instantwatcher.com

David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle

1. Alps 2012 A strange story. A strange world. And strange characters doing even stranger things. full review
2. The Awakening 2012 A lot of tension and buildup leads us to ... well, it's hard to say. full review
3. Beauty Is Embarrassing 2012 Though the movie isn't wildly original, its time-tested, artistic mantra of "just go out there and do it" is hard to resist. full review
4. Blue Like Jazz 2012 It tackles existential struggles that many of us grapple with - and the film industry virtually ignores - while doing so in an entertaining way. full review
5. Detropia 2012 Artfully - perhaps too artfully - illustrates the transformation of the Motor City from a middle-class utopia to an urban nightmare of blight, crime and fleeing residents. full review
6. North Sea Texas 2012 It's a story that's been told countless times, but first-time director Bavo Defurne has such an assured hand and visual flair (much credit also belongs to cinematographer Anton Mertens) that everything seems fresh and new. full review
7. Somewhere Between 2012 A play-it-safe, by-the-numbers kind of documentary - yet somehow it gets under your skin. full review
8. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 2011 It is mostly impressionistic - but, wow, some of those impressions really pack a punch. full review
9. Gun Hill Road 2011 In writer-director Rashaad Ernesto Green's assured hands, "Gun Hill Road" manages somehow to be gritty, delicate, in your face and nuanced at the same time. full review
10. Keep the Lights On 2011 A harsh yet delicate tale of two New Yorkers whose co-dependent relationship is fueled by sex, drugs and complex longings for companionship. full review
11. City of Life and Death 2010 Lu Chuan makes this feature film soar by telling the story both through the eyes of the Japanese occupiers and the defenseless Chinese civilians in the ancient capital. It makes the savagery all the more senseless. full review
12. Four Lions 2010 "Four Lions" is a daring, brilliantly conceptualized film, but like the bumbling bombers of the title, the execution tends to be hit-and-miss. full review
13. Red White & Blue 2010 Without giving away too much, I offer two words of advice: Brace yourself. full review
14. Cairo Time 2009 Confirms two things that hardly need confirming: The Egyptian capital is a breathtaking metropolis, and Patricia Clarkson is one of the best actors in the world. full review
15. Making the Boys 2009 Crayton Robey's documentary is a time capsule of the burgeoning gay rights era. It has poignant moments that sneak up on you. And sometimes, well, it's just trashy fun. full review
16. The Oxford Murders 2008 This purported whodunit thriller never solves its main mystery: How and why did this film get made in the first place? full review