Latest Theatrical Reviews

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The Dictator (2012)

Cohen's act wears thin...still, The Dictator has several memorable moments...
Dark Shadows (2012)

By asking the audience to take far too much on faith, Dark Shadows can only be an interesting failure.
Darling Companion (2012)

Currish...the film's niche audience is indiscriminate aging dog lovers; people lovers should look elsewhere.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)

"Eat Gray Love"...the whole enterprise [is] too platitudinous, but with powerhouse actors like Dench, Nighy and Wilkinson, even a critic can agree it's better to be plucky than a sour stick-in-the-mud.
The Avengers (2012)

It's quite possible that The Avengers has more action than any movie ever made...[but] for all its thrill-ride clutter, The Avengers is just about as simplistic as them fightin'-robot pictures...
The Five-Year Engagement (2012)

Pessimism, sweetness, raunch and loopiness make for a pleasantly offbeat blend.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)

Eighty-eight minutes of sublime silliness...should appeal in equal measure to adults as to children.
Chimpanzee (2012)

Decide for yourself if the narration is a necessary concession for kids: it's a take-it-or-leave-it proposition that doesn't make but also doesn't quite break Chimpanzee.
Monsieur Lazhar (2012)

A sensitive and fairly subtle work, with the deceptive simplicity of a well-honed short story.
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

A next-generation Scream, a self-referential horror film that tongue-in-cheekily deconstructs its own genre.
Damsels in Distress (2012)

Since the halfwitty Damsels in Distress wants to have it both ways, its satire is about as cutting as a plastic knife through a porterhouse.
American Reunion (2012)

Predictability is the fatal flaw of any American sequel, and while this one comes closest in tone to the original film, that's a decidedly double-edged sword.
The Deep Blue Sea (2012)

This exquisite realization is as vital as can be in depicting the timeless tortures of the romantically damned.
Mirror Mirror (2012)

By toning down his excesses for a mass audience of largely children, the self-billed Tarsem hits his sweet spot, serving up lavish sets and costumes to create a fantasy world that doesn't make us want to scratch our eyeballs out.
The Hunger Games (2012)

If The Hunger Games on screen doesn't exactly catch fire (as does its hero Katniss Everdeen), its savvy pop culture mash-up and the charge of teens in life-and-death peril remain intact.
Footnote (2011)

Largely concerned with the prickliness and delicacy around legacy, and the attendant patrilineal complications...But it's as much about the egotism and dysfunction of academia, reflected in the complex personalities of Eliezer and Uriel.
Being Flynn (2012)

It's simply difficult to throw in with the film's reality-if not its essential story, then its details: Being Flynn feels indie art-directed instead of observed.
Silent House (2012)

The haunted House may be a built on a shaky foundation, but its scare tactics are sound, and its gimmickry is enough to stand out in a crowded genre neighborhood.
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2012)

An annoying provocation with too little to say, a serious credibility deficit, a whiff of misandry, and a miscalculated, unseemly gusto for abusing its hero. Instead of having catharsis, the audience just gets had.
The Secret World of Arriety (2012)

That relaxed pace allows the story to breathe—forget the franticness of most American animation—and along with the gorgeously detailed art, lush color, and swoony music...the film is all but guaranteed to entrance children.
A Separation (2012)

Above all, Farhadi’s parable teaches that a rush to judgment inevitably turns back on the judge.
Big Miracle (2012)

Perhaps the title sets an expectation Ken Kwapis’ movie can’t quite deliver.
The Grey (2012)

Though it does thrill with intense, close-cropped action photography, swift editing, and vivid sound design, The Grey makes as much of an impression by being unexpectedly emotional.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)

Except as a tool for pediatric grief counseling, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close amounts to a fetishization of its own trappings (the boy, NYC, 9/11) more interested in Oscar than Oskar.
Haywire (2012)

Finds Soderbergh keeping it simple, stupid, by filling the story's hollowness with kick-butt action and elements of style.
Carnage (2011)

A slow disintegration of the thin veneer of social niceties, revealing the human animalism underneath. Like Reza's equally popular Art, God of Carnage isn't as deep as it would have you believe, but both plays are catnip for actors.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Whether coolly dispatching a fly or eating a Wimpy burger with knife and fork, Oldman carefully makes every gesture part of his quiet revelation of character.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Fincher is perfectly suited to the material, with its voluminous clues to be organized and parsed, its emotional austerity, and its serial murder, rape, and sundry sick plot twists.
Young Adult (2011)

What ultimately makes Young Adult worth the trip is Theron’s uncompromising performance, which dares to make Mavis unlikeable and, in the process, earns our pity and, more disturbingly, our identification.
New Year's Eve (2011)

I tell ya, I haven't heard this much talk about ball-dropping since the junior high locker room.
The Artist (2011)

Though this pastiche has been crafted by film nerds and largely for them, Michel Hazanavicius' feature has an emotional generosity that speaks louder than words.
The Descendants (2011)

If you see The Descendants, see it for Clooney (and Woodley), but don’t believe the hype that it’s one for the ages.
The Muppets (2011)

Muppet News Flash! Your friends in felt are back on the big screen, ready and waiting to charm a new generation of…moppets.
Into the Abyss (2011)

The interviews that make up the balance of the film yield plenty of oddities of modern American life.
Melancholia (2011)

The director's emotional sadism and laughable bluntness in his symbolic approach leave us in the cold, to pick through the art-auction catalog of Manuel Alberto Claro's cinematography and contemplate Dunst's award-winning suffering.
Tower Heist (2011)

Has the perfect 'generic brand' title to match its Teflon blandness.
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

At least, though the insights here aren't as plentiful as Durkin seems to think, Olsen's fine work as the off-balance, paranoid anti-hero helps to create that illusion.
Anonymous (2011)

From the man who brought you Godzilla and 2012...a loud and ludicrous historical rewrite about the supposed hidden authorship of Shakespeare's plays.
Margin Call (2011)

Chandor’s social critique may or may not stand the test of time, but as all eyes turn to the 'Occupy' movement, Margin Call is entirely right for this moment.
The Ides of March (2011)

Plays out like a game of high-stakes poker, mostly in shades of quiet, intense deliberation.

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