Movies >>

Reviews

Review: Sacrifice

Historical melodrama
Adapted from a 13th-century stage play, this historical melodrama seems torn between trying to be a theatrical fable and a flashy action film.

By: JAKE MULLIGAN | July 24, 2012

Review: Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

Takashi Miike brings back samurai movies
Takashi Miike seems to be single-handedly bringing the samurai movie back to its former glory; first with 13 Assassins , and now this gripping remake of Kobayashi’s classic attack on the honor code within the samurai class.

By: MILES BOWE | July 24, 2012

Review: Farewell, My Queen

Adapted from Chantal Thomas’s novel
The gifted French director Benoît Jacquot specializes in movies about the emotions of young women.

By: PATRICK Z. MCGAVIN | July 24, 2012

Review: The Dark Knight Rises

Not so serious
No other superhero has less fun than the Batman (Christian Bale) of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 18, 2012

Review: Unforgivable

Voyeurism and narcissism
Lucky for André Téchiné that he's so slick with exposition.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 17, 2012

Review: The Day He Arrives

Variations
"Stop copying me!" says Seong-jun (Yu Jun-sang), the has-been filmmaker at the center of the 12th cinematic Mobius strip from Hong Sang-soo.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 17, 2012

Review: Trishna

Tess of the D'Urbervilles set in present-day India
If nothing else, Michael Winterbottom's updating of Tess of the D'Urbervilles to present-day India proves that Thomas Hardy will depress you no matter what the setting.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 17, 2012

Review: Ballplayer: Pelotero

Striking out
Ballplayer initially declares that it is about dreams, ambition, and family struggles, but by focusing almost entirely on money and market values, it strikes out.

By: MILES BOWE | July 10, 2012

Review: Ice Age: Continental Drift

It's all been done
Perhaps you've seen "Scrat's Continental Crack-Up," the animated short that debuted theatrically a year and a half ago featuring the sabre-toothed squirrel causing a prehistoric tectonic cataclysm as a result of his pursuit of an elusive acorn.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 12, 2012

Review: Neil Young Journeys

Young having the time of his life
Young is old now, and in Demme's film, looking like a stubbly coot in a battered Panama hat, he's having the time of his life.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 10, 2012

Review: Sleepless Night

Frédéric Jardin's expert thriller
"We're in deep shit," says one of the perpetrators of a bungled drug heist in Frédéric Jardin's expert thriller. It's about to get deeper.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 10, 2012

Review: Drunkboat

Hamming it up
Despite a title taken from Rimbaud's poem, Bob Meyer's debut has less in common with the wunderkind symbolist than with David Mamet and the Coen Brothers.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 11, 2012

Review: Natural Selection

Robbie Pickering's road movie
So memorable as Ed Helms's harridan wife in The Hangover , Rachael Harris is a natural for a lead role.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 03, 2012

Review: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Benh Zeitlin's folk tale
One of the most assured debuts in years, Benh Zeitlin's folk tale is a portrait of the wonder and heartbreak that comes with being too young to understand what you experience.

By: JAKE MULLIGAN | July 06, 2012

Review: Magic Mike

Reviving the '80s beefcake genre
After January's Haywire , director Steven Soderbergh revives another genre, the '80s beefcake buffet, with better results than could have been expected.

By: NICK JOHNSTON | July 03, 2012

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

Only one story
There's only one story, says the teacher near the end of this take-two of the Spider-Man franchise: who am I?

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 03, 2012

Review: Take This Waltz

People, not clichés
Margot (Michelle Williams), who makes ends meet grinding out PR pamphlets, wants to be happy with her husband Lou (Seth Rogen), a cookbook writer. However, like many Seth Rogen characters, Lou's more a grab-assing buddy than a lover.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 05, 2012