaginative world-building and the curiosity of a child. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2018
3.5/5 The Lobster (2015) Joel Mayward It's certainly a film worth pondering and discussing, even if its tone is unsettling. And for the record: I'd be a dolphin. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2018
4.5/5 The Innocents (2016) Joel Mayward Anne Fontaine has crafted a wonderfully humane film... EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2018
2/5 Jason Bourne (2016) Joel Mayward Turns out that watching someone click a mouse and look at a computer screen is about as exciting in the movies as it is in real life. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2018
4.5/5 Hell or High Water (2016) Joel Mayward ...a Texas film if ever there was one. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2018
3.5/5 The Light Between Oceans (2016) Joel Mayward ...classically romantic. It feels like seeing a painting come to life, where the beautiful images and characters are somehow imbued with spirit. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2018
3.5/5 Sully (2016) Joel Mayward [It] was a delightful surprise to find myself moved to tears not once, but twice, in Clint Eastwood's simple-yet-solid biopic...a film that celebrates good people doing a good thing for others simply because it's their job. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2018
2.5/5 Sunset Song (2015) Joel Mayward Poetic narration, complex characters, and not a shortage on melodrama make Terence Davies' coming-of-age tale worthy of consideration. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2018
4.5/5 Knight of Cups (2015) Joel Mayward Knight of Cups is the book of Ecclesiastes put to film. I mean this in the best way possible. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2018