Tomato A+ |
Sangre de Mi Sangre (2008) |
"Zalla wants to know the point where boys become cynics, men become vultures, and the hardened become vulnerable." |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat D- |
Savage Grace (2008) |
"While the Baekelands would be flattered to rank with Clytemnestra and Oedipus, they and the film are as shallow as martinis" |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C+ |
The Savages (2007) |
"Jenkins' brushstrokes of her characters are too exacting to move us more than a lifelike painting of a basket of fruit. We can be awed at the techniques, but walk away empty." |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
The September Issue (2009) |
"It'd be nice (and fair) if Cutler dared ask Wintour about her reasons rather than framing her march to the layout room as though she's a Chanel-suited Darth Vader." |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C- |
Seven Pounds (2008) |
"Will Smith stars with aliens and zombies and superheros, yet this is his first film that's wholly unbelievable." |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
Sex and Breakfast (2007) |
"The four restless young bedfellows talk lots and communicate little in trite and stagy digressions; even when they strip off their shirts, they're still emotionally clothed." |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
Sex and Death 101 (2008) |
"Despite two necrophilia gags, Sex and Death 101 feels like its feigning its misogyny, cynicism, and philosophical depth (though "karma sutra" is a great pun)." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B |
Sex and the City - The Movie (2008) |
"time ticks by easily like a lazy TV marathon, a humbler achievement than demanded by a diva flick that's as self-congratulatory as Indy across the multiplex" |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
Sex Drive (2008) |
"The first half is unfunny and desperately crass, the second is unfunny and genuine -- at least, as much as possible for a film that climaxes with a guy wearing a donut costume" |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
Shadowboxer (2006) |
"Aaron Spelling may be slapping his forehead, but a few cemetary plots over, 1950's melodrama king Douglas Sirk is smiling." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B- |
Shine a Light (2008) |
"After the 14th song, casual fans feel guilty that their energy is flagging while then-63 Mick's still huffing on" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B |
Shotgun Stories (2007) |
"Jeff Nichols modern Western is laconic and lazily captivating, its silence slowly building to rage." |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
Shrink (2009) |
"Ultimately too cautious for even a Valley of the Dolls insider expose. It lambasts these walking movie biz clichés, but everyone's gotta get a happy-enough ending." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B+ |
Sixty Six (2008) |
"Like Running with Scissors or an exceptionally cruel episode of The Wonder Years, Paul Weiland's whimsical and eye-poppingly bright comedy is shot through with cringe-inducing misery." |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat D |
Sleepwalking (2008) |
"Zac Stanford's screenplay works only as a theorem proving Murphy's Law." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B+ |
Sleuth (2007) |
"Goofy art house tendencies (including an ill-thought dalliance with homo-eroticism) trigger a few giggles, yet the clever, crisply-acted power struggle seizes your attention" |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) |
"Why, when Boyle has for half a film been such a devastating purveyor of social class suffering, would he turn as glossy as a Disney cartoon?" |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
Snow Angels (2008) |
"A great director shines a light into the lives of the ordinary; a lame one offs a child and pretends that's magnitude." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato 3/5 |
Somersault (2006) |
"Taking in Somersault's textures--alternating between frosty, pale landscapes and burnt-ochre interiors--along with Cornish's knockout performance, are true pleasures" |
Jay Antani |
Splat C |
Soul Men (2008) |
"Mac could have wished for better for his final film, but this is a picture about entertainers and damned if he isn't one" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato A- |
Special (2008) |
"Shot for pennies -- a cash limitation that benefits the production's creativity and credibility -- this haunting film keeps shifting the ground under our feet" |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) |
"Instead of absorbing us into this magical landscape, this adaptation crams all five books together into a frenetic and frustrating 24-hour-escapade" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato A |
Standard Operating Procedure (2008) |
"What's epic in Morris' still and haunting assembly of talking heads is an indictment of photography, and by extension, history." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B+ |
Star Trek (2009) |
"Under the swoons of the orchestral dirge, you can hear J.J. Abrams stride onto the deck of the Enterprise and shout, "Welcome to my galaxy!"" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B |
State of Play (2009) |
"An unrepentantly mature suspense flick; there're no jokes, no breasts and no explosions. Even as the secrets spill out, the sense is of a world compressing, not unraveling." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato C+ |
Stealing America: Vote By Vote (2008) |
"Amateurish but thorough with the tone of an ominous filmstrip. Right-wingers will cry "Paranoid!" but should we demand more neutrality from a film than we do of our elections?" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B+ |
Step Brothers (2008) |
"Ferrell is the third best teenage boy I've ever seen but John C. Reilly may be the greatest comic actor of our generation -- he's fearlessly earnest and incapable of mugging." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B |
Stop-Loss (2008) |
"Stop-Loss misses emotional beats and hammers home its frustration; yet in a week where we've lost our 4,000th soldier, its impatience is a virtue." |
Amy Nicholson |
Splat C |
Strange Culture (2007) |
"Outrage overkill that gives as much weight to the government trashing Steve's house and locking his cat in the attic as it does their desecration of the First Amendment." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B- |
Street Kings (2008) |
"By the gripping finale, it's clear that Street Kings is implausible in its practicalities, if not in its grand concept" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B- |
Sukiyaki Western Django (2008) |
"The flick's a lot of sound and fury and dynamite that signifies nothing while paying tribute to everything" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B |
Summer Hours (2009) |
"It's all very civil and inexorable--unlike a stateside version; we know there will be no last-minute car wash or concert fundraiser to save the estate." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B+ |
Sunshine Cleaning (2009) |
"Pitting it against Little Miss Sunshine in a poverty death match seems miserly, particularly when few complain about the comparative glut of movies about men waving guns" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato C |
Surrogates (2009) |
"Every sci-fi and action flick cliché is crammed in here and Mostow couldn't give a damn if you've seen them all before. He might not do them better, but he'll do them well enough." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato C+ |
Surveillance (2009) |
"Two-thirds of Surveillance is taut and absorbing, yet the cheap third act twist feels tacked on from a lesser talent, say one whose last name rhymes with 'Pshyamalan.'" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B+ |
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) |
"Scissorhands was bright with eye-popping pastels that took on a sordid sheen; Sweeney has no such subtext: it's black, black, and gray, except when the screen floods blood red" |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato B |
Sydney White (2007) |
"This surprisingly clever coed reworking of Snow White does for dorks what Revenge of the Nerds did for, well, you know." |
Amy Nicholson |
Tomato A+ |
Synecdoche, New York (2008) |
"Kaufman's gift is finding humanity in flotsam, something he does well but hasn't done this beautifully since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." |
Amy Nicholson |
IGN RSS Feeds