Nashville Scene

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
Silk Road (2021) Joe Nolan Silk Road squanders this moment - and this complex, stranger-than-fiction story - to bring us a talented cast walking through a lazy script. EDIT
Posted Feb 25, 2021
4/4 Nomadland (2020) Cory Woodroof Zhao's film, however accidental, is the empathy machine we need to get us through the pandemic. For that, it will live eternal. EDIT
Posted Feb 25, 2021
PG: Psycho Goreman (2020) Jason Shawhan At its best, PG: Psycho Goreman feels like a collision between the more anarchic strains of Canadian children's television, the TV Guide description of E.T. ... and one of those splatterific R-rated Italian fantasy epics from the early '80s. EDIT
Posted Feb 25, 2021
Willy's Wonderland (2021) Jason Shawhan ...His Cageness shakes, struts, grunts and shrieks, and it's unexpectedly awesome. EDIT
Posted Feb 25, 2021
The Vigil (2019) Jason Shawhan It's not often that we get horror films focused on Jewish traditions (see also 2015's exceptional Tikkun), but this film hits like a ton of bricks. EDIT
Posted Feb 25, 2021
4/4 Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021) Jason Shawhan "The colors: bright; the mood: uncertain; the vibe: distinctive. And at its heart, a mystery." EDIT
Posted Feb 25, 2021
2.5/4 Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Craig D. Lindsey Here we go again with another fact-based movie about the Black Panthers that thinks people won't be that interested unless it's told in a pulpy, melodramatic manner. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2021
4/4 Minari (2020) Sadaf Ahsan Minari is a gentle burn of a film. The loudest thing about it, in fact, is just how much of an American story it is. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2021
News of the World (2020) Cory Woodroof News of the World is 2020's second-best American Western, and a heartening reminder of why we still long for the Western expanse we see in movies. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) Cory Woodroof Some might critique the final product here as being a bit too Hollywood, but it's got that Frank Capra optimism that might do us all some good. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Don't Look Back (2020) Steve Erickson Don't Look Back aims for atmosphere but instead piles on cliché after cliché. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Synchronic (2019) Jason Shawhan ...in a film about multiple temporal realities, maybe we're meant to question all that we experience. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Wolfwalkers (2020) Cory Woodroof At its core, the film carries on a distinctly frank conversation about the horrors of a Puritan society and why it's good to evolve past a ruling class that manipulates its citizens. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Come Play (2020) Erica Ciccarone Anyway, Come Play is so much weirder than you might expect, and it does phone-based horror in a new and intriguing way. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Freaky (2020) Jason Shawhan Freaky absolutely has the best Vince Vaughn performance since 2000's Made, and it's amazing to see the effervescent joy he brings to this role. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Hillbilly Elegy (2020) Craig D. Lindsey t's a film so staid, safe and inoffensive, I'm surprised that shit didn't premiere on the Hallmark Channel. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Stardust (2020) Steve Erickson The low budget leads to an unconvincing re-creation of the period, and the film does a terrible job of capturing the hippie era's tail end as it faded into something new. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Mank (2020) Cory Woodroof The powerful can do what they may, but if Mank proves anything, it's that the pages of history will have the last word - and it's usually the writer who's in control of those. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Another Round (2020) Nathan Smith Though there's emotional weight to the performances and a sense of competence to the craftsmanship of Another Round, one has to wonder if Vinterberg needs ... to push himself to the limit ... EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Funny Boy (2020) Steve Erickson Paradoxically, the film is most engaging when it's a relatively laid-back love story. But it also richly conveys the swift demolition of one's ability to feel safe at home. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Archenemy (2020) Jason Shawhan ... it's a spry and inventive take on storytelling as something genetic and mutable, the way that cultures adapt, and how perspective can be a bridge and/or a weapon. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
To the Ends of the Earth (2019) Nathan Smith ...Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of cinema's finest conductors of emotional experience. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Soul (2020) Cory Woodroof The magic of Soul is how it marries the things we love in life with how we channel those things into goodwill for others. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Promising Young Woman (2020) Sadaf Ahsan Promising Young Woman, then, unabashedly offers the bitch-in-sheep's-clothing trope. In its intentionality, it works. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Film About a Father Who (2020) Craig D. Lindsey These days, old age has set in, and the younger Sachs predictably finds that getting answers out of the artful codger about his years of reckless philandering/fathering isn't easy. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (2021) Steve Erickson ".. it combines the twisted romanticism of Vertigo with a pervasive anomie - its characters may as well be separated by glass. EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
3/4 City Hall (2020) Nathan Smith Certain sequences stretch to the point of tedium ... But Wiseman always finds a way to bring his vast collection of threads and tangents back together. EDIT
Posted Nov 6, 2020
1.5/4 Antebellum (2020) Craig D. Lindsey ...seeing more Black pain is really something we don't need right now. We already see it on our damn phones every waking moment. EDIT
Posted Oct 12, 2020
1/4 Sibyl (2019) Sadaf Ahsan "...it's Efira and Exarchopoulos holding this movie up with their impassioned performances, like a bent and battered wire hanger struggling to support an oversized wool sweater" EDIT
Posted Oct 12, 2020
4/4 Possessor: Uncut (2020) Jason Shawhan If Cronenberg lost control of the tone at any moment, the end result would be unwatchably disturbing. And he does not lose control. EDIT
Posted Oct 9, 2020
Boys State (2020) J.R. Lind It's compelling from the start to its heart-wrenching finish - an examination of young manhood and citizenship, and a reminder that we will choose what our democracy becomes. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
Irresistible (2020) Cory Woodroof If you're wondering what sets this film apart from its satirical peers, it's the confidence its filmmaker has in his audience. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
First Cow (2019) D. Patrick Rodgers It's a tender, moving, painful depiction of friendship and classism and privilege and trust, and a film worth seeing in the theater. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020) Ron Wynn That material is no less vivid and shocking today than it was decades ago, and Lewis was right at the center of numerous epic events. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
We Are Little Zombies (2019) Nathan Smith Though it's often dazzling in its creativity, the sheer magnitude of its visual inventiveness can start to weigh you down after two hours. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
The Painted Bird (2019) Jason Shawhan This film is too much. That's certainly the point it's making, and it does so with skill, style and an absence of pity or humanity. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
Feels Good Man (2020) Steve Erickson Despite Jones' use of animation, Feels Good Man is almost too sober for its own good, determined not to give in to the chaos that co-opted Pepe. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) D. Patrick Rodgers Its sequence of events unfurls strangely and with surrealistic imagery, like a long, complex dream conjured in a deep sleep. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) Cory Woodroof Supported by a career-best performance from Dev Patel, Iannucci has taken the Dickens tale and turned it into a tasty tonic for tough times EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
Tesla (2020) Cory Woodroof Just like Tesla, Almereyda's film does not stick to conventions. It works in a space where anything can happen EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
She Dies Tomorrow (2020) Jason Shawhan This is experimental and existential horror ... serves up something transcendent and beautiful that will put your emotions through the ringer. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
The Fight (2020) Steve Erickson Jamming all of this into a brief documentary results in a shallow montage of soundbites. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020) Nathan Smith Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is a tribute to ... the Platonic ideal of an American dive bar, where the Bud is cold and cheap, the patrons are lovably crusty, and chain-smoking is still accepted. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2020
Everybody's Everything (2019) Nathan Smith There's a powerful feeling of catharsis to Everybody's Everything, especially in a time of social isolation... EDIT
Posted Jul 7, 2020
Miss Juneteenth (2020) Erica Ciccarone Miss Juneteenth is a film of small moments that tackle weighty concepts. It avoids big proclamations, opting instead for subtle emotional notes that ring true. EDIT
Posted Jun 30, 2020
Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things (2019) Ron Wynn Indeed, the primary focus of Ella Fitzgerald is on the joy the iconic performer felt and expressed onstage, her brilliance as a melodic interpreter and rhythmic vocal improviser, and her ferocity as an entertainer. EDIT
Posted Jun 30, 2020
Babyteeth (2019) Steve Erickson Babyteeth suggests a bright future for Murphy, whatever medium she continues in. EDIT
Posted Jun 18, 2020
Corpus Christi (2019) Steve Erickson By the end, Komasa tries too hard to convince us how important and sober his film is, even if its critiques are valid. EDIT
Posted Jun 4, 2020
Vitalina Varela (2019) Jason Shawhan If you can give two hours of your existence to a dark room and sincere thought, there's nothing more essential available right now. EDIT
Posted Jun 4, 2020
Deerskin (2019) Steve Erickson Deerskin works on two levels: as a hilarious and creepy pitch-black comedy, and also as a film rich in allegorical meaning. EDIT
Posted Jun 4, 2020