Fresh B-
| Rotten 38%
| It's Complicated (2009) | "
It's Complicated is middle-aged porn, the specialty of Meyers,
who also set ladies and interior
decorators drooling over homes and gardens in 2006's The Holiday." Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 39%
| The Lovely Bones (2009) | "
In Jackson's simplified, sweetened, and
CGI-besotted telling, The Lovely Bones is a sad-but-hopeful, dramatic-but-gentle fairy tale intentionally made less upsetting for teens." Posted Dec 9, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 90%
| Crazy Heart (2009) | "
Bridges' guileless performance makes this piquant little indie tale of country music, redemption, and the love of a pretty younger woman such a sad-song charmer." Posted Dec 9, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 67%
| Missing Person (2009) | "
Buschel makes striking use of the Mike Hammer/Philip Marlowe tradition to tell a story of disorientation and loss in a post-9/11 world where the Twin Towers can go missing too." Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 47%
| Everybody's Fine (2009) | "
Written and directed by British director Kirk Jones with guidance, apparently, from Dr. Phil..." Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 68%
| The Last Station (2009) | "
Based on the equally entertaining, erudite novel by Jay Parini and adapted and directed by Michael Hoffman, the movie is at once a hot marital showdown and a cool political debate, a domestic War and Peace." Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 27%
| Serious Moonlight (2009) | "
There's a lot of yelling, cracking wise, and cooing in this creepy rom-com." Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 13%
| The Strip (2009) | "
What might have been a so-so TV sitcom misses its appropriate medium by compacting all the characters' generic gotta-grow-up problems into one disposable film." Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 94%
| La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009) | "
A rapturous (if occasionally disorienting) dance film precisely choreographed with seeming artlessness." Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 83%
| The Princess and the Frog (2009) | "
This A-level, G-rated entertainment is a fresh twist on the classic fairy tale." Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten F
| Rotten 5%
| Old Dogs (2009) | "
The movie includes an interminable scene of the men taking the wrong medications for their various boomer ailments, with weirdly horrible comedic side effects." Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Rotten 29%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
Weitz goes for an appealing, slightly old-fashioned look, one in which the near-
constant rain nicely mirrors Bella's internal weather conditions." Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 82%
| Broken Embraces (2009) | "
A vibrant, mature love letter to the making of movies, the meaning of movies, and the dark-eyed muse Penélope Cruz..." Posted Nov 18, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 88%
| Red Cliff (2009) | "
There's plenty of vivid action to fill two and a half hours in John Woo's Chinese historical war epic Red Cliff, a rewarding change of terrain and era for the inventive Hong Kong director." Posted Nov 18, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 60%
| Pirate Radio (2009) | "
Pirate Radio is, in the end, about as rock-revolutionary as a tea break. But the choppy production floats on a great soundtrack (the real pirates are the Rolling Stones) and is buoyed by an inviting cast..." Posted Nov 11, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Rotten 57%
| Uncertainty (2009) | "
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lynn Collins are so interesting that it's easy to put up with the decision-making dithering that goes along with the title." Posted Nov 11, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 22%
| Oh My God (2009) | "
British commercial photographer Peter Rodger took his camera -- and a crew to document him using his camera -- around the world like a well-connected dilettante, asking people the uselessly vague question ''What is God?''" Posted Nov 11, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 93%
| The Wedding Song (2009) | "
Writer-director Karin Albou (who plays the mother of the Jewish bride) has a sensuous, intimate filmmaking style that overrides The Wedding Song's more precariously loaded plot parallels." Posted Oct 28, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 87%
| The House of the Devil (2009) | "
Writer-director Ti West's crisp, economical, satisfying little horror pic reclaims the pleasures of the kind of old-school formula that the jokey Scream franchise deconstructed into satire." Posted Oct 28, 2009 |
Rotten D-
| Rotten 16%
| Gentlemen Broncos (2009) | "
The audience may have bought the act in Napoleon Dynamite. But this time, the act bombs." Posted Oct 28, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 37%
| Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) | "
Don't bother to take notes, because subplots go nowhere, and characters -- many played
by well-known actors -- barely get screen time." Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 21%
| Amelia (2009) | "
Amelia is a frustratingly old-school, Hollywood-style, inspirational biopic about Amelia Earhart that doesn't trust a viewer's independent assessment of the famous woman pictured on the screen." Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 69%
| (Untitled) (2009) | "
Adam Goldberg glowers effectively as a serious composer of maddeningly difficult music; the wonderful Marley Shelton glows with hilariously cool composure as a gallery owner who exhibits unendurable art pieces." Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 47%
| Ong Bak 2 (2009) | "
Don't look for continuity of storyline -- just enjoy the extravagant fight stunts, the restless camera work, and the sluicing rivers of blood and mud. (That's why you're here, right?)" Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 73%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
Profoundly beautiful and affecting, Where the Wild Things Are is a breath-
taking act of artistic transubstantiation." Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 61%
| Peter and Vandy (2009) | "
Jess Weixler (Teeth) is particularly lovely as Vandy, even when the mild young woman has to endure her beloved's screaming criticism of her sandwich-making methods." Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 94%
| The Maid (2009) | "
Catalina Saavedra conjures a performance of such unflinching intensity and naked bravery in The Maid that at times it's painful to watch." Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 41%
| New York, I Love You (2009) | "
These tales are as highly designed as fashion layouts. But they're as relaxing to thumb through as those NYT Magazine trend pieces..." Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 94%
| The Damned United (2009) | "
The great cast includes Timothy Spall as the assistant manager, Colm Meaney as Clough's nemesis, and Jim Broadbent as a sports exec who'd make George Steinbrenner nervous." Posted Oct 7, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 76%
| Afterschool (2009) | "
Anthony Campos (who was 24 when he made this jolting pic) captures the numbing psychic scramble that just might cause the YouTube generation to go morally haywire. Or become filmmakers." Posted Oct 7, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
Zombieland takes full advantage of both possibilities of the species as well as the current boom in zombiephilia." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Rotten 57%
| The Invention of Lying (2009) | "
The truth? Ricky Gervais' jolting philosophical comedy The Invention of Lying is seriously subversive. What other rom-com would spend so much time making a convincing case that belief in an afterlife is a harmless load of bollocks?" Posted Sep 30, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 82%
| Whip It (2009) | "
Whip It suggests what might have happened if Juno had gone to a high school as poky as Napoleon Dynamite's and decided that although her mother wanted her to be a beauty queen like Little Miss Sunshine, she'd rather just strap on roller skates." Posted Sep 30, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 39%
| Surrogates (2009) | "
There's fun robot stuff, some good philosophical ideas, and a brief, nutty Willis-Ving Rhames reunion 15 years after Pulp Fiction." Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 28%
| Fame (2009) | "
NYC high school students sing, dance, emote in acting classes, and otherwise insist that America's got talent, but this unnecessarily tepid, conservative remake of 1980's far more famous and affecting original Fame suggests otherwise." Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 72%
| The Boys Are Back (2009) | "
With those piercing eyes, Owen makes a lovely, soulful Joe, of course. But it's not the nice papa we want to understand here, it's the unapologetically naughty one." Posted Sep 23, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 65%
| Coco Before Chanel (2009) | "
Coco Before Chanel examines the influences that made Chanel so different — and so irreplaceable — the way an observant fashion student might deconstruct an haute couture garment to understand how it's built." Posted Sep 23, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 84%
| Disgrace (2009) | "
Newcomer Jessica Haines is transparent and heartbreaking as the prof's unorthodox daughter, a victim of violence as the old ways crumble." Posted Sep 23, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 32%
| The Burning Plain (2009) | "
The scenery (prettily captured by There Will Be Blood cinematographer Robert Elswit) is littered with heavy symbolism (fire! rain! dead birds!); the performances are merely heavy." Posted Sep 23, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 18%
| Love Happens (2009) | "
Other stuff happens too, all of it strained and dull." Posted Sep 18, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 77%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
[Damon] -- who has quietly and steadily turned into a great Everyman actor -- is in nimble control as he reveals his character's deep crazies." Posted Sep 16, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 83%
| Bright Star (2009) | "
Campion's big-sisterly encouragement of Cornish's lovely, openhearted performance -- and Whishaw's well-matched response -- results in a character instantly, intimately recognizable to anyone remembering her own first love." Posted Sep 16, 2009 |
— | Fresh 62%
| Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009) | "
After a summer of phony, pasty rom-coms, do this: See a movie where old-fashioned notions of love, faith, strength, and the possibility of redemption are taken seriously." Posted Sep 14, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 6%
| Whiteout (2009) | "
Whiteout is a conventionally jam-packed, dutifully ludicrous action thriller." Posted Sep 10, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 18%
| The Other Man (2009) | "
The Other Man is self-conscious, overproduced, overacted Euro-marital hoo-ha." Posted Sep 9, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Rotten 57%
| 9 (2009) | "
The expanded cast of creatures looks great, dressed and animated in the homespun style Acker calls ''stitchpunk.''" Posted Sep 9, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 6%
| All About Steve (2009) | "
Oops, sorry, we're not supposed to think of Mary as mentally ill, psychologically unbalanced, or any of those painful things, just full of gumption and sunny determination." Posted Sep 4, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 88%
| Amreeka (2009) | "
The good humor, generosity, and love Dabis bestows on her characters in this assured first feature are uniquely hers -- the mark of a talent to watch" Posted Sep 2, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 86%
| Fifty Dead Men Walking (2009) | "
Jim Sturgess makes a believable cocky lad who signs on for the con; an oddly bewigged Ben Kingsley is fussier and too actorly as his handler." Posted Aug 26, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 74%
| Five Minutes of Heaven (2009) | "
It's an original movie idea that feels written for the stage, all the more so since so much of our attention is diverted to admiring how the actors act, in roles with a high degree of technical
difficulty." Posted Aug 26, 2009 |
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