Nashville Scene

Nashville Scene is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Bilge Ebiri, Craig D. Lindsey, Jim Ridley, Noel Murray, Rob Nelson, Willow Maclay
Rating Title/Year Author
Amazing Grace (2018) Craig D. Lindsey Amazing Grace is a truly joyous and energizing celluloid celebration of live music. EDIT
Posted Apr 18, 2019
The Brink (2019) Steve Erickson As critical as Klayman is of Bannon, she still feeds into his cult of personality by focusing on him as a person instead of exploring the appeal of the ideology he represents. EDIT
Posted Apr 11, 2019
Gummo (1997) Jim Ridley If only the director didn't see the rest of humanity as found art, and himself as its appraisor! EDIT
Posted Apr 2, 2019
The Mustang (2019) Steve Erickson Undeniably well-made, it feels like it's critiquing one audience's set of assumptions about violence and masculinity while catering to another's. EDIT
Posted Mar 29, 2019
Us (2019) Bilge Ebiri If Get Out was a dagger, Us is a storm cloud.The new picture is also, in some ways, more assured than Get Out in the way it delivers traditional but effective genre pleasures. EDIT
Posted Mar 28, 2019
Everybody Knows (2018) Craig D. Lindsey It may seem obvious, but Everybody Knows is another well-executed exercise in kitchen-sink realism from a filmmaker who always knows how to bring the drama. EDIT
Posted Feb 28, 2019
Alita: Battle Angel (2019) Craig D. Lindsey Much like the industrial wasteland it's set in, Alita: Battle Angel is cluttered, clunky and full of shiny-looking junk. EDIT
Posted Feb 14, 2019
Serenity (2019) Steve Erickson Serenity is entertaining, indeed laugh-out-loud funny. When it takes a big turn halfway through, its intent is less clear. EDIT
Posted Jan 24, 2019
Vice (2018) Craig D. Lindsey McKay ultimately paints Cheney as a devious, unpredictable sociopath, leaving us more depressed than amused. EDIT
Posted Dec 20, 2018
Maria by Callas: In Her Own Words (2017) Craig D. Lindsey For being a comprehensive study, Volf could've let Callas sing less -- so Maria could tell the rest of the story. EDIT
Posted Nov 30, 2018
Widows (2018) Noel Murray Like McQueen's Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave, what stands out most about Widows is how the director takes a story that's often violent and despairing - and focused on social inequities - and makes it downright exhilarating. EDIT
Posted Nov 15, 2018
Boy Erased (2018) Steve Erickson It's an ABC Afterschool Special with aspirations of winning a Best Picture Oscar. EDIT
Posted Nov 8, 2018
Studio 54: The Documentary (2018) Craig D. Lindsey As this nostalgic, funky and ultimately bittersweet valentine of a movie shows, Studio 54 could never have survived no matter what - mainly because it was an ideal microcosm of how our society should be. And nobody at the time was ready for that. EDIT
Posted Oct 25, 2018
Bad Reputation (2018) Steve Erickson Bad Reputation makes clear that - even in an age when rock music is growing increasingly unfashionable - Jett is utterly sincere about the idealism and bravado of her biggest hit, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll." EDIT
Posted Sep 20, 2018
Life Itself (2018) Craig D. Lindsey Fogelman tries to tug on the heartstrings by giving us a story full of people who go through some harrowing, emotional ordeals, but it constantly rings hollow. EDIT
Posted Sep 20, 2018
Juliet, Naked (2018) Craig D. Lindsey The movie seems to consist of a lot of loose strands that go nowhere or end up being discarded. Fortunately, Juliet, Naked still gets the point across that emotionally stunted men should grow up and appreciate what they have. EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2018
Three Identical Strangers (2018) Steve Erickson Very entertaining on its surface, but its undercurrents might make you a bit queasy. EDIT
Posted Aug 9, 2018
BlacKkKlansman (2018) Craig D. Lindsey Lee has once again cleverly flexed his genre-bending muscles. Much as he did with 2015's underrated farcical/musical whatzit Chi-Raq, the director melds comedy and tragedy to come up with entertaining and thought-provoking cinema. EDIT
Posted Aug 9, 2018
Sorry to Bother You (2018) Michael Sicinski It's a comedy with a lot on its mind, to be sure. But what Riley has accomplished with this film is notable because of all the ways it could fall flat but doesn't. EDIT
Posted Jul 12, 2018
Damsel (2018) Steve Erickson Everything here is mashed together into a postmodern pileup that thinks it's politically progressive and smart but really isn't. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2018
The Rider (2017) Craig D. Lindsey It's so quiet that at times it feels like it doesn't want to disturb any other movies playing in neighboring theaters. But you'll definitely be swept away by its beautiful spirit - if you just hold on. EDIT
Posted May 17, 2018
Lean on Pete (2017) Steve Erickson Without the pop pleasures of Sean Baker's The Florida Project, it offers a similar critique of contemporary America, very convincingly acted and directed with a fine eye. EDIT
Posted Apr 19, 2018
Foxtrot (2017) Steve Erickson Foxtrot plays like a chamber drama with an absurd penchant for tragedy. EDIT
Posted Mar 22, 2018
The Death of Stalin (2017) Craig D. Lindsey Once again, if you know how Iannucci works, you can expect Stalin to be as hilariously foul-mouthed as his previous works. EDIT
Posted Mar 22, 2018
Red Sparrow (2018) Craig D. Lindsey Although Red Sparrow succeeds at being the sort of routinely paranoid, melodramatic secret-agent yarn that used to drop back in the Reagan era, it overdoes it in the brutality department. EDIT
Posted Mar 1, 2018
Dallas Buyers Club (2013) Steve Erickson It works as a buddy movie of sorts, as well as a story of one man heroically defying the system, but it's never as enlightened as it thinks it is. EDIT
Posted Feb 16, 2018
A Room in Town (1982) Steve Erickson The colorful cinematography and production design (a strength of even his weakest work) heighten rather than detract from the narrative's downbeat nature... EDIT
Posted Feb 16, 2018
The Overnight (2015) Steve Erickson In only 78 minutes, this eye-widening, startlingly honest little movie says more about love, and the difficulties of keeping it fresh, than most rom-coms with 10 times its budget. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
The Neon Demon (2016) Steve Erickson The Neon Demon is just as derivative as Drive, but it treats its influences in a more diffuse manner. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
American Honey (2016) Steve Erickson You may hate it, but you're unlikely to feel blasé after coming out the other end of Arnold's vision of America. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
The Assassin (2015) Steve Erickson You're not likely to see a better film this year. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Goodnight Mommy (2014) Steve Erickson Directors Franz (Seidl's wife and a collaborator on his scripts) and Fiala have basically made arthouse torture porn. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Under the Sun (2015) Steve Erickson ... a film about the human cost of authoritarianism, as well as a postmodern lesson in the value of questioning the reality of what we watch. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words (2016) Steve Erickson Even if I remain unconvinced of the greatness of most of his music, Eat That Question makes the best possible case for his merits in other areas. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Forushande (2016) Steve Erickson See The Salesman for an expertly crafted lesson in cultural differences. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Jackie (2016) Steve Erickson Portman's performance does hint at an inner strength, particularly in the magazine interview, but the script betrays her. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Moonlight (2016) Steve Erickson Moonlight demands to be seen on the big screen: It has a physicality and a weight, and its view of Miami is dreamlike and trippy without overplaying the neon and pastel colors that tend to dominate films and TV shows set in that city. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
A Quiet Passion (2016) Steve Erickson It's no accident that A Quiet Passion evokes late avant-modernist women like Akerman and Huillet. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
After the Storm (2016) Steve Erickson [Director Kore-eda Hirokazu's] work is no mere nostalgia act... EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Raw (2016) Steve Erickson The horror here isn't limited to expectations about women's bodies and the self-destructive things women do as a response, but it starts there. It ends up far beyond there, in a wickedly comic exploration of family ties. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Maudie (2016) Steve Erickson Maudie ultimately just seems like a quaint exercise, more like visiting a history museum than watching a woman who truly lived. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
The Beguiled (2017) Steve Erickson If Coppola puts a feminist spin on the narrative, emphasizing the difficulty of expressing female desire without endangerment, she's not far off from the original. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
City of Ghosts (2017) Steve Erickson ... it's hard to do justice to a film that incorporates such difficult material without ... well, acknowledging its very real difficulty. But the rewards of City of Ghosts are worth it. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
The Challenge (2016) Steve Erickson For its first half-hour, The Challenge gets by on visual style alone, and Ancarani is obviously extremely talented. But after that, it begins to feel increasingly shallow. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
The Nile Hilton Incident (2017) Steve Erickson Fares delivers one of this year's most impressive male performances so far, one that lifts this film above the neo-noir clichés that it could have suffered from. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Beach Rats (2017) Steve Erickson This is territory far more ambitious than American independent narrative has covered recently, and it marks [Writer-director Eliza] Hittman as a major new voice in our national cinema. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) Steve Erickson Both in her strength and confusion, Minnie - played by British actress Bel Powley - is a really believable teenager. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Time Out of Mind (2014) Steve Erickson Writer-director Oren Moverman takes care to ground his film in the vivid details of New York street life, and more care went into the sound design of Time Out of Mind than any other U.S. film I've seen this year. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Dior and I (2014) Steve Erickson The excess detailed in the Saint Laurent films is well behind us - which is good for Simons' health, but perhaps not so good for documentary viewers looking for something beyond formulaic structures. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018
Mr. Turner (2014) Steve Erickson ... it's the British director's best film in years. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2018