Fresh B+
| Fresh 91%
| Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009) | "
It melodramatizes everything and yet its overall effect is something more than melodrama." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 90%
| The Messenger (2009) | "
It brings home the horror of the Iraq war in a way that much of our TV news media have failed to do." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 85%
| Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) | "
The pairing of Nicolas Cage, one of the world's most out-there actors, with Werner Herzog, cinema's reigning madman-visionary, is a match made in looney-tunes heaven." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 73%
| The Blind Side (2009) | "
The filmmakers pay lip service to the story's racial undertones without ever really rocking the leaky boat." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 30%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
Memo to director Chris Weitz and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg: Just because you make a movie about vampires doesn't mean you suck the life out of your story." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 100%
| Visual Acoustics: The Modernisms of Julius Shulman (2009) | "
Bricker doesn't have much filmic pizazz, but Shulman's photos encompass the entire history of modernist architecture." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 80%
| Yes Men Fix the World (2009) |
Click here to read article — Christian Science Monitor Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 87%
| Skin (2009) | "
Sophie Okonedo, so good in Hotel Rwanda, is fine here as well." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 80%
| Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) | "
Michael Jackson's This Is It is heartbreaking, exhilarating, baffling. In other words, it expresses the performer's persona in its purest form." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 28, 2009 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 85%
| Araya (1959) | "
Are you one of those moviegoers who likes discovering forgotten gems? Have I got a jewel for you." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 70%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
This blend of the real and unreal is successful because Jonze's feeling for childhood binds everything together." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 65%
| Coco Before Chanel (2009) | "
I wish Fontaine would follow up with a sequel: Coco After Chanel. Tautou's performance cries out for a second act." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten F
| Rotten 12%
| Couples Retreat (2009) | "
This deeply unfunny film is further proof that movie comedy these days -- in its acting, writing, directing -- is far below the average sitcom." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 76%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
Damon is an agile comic performer, and Soderbergh knows how to serve him up without losing sight of the ultimate seriousness behind it all." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 75%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
Moore is much better at indicting culprits than providing solutions." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 82%
| Whip It (2009) | "
Drew Barrymore's directorial debut is a larky and ultimately disposable entertainment." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 83%
| Bright Star (2009) | "
For a movie so sensuously mounted, it's remarkably grounded." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 69%
| Paris (2009) | "
When it comes to being a fool for love, there are no city limits." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 86%
| The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009) | "
There's a fine line to walk when making a film about outlaws: A few wrong moves and, presto, glamorization occurs. To its credit, The Baader Meinhof Complex almost entirely avoids this pitfall." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Sep 18, 2009 |
— | Fresh 67%
| Cloud 9 (2005) |
Click here to read article — Christian Science Monitor Posted Sep 18, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 89%
| No Impact Man (2009) | "
It all seems like a stunt, especially since Beaven has also written a just-published book about his experiences, but he and Conlin are an engaging pair who don't let zealotry get in the way of humor." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Sep 18, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 80%
| Earth Days (2009) | "
A surprisingly engaging ecodocumentary about the history of the American environmental movement from the Depression era up to the present." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Sep 18, 2009 |
Rotten B-
| Fresh 82%
| Thirst (2009) | "
What the film is saying, so far as I can tell, is that, if cut, you will bleed. And bleed." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Sep 10, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 63%
| Extract (2009) | "
The result doesn't seem as fresh as Office Space, but Judge still comes up with enough laughs to deserve our attention." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Sep 4, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 86%
| Big Fan (2009) | "
Robert Siegel, the writer-director of Big Fan, was also the writer of The Wrestler, last year's most overrated movie. In some ways, I like this one more, but it's yet another grunge fest." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Sep 2, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 100%
| Motherland (2009) | "
Steinman's high concept is unwieldy and overly ambitious and occasionally skirts reality TV territory -- one of the women even jokes about being voted off the island -- but the shots of the children beaming in the company of these mothers are glorious." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Sep 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 74%
| Five Minutes of Heaven (2009) | "
So many movies set in Northern Ireland are about the Troubles that we might justifiably ask, why another? Five Minutes of Heaven is far from the best of the breed, but it does at least take a new tack." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Sep 2, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Rotten 49%
| Taking Woodstock (2009) | "
The drama in question, Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, is a bit like the festival itself – a happy mess." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 28, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 77%
| It Might Get Loud (2009) | "
Each man has his own distinctive style, and yet when they jam together it sounds like the most natural thing in the world." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 21, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 85%
| World's Greatest Dad (2009) | "
Flashes of deadpan outrageousness occasionally redeem the dourness." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 21, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 86%
| A Woman in Berlin (2008) | "
Sometimes a movie based on true events is forceful out of all proportion to its middling presentation." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 21, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 88%
| Inglourious Basterds (2009) | "
Landa is such a wily and despicable concoction that, in movie terms, he's almost impossible not to like. And therein lies part of my problem with this movie." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 21, 2009 |
Rotten D-
| Rotten 38%
| The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) | "
I'll let you in on a little secret that film critics have known for years. A major studio production, released in August with top-list stars, is almost certain to be a gobbler." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 14, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 90%
| District 9 (2009) | "
A thinking man's, or man-boy's, Transformers." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 14, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 60%
| Paper Heart (2009) | "
It's all kind of silly and amorphous, but the scenes between Yi and Cera, whether or not they were scripted, have a babes-in-the-wood loveliness." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 7, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 75%
| Cold Souls (2009) | "
[Giamatti is] terrific throughout, although the movie, which is more clever than funny, sometimes resembles second-tier Charlie Kaufman stuff." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 7, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 75%
| Julie & Julia (2009) | "
There are many things wrong with Julie and Julia but, if you're looking to get hitched, you won't find a better booster. Just make sure that one of you can cook." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Aug 7, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 68%
| Funny People (2009) | "
It's a testament to Sandler's performance that he not once milks George's life-at-the-top malaise for easy sentimentality." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 31, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 96%
| The Beaches of Agnes (2009) | "
Ultimately, her movie is about how her life, anybody's life, is created out of oddments that never quite cohere, and don't need to. The sheer sensuousness of all these bric-a-brac memories is sustaining." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 24, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 31%
| The Answer Man (2009) | "
A promising premise and some very good actors are smothered in goo in The Answer Man." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 24, 2009 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 95%
| In the Loop (2009) | "
There isn't an actor in this film, not even a walk on, who isn't perfection." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 24, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 54%
| The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) | "
Whatever its dramatic flaws, and they are many, this is a movie that, in essence, is more than a movie." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 24, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 93%
| Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009) | "
In Aviva Kempner's affectionate documentary Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, Berg, who once polled second only to Eleanor Roosevelt as one of America's most respected females, is given her due. Or at least her showbiz due." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 17, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 87%
| 500 Days of Summer (2009) | "
What saves 500 Days from terminal shallowness are Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel, who are not the usual picture-perfect androids peopling these young-love idylls." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 17, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 83%
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) | "
It really helps in these situations to have first-rate actors." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 14, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 15%
| I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009) | "
The script by Larry Doyle, based on his novel, has some smart flashes, and a few of the young performers resemble real people and not the usual prefab teen idols." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 10, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 84%
| Soul Power (2009) | "
Director Jeffrey Levy-Hinte pads out the concert footage with not always stimulating backstage stuff, but the music makes it all worthwhile." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 10, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 67%
| Bruno (2009) | "
There's good bad taste and then there's just plain bad bad, which is what describes most of Brüno." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 10, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 86%
| Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love (2009) | "
Although his movie often resembles the kind of promotional video one might find as an extra on a concert DVD, N'Dour in full throttle is a sight, and sound, to behold." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 3, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 67%
| Public Enemies (2009) | "
It tills the old ground, albeit with new-style star power and Mann's signature cinematic flourishes. But Depp is unduly subdued and Mann's cape work is oversold." — Christian Science Monitor Posted Jul 3, 2009 |
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