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How to Die in Oregon
(2011)
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Sam Adams
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How to Die can be tough to watch, but when it's over, you feel privileged to have taken part.
Posted Jul 02, 2018
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Hemingway & Gellhorn
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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"I do not see myself as a footnote to someone else's life," Kidman says in the movie's final minutes. The preceding two and a half hours beg to differ.
Posted Jul 02, 2018
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The Normal Heart
(2014)
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Jessica Johnson
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While there are kinks in Murphy's adaptation, the raw power of Kramer's story cannot be diluted. It's a powerful memorial to the men that lost their lives and those they loved while fighting bring the AIDS epidemic to light.
Posted Jul 02, 2018
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There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane
(2011)
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Sam Adams
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The movie offers a few plausible explanations as to what might have been wrong with Diane Schuler, but ultimately it tests her family's, and its audience's, ability to accept without understanding.
Posted Jul 02, 2018
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I am Kalam
(2010)
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Amy L. Hayden
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Overall, I Am Kalam is an interesting film.
Posted Oct 21, 2017
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3/5
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Sound City
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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When getting into the nitty-gritty of tapes and tracks, Grohl makes a strong case for music docs directed by musicians.
Posted Dec 16, 2013
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3/5
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The Motel Life
(2012)
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Sam Adams
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This debut film does establish a fragile mood that lingers like a morning fog.
Posted Dec 02, 2013
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White Reindeer
(2013)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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I's a rare Christmas movie whose uplift, such as it is, feels earned.
Posted Nov 18, 2013
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3/5
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4 (Chetyre)
(2006)
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Hank Sartin
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Khrzhanovsky and screenwriter Vladimir Sorokin have both the grim ideas and the little sideways winks in perfect equilibrium in the brilliant first half hour of this strange film. The rest of the film is certainly memorable, if increasingly impenetrable.
Posted Nov 05, 2013
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5/5
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Sicko
(2007)
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Cliff Doerksen
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Equal parts laugh-riot and call to arms.
Posted Aug 05, 2013
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3/5
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Ratatouille
(2007)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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Ratatouille seems more charming in concept than in execution. Bogged down by too many climaxes, it's a little overcooked.
Posted Aug 04, 2013
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District 9
(2009)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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If the basic idea is provocative, District 9 never lives up to the promise of its allegorical freight.
Posted Aug 04, 2013
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5/5
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Inglourious Basterds
(2009)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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For all its originality, this hall of mirrors is the closest Tarantino has come to making a film with old-fashioned, movie-movie appeal.
Posted Aug 04, 2013
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5/5
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Knocked Up
(2007)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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The movie is a decisive breakthrough for Apatow, whose comic instincts go hand in hand with an unfashionable empathy.
Posted Aug 03, 2013
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3/5
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Nancy, Please
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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Nancy, Please hasn't much to offer beyond the amusing spectacle of a complacent college boy losing his cool. But that may be enough, especially for those who've sparred with archrivals of their own -- real or invented.
Posted May 23, 2013
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5/5
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Taxi Driver
(1976)
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A.A. Dowd
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What strikes you aren't just the iconic moments, but the little ones.
Posted Apr 29, 2013
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3/5
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To the Wonder
(2012)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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Once the shock of seeing a Sonic Drive-In in a Malick film wears off, the movie leaves little to ponder beyond the sketchily drawn romance drama at its core.
Posted Apr 19, 2013
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3/5
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Ginger & Rosa
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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Whether it's memoir or personalized fiction, Ginger & Rosa displays a shrewd understanding of late adolescence-a time when every emotional slight lands like an atom bomb.
Posted Mar 21, 2013
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2/5
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The Croods
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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The latest advances in computer animation have been applied to a truly primitive comedy-Ice Age recast with a family of nattering Neanderthals.
Posted Mar 21, 2013
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3/5
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Caesar Must Die
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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The problem with the film, which somewhat inexplicably won the Golden Bear at Berlin last year, is that it scarcely transcends the basic novelty of its premise.
Posted Mar 21, 2013
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3/5
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Admission
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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Thank goodness for Fey, who lends this sitcom soap a credible emotional center.
Posted Mar 21, 2013
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5/5
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Spring Breakers
(2012)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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Not just a step forward. It's a vision: a fever dream of sun-dappled debauchery that doubles as a thriller-satire on the allure of excess.
Posted Mar 21, 2013
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4/5
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Barbara
(2012)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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Petzold renders Communist oppression in a provocatively muted manner.
Posted Mar 10, 2013
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1/5
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Somebody Up There Likes Me
(2012)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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There's talent here, but the goal seems to be proving that everyone involved is too cool to make an actual movie.
Posted Mar 10, 2013
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4/5
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No
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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Stirring as a celebration of voter empowerment, No may also inspire pangs of wistful nostalgia.
Posted Mar 10, 2013
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5/5
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Diary of a Country Priest
(1950)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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Diary is less a movie about the necessity of faith than what it means to be cut down in the midst of youthful idealism and intransigence, before life offers wisdom.
Posted Mar 05, 2013
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3/5
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Stoker
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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You may be dazzled or exasperated by this flurry of stylistic excess. You probably won't be bored.
Posted Mar 01, 2013
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1/5
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21 and Over
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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The real problem with 21 and Over is that it swipes most of its material from better movies.
Posted Mar 01, 2013
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2/5
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Jack the Giant Slayer
(2013)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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Taking a healthy swig from Lord of the Rings' cup, this high-concept "Jack and the Beanstalk" dresses up traditionalism in expensive nothingness.
Posted Mar 01, 2013
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B
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Future Weather
(2012)
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Sam Adams
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Feels like the product of an explosion at the Sundance factory: a rural setting here, a wisp of mildly quirky indie rock there.
Posted Feb 23, 2013
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3/5
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Beautiful Creatures
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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If we must have supernatural high-school romances, can they all be as relatively painless as Beautiful Creatures?
Posted Feb 18, 2013
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1/5
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A Good Day to Die Hard
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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Director John Moore, the anonymous hack at the helm, stages car chases and gun fights with messy imprecision.
Posted Feb 18, 2013
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The King's Speech
(2010)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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The King's Speech is an entertainingly crafted movie that doesn't linger too long in the mind.
Posted Feb 16, 2013
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3/5
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The Trouble With the Truth
(2012)
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Keith Phipps
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While it never quite lives up to its lofty inspiration, particularly in an unsatisfying final act, it's engagingly written and well played by both leads.
Posted Feb 14, 2013
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3/5
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John Dies at the End
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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More arch than amusing, John Dies at the End may exhaust your patience for everything-but-the-kitchen-sink "storytelling." Still, there's something endearing about its relentless barrage of gonzo happenings.
Posted Feb 09, 2013
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4/5
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Side Effects
(2013)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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Makes for an intriguing if dispassionate fit.
Posted Feb 09, 2013
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2/5
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Warm Bodies
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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Good luck ascribing a clear satirical agenda to Jonathan Levine's tonally uneven zomcom, which suffers an identity crisis nearly as severe as its protagonist's.
Posted Feb 01, 2013
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2/5
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West of Memphis
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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The new film is largely a recap of the older ones, with more celebrity testimonials and fewer Metallica songs but little fresh insight into the miscarriage of justice it chronicles.
Posted Jan 25, 2013
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1/5
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A Haunted House
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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You know a fright-flick craze is in danger of running its course when Marlon Wayans comes along to broadly, belatedly spoof it.
Posted Jan 25, 2013
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3/5
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Broken City
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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A political thriller that's never quite as smart as you wish it were.
Posted Jan 25, 2013
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4/5
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Consuming Spirits
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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Even if one grows impatient with the film's dovetailing tales of small-town desperation, it's hard to tire of its visual execution.
Posted Jan 25, 2013
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2/5
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Movie 43
(2013)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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Neither the Kentucky-fried turkey its unceremonious release suggests nor the kind of daring film maudit that seems destined to be reassessed decades hence.
Posted Jan 25, 2013
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2/5
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Gangster Squad
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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A shallow, star-studded amalgam of every Los Angeles cops-and-crooks drama you've ever seen.
Posted Jan 10, 2013
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1/5
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Texas Chainsaw
(2013)
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A.A. Dowd
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When making a sequel to a beloved genre classic, it's generally unwise to include clips of the masterpiece you're attempting to live up to.
Posted Jan 10, 2013
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5/5
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Amour
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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The most brutally honest picture ever made about growing old and wasting away.
Posted Jan 10, 2013
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4/5
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Sister
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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For fans of Ursula Meier's last movie, the strikingly offbeat domestic drama Home, this act of auteur-on-auteur emulation may feel like a comedown. Yet it's still stirring work.
Posted Jan 09, 2013
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5/5
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Zero Dark Thirty
(2012)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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The decade-spanning Zero Dark Thirty comes freighted with a historical weight it bears amazingly well.
Posted Jan 09, 2013
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3/5
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Premium Rush
(2012)
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A.A. Dowd
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Want more from a late-summer joyride than slides, wheelies and bunny hops? Get a load of Shannon, dementedly inspired, trying out an oddball accent and Richard Widmark giggle.
Posted Jan 08, 2013
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4/5
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The Cabin in the Woods
(2011)
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A.A. Dowd
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A fiendishly clever genre Rubik's Cube that demonstrates, if nothing else, how much Fangoria fare benefits from the wicked wit of a real writer.
Posted Jan 08, 2013
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4/5
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Argo
(2012)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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After Gone Baby Gone, The Town and now this directorial-best, Affleck is establishing himself as a major craftsman.
Posted Jan 08, 2013
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