 |
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|
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| |
A |
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(2010) |
|
"Filmed over a period of three live performances of Stew's and Heidi Rodewald's popular Broadway musical, director Spike Lee beautifully captures the play's vibrant music and energetic physicality toward a priceless cinematic artifact."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C |
|
(2009) |
|
"Intriguing as a flawed experiment in animation, "nine dollars ninety-nine" suffers from a lack of thematic continuity that leaves the audience wanting both more and less--more story and less metaphor."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
B |
|
(2009) |
|
"Egos, etiquette, and envy go a long way in this atypical comedy of manners."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Sure the blu-ray DVD will look great on your home theater as ambient background for your next house party, but that's about it."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
B- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great as a hopeless romantic, and Zooey Deshanel embodies a cold-fish charmer whose mod girl styling is but a clever disguise for a person looking for a better deal."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Tim Burton and Russian visionary Timur Bekmambetov take producing credits for a movie your kids won't get and you won't enjoy."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"...sanitized romantic comedy never cracks the surface of its delicate and complex subject."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
B- |
|
(2009) |
|
"As with all of Egoyan's films, "Adoration" is a forward-thinking exploratory work of cinema meant to invigorate audiences into social discussions beyond its narrative structure."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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B- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Like the confused social period of the Reagan era that the story inhabits, "Adventureland" is an awkward comedy that makes you wish it were a lot better."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
D |
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(2009) |
|
"Writer/director/actor Ari Gold has made a competent student film that would graduate him from any film school with flying colors--that's to say, here is an example of a filmmaker who hasn't yet begun to find his own voice."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
B+ |
|
(2009) |
|
"Antonio Campos's character study of a prep school social misfit named Robert (Ezra Miller) is an intimate psychological journey into a coded juvenile mindset."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
B |
|
(2009) |
|
"Educational and inventive, the documentary speaks with a strong editorial voice from a backward-looking vantage point. It's a narrative device that proves most effective."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C+ |
|
(2009) |
|
"What starts out as a promising retro comic spoof of '50s era sci-fi movies (think "It Came From Outer Space") digresses into a flat imitation of the mores and social ignorance it initially promises to skewer."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
D+ |
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(2009) |
|
"Even the famous M Street stairs from "The Exorcist" are out of place in the climax of this lightweight movie."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
B- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Essential viewing for understanding how banks systematically targeted low income groups in over-leveraged mortgage lending practices that led to a catastrophic economic collapse, "American Casino" is still a far from perfect documentary."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
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|
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| |
C+ |
|
(2009) |
|
"An essential document to the rich history of New York, "American Swing" is too short sighted for the vision of its controversial subject."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C |
|
(2009) |
|
"Writer/director Cherien Dabis's Sundance Festival entry digresses from a gritty West Bank drama to a stagy middle-American melodrama."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
A |
|
(2009) |
|
"...an absorbing character study and an evocative exploration of womanhood as embodied by the finest young actress [Carey Mulligan] to come along this year."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
B+ |
|
(2009) |
|
"For all of the Catholic Church hullabaloo over Dan Brown's novels, Ron Howard's "Da Vinci Code" sequel is an exuberant cinematic adaptation that combines elements of horror, religious tradition, and high-tech suspense to give audiences a non-stop thrill r"
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"As part of the current season's spate of philosophical lifestyle pap movies like "Away We Go" and "$9.99," first-time-director (oh how I rue those words) John Hindman trips at every step."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
A |
|
(2009) |
|
"...von Trier creates a tense and provocative horror film bound up in terms of psycho-therapy, sexual desire, and the shocking brutality of Mother Nature."
[movie review] |
|
Daily Radar |
|
|
|
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| |
A |
|
(2009) |
|
"You don't have to give two cents about Heavy Metal music to appreciate Sacha Gervasi's joyous and touching documentary about charismatic Canadian musicians Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner..."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
C |
|
(2009) |
|
"Professedly intended to reflect an Errol Morris "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" type of documentary, Pray misses the mark by leaving his own editorial voice out to dry."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Hilary Helstein offers a historically significant documentary reportage of Holocaust survivors who utilized art as their primary coping mechanism inside Hitler's concentration camps."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
D |
|
(2009) |
|
"The movie almost works as a cautionary tale about global overpopulation by imbecile parents, but even that would be a bridge too far for this pathetic navel rub that comes with the same sense of entitlement that it pretends to skewer."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
C |
|
(2009) |
|
"...a watery historic stew crammed with too many events and not enough context or character development to fill out what could have been a compelling film."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Just as ridiculous as the title implies, this ill-conceived sequel to Abel Ferrara's masterpiece ("Bad Lieutenant" - 1992) picks up some grains of muscular grit under the unlikely Werner Herzog's guidance, but flails every step of the way."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
B |
|
(2009) |
|
"Kim Hidalgo gives a notable performance as Sticky's girlfriend Anh-thu, but it's Boucher's slow-burn intensity and unmistakable basketball skills that drive this entertaining independent drama."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Too thematically dim to hold the interest of adults, and too alienating and violent to appeal to children, "Battle for Terra" is an off-putting animated sci-fi flick for no one."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A- |
|
(2009) |
|
"At 80, French New Wave legend Agnes Varda creates a lucid and passionate cinematic memoir that is transformative in its effortless ability to connect the director's life story to her ever-present artistic impulses that are just as strong today as when she"
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
B- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Even if "Beer Wars" works best as a brief introduction to craft beers, and inspires audiences to explore craft breweries in their area and beyond, then the film works."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
B |
|
(2009) |
|
"Robert Siegel (screenwriter of "The Wrestler") makes an gloomy but respectable debut with a dark drama that revels in a particular New York character type living within clearly drawn societal lines."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A- |
|
(2009) |
|
"This may be the all-time best party film next to "Animal House." If this movie doesn't make you laugh, call a doctor."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
B- |
|
(2009) |
|
"As a theatrical filmic exercise, "Blind Date" is a fair experiment. Just don't go expecting to see a movie."
[movie review] |
|
Daily Radar |
|
|
|
|
| |
D |
|
(2009) |
|
"So pretentious it stinks from the screen, "The Blue Tooth Virgin" is a stillborn experiment in screenwriting 101."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
D |
|
(2009) |
|
"Riffing on a Twilight Zone-themed morality tale, writer/director Richard Kelly ("Donnie Darko") sets the table for a three-course meal of supernatural events but serves up an anemic narrative entree instead."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
D+ |
|
(2009) |
|
"With a title like "Bride Wars" you'd expect some explosive comic moments of wedding sabotage and subterfuge, but instead you get a clunky formula romantic comedy, even by Hollywood standards."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A |
|
(2009) |
|
"a rare pleasure of unrequited love that never dips the poet's ink into the syrup of sentimentality, but rather allows its characters to invest passion from their gently articulated imaginations."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
B- |
|
(2009) |
|
"...what we see here is a flawed sampler of comedy, noir, melodrama, and luscious compositions."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
B- |
|
(2009) |
|
"A kind of second cousin to Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo" (2008), "Bronson" shares that film's mechanical sense of ambivalent regard for its subject'"
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Newbie director Rian Johnson ("Brick") fumbles his self-penned sophomore effort with an incongruously toned con story that is a chore to sit through."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
B- |
|
(2009) |
|
"...provokes half as many laughs in a seemingly less improvised comedy that goes twice again as far as Borat in goosing sexual sight gags designed to make even the most numb audience members blanch."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Blonde-haired white women are omens of doom in screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga's arduous directorial debut."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A |
|
(2009) |
|
"An old-fashioned minor key drama, "The Cake Eaters" is the exact type of film that is the cornerstone of modern American Independent cinema."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A |
|
(2009) |
|
"Since making "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Sicko," Moore has polished his humanist vehicle of cinematic political agitprop to a glossy reflecting sheen with an entertaining, touching, and informative movie that's worth repeated viewings."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
B+ |
|
(2009) |
|
""Chelsea on the Rocks" is a precious cinematic document of a unique global community that gravitated around the Chelsea hotel."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
C |
|
(2009) |
|
"Stephen Frears's adaptation of two combined Colette novels, never takes hold due to a myopic screenplay by Christopher Hampton, and from a severely misjudged performance from Kathy Bates that threatens to sink the film whenever her distinctly non-British"
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Scattershot and comically unbalanced, "Cirque du Freak" is a wannabe horror film that feels like it was filmed underwater."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
D+ |
|
(2009) |
|
"Unrelated to its misleading title of imaginary bliss is an overriding theme about old age offering no surefire recipe for wisdom, or even for much common sense. How's that for depressing?"
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"For as much as the camera loves Audrey Tautou--and it loves her a lot--director Anne Fontaine never shows the particular zing of je ne c'est quoi that rocketed Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel from gifted hat-maker to pioneering feminist fashion designer of the 20"
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
