Fresh B+
| Fresh 83%
| Bukowski: Born Into This (2004) | "
An amazing, worthy journey." Posted Oct 28, 2004 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 60%
| The Last Shot (2004) | "
The Last Shot doesn't crackle and pop, but the send-up of Hollywood and the government gets off some good lines and generally endears itself with a kind of earnest scattershot loopiness." Posted Oct 14, 2004 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 81%
| Friday Night Lights (2004) | "
A hard-hitting, fast-paced, stirring film." Posted Oct 7, 2004 |
Fresh C+
| Rotten 16%
| Raise Your Voice (2004) | "
It's a sweet and touching West Coast Fame, though it lacks that 1980 musical's manic energy and excitement." Posted Oct 7, 2004 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 90%
| Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry (2004) | "
A partisan film but ultimately a powerful one." Posted Oct 6, 2004 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 83%
| The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) | "
Credit Mr. Salles with making all the right artistic decisions and turning what could have been a routine polemical film into a fresh mind-changing experience.
" Posted Sep 30, 2004 |
Fresh C+
| Rotten 48%
| Silver City (2004) | "
If Silver City isn't in the same class as [Sayles'] Texas-shot Lone Star, it's still worth a look." Posted Sep 16, 2004 |
Fresh C+
| Fresh 69%
| Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi (2003) | "
A slight but winsome, affirmative film." Posted Sep 9, 2004 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 73%
| The Hunting of the President (2004) | "
There's wit, revelation and mercifully, more about Whitewater than Monica Lewinsky." Posted Sep 2, 2004 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 92%
| Riding Giants (2004) | "
It's a big wet kiss to the heroes and history of an ancient water sport." Posted Aug 5, 2004 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 49%
| A Home at the End of the World (2004) | "
The best reasons [to see it] have to be the subtle, nuanced performances of Mr. Farrell, newcomer Dallas Roberts, a never-better Robin Wright Penn and the endearing evergreen Pride of Quitman, Texas, Sissy Spacek." Posted Jul 29, 2004 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 94%
| Before Sunset (2004) | "
If you didn't like Before Sunrise, filmmaker Richard Linklater says, you'll hate Before Sunset. But if you treasured the original, you're sure to prize the 'romance for realists' sequel." Posted Jul 8, 2004 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 95%
| The Story of the Weeping Camel (2004) | "
A window on a changing world most of us will never see." Posted Jul 3, 2004 |
Fresh B-
| Rotten 49%
| America's Heart and Soul (2004) | "
A visual treat with the sweep and canvas of an IMAX film, the movie, all shot before Sept. 11, 2001, explodes like a chrysanthemum fireworks shell with red, white and blue stars." Posted Jul 1, 2004 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 0%
| The Singing Forest (2003) | "
One has to feel for actors faced with clunky, obvious lines." Posted Jun 17, 2004 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 73%
| Strayed (2004) | "
A fascinating mystery -- a halcyon idyll with a gnawing sense of terror at the edge." Posted Jun 17, 2004 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 31%
| A Thousand Clouds Of Peace (2003) | "
Mr. Hernández's attempt to put an interior landscape on film a la Pasolini may seem stultifying and pretentious, but it's also a brave dark experiment." Posted Jun 17, 2004 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 30%
| Around the World in 80 Days (2004) | "
Plays like a Three Stooges travelogue." Posted Jun 15, 2004 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 96%
| The Agronomist (2004) | "
A lively, illuminating homage to an extraordinary man of courage, whose cry for his beloved country got him killed." Posted Jun 10, 2004 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 96%
| Control Room (2004) | "
It's an intriguing, entertaining glimpse at the inner workings of the most-watched television channel in the world." Posted Jun 10, 2004 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 89%
| National Geographic - Forces of Nature (2005) | "
With the spectacular opening of Forces of Nature, narrated by Kevin Bacon, IMAX outdoes Hollywood's fanciest effects wizards." Posted Jun 4, 2004 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 68%
| Carandiru (2004) | "
An urgent piece of cinema -- a shiv in the ribs and right cross to the chin -- that's also a salutation to human solidarity and the will to live." Posted May 27, 2004 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 63%
| Coffee and Cigarettes (2004) | "
It has the sad, goofy charm of a silent comedy with Buster Keaton, a Jarmusch favorite, with passive-aggressive hits and flashes of barely contained antagonism." Posted May 27, 2004 |
Fresh B-
| Rotten 59%
| Valentin (2004) | "
Seen as the wishful coming-of-age of a writer, who escapes tribulation through imagination, the semi-autobiographical movie seems less sentimental and makes a lot more sense." Posted May 20, 2004 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 93%
| Super Size Me (2004) | "
What makes all this work is that the charming Mr. Spurlock, unlike combative Michael Moore, is winning, witty and completely at ease before the camera." Posted May 13, 2004 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 87%
| The Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003) | "
What gives this its weight and substance is that Mr. Hickenlooper came to see himself in the man whom Nancy Sinatra calls 'Peter Pan in the school of hard knocks.'" Posted Apr 29, 2004 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 63%
| Two Men Went to War (2004) | "
The mission, which the soldiers codenamed Operation Mad Dog, would have been delicious as a documentary, but director John Henderson goes for an antic Two Stooges Abroad approach." Posted Apr 8, 2004 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 96%
| Osama (2003) | "
A poignant film with stinging images." Posted Mar 11, 2004 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 93%
| My Architect: A Son's Journey (2003) | "
Irresistible and haunting." Posted Feb 12, 2004 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 98%
| The Fog of War (2003) | "
[Morris] gave him a stage -- and Mr. McNamara took it -- to chart the tragedy of Vietnam and prove that war is too complex, too dangerous for fallible human beings in power to know what they're doing." Posted Feb 5, 2004 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 26%
| Along Came Polly (2004) | "
Superlative wasted cast and chamber pot-embarrassing humor." Posted Jan 15, 2004 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 98%
| The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2003) | "
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised may be controversial, biased and patchy, but it contains some of the most electrifying and immediate nonfiction footage seen on the big screen." Posted Jan 15, 2004 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 77%
| Taking Sides (2003) | "
The talk in this moral debate smokes with provocative drama and actors of weight." Posted Dec 4, 2003 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 72%
| Bonhoeffer (2003) | "
There is more to the philosophy and faith of Dietrich Bonhoeffer than a 90-minute documentary can begin to cover, but this is a powerful and timely introduction." Posted Nov 28, 2003 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 88%
| Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (2003) | "
It's a rare glimpse of China's 'final solution' for a courageous people whose world view is one of forgiveness, nonviolence and love." Posted Nov 25, 2003 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 85%
| Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) | "
Mr. Weir will possibly get his fifth nomination for Oscar gold, but everybody -- from costume designer Wendy Stites to Australians Iva Davies, Richard Tognetti and Christopher Gordon, who composed the classic-pop score -- deserves three cheers." Posted Nov 13, 2003 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 97%
| Autumn Spring (2003) | "
A bittersweet charmer." Posted Nov 13, 2003 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 64%
| The Flower of Evil (2003) | "
This three-generation melodrama, set in the Bordeaux region, may be just an elegant shadow of 'the gallic Hitchcock,' but even pale and dry, it's still Chabrol and sippable." Posted Nov 6, 2003 |
Fresh C+
| Rotten 41%
| Bollywood/Hollywood (2003) | "
Though neither big nor slick, it's a joyful, feel-good spoof that makes you want to run out and rent a real Bollywood musical." Posted Oct 9, 2003 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 94%
| Millennium Actress (2003) | "
Anime has never been my cup of oolong. Or it wasn't until Satoshi Kon's bold, time-traveling sophomore feature, Millennium Actress." Posted Oct 2, 2003 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 62%
| Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) | "
A predictable lightweight comedy-drama that believes in second chances, risk-taking and loving a house." Posted Sep 25, 2003 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 68%
| Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) | "
Maverick Robert Rodriguez gets back to his old R-rated tricks, but this time he's more mature, stylish and bloody inventive." Posted Sep 11, 2003 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 82%
| Step Into Liquid (2003) | "
The spectacular photography, smart editing and pounding score is so hypnotic, it's a shock to come out of the theater and step onto concrete." Posted Aug 28, 2003 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 90%
| The Magdalene Sisters (2003) | "
An intense expose with bits of acrid humor." Posted Aug 15, 2003 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 25%
| Masked and Anonymous (2003) | "
If Seinfeld is the late sitcom about nothing, M&A is the feature about something. It's just that some of us out here in the hinterland can't figure out what it is." Posted Aug 15, 2003 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 79%
| Mondays in the Sun (2003) | "
Alive with humanity and wit." Posted Aug 15, 2003 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 79%
| Washington Heights (2003) | "
A promising debut that makes us anticipate this Columbia University film grad's sophomore work." Posted Jul 31, 2003 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 94%
| Dirty Pretty Things (2003) | "
[Frears'] finest, most polished, provocative work in a decade." Posted Jul 31, 2003 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 92%
| Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII (2002) | "
A canticle to compassion, a memorial to those who risked torture and death to save innocents." Posted Jul 11, 2003 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 97%
| Winged Migration (2003) | "
It's a heady, exultant ode to life." Posted Jun 19, 2003 |
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