Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 87%
| Amreeka (2009) | "
A good-hearted film about the resilience of the human spirit." Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 87%
| The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009) | "
The Baader-Meinhof Complex is not an easy film to watch; its violence is ugly and brutish. And there's a lot of it." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Rotten 3/5
| Rotten 54%
| The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) | "
Although The Stoning is efficiently made, it is ultimately a cheat." Posted Jul 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 86%
| Earth (2009) | "
It's such a joy to see this footage on the big screen -- even better than hi-definition TV -- that you may want to suffer the slings and arrow of an outrageous soundtrack just for the opportunity to see what's on the screen." Posted Apr 22, 2009 |
Rotten 3/5
| Fresh 71%
| The Secrets (2008) | "
Each of the three primary directions of the movie might make a fascinating film, but tied together, they never cohere, and you find yourself sitting through two long hours wondering why you are doing so." Posted Feb 12, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 91%
| I.O.U.S.A. (2008) | "
You will not likely forget the Jeremiad it presents about how the United States has been living on borrowed money -- and borrowed time -- for decades and now is presenting the bill for our extravagance to our grandchildren." Posted Oct 30, 2008 |
Fresh 4.5/5
| Fresh 80%
| I Served the King of England (2008) | "
This episodic, picaresque film is one delightful surprise after another, a complete joy to watch." Posted Sep 11, 2008 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 93%
| Tell No One (2008) | "
Tell No One is a French action thriller and murder mystery that doesn't cheat." Posted Aug 28, 2008 |
Rotten 2.5/5
| Fresh 75%
| OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2008) | "
A lame comedy with a few decent laughs and several yawn-spawning set pieces that don't really go anywhere." Posted Aug 21, 2008 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 82%
| Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) | "
It all begins to feel veddy, veddy pretentious and a very, very long way from the Brooklyn or Manhattan that he actually understands." Posted Aug 14, 2008 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 56%
| Elsa & Fred (2008) | "
For some, the movie will be an emotional paean to love at the twilight of life; to others, though, it's a contrived, manipulative film calculatedly sentimental and -- except for poor Alfredo -- totally false to life." Posted Jul 24, 2008 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 96%
| Up The Yangtze (2007) | "
The movie never editorializes; it simply presents. It is tragedy, not statistics." Posted Jul 10, 2008 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 86%
| Reprise (2008) | "
If you are young, male and dream of making a name for yourself in the arts, Reprise is about the joys and sufferings of that quest: It is a Jules and Jim for the punk-rock generation." Posted Jun 12, 2008 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 87%
| Jellyfish (2008) | "
Most of the first hour passes without much more forward motion than its namesake. But in the corners and niches of that slow development, we get to know a handful of people, crisply drawn in fast sketches." Posted Jun 5, 2008 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 87%
| Roman de Gare (2008) | "
Don't go to the theater expecting too much and you can't help but leave with a smile on your face." Posted May 22, 2008 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 66%
| Fugitive Pieces (2008) | "
Bit by fragmented bit, it all adds up to a one-note portrait of its protagonist. Granted, that one note is a powerful one." Posted May 8, 2008 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 82%
| Priceless (2008) | "
Priceless is a Hollywood remake waiting to happen. It's almost guaranteed." Posted Apr 24, 2008 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 79%
| The Rape Of Europa (2007) | "
It's long for a documentary, almost two hours, but it has a big story to tell." Posted Mar 6, 2008 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 88%
| Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2004) | "
Imaginary Witness is powerful and complex, and few will manage to make it through to the end without gasping, weeping or covering their eyes." Posted Feb 7, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 93%
| The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) | "
May well be the best movie of the year." Posted Dec 26, 2007 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 89%
| The Savages (2007) | "
Although the story may sound as dismal as Buffalo's weather, it's surprisingly funny. Not gag funny, but observation funny -- the absurdities of real life, seen and presented." Posted Dec 20, 2007 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 94%
| My Kid Could Paint That (2007) | "
Documentarian Amir Bar-Lev began making a film about whether Modern art is a scam and whether a 4-year-old painter from Binghampton, N.Y., might not be as good as Picasso. But Bar-Lev ended making a film instead about whether the 4-year-old is a scam." Posted Nov 1, 2007 |
Rotten 3/5
| Rotten 45%
| Bella (2007) | "
It ends like a TV show, and everyone has learned a neat little lesson. Phooey." Posted Oct 25, 2007 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 77%
| Canvas (2007) | "
Canvas is worth seeing for the acting, but the disease-of-the-week conventions and hackneyed visuals pretty well knock the wind out of its sails." Posted Oct 18, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 94%
| In the Shadow of the Moon (2007) | "
It certainly is fascinating." Posted Sep 27, 2007 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 53%
| David & Layla (2008) | "
David and Layla is proof, if proof be needed, that good intentions just aren't enough." Posted Sep 20, 2007 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 33%
| Sea of Dreams (2005) | "
Pretty scenery. Pretty people. Pretty story. Pretty bad." Posted Sep 20, 2007 |
Fresh 5/5
| Fresh 98%
| The Devil Came On Horseback (2007) | "
The Devil Came on Horseback is a documentary about the genocide in that part of Africa, and the film's strength is that it shows us the horror, rather than tells us about it. It's painful to watch." Posted Sep 14, 2007 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 86%
| Gypsy Caravan (2006) | "
If you have any ear for non-Western music, Gypsy Caravan is a must." Posted Sep 6, 2007 |
Fresh 4.5/5
| Fresh 85%
| 2 Days In Paris (2007) | "
The last time I laughed so hard at a movie, it was Nigel Tufnel telling us his amplifier went to 11." Posted Sep 6, 2007 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 29%
| Goya's Ghosts (2007) | "
It's a richly seen and felt movie, but not one with a feel-good message." Posted Aug 9, 2007 |
Rotten 3.5/5
| Fresh 76%
| Stardust (2007) | "
It feels a bit tired, a bit formulaic, a bit like too much studio input and script doctoring." Posted Aug 9, 2007 |
Fresh 4.5/5
| Fresh 98%
| Ten Canoes (2007) | "
Gulpilil is the canny, subtle and funny narrator of 10 Canoes, a film of unutterable beauty, hypnotic fascination and universal humanity." Posted Aug 2, 2007 |
Rotten 2.5/5
| Fresh 74%
| Sunshine (2007) | "
Other movies may explore the depths of outer space. This movie explores the shallows." Posted Jul 26, 2007 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 81%
| Talk to Me (2007) | "
Don Cheadle has elevated yet another film: Talk to Me is better than it intends to be. But thank Ejiofor as well." Posted Jul 26, 2007 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 77%
| 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama (2007) | "
The film never rises above the spiritual or intellectual level of a TV news anchor. It is a dispiriting film to watch, if you have any real interest in the subject." Posted Jul 19, 2007 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 77%
| I Have Never Forgotten You (2007) | "
Persuasive and engaging, if one-sided. It could be argued there is only one side to argue." Posted Jul 19, 2007 |
Rotten 2.5/5
| Fresh 82%
| Paprika (2007) | "
You could sit through the film two or three times to nail down the details of the story, but the film isn't interesting enough to warrant a second look." Posted Jul 13, 2007 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 86%
| Steel City (2006) | "
Steel City is gritty, blue-collar and surprisingly dry-eyed. If it hadn't been a movie, it could have been a song off Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska album." Posted Jun 28, 2007 |
Rotten 3/5
| Fresh 71%
| Golden Door (2007) | "
The film never really coheres, and although some scenes are amazing, the total is slow, ponderous and sometimes silly." Posted Jun 28, 2007 |
Rotten 2.5/5
| Rotten 27%
| Evening (2007) | "
A collection of Lifetime-channel clichés arranged with the metallic precision of a machine." Posted Jun 28, 2007 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 74%
| La Vie En Rose (2007) | "
Don't bother voting. Just give the Oscar to Marion Cotillard now. As the chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, her acting is the most astonishing I've seen in years." Posted Jun 21, 2007 |
Rotten 2.5/5
| Rotten 13%
| September Dawn (2007) | "
The real problem is that September Dawn isn't a very good movie. It moves too much like a public-school history pageant and gives us mono-dimensional characters who speak dialogue that fairly reeks of printer's ink." Posted Jun 21, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 85%
| Paris, Je T'aime (2007) | "
The best segments are as good as film gets; the losers can make you wince. On the whole, the good outweigh the bad and make the film feel like a minivacation in the City of Light." Posted Jun 7, 2007 |
Fresh 4.5/5
| Fresh 85%
| The Other Conquest (2007) | "
[Director] Carrasco uses shadows and mirrors to create effects he has no actual budget for. The lack of money shows on-screen but is cleverly hidden by the director's genius for making us care about his story so much that we forgive all else." Posted Jun 2, 2007 |
Fresh 5/5
| Fresh 94%
| Away From Her (2007) | "
In Away From Her, four of the best actors in the world turn material worthy of their talents into the best movie of the year so far. The result is moving the way the best-written literature can be, telling us something about ourselves." Posted May 10, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Rotten 56%
| Civic Duty (2007) | "
It does build up considerable suspense and tension; Renfroe has learned well from Hitchcock." Posted May 5, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 96%
| The Cats of Mirikitani (2006) | "
By paying him attention and making this portrait, [director Hattendorf] makes us see Jimmy Mirikitani as a three-dimensional person and not a stereotype of homelessness. You leave the film glad to have met him." Posted Apr 27, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 70%
| Ten 'til Noon (2005) | "
Perhaps Ten 'til Noon is not exactly Citizen Kane, and perhaps all of the puzzle pieces never add up to anything but an engaging hour in the theater, but watching all the bits come together keeps you awake for the length of the film." Posted Apr 21, 2007 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 74%
| Avenue Montaigne (2007) | "
When it all wraps up as neatly as the treacliest Hollywood film, we don't feel cheated, but rather enjoy the satisfaction of a story resolved, and we're happy for each of the people we have spent our hour with." Posted Mar 31, 2007 |
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