>
Erica Abeel
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Home (2008) |
This original but overlong fable about a family menaced by industrial progress captures fears about a planet out of control. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Mar 29, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Zone of Interest (2023) |
Glazer’s impeccable technique captures humanity’s capacity for evil obliquely, like a black sun you can’t stare into. Zone is an essential experience. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Oct 12, 2023
|
|
|
|
Anatomy of a Fall (2023) |
Triet has pulled off an impressive feat: housing a marital implosion and literary matters within the frame of a whodunit -- anchored by a new type of heroine. Fall marks the arrival of a master filmmaker. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Oct 12, 2023
|
|
|
|
Test Drive (2017) |
Flawed though it may be -- and why must a film be “perfect”? -- Triangle remains a welcome addition to the Östlund canon. Having picked up tidbits about his next project -- likely a demolition of the donor class -- I’m prepared to love it. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Jul 13, 2023
|
|
|
|
Triangle of Sadness (2022) |
Flawed though it may be -- and why must a film be “perfect”? -- Triangle remains a welcome addition to the Östlund canon. Having picked up tidbits about his next project -- likely a demolition of the donor class -- I’m prepared to love it. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Oct 14, 2022
|
|
|
|
Tár (2022) |
A gripping character study anchored by an astonishing turn from Blanchett. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Oct 10, 2022
|
|
|
|
Stars at Noon (2022) |
Now in her 70s, Denis has made a youthful film about a full-throttle, doomed romance. That’s maybe the secret of its spell; if we haven’t been there, we wish we had. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Oct 06, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Northman (2022) |
A rude, bloody, hyper-violent Viking saga like nothing you’ve ever seen. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Apr 27, 2022
|
|
|
|
Both Sides of the Blade (2021) |
I won’t reveal how it all plays out except to say that while the credits roll Denis slyly inserts a denouement both comforting and wise. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Mar 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
C'mon C'mon (2021) |
Phoenix is so watchable you root for him at every stage of the journey. It's also the director's craft and artistic canniness that makes this film worthwhile. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Nov 24, 2021
|
|
|
|
Red Rocket (2021) |
The moment the credits rolled after Red Rocket, the new film from Sean Baker, I wanted to rush home and take a shower. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Nov 04, 2021
|
|
|
|
Parallel Mothers (2021) |
An odd thing for a critic to say -- it's best if you suspend critical judgment of this film, and simply allow its wayward momentum to bear you along. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Oct 15, 2021
|
|
|
|
Crisis (2021) |
Crisis displays a sophisticated understanding of how the long, scaly tentacles of corporate power reach into unsuspected corners. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Mar 05, 2021
|
|
|
|
The World to Come (2020) |
The best reason to see World is the performance of Katherine Waterston as Abigail. What a magical, compelling actress. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Feb 05, 2021
|
|
|
|
Let Them All Talk (2020) |
It's immensely entertaining to watch these skilled performers wing it. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Dec 30, 2020
|
|
|
|
The Climb (2019) |
With its insights into the less inspiring byways of the male psyche, The Climb is very much a guy movie. Yet any woman who's observed a bunch of dudes huddled together and cracking open the Bud Light while watching the [NFL] will "get" this film. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Nov 12, 2020
|
|
|
|
French Exit (2020) |
Defiant and tonally offbeat, French Exit mirrors, in a sense, its female protagonist, who doesn't give a damn what the world thinks of her. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Oct 23, 2020
|
|
|
|
The Traitor (2019) |
What ultimately makes the film worth watching is its epic sweep, the deft way Bellocchio and his below-the-credits team carve out the dramatic highlights of the 20-year war with the Cosa Nostra. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Feb 15, 2020
|
|
|
|
1917 (2019) |
1917 is a stupendous war movie about WWI that's quite unlike any other in the canon. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Jan 09, 2020
|
|
|
|
Little Women (2019) |
Gerwig's brilliant cast succeed in making Women a feel-good escapist movie with brains. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Dec 19, 2019
|
|
|
|
A Hidden Life (2019) |
A Hidden Life raises filmmaking to heights that will thrill Malick fans, thanks, in part, to the camera work of his D.P., Jorg Widmer. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Dec 12, 2019
|
|
|
|
Marriage Story (2019) |
Perhaps there's a second, even more intriguing story, lurking like a palimpsest behind Marriage Story. Still, viewers should enjoy the phenomenally crafted tale. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Nov 27, 2019
|
|
|
|
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) |
Portrait is a masterly work of historical realism done in high-flying poetic style. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Nov 01, 2019
|
|
|
|
The Lighthouse (2019) |
You'll not soon see another film so rich in cultural references. Visually, The Lighthouse is a knockout. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Nov 01, 2019
|
|
|
|
Pain and Glory (2019) |
What remains so seductive about Almodovar is the way he replicates the movement of thought, creating a seamless weave between the story moving forward - rather minimal in this case - and the richer, more luminous past. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Oct 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
After the Wedding (2019) |
The remake also features a powerhouse cast, including an under-used Billy Crudup as Theresa's sculptor husband -- but oh what a clunky, at times cringe-worthy affair the film turns out be. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Aug 16, 2019
|
|
|
|
The Fall of the American Empire (2018) |
For all its bite, Fall is oddly endearing, too, leavening its harsh portrait of money-madness with aw-shucks moments of solidarity and kindness. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Jun 14, 2019
|
|
|
|
The White Crow (2018) |
The White Crow, wisely, offers up no easy answers regarding why Rudolf Nureyev defected. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted May 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Diane (2018) |
What elevates these ordinary lives is director Kent Jones's elegiac distance; the narrative has the feel of a memory piece. - Arts Fuse
Read More
| Posted Apr 04, 2019
|
|
|
|
Cold War (2018) |
In a visually stunning, formally immaculate and darkly romantic film, Pawel Pawlikowski sets a story of star-crossed lovers against the turmoil of post-war Europe. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Nov 20, 2018
|
|
|
|
The Favourite (2018) |
A bracing rethink of the historical costumer. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Nov 19, 2018
|
|
|
|
At Eternity's Gate (2018) |
Flouting the usual conventions of the biopic, this ravishing, light-struck portrait of Van Gogh's time in Arles is squarely camped in the heart and mind of the artist. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Nov 13, 2018
|
|
|
|
Colette (2018) |
This timely and gorgeously shot account of a beloved French writer foregrounds Colette's remarkable freedom from conventional norms as she finds her artistic voice. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Sep 19, 2018
|
|
|
|
The Seagull (2018) |
Michael Mayer captures much of [Chekhov's] genius thanks to screenwriter Stephen Karam and a fine cast anchored by a star turn from Annette Bening. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted May 10, 2018
|
|
|
|
The Guardians (2017) |
A wrenching, exquisitely rendered drama about women grappling with the workload on farms during World War I. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted May 02, 2018
|
|
|
|
Chappaquiddick (2017) |
A riveting recreation of the famous accident that quashed Ted Kennedy's presidential bid and the cover-up by his political fixers. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Apr 02, 2018
|
|
|
|
Final Portrait (2017) |
Alberto Giacometti paints a portrait of his friend James Lord in this sterile exercise that fails to gain dramatic traction from the artist's quest for perfection. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Mar 21, 2018
|
|
|
|
Double Lover (2017) |
Trafficks in exploitative images of women in the guise of art-film license. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Feb 14, 2018
|
|
|
|
Happy End (2017) |
[A] blistering and timely account of the privileged classes, relayed with dark humor and impeccable craft. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Dec 20, 2017
|
|
|
|
Foxtrot (2017) |
Mingles realism and the surreal to convey the immorality of war. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Dec 04, 2017
|
|
|
|
Lover for a Day (2017) |
Oh hell, it's refreshing to see a woman give a man a taste of his own Don Juan. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Oct 27, 2017
|
|
|
|
The Square (2017) |
This Palme d'Or winner is a meaty film of ideas with instant-classic set-pieces and moments of mind-blowing freakiness, a stunning follow-up to Force Majeure. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Oct 23, 2017
|
|
|
|
The Beguiled (2017) |
Coasts mainly on surfaces. Issues and questions are raised, grazed, but remain unexplored. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Jun 20, 2017
|
|
|
|
War Machine (2017) |
Brad Pitt nails it as a four-star general out to win an unwinnable war in this savage, often hilarious but tonally uneven satire skewed at thinking adults. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted May 23, 2017
|
|
|
|
Paris Can Wait (2016) |
A well-crafted bagatelle about the self-renewal of a neglected wife that hits all the Screenwriting 101 points. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted May 09, 2017
|
|
|
|
The Sense of an Ending (2017) |
An elegant anthem to one man's effort to make sense of a tortuous past and achieve closure, anchored by mesmerizing turns from Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Mar 07, 2017
|
|
|
|
I, Daniel Blake (2016) |
A scalding, perfectly wrought film about a man's struggle to assert his dignity in a bureaucratic system that's rigged to destroy it. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Dec 19, 2016
|
|
|
|
Certain Women (2016) |
A moving if somewhat elusive meditation on human aloneness and independent women at odds with their environment. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Oct 14, 2016
|
|
|
|
Genius (2016) |
A misfire from distinguished stage director Michael Grandage about the artistic and emotional interplay between Thomas Wolfe and fabled Scribner's editor Maxwell Perkins. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted Jun 08, 2016
|
|
|
|
Love & Friendship (2016) |
A delicious marriage of Whit Stillman and Jane Austen in a comedy of manners with a contemporary spin that delights from start to twisty finish. - Film Journal International
Read More
| Posted May 10, 2016
|