Fresh
| Fresh 87%
| The House of the Devil (2009) | "
In keeping with his models, West is concerned with not suspense exactly but the ritual withholding and ultimate lavishing of bloody chaos." Posted Dec 17, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 82%
| Avatar (2009) | "
Watching it, I began to understand how people in 1933 must have felt when they saw King Kong." Posted Dec 17, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 82%
| Paranormal Activity (2009) | "
The climax is deliciously scary, and Peli gets considerable mileage from the simple matter of lights inexplicably going on in another room." Posted Dec 15, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 77%
| Invictus (2009) | "
Anthony Peckham's script is formulaic, woodenly reverent, and devoid of real dramatic tension." Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 46%
| Everybody's Fine (2009) | "
This is sentimental but dramatically solid." Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 90%
| Up in the Air (2009) | "
Reitman deserves credit for going through with a bitterly ironic ending, but the movie is marred by its warm condescension toward flyover country." Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 57%
| Brothers (2009) | "
Bier's film succeeded on the merits of its actors, and this one offers fine performances by Portman and Gyllenhaal, but Maguire doesn't cut the mustard." Posted Dec 3, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 90%
| The Messenger (2009) | "
Whenever writer-director Oren Moverman moves past these scattered and admittedly voyeuristic moments into the lives of the two soldiers, the movie drifts into received wisdom and unconvincing romance." Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 92%
| Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) | "
Like the rest of his movies, this one is essentially infantile -- but when you’re telling the story of a ne'er-do-well fox conspiring against a trio of nasty farmers, who cares?" Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 31%
| Ninja Assassin (2009) | "
When a movie's first scene shows one thug getting the top of his head sliced off and another being chopped diagonally in half, you know you're not in for much of a dramatic crescendo." Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 72%
| The Road (2009) | "
Hillcoat gives [the postapocalypse] an unnerving solidity by focusing on the drab details of survival and linking them to the more hellish aspects of modern American life." Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 55%
| Home on the Range (2004) | "
Assorted movie in-jokes should keep parents tolerably entertained, and Alan Menken's songs mercifully favor western swing over the expected twang pop." Posted Nov 16, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 38%
| Brother Bear (2003) | "
Modest but guileless." Posted Nov 16, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 36%
| Chicken Little (2005) | "
Animation fans will find this worth the wait, though apparently there's no story-generating software that can tap into the dark recesses of a child's psyche as cannily as Uncle Walt once did." Posted Nov 16, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 60%
| Pirate Radio (2009) | "
A hodgepodge of half-baked characters and story ideas, stoked by a frantic climax and a blue-chip playlist of 1966 rock classics." Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 91%
| Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009) | "
The girl's story is almost unbearably painful, and when Precious finally reclaims her dignity and self-worth, her accomplishment seems genuinely heroic." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
Zemeckis captures all the story’s terror, but its pathos has always been the real challenge, and it mostly eludes him." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 54%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
Clooney and Bridges model an assortment of wigs and facial hair as they labor to put across their outsize characters." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 78%
| Bronson (2009) | "
Refn presents this jolly madman in a variety of showbiz fantasies (wearing clown makeup, addressing a packed theater) to tease out the weird disjuncture between his penal isolation and his tabloid fame in the UK." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| In Search Of Beethoven (2009) | "
Grabsky does manage to convey how shockingly dramatic Beethoven's music seemed to the first people who heard it, and the musicians' sensitivity and articulation--both verbal and musical -- fire this chronicle of one man's extraordinary artistic journey." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 94%
| The Damned United (2009) | "
[Michael Sheen] adds to his gallery of public figures (Tony Blair, David Frost) with a sharp performance here as the legendary UK soccer coach Brian Clough." Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 50%
| Antichrist (2009) | "
I can’t deny this is filled with powerfully primal images." Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 21%
| Amelia (2009) | "
With any luck this biopic of Amelia Earhart will also vanish without a trace." Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 65%
| Coco Before Chanel (2009) | "
The movie is most fascinating when it shows how Chanel communicated her enlightened sense of womanhood through her innovative designs, which in turn helped women feel differently about themselves." Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 73%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
A fairly beguiling screen experience, though by the end of its 101 minutes I was definitely ready for bed." Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 87%
| A Serious Man (2009) | "
It has all the earmarks of a personal statement, one of those movies that their biographer will use to connect the dots after they're gone." Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 87%
| Big Fan (2009) | "
Though the movie isn’t much to look at, he gets a credibly dark and pathetic performance from the typically comic Oswalt." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 84%
| Disgrace (2009) | "
The movie eventually begins to wilt under the sober, plodding direction of Steve Jacobs, but the thoughtful screenplay gives Malkovich a complex, increasingly reflective character arc that he plays with great feeling." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 57%
| The Invention of Lying (2009) | "
The romantic plot, involving his unrequited loved for Garner, is soured by her character's unconcealed shallowness." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| N/A | Superstar (2009) | "
Any such themes are downplayed in this sentimental story, though Milani’s teasingly ambiguous treatment of the young woman pays off handsomely in the end: without truly knowing her, the hero can never really know himself." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 72%
| The Boys Are Back (2009) | "
A substantial performance from Clive Owen rescues what might otherwise have been a fairly gooey fatherhood drama." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 75%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
Like most of his movies, this will probably make your blood boil, but it functions at a level of such blubbering emotionality that it might as well be a Glenn Beck rant." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 83%
| Whip It (2009) | "
A surprisingly credible coming-of-age story." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 40%
| Surrogates (2009) | "
The premise for this sci-fi actioner makes sense for about four seconds, after which you begin to wonder why everyone on the planet would willingly become a shut-in, how the poor are supposed to shell out for these high-tech androids, etc." Posted Sep 27, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 78%
| It Might Get Loud (2009) | "
Guitar heroes, real or imaginary, will think they’ve died and gone to heaven." Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 85%
| Bright Star (2009) | "
The best costumers, set designers, and property masters can’t conjure up the mental and emotional spaces of a simpler era; that requires a filmmaker who knows the virtue of quiet, patience, and attentiveness." Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 67%
| Paris (2009) | "
Soggy stuff from French director Cedric Klapisch." Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 86%
| The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009) | "
Part thriller, part social history, this tense 2008 drama traces the rise and fall of the Baader-Meinhof gang." Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 77%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
I liked the movie quite a bit, but by the end I felt as if I were at a live TV show with a blinking sign ordering me to LAUGH." Posted Sep 19, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 85%
| World's Greatest Dad (2009) | "
With his delicate mix of sick humor and compassion, Goldthwait is that rare comic writer who can legitimately be compared to Lenny Bruce." Posted Sep 11, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 84%
| The September Issue (2009) | "
There’s something fishy about a documentary that takes its cues from a fictional movie." Posted Sep 11, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 96%
| Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) | "
I've always considered it the group's nadir; it seems toothlessly silly." Posted Sep 11, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 58%
| 9 (2009) | "
[Its] splendid visuals are dragged down by a tedious story." Posted Sep 10, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 63%
| Extract (2009) | "
Mike Judge has become our most dogged examiner of middle-American foolishness; no other comedy filmmaker more skillfully exploits that nagging sense that you’re surrounded by idiots." Posted Sep 3, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 100%
| You, the Living (2009) | "
“Keaton-esque” hardly begins to describe this brutally deadpan comedy by Swedish director Roy Andersson (Songs From the Second Floor), who seems to have translated the entire range of human misery into a loosely connected series of slapstick gags." Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 75%
| The Vanished Empire (2009) | "
In the gray old days of Brezhnev and detente, Russian college students shimmy to "Sugar, Sugar" and shell out for black-market Levis, unaware that these are the best days of their lives" Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 60%
| Paper Heart (2009) | "
[An] unbearably twee mockumentary about the meaning of love." Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 86%
| Lorna's Silence (2009) | "
Offers a damning critique of global capitalism as it works its way down to the street and poisons the most intimate human encounters." Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 75%
| Julie & Julia (2009) | "
The main reason for seeing this is Meryl Streep's deft comic performance as the fluttery TV chef." Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 95%
| In the Loop (2009) | "
This enormously witty satire follows a British diplomatic staff as they fly to Washington to confer with their U.S. counterparts, who are secretly ginning up an invasion of the Middle East." Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
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