Splat 85/100
|
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2010)
|
"...is a curious and moderately interesting film that, like many an initially torrid affair, eventually devolves into desultory ennui"
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 89/100
|
Restrepo (2010)
|
"...in some ways the most harrowing film I’ve ever seen"
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 71/100
|
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
|
"... the only real purpose the film could serve is as a kind of cultural litmus test - to winnow out those who don’t get it."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 78/100
|
Eat Pray Love (2010)
|
"... an irritating, smug film about a horrible person, a narcissistic destroyer of worlds so caught up in romancing her impossibly sensitive self that she doesn’t even notice the needless damage she inflicts on her fellow creatures."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 90/100
|
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
|
"...a wonderful thing, intelligent in the ways of human foible, and generous with sinners."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 81/100
|
La MISSION (2010)
|
",,,a flawed but occasionally powerful elegy for a neighborhood in transition."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 87/100
|
I Am Love (Io sono l'amore) (2010)
|
"... there are times that Guadagnino’s symbolic imagery takes on the risible baroqueness of an extremely well-made Duran Duran video. Yet through it all, Swinton is impeccable, and maybe ostentatiously brave."
|
|
Splat 84/100
|
The Other Guys (2010)
|
"...you could do worse for a summer action comedy, even if The Other Guys eventually comes dangerously close to becoming the kind of generic buddy cop film it means to parody."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 87/100
|
Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work (2010)
|
"...you may not come away from Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's (blisteringly funny) chronicle of a year in the life of the comedian ... liking Joan Rivers, much less understanding her, but by gosh this movie is going to force you to respect her."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 86/100
|
Salt (2010)
|
"Tom Cruise on Oprah's couch, Dan Gilbert on LeBron James nuts. "
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 86/100
|
Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot) (2010)
|
"As a filmmaker, [Jeunet's] prime virtues have to do with textural details, discursive forays into character, little grace notes that accrete into rueful human - and humane - comedy."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 75/100
|
Showgirls (1995)
|
"...a bad film, borderline inept, with an anti-erotic toxic charge about it. It deserved all the mean things people said about it."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 89/100
|
The Father of My Children (Le pere de mes enfants) (2010)
|
"...a stylish, subtle and devastating film about a recognizable good person whose world gradually and believably falls away."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 88/100
|
Despicable Me (2010)
|
"...does what it is supposed to do, is relatively fresh and colorful, and probably won't give anyone bad dreams. It's not a Little Golden Book, but that doesn't mean it won't be remembered with affection."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 80/100
|
Youth in Revolt (2010)
|
"Michael Cera goes to the sweet-tempered high school persona well once (or twice) too often with, sigh, Nick Twisp, who lives in hormonal agony with his sex-obsessed divorced mother (Jean Smart) and her nasty boyfriend. "
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 77/100
|
When in Rome (2010)
|
"...we are expected to suspend our disbelief and accept that the adorable Kristen Bell needs some sort of crackpot magic spell to attract suitors."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 87/100
|
It Came from Kuchar (2010)
|
"It's ironic that director Jennifer M. Kroot was able to make a good movie about twin brothers George and Mike Kuchar, the low-budget underground auteurs who have been cranking out terrible low-budget genre films since the early 1960s"
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 82/100
|
Happy Tears (2010)
|
"Demi Moore and Parker Posey play polar-opposite sisters dealing with their aging father (Rip Torn) who's showing signs of senility, soiling himself and shacking up with his "nurse" (Ellen Barkin)."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 88/100
|
Burma VJ: Reporter i et Lukket Land (Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country) (2008)
|
"Mesmerizing, Oscar-nominated inside look into the 2007 uprising via the cameras of 30 or so underground videographers who risked torture and prison to record the chaotic events surrounding the rebellion of Buddhist monks against the repressive military"
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 81/100
|
The Book of Eli (2010)
|
"While the movie has illusions of portentousness, it can - and should - be taken as a chance to see good actors having a little too much ultra-violent fun."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 83/100
|
Please Give (2010)
|
"It is well-observed but morally stunted, in that it suggests that charity is just another form of self-medication"
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 88/100
|
Word is Out - Stories of Some of Our Lives (1992)
|
"...may be the most important movie you've never heard of, much less seen. It was the first feature length documentary about gay people, made by gay people, and one of the first to treat homosexuality as a naturally occurring phenomenon."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 83/100
|
Blood on the Highway (2010)
|
"Cheesy self aware horror movie chockfull of gory gags and sex jokes, a few of which click. May find a home with cultists looking to adopt."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 87/100
|
Beautiful (2009)
|
"Cryptic Australian thriller, the first film by Dean O'Flaherty, about some girls who disappear from an idyllic suburb ..."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 86/100
|
Bass Ackwards (2010)
|
"...mild and quirky without the smugness that tends to infect these scruffy little films"
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 78/100
|
Pretty Bird (2008)
|
"While the names attached to Paul Schneider's directorial debut (Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig) might make it sound attractive, there's a reason this 2008 black comedy - allegedly based on a true story - never made it to a theater near you."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 86/100
|
Crazy ()
|
"Bio-pic of '50s country-jazz guitar picker Hank Garland (played here by musician Waylon Payne) is straight ahead formula with surprisingly high production values (for a low-budget period piece) and a genuine feel for the music."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 82/100
|
TiMER (2010)
|
"Despite its far-fetched premise Jac Schaeffer's debut feature has a surfeit of low-budget, high-concept indie charm and an adorable lead in Emma Caulfield"
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 79/100
|
The Crazies (2010)
|
"Remake of the George Romero film features Timothy Olyphant as the sheriff of a peaceful small town where things begin to go horribly awry. Meh."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 77/100
|
Creation (2010)
|
"Disappointingly soapy drama about the domestic life of Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany). Jennifer Connelly plays his wife, Emma. A squandered opportunity."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 90/100
|
Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick (Everlasting Moments) (Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moment) (2009)
|
"Jan Troell's beautiful and evocative 2008 film about a simple Swedish housewife who, in 1911, begins to discover her artistic soul after being gifted with a camera. A genuinely wonderful film."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 85/100
|
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
|
"Mindlessness done pretty well. Three middle-aged friends and a Gen Next tag along whose lives haven't turned out as they'd hoped travel back to 1986 via the titular device. Stupid fun ensues, some of it involving Crispin Glover."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 85/100
|
Rock Slyde (2010)
|
"...not horrible, but it's to a specific taste."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 84/100
|
She's Out of My League (2010)
|
"...has a few quality moments, and it doesn't default to the angry ugliness of so many fraternity-boy sexual comedies."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 90/100
|
La Nana (The Maid) (2009)
|
"Fascinating, humane and compellingly honest."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 86/100
|
Green Zone (2010)
|
"...there's a lot to like in directorPaul Greengrass' fast-break freneticism and in the evocatively fictionalized Iraq war story told here. It's nothing we haven't heard before, but - for Hollywood, at least - it's nuanced and exciting storytelling."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 83/100
|
The Good Guy (2009)
|
"Mild, pleasant, obvious romantic comedy set on Wall Street that's most notable for its (maybe accurate) portrayal of young brokers as amoral idiots oblivious to the real-life consequences of their risky business. "
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 83/100
|
Fuel (2008)
|
"shows the not-so-shocking connections between the auto industry, the oil industry and the government, prescriptively offering alternatives ..."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 83/100
|
Mother and Child (2010)
|
"Finely acted and measured in its subtly faith-based approach, Rodrigo Garcia's Mother and Child does not quite escape the limitations of its soapy genre ..."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 89/100
|
Mystery Train (1989)
|
"...has the same weird beauty as a Van Morrison vocal, a mannered eccentricity that somehow cracks open and lays bear the stuttering, fervid heart of what could have been banal material."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 81/100
|
Grown Ups (2010)
|
"It's puerile and aggressively stupid, but at least it's not cruel. And no one is holding a gun to your head. Adam Sandler isn't a criminal, he's just - like most of us - part of the problem."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 89/100
|
Toy Story 3 (2010)
|
"I appreciate it as an efficient, effective machine - even a thing of beauty. But you can't make me love it. And it scares me just a little that so many of you love it so loudly."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 87/100
|
Ondine (2010)
|
"Ondine is one of those lovely things that dissolves beneath too intent a gaze."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 86/100
|
Holy Rollers (2010)
|
"Holy Rollers - the title strikes me as unfortunately glib and tone deaf - is basically two movies in one: a genuinely involving character drama and a by-the-numbers crime story/ cautionary tale. "
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 80/100
|
Power Kids (2010)
|
"...one of those alien films oneruns across from time to time - it's half family-friendly tearjerker and half brutal kick-butt-athon. But the action choreography is predictably terrific."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 68/100
|
41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall And Felt Superbad About It (2010)
|
"Note to prospective satirists: The idea is to pick on something that's not smarter and funnier than you are. "
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 78/100
|
From Paris with Love (2010)
|
"Not even the pleasures inherent in watching John Travolta mug it up as a gonzo CIA operative bent on breaking things and killing people... are sufficient recompense for sitting through this by-the-numbers slog from the fevered brain of Luc Besson "
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 81/100
|
180 South (2010)
|
" Documentary follows surfer/ rock climber/photographer Jeff Johnson as he attempts to replicate the 1968 sailing/climbing expedition of Yvon Chouinard ...and Doug Tompkins from California to the tallest mountain in Chilean Patagonia."
|
Philip Martin
|
Splat 83/100
|
The Karate Kid (2010)
|
"...emblematic of some of Hollywood's worst impulses....better than you might expect."
|
Philip Martin
|
Fresh 86/100
|
The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) (2010)
|
"It may not quite be a great film ... nbut it's a very cool movie."
|
Philip Martin
|