instantwatcher.com

Dennis Harvey, Variety

  1. 16-love 2012 Innocuous and predictable but pleasant enough. full review
  2. Assassin's Bullet 2012 Much of this makes little sense, but it's hard to care. full review
  3. The Awakening 2012 Nick Murphy's bigscreen directorial debut has good atmospherics that only go so far to prop up a mystery whose overdue explanation is convoluted and underwhelming. full review
  4. Craigslist Joe 2012 The briskly edited docu seldom stops long enough to let Joe's new friends (identified only by first name) make anything beyond the most superficial impressions. full review
  5. Detropia 2012 A potent snapshot of a potential future for many American cities. full review
  6. Grave Encounters 2 2012 [Adds] additional layers of self-consciousness to a story that was already pretty derivative. full review
  7. I Wish 2012 This tale of two elementary-school brothers plotting to end the physical separation their parents' divorce has forced on them effortlessly pulls off the naturalism and charm desired from material that might have easily curdled into calculated preciousness. full review
  8. Sassy Pants 2012 Landing between the twee, naturalistic and formulaic, Sassy Pants settles for cute, taking too few gambles to make a more lasting impression. full review
  9. Teddy Bear 2012 The low-key drama is well-crafted and likable as far as it goes, but there's not enough narrative impetus or depth to maintain more than passing viewer interest. full review
  10. The Zen Of Bennett 2012 These elements leave the documentary hanging somewhere between a glorified making-of album promo and a more in-depth portrait of the artist. full review
  11. Going Down In La-la Land 2011 A creditable if familiar portrait of one aspiring-actor newbie's disillusioning wade into the rough waters of Hollywood. full review
  12. Gun Hill Road 2011 Writer-director Rashaad Ernesto Green's first feature is earnest and well cast, but less involving than it should be. full review
  13. The Perfect Host 2011 A familiar horror/suspense trope -- criminals choose the wrong hideout, discover twisted residents more dangerous than cops -- gets entertainingly respun in The Perfect Host. full review
  14. Septien 2011 Septien proves the paths of "weird" and "interesting" do not always intersect. full review
  15. Surviving Progress 2011 Surviving Progress offers a cinematic wakeup call so cogent and non-didactic even Tea Partyers would be hard-pressed to shrug it off. full review
  16. The Weird World of Blowfly 2011 Hanging out with a 1970s cult figure of raunchy R&B "party records" is less fun than one would expect in The Weird World of Blowfly. full review
  17. 2012: Time For Change 2010 full review
  18. Bearcity 2010 full review
  19. Chain Letter 2010 Chain Letter yields few surprises, compensating with de rigueur false scares, unmemorable deaths and the kind of improbably exaggerated gore. full review
  20. Elena Undone 2010 full review
  21. Smash His Camera 2010 [An] entertaining docu by When We Were Kings' Leon Gast. full review
  22. Unhappy Birthday 2010 full review
  23. Crude 2009 An engrossing case for justice. full review
  24. Eating Out: All You Can Eat 2009 Somewhat departs from the series' gay spin on the raunchy teen sex comedy in favor of semi-sincere romantic comedy -- after a crass and abysmal first stretch, that is. full review
  25. Five Minutes of Heaven 2009 Powerhouse performances by Liam Neeson and James Nesbit make this an intense, ultimately moving tale. full review
  26. Nightmares in Red, White and Blue 2009 full review
  27. Zombie Girl: The Movie 2009 While subject Emily Hagins' precocious pluck is admirable and endearing, what lends the docu its dramatic edge is the way in which her mother goes from supportive to meddlesome over the course of the no-budget horror pic's production. full review
  28. A Complete History of My Sexual Failures 2008 Pace is snappy, soundtrack full of good alt-rock cuts. full review
  29. I Sell the Dead 2008 Droll perfs, diverting f/x and handsome B-pic atmospherics ensure a good time for horror fans with a memory past last weekend's slasher remake. full review
  30. I Think We're Alone Now 2008 The outer frontier of celebrity culture, where fandom meets mental illness, is home to I Think We're Alone Now. full review
  31. One Week 2008 Kinda aimless, pleasant and bland. full review
  32. Pig Hunt 2008 full review
  33. Play The Game 2008 The comedy's broad perfs, predictable story beats and pro but characterless packaging have a smallscreen feel. full review
  34. American Zombie 2007 If Lee intended primarily to spoof documentary conventions, she should have chosen a theme less commercially overexposed -- and worked harder at making it more than just sorta-kinda humorous. full review
  35. Girl 27 2007 Pic's self-serving approach is contemptible. full review
  36. King Corn 2007 Deftly balances humor and insight. full review
  37. Postal 2007 Boll does mean to provoke, but to pull off a satirical critique of the volatile subjects here would require sharper wit than he and co-scenarist Bryan C. Knight generally provide. full review
  38. Save Me 2007 full review
  39. Colma: The Musical 2006 Amerindie Colma: The Musical just gives the kids music they like and characters they can identify with, forgetting any grandiosity. full review
  40. How The Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer 2005 While there are rewards to sticking with this tempest-in-teapot saga of sexual awakening across three family generations of Mexican-American women, its pacing is leisurely to the brink of stasis. full review
  41. Meatball Machine 2005 full review
  42. Neverwas 2005 This is the kind of movie where a madwoman's outburst leads her to throw a mug that just happens to be filled with gold sparkles -- which can then be photographed cascading down on all the adorable loonies, in slow-motion. full review
  43. Race You to the Bottom 2005 Brown's screenplay and direction, both economical and unshowy, sketch character dynamics in crisp terms that resist the temptation to explain all, beg sympathy or heighten drama for purely histrionic purposes. full review
  44. Mouth to Mouth 2004 An uneven, occasionally vivid, ultimately unsatisfactory treatment of themes that should've packed more punch. full review
  45. Bukowski: Born into This 2002 full review
  46. Equilibrium 2002 An unsophisticated sci-fi drama that takes itself all too seriously. full review
  47. The Master of Disguise 2002 A jumbled fantasy comedy that did not figure out a coherent game plan at scripting, shooting or post-production stages. full review
  48. Ram Dass: Fierce Grace 2002 full review
  49. The American Astronaut 2001 full review
  50. Bully 2001 full review
  51. Manic 2001 A riveting troubled teens story that has the unvarnished poignance of first-rank docus (e.g. Streetwise, Decline of Western Civilization III, etc.) on similar thematic turf. full review
  52. Tape 2001 full review
  53. Wet Hot American Summer 2001 full review
  54. Gossip 2000 full review
  55. Dark Days 2000 full review
  56. Mission: Impossible 2 2000 Woo lays on his own particular high-octane stylishness so thick the results edge perilously toward self-parody. full review
  57. Our Song 2000 full review
  58. Joe the King 1999 full review
  59. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut 1999 A more clever diversion than anyone had any right to expect! full review
  60. Superstar 1999 A pleasant surprise. full review
  61. Teaching Mrs. Tingle 1999 A pat, hollow exercise! full review
  62. Waking the Dead 1999 full review
  63. Clay Pigeons 1998 Slanted as a black comedy, but fails to secure the sufficiently outre tone (let alone any real suspense) needed to make it more than a middling retread. full review
  64. Disturbing Behavior 1998 full review
  65. Following 1998 Entertaining, but material doesn't develop the full, edgy potential that similar paranoid-triangle efforts realized. full review
  66. Kurt & Courtney 1998 full review
  67. A Night at the Roxbury 1998 An amiable, if flyweight, diversion. full review
  68. Pi 1998 It's remarkable to what extent Aronofsky has rendered the cerebral kinetically intense. The film's imaginative, diverse images create a mind's-eye urban claustrophobia. full review
  69. The House of Yes 1997 [Waters] manages to open up the text while maintaining its perilous mix of arch wit, pathos and suspense. full review
  70. Year of the Horse: Neil Young & Crazy Horse Live 1997 full review