Fresh
| Fresh 79%
| Before Tomorrow (2009) | "
The third in a cinematic trilogy of pre-Christian Inuit life that began with Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner, Before Tomorrow is an outstanding film which presents a distinctly feminine view of the history of the Inuit." Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| Cloud 9 (2009) | "
Compelling German drama about a 67-year-old seamstress who is not content to wait out the final part of her life "aging gracefully."" Posted Aug 14, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 86%
| Yasukuni (2009) | "
A fascinating portrait of the dark side of Japanese society, Ying Li's film is not so much about Japan's shrine to its war dead as it is an indictment of Japan's wartime aggression." Posted Aug 11, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 67%
| Bliss (2007) | "
The director knows how to exploit beautiful scenery, but he fails at the most basic task of a filmmaker, which is to communicate emotion." Posted Aug 7, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 75%
| Julie & Julia (2009) | "
This entertaining new comedy from Nora Ephron, about famed chef Julia Child and author Julie Powell, is a homage to every woman's unique talent for reinvention." Posted Aug 3, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 97%
| The Beaches of Agnes (2009) | "
A lifeless autobiography, a shadow of the director's genius, The Beaches of Agnès is strictly for the film historian." Posted Jun 29, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 81%
| Unmistaken Child (2009) | "
This documentary about the arcane rituals involved in identifying a child who is a reincarnated lama will leave audiences%u2014except perhaps Buddhists%u2014with far too many unanswered questions." Posted Jun 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 90%
| 24 City (2009) | "
Celebrated filmmaker Jia Zhangke melds fiction and non-fiction filmmaking to portray the new betrayals in store for the Chinese as they shift to capitalism--ones not very different from the old betrayals of a paternalistic society." Posted Jun 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 98%
| Food, Inc. (2009) | "
If you're an omnivore, Food, Inc. is your "must-see" documentary this year." Posted May 20, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 89%
| Séraphine (2008) | "
Yolande Moreau captures both the purposeful, single-minded woman who does other people's laundry to support her painting, and Séraphine de Senlis, whose secret life of fervid creativity drove her to madness." Posted May 20, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 73%
| Objectified (2009) | "
Compilation of filmed interviews with industrial designers who talk about the philosophy of design, rather than the objects they designed." Posted May 7, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 83%
| The Window (2008) | "
Sorin's nihilism is a matter of taste, but his claim that this movie bears any resemblance to Wild Strawberries is frankly disingenuous." Posted May 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 78%
| Three Monkeys (2009) | "
ike Bresson's movies, Three Monkeys is an archetype of the cinematic form in which the elements are stripped to their essences so that what remains is immaterial--as insubstantial as cinema can be." Posted Apr 28, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 93%
| Oblivion (2008) | "
Like all of Heddy Honigmann's films, Oblivion, set in her native Lima, Peru, obliterates any previously held notions we might have had about the subjects she confronts, which, in this case, are intentional forgetfulness and the forgotten of Lima." Posted Apr 10, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 97%
| Tulpan (2008) | "
Story of a young man's efforts to reconcile his imagined paradise with the harsh landscape he hopes will sustain him offers a romantic vision of nomad life on the steppes of Kazakhstan." Posted Mar 27, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 97%
| The Song of Sparrows (2009) | "
People of faith will see divinity in The Song of Sparrows, and the rest of us the presence of something greater than ourselves, a perfection that can only be understood in observation of another person's life." Posted Mar 27, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 71%
| Guest of Cindy Sherman (2009) | "
This skillfully made documentary by a spurned lover of the wildly successful photographer Cindy Sherman carries the deadening taint of exploitation and self-promotion." Posted Mar 26, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 95%
| Fados (2009) | "
Carlos Saura's valentine to fado, Portugal's blues music, is exciting despite the director's imposition of dance production numbers which add a note of dissonance." Posted Feb 24, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| Katyn (2007) | "
An example of how a master filmmaker can make the past--in this case a World War II-era massacre--possess a bracing immediacy. Polish director Andrzej Wajda's film earned an Oscar nomination last year despite its departure from every Hollywood con" Posted Feb 12, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 71%
| Our City Dreams (2009) | "
Documentary portrait of five women artists is the wine-party view of art from socialite-filmmaker Chiara Clemente." Posted Feb 3, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| Gomorrah (2009) | "
Matteo Garrone's provocative film fictionalizes the bleak, horrifying tales of ordinary people swept into the businesses of the Camorra, while illustrating the global reach of the Neapolitan Mafia." Posted Jan 26, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 80%
| Ballerina (2008) | "
Skillfully written and entertaining documentary that is also a clever investigation into the professional lives of the world's best dancers, the ballerinas of Russia's Kirov Ballet." Posted Jan 14, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 63%
| Theater of War (2008) | "
If you can't define "Brechtian," this documentary, ostensibly about the Public Theater's production of Mother Courage and Her Children, may elude you, yet the all-too-brief glimpses of Meryl Streep finding meaning in the play may make it all worthw" Posted Dec 19, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 93%
| The Betrayal (2008) | "
The filmmakers, plying the easier path of sentimentality, never explore the psychological complexity of the disenfranchisement suffered by the Phrasavaths. Instead, they emphasize the everyday humiliations of poverty%u2014the better to place blame." Posted Nov 21, 2008 |
Fresh
| Rotten 58%
| The Secret Life of Bees (2008) | "
Despite a cliched script and bland direction by writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Secret Life of Bees celebrates women and girls, and for that reason should not be written off as just another chick flick." Posted Oct 17, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 87%
| Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine (2008) | "
For the sophisticated viewer, it is like looking at Bourgeois' work in the company of a good friend." Posted Jun 25, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 71%
| American Teen (2008) | "
In each situation, punctuated with animated sequences that reflect the teenager's fantasies, Burstein recalls the bittersweet experience of being 18." Posted Jun 23, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 93%
| Encounters At the End of the World (2007) | "
Signature Herzog: thoughtful, often hilarious, but also overwrought and lengthy." Posted Jun 11, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 64%
| Battle For Haditha (2007) | "
His conflation of reality and narrative filmmaking, unique as it may seem, that doesn't always work." Posted May 7, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 96%
| Up The Yangtze (2007) | "
Far too many disparate themes are never woven together to explain the underlying purpose of the film's journey." Posted Apr 25, 2008 |
Rotten
| Rotten 24%
| The Life Before Her Eyes (2008) | "
One only wonders whether distributor Magnolia Pictures and Perelman's cast and crew grasp the film's undisguised misogyny." Posted Apr 15, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 90%
| Tuya's Marriage (2008) | "
The film's social commentary is so subtle, and arises so naturally from the plot, that Tuya's Marriage might be mistaken for simple, straightforward entertainment." Posted Apr 3, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 86%
| My Brother Is An Only Child (2006) | "
Luchetti's craftsmanship is evident in the movie's fluid on-location cinematography, excellent production design, and its wonderful period score." Posted Mar 26, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 70%
| Irina Palm (2008) | "
A perverse male fantasy masquerading as an earnest story about a woman's life-altering experience." Posted Mar 21, 2008 |
Rotten
| Rotten 18%
| Sleepwalking (2008) | "
The actors' Herculean effort to extract meaning from their characters provides a few moments of relief from this troublesome story." Posted Mar 10, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 68%
| Girls Rock! (2008) | "
While it is absorbing to see girls in this environment, the psychological and sociological perspective which the filmmakers bring teaches us about their subjects rather than allowing us to get to know them." Posted Mar 7, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 80%
| Blind Mountain (2008) | "
Li's documentary approach brooks no sentimentality in its portrayal of the loss of innocence." Posted Mar 6, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 75%
| Paranoid Park (2008) | "
The film is an illustration of Van Sant's virtuosity, as well as a textbook example of cinema's potential to place us squarely in the emotional landscape of another human being." Posted Feb 27, 2008 |
Rotten
| Fresh 86%
| The Silence Before Bach (2008) | "
Driven solely by the filmmaker's prosaic associations. Portabella does not discover the composer through his music." Posted Feb 5, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 92%
| Caramel (2008) | "
A Lebanese version of Steel Magnolias--a delightful valentine to women of a particular time and place." Posted Jan 23, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| Still Life (2008) | "
Jia's films are singular and beautiful and, like the opening tracking shot in Still Life, a study in the expressive potential of the medium." Posted Dec 31, 2007 |
Fresh
| Fresh 100%
| Chuck Close (2007) | "
Through a series of vignettes, interviews with Close's friends and family, the filmmaker reveals the soul of the portraitist." Posted Dec 31, 2007 |
Fresh
| Fresh 73%
| The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) | "
Despite the drama, there is nothing in The Water Horse that will frighten young children. The cast is good, and the special effects are even better." Posted Dec 31, 2007 |
Fresh
| Fresh 100%
| Half Moon: A Musician's Last Journey (2007) | "
Death may come with the half moon, but there remains a promise of rebirth%u2014the full moon, which illuminates even the desperate landscape of Kurdistan." Posted Dec 19, 2007 |
Rotten
| Fresh 90%
| Note by Note: The Making of the Steinway L1037 (2007) | "
Niles purposefully seeks out quirkiness rather than providing meaningful demonstrations of craft." Posted Nov 5, 2007 |
Fresh
| Fresh 64%
| Khadak (2006) | "
A highly imaginative film, beautifully scored and well-acted." Posted Oct 12, 2007 |
Rotten
| Fresh 72%
| The Price of Sugar (2007) | "
Few will doubt the priest's claims given the Dominican Republic's appalling human-rights record; one only wishes they had been explored in an objective documentary format." Posted Sep 27, 2007 |
Fresh
| Fresh 85%
| Banished: How Whites Drove Blacks Out of Town in America (2007) | "
A reflective and thought-provoking documentary, guided by Williams' sensitivity to the subtle and not-so-subtle forms of racism that spurred those events." Posted Sep 26, 2007 |
Fresh
| Fresh 94%
| Lake of Fire (2007) | "
Lives up to its promise of definitiveness...a significant piece of journalism." Posted Sep 25, 2007 |
Fresh
| Fresh 94%
| Forever (2007) | "
[A film with] power to stir a memory of beauty beheld and shared." Posted Sep 12, 2007 |
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