Nashville Scene

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
Kamera o tomeru na! (2017) Jason Shawhan One Cut of the Dead is a scrappy, sincere take on the zombie film, and perhaps the only pure and decent thing to be found at the box office. EDIT
Posted Sep 12, 2019
In Fabric (2018) Jason Shawhan This dress comes with a body count, and though it doesn't send folks into stabby fits of rage, haute tragedy is all the rage this season. EDIT
Posted Sep 12, 2019
Cold Case Hammarskjöld (2019) Steve Erickson The things the film suggests may be speculative, but the genocidal racism behind the conspiracy it describes is instantly believable. EDIT
Posted Sep 11, 2019
It: Chapter Two (2019) Cory Woodroof It's designed to feel like a rancid reunion, a painstaking re-creation to conjure the same chills it elicited the first time you went to Derry, Maine. EDIT
Posted Sep 11, 2019
The Nightingale (2018) Nathan Smith The Nightingale is at its best when it ceases to be a horror movie or a period piece and instead becomes a buddy comedy about two people bonding over how much the English have ruined their lives. EDIT
Posted Sep 11, 2019
Blinded by the Light (2019) Craig D. Lindsey Despite some moments of cloying earnestness that seem like overkill, Blinded by the Light is a pleasant enough throwback voyage of self-discovery. EDIT
Posted Aug 23, 2019
Angel Has Fallen (2019) Jason Shawhan There is a vicious efficiency to this sequence that cobbles together the exact right combination of sci-fi awe and visceral, exploding horror. EDIT
Posted Aug 23, 2019
The Kitchen (2019) Cory Woodroof Everything about The Kitchen's script feels sanded down and traced over, though Berloff still shows plenty of potential as a director. EDIT
Posted Aug 9, 2019
The Farewell (2019) Sadaf Ahsan Almost every shot, most of them wide, encompasses the entire family and its myriad facial expressions. There's an emotional choreography to this film. EDIT
Posted Aug 1, 2019
Maiden (2018) Kelsey Conner Holmes could have effectively angled Maiden as a high-stakes sports documentary. ... Instead, Holmes recognizes the strengths of his subjects and lets them ultimately speak for themselves. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
The Chambermaid (2018) Erica Ciccarone Avilés brings us startlingly close to that mundanity, and we walk away from the film with a greater knowledge of how our desires make us human, just as much as our struggles. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019) Laura Hutson Hunter Readers of Morrison's work will find much to love here, but writers should also take note: Consider this a master class in writing from one of the world's greatest living novelists. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
Wild Rose (2018) Brittney McKenna The story deals more in the complexities of working-class life than it does the machinations of the music industry, which makes it a more compelling watch than some of its sparklier contemporaries. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
Midsommar (2019) Jason Shawhan This is a film wherein textiles and tapestries and secret tomes tell us the truth even as people of all affiliations shakily lie. EDIT
Posted Jul 3, 2019
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) Craig D. Lindsey The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a visually, thematically wondrous portrait of and salute to a city its residents love even when they're hating on it. EDIT
Posted Jul 3, 2019
Annabelle Comes Home (2019) Jason Shawhan At its best, this film is a sustained kind of creepy that never does anything too stupid or world-breaking. EDIT
Posted Jul 3, 2019
Diamantino (2018) Jason Shawhan See it with your weirdest friend, and be prepared to learn some things about yourself. EDIT
Posted Jun 25, 2019
A Ghost Story (2017) Erica Ciccarone In the frequent silences and lingering shots, there's plenty of time for a viewer to reflect on Affleck's alleged sexual harassment of two women while filming I'm Still Here. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Patti Cake$ (2017) D. Patrick Rodgers It's built on a rock-solid foundation that endears us to our heroine, unites us against her oppressors and makes us root for her at the freestyle parking-lot cypher ... EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
The Force (2017) Erica Ciccarone Nicks quietly challenges what you think you know about both the police and the people who most often are killed by them. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
The Florida Project (2017) D. Patrick Rodgers It might rip your guts to shreds just a little bit, but it'll be worth it. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
The Disaster Artist (2017) D. Patrick Rodgers So how is it? In a word, unnecessary. But in two words? Unnecessary and hilarious EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
The Shape of Water (2017) Erica Ciccarone This creature is cut, chiseled, virile; you'd be forgiven if you find yourself a little turned on. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Phantom Thread (2017) D. Patrick Rodgers So instead of asking, "Is Phantom Thread good?" (of course it's good, you fool), the question is, "Is the film a fitting exit for one of the greatest actors of our time?" EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Submission (2017) Erica Ciccarone Levine's script misses the opportunity to get in the ring and wrestle with the messy place occupied by consensual but regrettable sex. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Isle of Dogs (2018) D. Patrick Rodgers It's a beautiful movie, even as death and decay are central to its plot - not always themes you find in Anderson's balanced, pastel cinematic wonderlands. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
A Beautiful Day (2017) D. Patrick Rodgers You Were Never Really Here is a film of extremes, vacillating between perfect quiet and roaring chaos, between hyperviolence and slow banality. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Eighth Grade (2018) Erica Ciccarone The movie is rich with details that ring true, like a kid's quiet reverie as he sniffs a Magic Marker, or Kayla's crush turning his eyelids inside out in a swimming pool. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Colette (2018) Erica Ciccarone With strong central performances from Keira Knightley as Colette and Dominic West as her literary-charlatan husband Willy, Colette is a ton of fun. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Kusama: Infinity (2018) Erica Ciccarone Kusama's work is employed as the backdrop of these interviews, creating an immersive world that's a blast to inhabit. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Wildlife (2018) Erica Ciccarone If Mulligan glowed before, now she's as bright as a lightning bolt - and as destructive. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) Erica Ciccarone If Beale Street Could Talk - the third film by the celebrated Moonlight director Barry Jenkins - will endure. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
On the Basis of Sex (2018) Erica Ciccarone On the Basis of Sex is visually striking, carefully framed and orchestrated to cast Ginsburg as an originator. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Destroyer (2018) Erica Ciccarone When you look outside Kidman's performance, what's left is a semi-interesting story made stale by a hackneyed screenplay. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Cold War (2018) Joe Nolan The film ... brims with energy, intrigue and eros, and also an abiding love for the films of the second half of the 20th century. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Capernaum (2018) Steven Hale Labaki's film documents a world largely governed by concentric circles of suffering and exploitation, but in her screenplay and through her eye, there are no villains here ... EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Apollo 11 (2019) Nathan Smith The newly discovered footage is so crisp and cinematic that moon-landing skeptics will no doubt see it as further evidence of fakery. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Greta (2018) Jason Shawhan This is a wicked film with a lot on its mind. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Captain Marvel (2019) Cory Woodroof Captain Marvel can stand alone as a step forward for a film series that was long past due making one, just as it can fall short of its potential EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Climax (2018) Jason Shawhan Writer-director Gaspar Noé specializes in emotional responses to difficult situations, and he's in his element here as conductor and architect of the saddest kind of madness. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Pájaros de verano (2018) Nathan Smith Birds of Passage is intriguing because of its denial of the genre's most salient tropes. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Gloria Bell (2018) Erica Ciccarone But even as the film establishes Gloria as a modern everywoman looking for love, there are glimmers of originality ... EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Transit (2018) Nathan Smith Transit isn't all sociopolitical metaphor; it's also a master class in efficient genre filmmaking. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
The Aftermath (2019) Joe Nolan The acting in The Aftermath is strong across the board, but the script and editing both fail the performers. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Shazam! (2019) Cory Woodroof Sandberg plays it loose and silly enough to keep the film buoyant and fresh, while still contemplating enough to make it stick. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Ash Is Purest White (2018) Nathan Smith Zhao's performance is built out of fleeting gestures, and she expresses a lifetime of pain with a lightness of touch. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Her Smell (2018) Nathan Smith Moss' manic energy carries the film - everyone else is just a comet caught in her orbit. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
High Life (2018) Jason Shawhan This film gives voice to the scream within. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Hail Satan? (2019) Jason Shawhan It's worth seeing for anyone who feels a little too certain as to their own cosmology, and also as a sign of hope that there are people battling the erosion of social liberty on all levels. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019
Tolkien (2019) Joe Nolan More than once Tolkien put me in mind of Dead Poets Society, and there isn't higher praise for a literary coming-of-age screen story. EDIT
Posted Jun 17, 2019