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2/4
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There's Someone Inside Your House
(2021)
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Tom Meek
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A derivative slasher flick with elements lifted from Scream and The Hunt but sans any of their genre-defining resonance.
Posted Oct 15, 2021
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Baby Mama
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Baby Mama's principal issue is in not being written by Fey.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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The Counterfeiters
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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And though the story line is fascinating, things grow relatively slack in the film's middle passage.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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The Dark Knight
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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It seems almost cruel to take beloved child archetypes and turn them into projections for adult angst.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Volver
(2006)
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Felicia Feaster
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Almodóvar's tribute to mother love is overflowing with the anguish and ecstasy of life.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Orchestra Seats
(2006)
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Felicia Feaster
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Thompson's simplistic argument about wealth and poverty doesn't exactly inspire strong emotions, despite some well-crafted filmmaking and an urban prettiness reminiscent of Woody Allen's honey-dripping Manhattan locales.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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No End in Sight
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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[A] bracing documentary that asserts what most of us already know: The Iraq war has been a travesty.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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La Vie en Rose
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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Despite its story of suffering that comes in unceasing waves, La Vie en Rose may be the most hopeful film yet made about the grueling rigor of living.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Into the Wild
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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Into the Wild captures the recklessness, the passion, and also the cruelty of youth.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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2 Days in Paris
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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Actress Julie Delpy makes her directing debut with 2 Days in Paris, which is at once a gimlet-eyed love story and a refreshingly cynical take on the French character.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Smart People
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Murro tends to deal in surfaces. It's hard to get a sense of the human beings beneath the cardboard facades.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Shine a Light
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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And what better man to memorialize the still-kicking Rolling Stones than Martin Scorsese, a spark plug of infernal energy himself, whose creative fire still burns white hot.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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The Visitor
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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Richard Jenkins is a mesmerizing presence in the film.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Redbelt
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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What doesn't disappoint is Redbelt's satisfying retro flavor, a sense of pervasive corruption that immediately conjures up classic films noir.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Son of Rambow
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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Desperate for winsome, Jennings in the end just tries too hard, settling for cute when something more meaty is required in this story of two fatherless boys.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Get Smart
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Get Smart's globe-trotting plot is as forgettable as the wrapper you shuck to get to the candy bar.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Surfwise
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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[A] wonderful, captivating documentary.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Before the Rains
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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Before the Rains is an immediate disappointment.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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The Fall
(2006)
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Felicia Feaster
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The Fall is an encounter with the mythic in human history and you want to give Singh a pat on the back for his chutzpah, even if the film itself registers as terrifyingly self-indulgent and often incoherent.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Crossed Tracks
(2007)
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Felicia Feaster
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Lelouch's is a pleasingly serpentine story that will keep viewers guessing.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
(2006)
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Felicia Feaster
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Saucily subversive, screenwriter Jean Francois Halin's crackling script questions the supposed hetero-manliness of the classic spy hero, but even more smartly pokes fun at French conceit and colonialism.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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Brideshead Revisited
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Brideshead derives no small measure of entertainment from its portrait of the British class hierarchy and Charles' aspirations to a higher class standing.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Elegy
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Smart and devastatingly sad, Elegy is at heart a film about the many damned-to-fail ways we try to protect ourselves from the inevitable certainty of death.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Bottle Shock
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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[A]necdotally interesting, but artistically underwhelming.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Burn After Reading
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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What Burn After Reading offers is hollow, not especially insightful comedy about self-involved people whose ugly ambitions intersect and then end in brain-splattering mayhem.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Changeling
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Eastwood may be aiming for a more restrained and dignified sort of period drama with Changeling, but here he's all surface, preferring the familiar scheme of evil and good, crime and punishment, over delving deeply into character or meaning.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Quantum of Solace
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Quantum of Solace has style, and enough pursuit and pyrotechnics to please hard-core Bond fans. But it may disappoint those hoping for Marc Forster's distinctive imprint and a return to Casino Royale's top form.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Slumdog Millionaire
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Slumdog is imprinted with a uniquely action-packed, peppy Boyle-ian sensibility, from its guttersnipe humor to an unrestrained joy in the imagination and hopefulness of children.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Defiance
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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If only Defiance could offer up a treatment of this historical phenomenon with more originality and mettle and less faith in war-movie razzle-dazzle.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Doubt
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Doubt comes to the screen with a welcome restraint, relying as much on what is unsaid as on what is said and the kind of stylish visual juxtapositions of those suppers.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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The Wrestler
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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The Wrestler is an astounding portrait of a broken man.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Waltz With Bashir
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Dreams are central to this shattering, not-to-be-missed animated Israeli documentary, which opens on a gothic note that suggests a particularly macabre graphic novel or the corrosive pessimism of film noir.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Two Lovers
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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But the true beauty of Two Lovers is the tightly constructed plot and accurately conceived emotions of this engaging ensemble piece.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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The Great Buck Howard
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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The Great Buck Howard has a pleasantly rueful approach. Instead of the scatological humor in raucous bromances like I Love You, Man, The Great Buck Howard offers a more low-key thoughtfulness about how success is defined.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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The Class
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Despite a noble desire to plumb the real racial, class, and generational politics of a contemporary classroom, The Class may strike some as unbearably prolonged, and at times, stagnant exercise.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Everlasting Moments
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Where the film is most satisfying is in an artfulness that operates beyond words.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Is Anybody There?
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Crowley's fatal flaw here is a fear of painting the old folk's home as too grim, even as he strives at every turn to milk sentiment from death and dying.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Sin nombre
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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The exotic setting and strong performances go a long way toward distinguishing Sin Nombre, even if the story itself can feel anemic.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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The Limits of Control
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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Some will find [Jarmusch's] excavation intriguing. The rest of us may long for the enticements of meaningful dialogue, character, and story, and a compelling film hero to make it all feel worthwhile.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Away We Go
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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There is a core of sadness and loneliness in Away We Go, but too often Mendes drowns those plaintive elements in bellowing yuks and overplayed comedy.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Chéri
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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Despite its turn-of-the-20th-century setting, Chéri is a remarkably contemporary story.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Food, Inc.
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Food, Inc. is a comprehensive indictment of what's wrong with the modern food industry.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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(500) Days of Summer
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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Ultimately, great music and an especially endearing performance from Gordon-Levitt aren't enough to make (500) Days of Summer rise above a middling hipster romantic comedy.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Julie & Julia
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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To belabor the inevitable food metaphors, it is a delicious, escapist confection best savored in the moment, with no expectation that it will sustain you in the days ahead.
Posted Jan 27, 2020
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Blood: The Last Vampire
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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Blood has the plodding, labored feel of a story trapped in two-dimensions and characters who are all surface.
Posted Jan 24, 2020
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The Cove
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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In this thriller-doc, the entertainment value of a heist flick combines with the merits of a cause.
Posted Jan 24, 2020
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Motherland
(2008)
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Felicia Feaster
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The experience of watching Motherland can feel relentless: the emotional volume just keeps getting amped up until it's almost deafening.
Posted Jan 24, 2020
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Dead Snow
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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Dead Snow is ludicrous and often irredeemably stupid, but it is a small, guilty pleasure that takes great advantage of its unique Norwegian setting.
Posted Jan 24, 2020
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Adam
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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Adam is a serviceable, but ultimately unsatisfying character study and sometimes romance that strikes too many familiar chords.
Posted Jan 24, 2020
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The Informant!
(2009)
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Felicia Feaster
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Soderbergh's easy, breezy dismissive style gives the distinct impression that we are all being conned.
Posted Jan 24, 2020
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