Splat |
The Last King of Scotland (2006) |
"Whitaker's riveting performance as the unraveling Amin is where this film wants to be; instead we're stuck with Garrigan's Jesus Christ pose, and the expected out that amounts to little more than, "Forget it, Nick. It's Africa."" |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
The Lives of Others (2006) |
"Von Donnersmarck proves himself beyond doubt, moving with purpose toward a grace note of quiet benediction." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
The Lookout (2007) |
"With Gordon-Levitt's eerily self-possessed, pitiful but never bathetic dupe as our conduit, the heist tropes take over without letting you to slip into plot auto-pilot." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) |
"Newell's adaptation infuses its source material's classic romantic tropes with all the poetry of a dog dish." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
Man of the Year (1996) |
"How the director of Wag the Dog and his Good Morning Vietnam star Robin Williams ended up in this fine mess is anyone's guess." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
Margot at the Wedding (2007) |
"You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books/You're very well-read/It's well-known." |
Keith Uhlich |
Splat |
Michael Clayton (2007) |
"Dude, there’s a bomb in your car." |
Keith Uhlich |
Tomato |
A Mighty Heart (2007) |
"The film is as much rough-and-ready thriller as it is tragic memoir." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Miss Potter (2006) |
"Noonan's white-glove treatment is suitably proper and hits what seem to be all of the major markers in Potter's life." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
The Monastery: Mr. Vig & the Nun (2006) |
"This slim, sparsely drawn and gently affecting documentary fulfills the promise of Mr. Vig's singular visage." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
No End in Sight (2007) |
"This essential documentary is a clear-eyed, coherent dissection of how crucial decisions were made in the first weeks and months following the American invasion of Iraq." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
No Reservations (2007) |
"Where Mostly Martha managed to fold its rather plotty conceit into an organic world of people and problems, in this stubbornly torpid remake, the conceit props up the characters and vice versa." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Notes on a Scandal (2006) |
"A measured and yet gloriously overblown study of desire, entitlement and the twists we experience while shuttling between the two." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Orthodox Stance (2008) |
"Hutt's instincts are solid, if occasionally unfocused; he'll be ready to turn pro any day now." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
The Painted Veil (2006) |
"John Curran has been inspired, in an epic way, to capture the extremes of romantic feeling in his adaptation." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) |
"Shot at the same time as its predecessor, At World's End bears the same hallmarks of being hacked, horned and hemmed together as they went along." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
Praying with Lior (2007) |
"Lior's big moment is an underdog weeper for the ages; I only wish the 80 minutes that preceded it had been as powerful." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
The Prestige (2006) |
"The Prestige is a ridiculously, almost uncomfortably engaging film." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
Rendition (2007) |
"There is a smart, piercing film in here somewhere, but Rendition never fully connects with its subject." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Rescue Dawn (2007) |
"[The ultimate] rescue scene is so desperate and painful, so joyous and true, that it exhausts the senses." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
Running with Scissors (2006) |
"In its attempt to capture Burroughs' wacky, often wrenching teen years, the film is unified mainly by an impulse toward overstatement." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
The Savages (2007) |
"Linney and Hoffman have a tremendously rewarding, difficult (sibling) rapport." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
The Secret Life of Words (2006) |
"The film succeeds mainly as a story of the connective, regenerative tissue between words and silence on the level strength of its listeners." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Shortbus (2006) |
"The hallmarks of a true collaboration between the director and his actors are everywhere, and their performances are what raise the film above any of its shortcomings." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
The Situation (2007) |
"You want better for this film, but the discomfort it causes is not a matter of it being too soon for the audience, but rather, it seems, for the filmmakers." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
Smokin' Aces (2007) |
"Trying too hard is the death of cool in any genre -- especially a dead one -- and Smokin' Aces has all the sophisticated plotting of a splatter-happy video game." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Starting Out in the Evening (2007) |
"A poised, surprisingly unsettling film about the half-life -- and twilight -- of a fiction writer." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Steal a Pencil For Me (2007) |
"The most moving story about love, longevity, infidelity and the Holocaust you may ever hear." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Stephanie Daley (2007) |
"By remaining physically and emotionally attuned to her actors rather than the considerable melodramatic heft of her story, Brougher avoids the towel-wringer this unfortunately topical story could have been." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Stranger Than Fiction (2006) |
"Stranger Than Fiction has a self-regard that can grate, but Ferrell and Thompson give winning performances that suggest the film's aim is true." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Talk to Me (2007) |
"It's too bad the story of these two men (and two fine performances has to compete with the built-in biopic conventions." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Taxi to the Dark Side (2008) |
"The Enron director's sharp, shaming torture exposé tracks another Great American Meltdown." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
The Ten (2007) |
"The success (of each sketch) varies not just according to quality but how tickled you find yourself -- from moment to moment -- by this kind of high-wire comedy." |
Michelle Orange |
Splat |
Unborn in the USA: Inside the War on Abortion (2006) |
"Much like last year's Jesus Camp, Fell and Thompson let the Christian fanatics hold the floor." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
An Unreasonable Man (2007) |
"A requiem not for Nader but for a time when politics wasn't a dirty word; for that reason it is required viewing for all citizens, concerned or no." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
The Valet (2007) |
"So light on its feet it barely touches the ground; of course, as the French know, the ground can be highly overrated." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Volver (2006) |
"In this hand-stitched, gentle giant of a film, return is recovery -- by its very nature -- and all ghosts are friendly if you'd only let them in." |
Michelle Orange |
Tomato |
Youth Without Youth (2007) |
"It would be easy to say Dominic is lost in a film; better to suggest he's adrift in a projection." |
Keith Uhlich |
Splat |
Zodiac (2007) |
"At over two-and-a-half hours of dead-ends and bedevilment, there isn't enough intrigue to justify the empirical extents Fincher is intent on mapping." |
Michelle Orange |
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