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When Harry Met Sally...
(1989)
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Craig Seligman
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The movie is a lengthy series of gags, most of which revolve around public embarrassment.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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Jaws
(1975)
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Jeanne Miller
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The film's punch doesn't rely on unmitigated gore. Spielberg is inclined to tease us with false alarms so that the real thing explodes with heart-stopping shock.
Posted Jul 02, 2024
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Napoleon
(1927)
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Nancy Scott
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I have never seen a movie that combines such large scenes with such small, unforgettable details.
Posted May 14, 2024
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Let It Be
(1970)
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Philip Elwood
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A documentary of precisely nothing, except the death throes of the Beatles.
Posted May 09, 2024
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Planet of the Apes
(1968)
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Stanley Eichelbaum
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Exactly what good science-fiction entertainment should be -- an interesting conjecture about the future, sardonically influenced by the way man is behaving today.
Posted May 01, 2024
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1/4
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Postcards From the Edge
(1990)
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Michael Sragow
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[Postcards From the Edge] is the kind of Hollywood movie a clef that Hollywood loves. It's morally double-jointed. The film's smug attitudes and in-jokes are symptoms of the Tinseltown insularity the screenplay tries to attack.
Posted Apr 30, 2024
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Only Yesterday
(1933)
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Lloyd S. Thompson
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It makes splendid cinematic material and is efficiently told by means of the flashback.
Posted Apr 23, 2024
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White Heat
(1949)
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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
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This is a film of action and suspense... one of the finest in a long time... in case we didn't realize before that crime doesn't pay, this is the cincher.
Posted Apr 23, 2024
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The Mad Miss Manton
(1938)
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Ada Hanifin
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[The Mad Miss Manton features] good performances by Miss Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Sam Levene and Stanley Ridges.
Posted Apr 22, 2024
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The Lavender Hill Mob
(1951)
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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
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This is a rare comedy treat.
Posted Apr 17, 2024
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2/4
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I Think I Do
(1997)
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Allan Ulrich
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It begins promisingly but ultimately sinks by succumbing to the courage of its convictions. And convictions are the last thing anybody needs in these featherweight romantic romps.
Posted Apr 17, 2024
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Law and Order
(1932)
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Lloyd S. Thompson
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The most exciting western I've seen since Cimarron.
Posted Apr 16, 2024
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Heavenly Bodies
(1985)
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Barbara Shulgasser
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Dale is an emotional klutz and doesn't summon a single believable sentiment.
Posted Apr 15, 2024
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Jailhouse Rock
(1957)
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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
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I liked the kid. He gives a better account of himself than did the scriptwriter.
Posted Apr 12, 2024
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2.5/4
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Spaceballs
(1987)
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Michael Sragow
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Whatever affection [Brooks] has for sci-fi blockbusters gets mixed up with his bitterness at what they've done to Hollywood. And no matter how many mock-up merchandising items he throws into the screen... the theme is obtrusive, tacked on.
Posted Apr 12, 2024
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The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
(1976)
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Jeanne Miller
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Williams is delightful as the brash cheerful pitcher and Jones is a perfect foil as the idealistic catcher, an ardent disciple of William E.B. Du Bois and a devout adherent of honesty and fair play.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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Little Women
(1994)
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Barbara Shulgasser
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The politics of this movie begin to feel as impossibly perfect as its characters.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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The Big Heat
(1953)
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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
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When I say this is an adult film -- I mean it -- and no nonsense! It's a biting drama about the evils of civic corruption with gangsterdom and law enforcement agencies contriving in unholy political wedlock to fleece and intimidate the public.
Posted Apr 10, 2024
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Dog Day Afternoon
(1975)
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Stanley Eichelbaum
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It's a superlative, terrifically entertaining work, fraught with the excitement of a thriller, but enriched with spellbinding layers of sociological and psychological interest.
Posted Apr 07, 2024
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Lady Sings the Blues
(1972)
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Stanley Eichelbaum
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It may not be a top-notch film, but it's an important one and Miss Ross' remarkably fine screen debut makes it well worth seeing.
Posted Apr 05, 2024
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4/4
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977)
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SF Examiner Staff
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The arrival of this spectacular drama about the visit of extraterrestrial beings to earth is this year's second landmark science-fiction film. Although comparisons to Star Wars are inevitable, "Close Encounters" is an entirely different kind of film.
Posted Apr 03, 2024
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Sabrina
(1954)
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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
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Sabrina still stands as an amusing, in a fluffy way, comedy based on the familiar Cinderella theme.
Posted Mar 28, 2024
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3.5/4
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Almost Famous
(2000)
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Wesley Morris
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Resistance to the euphoric swell is futile: suddenly, vintage Elton is unselfconsciously cool again. That's what Crowe can do at his best. He makes irony seem ridiculous, which itself is beautifully ironic for someone trying to keep rock alive.
Posted Mar 26, 2024
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National Velvet
(1944)
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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
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The plot of the film is strong, but it's the ordinary every day living touches that enrich it... the warm relationships between members of the family... the light comedy touches and deeper emotional moments.
Posted Mar 26, 2024
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The Searchers
(1956)
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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
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Natalie Wood, Olive Carey and Harry Carey, Jr., standout in important roles well handled. But it's Wayne and Hunter who rate most of the footage and character build up.
Posted Mar 25, 2024
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Chinatown
(1974)
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Stanley Eichelbaum
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The plot of Chinatown just misses the fascinating beat of first-rate works in the genre. It's a well-made film, however, rich in the thirties' atmosphere.
Posted Mar 08, 2024
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3/4
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The Shawshank Redemption
(1994)
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David Armstrong
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If The Shawshank Redemption, adapted from a Stephen King novella, is familiar, it earns respect by configuring these familiar elements in an engaging, shrewdly constructed way.
Posted Mar 04, 2024
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Westward the Women
(1951)
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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
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The story is one of feminine valor.
Posted Mar 02, 2024
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3.5/4
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Forrest Gump
(1994)
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David Armstrong
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It requires a delicate touch to keep from becoming precious. Director Robert Zemeckis is up to the task.
Posted Mar 01, 2024
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2.5/4
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Four Weddings and a Funeral
(1994)
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Scott Rosenberg
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Four Weddings and a Funeral could use more of Atkinson's comic spirit. But what really prevents the film from achieving the kind of touching amusement it aims at is MacDowell's ungainly performance.
Posted Feb 29, 2024
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2/4
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Pulp Fiction
(1994)
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Scott Rosenberg
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Pulp Fiction's bursts of ingenuity and wit are swimming in a big pool of screen time that's been awfully casually frittered away.
Posted Feb 29, 2024
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The Sin of Nora Moran
(1933)
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Ada Hanifin
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It is the direction of this film which gives the melodrama dignity originality in its presentation, and character delineation, apart from the plot development and good acting of the cast.
Posted Feb 22, 2024
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3/4
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Dune
(1984)
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Barbara Shulgasser
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This is a religious movie. Dune fans are a reverential lot, and this is the celluloid house of worship for which they have waited.
Posted Feb 15, 2024
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3/4
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It: Chapter Two
(2019)
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Jeffrey M. Anderson
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"It Chapter Two" is less scary; like early "Evil Dead" films and other 1980s horrors, its crazy creatures inspire surprised laughter more than terror.
Posted Feb 14, 2024
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3/4
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Quiz Show
(1994)
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Barbara Shulgasser
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The snappy dialogue and rampant corruption give the film a nice verbal snap.
Posted Feb 13, 2024
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Grease
(1978)
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Stanley Eichelbaum
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A raucous, gaudy, nonsensical rendering of the stage musical, and it's neither better nor worse than the original, which left me cold and unimpressed.
Posted Feb 08, 2024
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2/4
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Mean Girls
(2004)
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Edith Alderette
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Yet another title in the long list of mediocre teen-conspiracy films.
Posted Jan 09, 2024
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2/4
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The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
(1982)
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John Stark
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Despite miscasting, and a silly rewriting of the plot, it's kind of fun, in a bouncy, cartoon-like sense.
Posted Dec 31, 2023
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Royal Family
(1969)
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Dwight Newton
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The cinema verite (candid camera) technique was vastly effective. Good show. It could serve as a model for studies on such other heads of state as Nixon here, Kosygin in Russia, Trudeau in Canada.
Posted Dec 28, 2023
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2/4
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The Last of the Mohicans
(1992)
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Scott Rosenberg
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What stirred the soul of Michael Mann, chronicler of today's alienated urban criminals and their equally alienated opponents, to undertake this grand but ultimately foolish project about an alienated wilderness hero from two centuries ago?
Posted Dec 15, 2023
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2/4
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Napoleon
(2023)
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Jeffrey M. Anderson
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[Scott's] new two-and-a-half-hour epic is as rudimentary and as passionless as CliffsNotes. It’s akin to a bored professor teaching from a droning study guide.
Posted Dec 02, 2023
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2.5/4
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Home Alone
(1990)
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Barbara Shulgasser
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The exception to the predictability is Kevin's plotted revenge against two extremely goofy criminals, played by the brilliant Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.
Posted Nov 29, 2023
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The Duellists
(1977)
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Walter V. Addiego
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A respectable effort at a low-budget period drama marred by deficiencies in the acting and the script.
Posted Nov 21, 2023
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3/4
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Alien
(1979)
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Walter V. Addiego
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Scott seems ponderous about getting through simple plot mechanics... But for those who like this kind of film, he's produced something like the equivalent of every amusement park ride rolled into one.
Posted Nov 16, 2023
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3/4
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Cocoon
(1985)
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Barbara Shulgasser
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How often do you see a movie with aliens so friendly they will join you for a hand of gin rummy? Did the Blob ever play cards with Steve McQueen?
Posted Nov 12, 2023
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State Fair
(1933)
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Lloyd S. Thompson
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If [State Fair] falls a little short of being a masterpiece, it never fails to be a thoroughly engrossing story told in celluloid. Moreover it seems to me to have more of the genuine feeling -- one might say the smell -- of a State fair.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Little Big Man
(1970)
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Stanley Eichelbaum
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Penn was able to interrelate comedy and killing with surprising sensitivity in Bonnie and Clyde. But in Little Big Man, he's clearly lost his delicate touch with the same sort of mixture.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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The Lone Ranger
(1956)
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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
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Moore and Silverheels are apt in performance. And, it's pleasant to see Bonita Granville back on a cast list... Fast riding, gallantry on the range, and virtue winning over vice, all against a colorful background, make for a tidy package of suspense.
Posted Nov 09, 2023
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3.5/4
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Joan Baez I Am a Noise
(2023)
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Jeffrey M. Anderson
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A fearless, revealing documentary.
Posted Nov 05, 2023
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3.5/4
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Strange Way of Life
(2023)
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Jeffrey M. Anderson
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Love between men, Almodóvar seems to suggest, doesn’t need to be so crudely defined by such things as gayness or sex. It can be about companionship and — just maybe — a little tenderness.
Posted Oct 29, 2023
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