Into the Abyss (review)
Here is the mystery and wonder of Werner Herzog: this is simultaneously his least Herzog-y film and also the most profound expression of Herzog-ness yet…
2011 theatrical releases
The Awakening (review)
An elegantly creepy tale of a haunting that, wonder of wonders, one may approach equally well from the perspective of total supernatural belief or entrenched skepticism…
Martha Marcy May Marlene movie review: occupy victimhood
It takes an extraordinary film to turn the notion of woman-as-victim on its head… and an even more extraordinary film if it does posit as its central conceit that its protagonist has unquestionably been victimized.
Miss Bala (review)
There is a whole lotta frustration to be found in a movie about a woman forced to play men’s games who doesn’t fight back… not even a little.
Machine Gun Preacher movie review
Gerard Butler gets Jesus. But not — this is my favorite thing about this movie — in an obnoxious way.
Weekend (review)
It’s meant to be terribly romantic how theses two sweet guys fall in love over the course of a few days. But something doesn’t feel quite right to me.
Melancholia (review)
Depression is like an enormous rogue planet entering your solar system and ripping your world apart…
Tower Heist movie review: Bastille on the Hudson
For a film critic, there are few pleasures more satisfying than ripping into a bad movie. But one of those few is discovering that a film that you were expecting to hate — a movie that you had no doubts whatsoever would turn out to be utterly awful — turns out to be wonderful.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil movie review
How is it possible that no one has done anything quite like this before? This is one of the funniest things I have ever seen, a clever, witty, surprising splatter comedy…
The Woman (review)
A film that gnaws at our notions of what’s proper and what’s improper, dredging up unexpected horrors from the most banal of ordinariness.
