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Michael Nordine
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Lumina (2024) |
Lumina crash-lands. Its ambitions are lofty, but they’re also undermined at nearly every turn by chintzy visual effects that prove more distracting than immersive and uniformly wooden performances. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 12, 2024
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All Happy Families (2023) |
All Happy Families sometimes feels like several movies at once, its overlapping subplots competing for dominance like attention-starved siblings, with the rom-com segments ultimately emerging as the golden child. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 08, 2024
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The Vourdalak (2023) |
Everything about the film manages to be forward-thinking and old-school at the same time, giving the genre a bite in the neck it might not have wanted but certainly needed. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 28, 2024
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Kinds of Kindness (2024) |
Through all the unrelenting oddity — like the husband who tells his wife to cut off a finger and cook it for him — what emerges is a perplexing, at times touching meditation on what we do for the people we love. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Jun 21, 2024
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Brats (2024) |
McCarthy seems to have gotten what he needed from the experience. Whether that’s true of viewers may depend on their fondness for him and his cohort, but there’s clearly no shortage of that all these years later. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 18, 2024
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Under Paris (2024) |
Look no further than “Under Paris” for an answer to the hypothetical that surely keeps Emmanuel Macron up at night, as Netflix’s new thriller swims rather than sinks as it adds life to a genre that’s been bloodless for far too long. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 04, 2024
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Jim Henson Idea Man (2024) |
Sweet, heartwarming and rather unadventurous. If it’s easy to wish “Idea Man” were as bold as its subject, though, it’s just as easy to be won over by this deservedly heartfelt tribute to him. - Variety
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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In a Violent Nature (2024) |
There’s a reason why Laurie Strode is as synonymous with Halloween as Michael Myers is. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) |
Furiosa spends more time revving its engine than any of its predecessors, but once it kicks into gear it’s just as worth witnessing as any of them. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted May 24, 2024
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Aggro Dr1ft (2023) |
A gimmicky-sounding setup that, to no one’s greater surprise than my own, results in some of the most arresting visuals in recent memory. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted May 16, 2024
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The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) |
Time will tell, but for now there’s enough reason for devotees of the series to be cautiously optimistic — and even a little curious — about the next two chapters. - Variety
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| Posted May 16, 2024
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I Saw the TV Glow (2024) |
An affected, self-consciously evocative sophomore feature with the adolescent sensibility of an actual sophomore. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted May 09, 2024
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Cash Out (2024) |
Every line of dialogue that follows from this tired premise is like an echo of one from a better movie. - Variety
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| Posted Apr 26, 2024
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The Stranger (2024) |
That premise has no shortage of potential, and while the film doesn’t squander it, it doesn’t maximize it either, to the extent that the behind-the-scenes story (about the project’s post-Quibi fate) winds up being more distinctive than the actual plot. - Variety
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| Posted Apr 16, 2024
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Secret Mall Apartment (2024) |
A thoughtful celebration of the DIY artistry behind that experiment, but only a so-so investigation of it. - Variety
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| Posted Mar 20, 2024
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First Time Female Director (2023) |
Feels less like a coming-out party for an actual first-time director and more like a case of opening-night jitters. - Variety
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| Posted Mar 07, 2024
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Lift (2024) |
While the actors themselves are game, their parts are too thinly written for any of them to come across as more than cogs in a not-so-well-oiled machine. - Variety
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| Posted Jan 12, 2024
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I.S.S. (2023) |
“I.S.S.” isn’t subtle in its foreshadowing of what’s to come, but it is effective. - Variety
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| Posted Jan 05, 2024
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Total Trust (2023) |
The kind of eye-opening documentary that makes you realize you know far less about its subject than you thought you did — however bad you may think China’s surveillance state is, Zhang can assure you it’s far worse. - Variety
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| Posted Dec 15, 2023
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Alhamour H.A. (2023) |
Like its security-guard-turned-swindler protagonist, director Abdulelah Alqurashi’s film doesn’t lack for ambition. Unlike him, it never reaches great heights before falling back to earth. - Variety
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| Posted Dec 13, 2023
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Napoleon (2023) |
A good movie that has yet to achieve the greatness it was destined for. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Nov 17, 2023
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Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain (2023) |
A diverting enough entertainment from a group that has repeatedly proven itself to be capable of much more. - Variety
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| Posted Nov 17, 2023
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Your Lucky Day (2023) |
Your Lucky Day is good verging on great, and suggests that Cloud was well on his way to becoming great too. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Nov 10, 2023
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The Killer (2023) |
It’s a movie that never raises its voice, forcing you to lean in and listen carefully lest you miss a single word. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Oct 27, 2023
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Priscilla (2023) |
This account of Priscilla Presley and the rock star who gave her her last name might be thought of as the anti-Elvis, which is to say that it’s actually good. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Oct 27, 2023
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The Others (2001) |
After coming around to her daughter’s interpretation of events, Grace admits to feeling the presence of “something which is not at rest” — an apt description of the film itself, not to mention anyone watching it for the first time. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Oct 24, 2023
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Freaks (1932) |
That such a daring, transgressive film was made by a major studio in the early ‘30s remains a marvel (thanks, Irving Thalberg); that it irreparably harmed the career of its director is disheartening if not surprising. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Oct 24, 2023
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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) |
Nothing either man says or does is nearly as intriguing as the mere sight of Gladstone’s visage, which is so naturally expressive it would make Norma Desmond proud. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Oct 19, 2023
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Totally Killer (2023) |
In trying to break the tension with humor, too many horror movies undercut their emotional stakes by instead being glib, a pitfall “Totally Killer” mostly manages to avoid. - Variety
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| Posted Oct 12, 2023
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The Exorcist: Believer (2023) |
Resurrecting these franchises may be another vulgar display of power from an industry that’s been relying on existing ideas for far too long, but at least they’ve appointed a dedicated caretaker. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Oct 06, 2023
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Dream Scenario (2023) |
A feature-length version of Mr. White’s proclamation from the first scene of Reservoir Dogs: “You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.” - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 30, 2023
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Stopmotion (2023) |
You’ll wonder who dreamt up something so ghastly even as you find yourself wishing for a longer glimpse. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 30, 2023
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Concrete Utopia (2023) |
“Can’t people just be humane, peace-loving citizens?” asks one of the more well-meaning survivors. If they could, movies like this wouldn’t exist. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 30, 2023
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River (2023) |
It might sound like faint praise to call River an instant classic in the time-loop canon, but Junta Yamaguchi’s lighthearted charmer is a worthy complement to the likes of Groundhog Day all the same. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 30, 2023
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The Creator (2023) |
When people bemoan the lack of new projects in Hollywood, which loves producing sequels and reboots more than some people love their own children, The Creator is exactly the kind of movie they’re missing. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 30, 2023
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Strange Darling (2023) |
Best experienced with as little foreknowledge as possible, “Strange Darling” demands a bit of patience, but it also rewards it. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 27, 2023
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Eileen (2023) |
What is a great movie if not a beautiful dream of another world? - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 25, 2023
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Saltburn (2023) |
Fennell does a sly job of altering the interpersonal dynamics all throughout and not revealing her characters’ true natures until the very end, but she also overplays her hand in a third act that irreversibly reverses the clever-to-silly ratio. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 25, 2023
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Tiger Stripes (2023) |
Puberty is hard enough when it doesn’t involve a bodily transformation that would make Seth Brundle blush. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 25, 2023
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Out of Darkness (2022) |
Wisely observes the most important rule of making a movie that may or may not feature a monster: showing it as little as possible. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 25, 2023
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Falling Stars (2023) |
There’s little in the way of overt scares or action in this grounded, decidedly un-supernatural approach to the supernatural. That’s very much a choice, as the kids say, but mostly a good one. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Sep 25, 2023
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Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023) |
“Who asked for this?” is the question such projects invoke, and Lindsey Anderson Beer’s film never comes up with a satisfying answer. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 24, 2023
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The Toxic Avenger (2023) |
This is largely a fans-only proposition, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. - Variety
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| Posted Sep 22, 2023
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Vacation Friends 2 (2023) |
If anything, delving into action/comedy territory distracts from what made the original kinda-sorta touching at a few key moments: the heart beneath the hijinks. - Variety
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| Posted Aug 25, 2023
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Operation Napoleon (2023) |
The film’s main problem... is that it has all the hallmarks of a tight 90-minute thriller, but takes its sweet time. At nearly two hours, “Operation Napoleon” feels like too little cargo packed into too big a plane. - Variety
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| Posted Aug 11, 2023
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The Passenger (2023) |
Proves sneakily effective with its low-key approach to several kinds of violence. - Variety
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| Posted Aug 02, 2023
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Talk to Me (2023) |
This is horror of the highest order, the kind that leaves you feeling both giddy and unsettled — almost as though you’ve allowed some strange force in and aren’t sure whether you want it to leave. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Aug 01, 2023
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Oppenheimer (2023) |
There’s more than one way to lose your life to a bomb. - Film Occasionally
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| Posted Jul 19, 2023
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The League (2023) |
If one measure of a documentary’s quality is whether it inspires you to learn more about its subject after the credits roll, “The League” is an unqualified success. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 14, 2023
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World's Best (2023) |
While the Disney+ original ultimately receives a passing grade, it doesn’t exactly ace the assignment the way its protagonist so often does. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 23, 2023
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