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D |
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(2009) |
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"The defining entrant in, and the nadir of, the disaster porn genre."
[movie review] |
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Lessons of Darkness |
|
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B+ |
|
(2009) |
|
"The complexity of [Zhangke's] postmodernist formal gambit nonetheless gets at something pressing."
[movie review] |
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Lessons of Darkness |
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A- |
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(2009) |
|
"Depicts everyday details and conveys overarching emotional upheavals with a compassion and gentleness that's quietly devastating."
[movie review] |
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Lessons of Darkness |
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C+ |
|
(2009) |
|
"Beautifully designed but short on depth or novelty."
[movie review] |
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Lessons of Darkness |
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| |
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(2009) |
|
"If Egoyan's elliptical narrative flirts with pretentiousness, the director nonetheless encases his action in an affecting mood of regret and longing."
[movie review] |
|
The Screengrab |
|
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C+ |
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(2009) |
|
"Content to occupy that middle ground where insights are authentic but far from revelatory and comedy is more amiable than riotous."
[movie review] |
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Lessons of Darkness |
|
|
|
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C |
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(2009) |
|
"Once made ... Afterschool proceeds to regurgitate its thesis with all the grace of a lumberjack leveling a redwood."
[movie review] |
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Lessons of Darkness |
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| |
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(2009) |
|
"Merely coasts along limply, lacking ribald tongue-in-cheek humor as well as the unironic self-seriousness that epitomized its spiritual predecessors."
[movie review] |
|
The Screengrab |
|
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0/0 |
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(2009) |
|
"The only laughs elicited by All About Steve are those of incredulity."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
|
|
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2/4 |
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(2009) |
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"Like far too many modern horror films, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane flaunts its knowledge of classic genre fundamentals but fails to do anything very clever or surprising with them."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
|
|
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1.5/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Amelia attempts the yeoman's task of recounting a tale about which it has virtually nothing to say."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
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C |
|
(2009) |
|
"A teen-targeted public service announcement."
[movie review] |
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Lessons of Darkness |
|
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1/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"If the story isn't nearly as ridiculous as Da Vinci's, director Ron Howard still impeccably maintains the series's turgid mediocrity."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
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1.5/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"A dreary tale spun out of bland cliches and so many coincidences that one begins to believe its titular guru perhaps does have a direct line to the Almighty."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
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C |
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(2009) |
|
"Only sporadically feels like an effort interested in grappling with the miserable fallout from tragedy."
[movie review] |
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Lessons of Darkness |
|
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3/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"A European tour fraught with shady venue owners, missed trains and in-fighting, and subsequent efforts to record their 13th studio album are misadventures that a less compassionate filmmaker might have wrung for cheap Spinal Tap-ish humor."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
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3/5 |
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(2009) |
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"In its best moments, the film exudes an almost Miyazakian love of flight, notably during the hero’s maiden soar through the clouds."
[movie review] |
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Time Out New York |
|
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2/4 |
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(2009) |
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"A feeble follow-up punch to Japan after The Cove."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
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2.5/4 |
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(2009) |
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"A road-trip comedy in equal measures bittersweet and hopeful, Mendes's latest boasts few of his stuffy aesthetic trademarks."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
|
|
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B |
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(2009) |
|
"May not result in a coherent whole but nonetheless delivers bursts of random, inspired madness."
[movie review] |
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Lessons of Darkness |
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|
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1.5/4 |
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(2009) |
|
"Harjo poeticizes the open road with increasing redundancy, yet his identical scenic panoramas remain preferable to his dramaturgy, which mistakes silence for pensiveness."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
|
|
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1.5/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"A bizarre, preachy pro-peace animated adventure."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
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.5/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"This intertwined tale of people struggling on society's fringe plays like bad community theater."
[movie review] |
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Slant Magazine |
|
|
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1/4 |
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(2009) |
|
"For his remake of Fritz Lang's last American film, Peter Hyams retains the German Expressionist's narrative conceit but otherwise ratchets up the sleek car-commercial flashiness."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
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2.5/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"It acutely illustrates how excessive sports fanaticism functions as a strain of insanity that, as posited by the "happy" coda, recommences with every new season."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
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2/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Generally humorless and pointless, devoid as the film is of any commentary on the genre to which it's paying loving tribute."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
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1/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Blood is borderline incomprehensible."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
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1/5 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Neither blue teeth nor virgins make appearances, but Russell Brown’s torpid indie does deliver plenty of ponderous chitchat about truth, deception, criticism and artists’ motivations."
[movie review] |
|
Time Out New York |
|
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1/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"The true abiding love affair here remains between Duffy and QT."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
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3/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Though his narrative's morality-play suspense and Bernard Herrmann-esque score recall Hitchcock, Kelly seems to have selected the '70s so that he can fully channel early-years Steven Spielberg."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
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1/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"The most lamentable thing about the dismal Bride Wars is the total absence of fatalities."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
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| |
B |
|
(2009) |
|
"A period piece typified by restraint, delicacy and the romantic spirit of its renowned subject."
[movie review] |
|
Lessons of Darkness |
|
|
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| |
2/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Old-hat tropes under a superficially stunning veneer."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
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| |
3.5/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Bronson is a fast, ferocious, wickedly funny portrait of one man's acceptance of his bone-deep animalism."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
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| |
|
|
(2009) |
|
"Infinitely pleased with its derivative, fanciful writerly convolutions."
[movie review] |
|
The Screengrab |
|
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3/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Brüno is like Milk, but with a talking penis."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
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| |
2.5/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"The finale is an extended tour de force equal parts Bruce Lee, Tony Jaa, and Donkey Kong."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
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2/5 |
|
(2009) |
|
"At the very least, such triteness will dredge up a desire to keep the Weitz family -- brother Chris was responsible for the leaden Golden Compass debacle -- away from the first chapters of big-budget franchises."
[movie review] |
|
Time Out New York |
|
|
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3/5 |
|
(2009) |
|
"It may not have the heart or subtle artistry of Up, but then again, Pixar’s 3-D outing didn’t feature a mustache-tearing monkey, a manchild encased in a giant cooked chicken, or a beefy, bounding cop voiced by Mr. T."
[movie review] |
|
Time Out New York |
|
|
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| |
2/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Fontaine dramatizes Coco's struggles respectfully if mundanely, crafting believable period detail for her procession of key-life-moment scenes, all of which employ serviceable but far from groundbreaking psychologizing."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
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| |
2/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Cold Souls is a skillfully shot, well-acted, thoroughly unconvincing, and unaffecting put-on."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
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| |
2/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Smith's subject Michael Ruppert never registers as much more than an eloquent but largely untrustworthy quack."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
|
| |
1/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"If you gave Bernie Madoff custody of your life savings mere days before the FBI knocked on his door last December, your timing still wouldn't be as wretched as that of Confessions of a Shopaholic."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
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| |
A- |
|
(2009) |
|
"So dynamically careens between set pieces of elation and dread that one hardly has time to soak in all the twirling, tumbling visual marvels enveloping the screen."
[movie review] |
|
Lessons of Darkness |
|
|
|
|
| |
2/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Bohdan Sláma's direction for The Country Teacher, a film characterized by beautifully long, languorous takes, has an assured expressiveness that's at odds with the story's bumpy narrative."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
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| |
1/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Ultimately comes off as merely an excuse for stars to take a vacation on the studio's%u2014and moviegoing public's%u2014dime."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
|
| |
B |
|
(2009) |
|
"A quite stirring call to arms against the senseless, copious murder of animals."
[movie review] |
|
Lessons of Darkness |
|
|
|
|
| |
2/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Like its predecessor, Crank: High Voltage is speedball cinema, a pure narcotized rush of blistering action, odious stereotypes, and shock-for-shock's-sake nastiness."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
|
| |
3/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Peralta's presentation is so concise and efficient that it often overshadows the fact that some of his doc's contentions aren't particularly novel."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
|
|
| |
2/4 |
|
(2009) |
|
"Exploitatively reprints the legend of murderous Staten Island 'pied piper' Andre Rand ad nauseam in Cropsey."
[movie review] |
|
Slant Magazine |
|
|
