Fresh
| Fresh 80%
| Before Tomorrow (2009) | "
The directors nevertheless manage to locate great reserves of sadness in the material, tapping a particularly rich vein in the wrinkled look of resignation on actress/co-director Ivalu's face." — Village Voice Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| Home (2009) | "
Working with all-star DP Agnès Godard, Meier effectively communicates the sense of upended privacy." — Village Voice Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 83%
| The Princess and the Frog (2009) | "
It's the socio-cultural suggestions of this storytelling choice that's ultimately most troublesome." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 85%
| Me and Orson Welles (2009) | "
The film's pleasures are to be found almost entirely in the meticulously recreated period design." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 22, 2009 |
Fresh
| N/A | My Dear Enemy (2009) | "
It gets by on the subtle interplay of its contrasting leads, a welcome store of deadpan humor and, especially, Choi Sang-ho's gorgeous widescreen photography, which makes even a trip to an impound lot into a luminous, dusk-lit experience." — Village Voice Posted Nov 17, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 67%
| Missing Person (2009) | "
The film's second half appears primed to tread some interesting existential territory, but Buschel seems confused about what direction he means to take his material." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 15, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 65%
| The End of Poverty? (2009) | "
For all his film's sober analysis, Diaz never loses sight of the human cost of global capitalism." — Village Voice Posted Nov 10, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 67%
| Dare (2009) | "
Zach Gilford's game performance is still no match for the film's catalog of easy ironies, awkward framings, and advice on how to play Blanche DuBois cribbed from season 4, episode 2 of The Simpsons." — Village Voice Posted Nov 10, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 22%
| Oh My God (2009) | "
In Oh My God, those who disagree with the party line are summarily contradicted." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 8, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 72%
| That Evening Sun (2009) | "
That Evening Sun gets at something essential about man's sense of his own dignity and the importance to the American notion of self that comes with the possession of a property of one's own." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 1, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009) | "
Wiseman is principally concerned with process here, the process of art's creation and, to a lesser degree, the process of an institution's functioning." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 1, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 16%
| Gentlemen Broncos (2009) | "
Hess still seems to see his characters as little more than objects of comedic fun." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 27, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 45%
| Turning Green (2009) | "
An Irish-set comedy-drama, Turning Green is not particularly comic or compellingly dramatic." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 67%
| Storm (2009) | "
A finely graded legal thriller, Storm effectively builds its moral and political investigation into the fabric of its central court case." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 25, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 27%
| The Canyon (2009) | "
Another one for the bad-stuff-happens-to-stupid-people file, The Canyon might at least offer the satisfaction of a few squirmy thrills, if it weren’t so insistent on treating its central couple’s plight as the stuff of high tragedy." — L.A. Weekly Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 37%
| Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) | "
It's hard to escape the feeling that this is one film that already has its eye on the next chapter." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 93%
| The Wedding Song (2009) | "
In The Wedding Song, director Karin Albou shrewdly links national politics with its domestic sexual counterpart." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 20, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 0%
| Eulogy for a Vampire (2009) | "
Despite the occasional keeper of an image... this is one gay vampire film that's surprisingly anemic." — Village Voice Posted Oct 20, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 80%
| Black Rain (1989) | "
Following the recent releases of The Ballad of Narayama and Criterion's Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes box set, the posthumous celebration of a Japanese master continues." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 80%
| Black Rain (1989) | "
While most of Black Rain takes place in 1950, the film's astonishing opening sequence places us at the epicenter of the event, August 1945." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh
| N/A | Adela (2009) | "
[An] art-perfect snapshot of a community-in-flux." — Village Voice Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Fresh 2/4
| Rotten 41%
| New York, I Love You (2009) | "
If at first you partially succeed, repeat the formula." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 11, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 58%
| Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution (2009) | "
Jean-Paul Jaud's Food Beware is more concerned with focusing on solutions than in simply sounding the alarm." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 56%
| Trucker (2009) | "
In his tough-minded commitment to both his characters and to their lower-middle-class milieu, the filmmaker recasts his potentially disastrous material into something that feels emotionally honest, if not exactly revelatory." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 7, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 85%
| Araya (1959) | "
Benacerraf seems determined to show the human face -- not just the chiseled physique -- of this place." — Village Voice Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 20%
| Eating Out: All You Can Eat (2009) | "
I may yet be a convert." — Village Voice Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 25%
| Adventures of Power (2009) | "
Gold's screenplay is a tad too ambitious for its thin comic premise." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 5, 2009 |
Rotten .5/4
| Fresh 84%
| The Horse Boy (2009) | "
Some people's stories are so interesting that a book or a movie adaptation alone simply won't suffice. Sometimes both are needed. Apparently, Rupert Isaacson's is one of them." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 28, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 60%
| Police, Adjective (2009) | "
Corneliu Porumboiu's Police, Adjective is really two movies, varying significantly in their degree of success." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 94%
| In Search Of Beethoven (2009) | "
The film's real resource is its impressive array of talking heads, their intimate familiarity with the music, and their ability to impart graspable insight." — Village Voice Posted Sep 23, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 60%
| Wild Grass (2009) | "
Wild Grass is cute stuff...maybe too cute." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 21, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 100%
| Vincere (2009) | "
If Bellocchio's film were nothing but a recreation of a forgotten historical footnote, it would stand as an accomplished bit of work and the discussion would end there. But crafting a skillful period drama is only the beginning of the filmmaker's ambition" — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 21, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 86%
| The Age of Stupid (2009) | "
Communicates something of the massive global impact of our careless, though officially encouraged, consumption, even if Armstrong's outsized ambitions threaten to dissipate some of the movie's force." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 21, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 43%
| Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009) | "
Brief Interviews is interesting in pieces, but overwhelming in its totality." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 21, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 33%
| Irene in Time (2009) | "
For some girls, when it comes to men, there's just no one quite like daddy." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 21, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 0%
| If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans (2009) | "
Tillmans outlines a fascinating, if partial, philosophy of his work." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 14, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 67%
| Sikandar (2009) | "
Sikandar does the one thing unforgivable for a film concerned with ethical accounting: absolve the hero of ultimate responsibility for his actions." — Slant Magazine Posted Aug 17, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Fresh 60%
| Art & Copy (2009) | "
The subjects seem so deluded by a sense of self-importance that they put forth any number of outrageous claims about the significance of their art in order to justify a life spent serving a potentially dubious interest." — Slant Magazine Posted Aug 17, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 91%
| Cloud 9 (2009) | "
Sexual awakening isn't just for the young anymore." — Slant Magazine Posted Aug 10, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 91%
| Ponyo (2009) | "
Until its fizzle of a finale, Ponyo, Hayao Miyazaki's latest artisanally-crafted animé daydream, brims forth with an appealingly willy-nilly inventiveness pitched to a child's sense of wonder." — Slant Magazine Posted Aug 10, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 81%
| Earth Days (2009) | "
There's a bit too much of the self-congratulatory in the film, with both Hayes and population growth guru Dennis Meadows doing a fair bit of horn-tooting, but any sense of complacency is quickly undercut by the film's final act." — Slant Magazine Posted Aug 10, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 60%
| Paper Heart (2009) | "
The questioning yields but modest insights, more along the line of "love is a hard thing to find--when you have it, keep it" than any heretofore undiscovered secret formulas." — Slant Magazine Posted Aug 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 81%
| Beeswax (2009) | "
With Beeswax, Andrew Bujalski continues his project of crafting intensely observed, dialogue-driven character pieces that make use of nonprofessional actors and privilege the seemingly empty moments in conversation." — Slant Magazine Posted Aug 3, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 68%
| Funny People (2009) | "
The Adam Sandler persona is subjected to careful dissection and revealed at last as a self-obsessed a*#hole whose childlike whimsy and offhand charm can no longer make up for a lack of regard for anything outside of his limited worldview." — Slant Magazine Posted Jul 28, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 75%
| Loren Cass (2009) | "
Fuller leaves plenty of room for the viewer to create his own meaning but, in the end, it's not clear how much meaning the filmmaker has brought to the project himself." — Slant Magazine Posted Jul 24, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 100%
| California Company Town (2009) | "
A social and aesthetic document of promise betrayed." — Slant Magazine Posted Jul 19, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 78%
| The End of the Line (2009) | "
As if we didn't already have enough signs of the impending apocalypse with which to contend." — Slant Magazine Posted Jul 13, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 64%
| Off Jackson Avenue (2009) | "
Sex slavery, Japanese hit men, and ordinary car thieves converge on the mean streets of Long Island City in Off Jackson Avenue, John-Luke Montias's engagingly lurid but ultimately tepid crime drama." — Slant Magazine Posted Jul 13, 2009 |
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