Tomato |
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009) |
"A throwback to American filmmaking of the ’70s, a pulse-pounding political thriller that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the inevitable bloody conclusion; Germany’s Bonnie and Clyde, with a political conscience." |
Mark Peikert |
Splat |
The Babysitters (2008) |
"By undermining the subtle feminism of his movie, [director] Ross ends up undermining the whole thing, culminating in a terrifying parking-lot scene that doesn’t quite make sense." |
Mark Peikert |
Splat |
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) |
"Cage’s receding hairline and hunchback performance evokes Conrad Veidt -- a Klaus Kinski-like maniac -- because this is, in fact, a German Expressionist horror film and comedy." |
Armond White |
Tomato |
Baghead (2008) |
"But what makes Baghead more than just a hipster version of The Blair Witch Project (young filmmakers in the woods, being terrified) is the bromance at its core." |
Mark Peikert |
Splat |
Ballast (2008) |
"Ballast (another Frozen River, wallowing in the miseries of the underclass) is designed to provoke bourgeois moviegoers’ pity." |
Armond White |
Tomato |
The Band's Visit (2007) |
"Pretty, resonant and utterly approachable as a gentle comedy, The Band’s Visit is conventionally low key." |
Eric Kohn |
Tomato |
Bandslam (2009) |
"The barely hyped Bandslam must settle for simply being the best American movie this summer." |
Armond White |
Tomato |
Battle For Haditha (2007) |
"Although Battle for Haditha is certainly a plotted and arranged fiction, it is skillful and informative without corrupting our perspective via the techno-faddishness that undoes current filmmakers" |
Armond White |
Tomato |
Be Kind Rewind (2008) |
"Be Kind Rewind explores the meaning of originality, but it’s also a fable about art and social change." |
Armond White |
Tomato |
Beaufort (2008) |
"War movies are about heroism. Good war movies cast existential questions around the circumstances of that heroism. Beaufort is a great war movie." |
Jennifer Merin |
Tomato |
Beautiful Losers (2008) |
"A product of the movement as much as an ode to it, the film is a gem because of the immaturity and intimacy that it shares with those featured in it." |
Ashna Ali |
Tomato |
Bedtime Stories (2008) |
"That Skeeter benefits from what he does for his niece and nephew is an object lesson in responsibility and benevolence -- and it blesses the audience, too." |
Armond White |
Splat |
Beeswax (2009) |
"You work very hard for tiny rewards. Only a cinema-illiterate could mistake this for an advance." |
Armond White |
Tomato |
Before I Forget (2008) |
"This isn’t gay self-hatred, but an authentic unnerving portrait; it dares to oppose cinema's false romanticism with ruthless honesty." |
Armond White |
Splat |
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) |
"Lumet tries getting back to the outrageous satirical mode of Network and Just Tell Me What You Want, but this family dysfunction story fails the classic requirements of social critique." |
Armond White |
Splat |
Before the Rains (2008) |
"Will the rains come? Aye, they will -- and so too the colonialist’s comeuppance. Although by the time it rolls around many will be past caring." |
Felicia Feaster |
Tomato |
Big Fan (2009) |
"With Big Fan, screenwriter Robert Siegel’s directorial debut, the schmaltz-meister that wrote The Wrestler shows us that he’s grown leaps and bounds as an artist in the span of just one year." |
Simon Abrams |
Tomato |
Bigger, Stronger, Faster* (2008) |
"Activism lives on: Bigger, Stronger, Faster, Chris Bell’s smartly assembled documentary about the great American steroid controversy, takes on the subject as though counteracting the blacklist." |
Eric Kohn |
Tomato |
Billy The Kid (2007) |
"The movie marks the directorial debut of Jennifer Venditti, whose ability to convey the innocence of youth and the universal anguish of being an outsider suggests a natural ear for the emotional rhythms of growing up." |
Eric Kohn |
Tomato |
Black Sheep (2007) |
"[A] refreshingly fun and over-the-top take on the sickeningly overdone zombie genre." |
Eric Kohn |
Splat |
Blame it on Fidel (2006) |
"[Director] Gavras has undeniable skill as a screenwriter, suggesting that the production might have benefited from a more experienced helmer." |
Eric Kohn |
Splat |
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh (2009) |
"Her story has inspired millions, so why does she comes across as such a pill in the new documentary Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh?" |
Mark Peikert |
Tomato |
The Blind Side (2009) |
"All Bullock’s films promote an edifying sense of human experience -- she has an instinct for what people like to see -- and that gift makes The Blind Side the perfect, God-sent antidote to Precious." |
Armond White |
Splat |
Blindness (2008) |
"Scene by scene, Blindness self-destructs. One begins to resent the art-crowd cast’s willingness to do anything remotely nihilistic." |
Armond White |
Splat |
Boarding Gate (2007) |
"Boarding Gate’s decadent fancies are appalling." |
Armond White |
Splat |
Body of Lies (2008) |
"Collaborating with a director who doesn’t give a damn, DiCaprio and Crowe have made a political action flick totally without emotional impact." |
Armond White |
Splat |
Body of War (2008) |
"With all this fascinating real-life material to work with, it’s frustrating that the directors choose to devote half of the movie to well-worn archival footage of members of congress debating the decision to invade Iraq in 2002." |
Raphaela Weissman |
Tomato |
Bonneville (2006) |
"It feels like the first healthy sign of post-Borat unification." |
Armond White |
Splat |
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) |
"There’s a good reason why it’s taken Duffy this long to secure funds for a sequel to his D.O.A. meal-ticket: It was never funny in the first place." |
Simon Abrams |
Tomato |
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) |
"There hasn’t been filmic eruption of bombast that uses this much physicality since the closing scenes of last year’s Children of Men." |
Eric Kohn |
Splat |
The Box (2009) |
"Kelly, king of dumbed-down nihilism, takes a short Twilight Zone TV episode, “Button, Button,” and extends it unendurably..." |
Armond White |
Splat |
Boy A (2008) |
"Boy A is so excessively mannered that the story’s human element (misunderstood youth, society’s indifference) is lost." |
Armond White |
Tomato |
The Brave One (2007) |
"The Brave One wins out, if nothing else, because it knows the power of the gun." |
Eric Kohn |
Tomato |
Breakfast with Scot (2008) |
"Having the straight Tom Cavanagh and Ben Shenkman play the unwilling gay dads in Breakfast with Scot may seem like a disappointment, but this quirky, surprisingly refreshing comedy has a few tricks up its sleeve." |
Mark Peikert |
Splat |
Brick Lane (2008) |
"Fewer incendiary incidents and a red pencil applied to the script might have freed the good movie that’s buried somewhere beneath layers of unearned emotional conflict." |
Mark Peikert |
Splat |
Broken Embraces (2009) |
"Almodóvar lost his nerve when he acquired expensive technique. Inspired by Buñuel and De Palma, he used to match them. Now, his once underground satires are just expensive tearjerkers." |
Armond White |
Tomato |
Bronson (2009) |
"Hardy’s portrayal is more than a real-life impersonation of Bronson; it realizes the Stunt Movie opportunity to present an actor’s thoroughly romantic admiration of force." |
Armond White |
Tomato |
Brothers (2009) |
"Sheridan declines the dissociative artiness and blame that hipster filmmakers use to exempt themselves from today’s wars." |
Armond White |
Splat |
The Brothers Bloom (2009) |
"[Director Rian] Johnson presents an intolerably glossy and emotionless exercise in style; he’s so in thrall with his skill at blank pastiche that he only half-heartedly tries to make us care about the film’s characters." |
Simon Abrams |
Splat |
Bruno (2009) |
"The fallacy that Baron Cohen’s comedy is politically pertinent derives from its pandering to Lefty biases." |
Armond White |
Tomato |
The Bubble (2007) |
"By exploring both sides of the Semitic playing field, Bubble is the antidote to unrewarding diatribes like Paradise Now -- although its final verdict is equally pessimistic." |
Eric Kohn |
Tomato |
Burn After Reading (2008) |
"Lesser artists would have followed a critical smash like No Country with another noir, courting audience favor through familiarity. But Burn After Reading, though shocking, is simply the flipside of the Coens’ existential dread." |
Armond White |
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