instantwatcher.com

Ernest Hardy, Village Voice

1. All Together 2012 Well-acted and directed, with melancholy grooved insights that will only be news to the young and narcissistic, Together is a pleasant way to while away an afternoon and see some old pros in great form. full review
2. The American Scream 2012 Though not must-see cinema, it is entertaining and affecting. full review
3. Cellmates 2012 It's all grimly, predictably plotted without ever once being interesting. full review
4. Cheerful Weather For The Wedding 2012 The costumes are gorgeous, and the settings are plush, but the acting is merely serviceable, and the film lacks either the wit or the energy of its predecessors. full review
5. Craigslist Joe 2012 Craigslist Joe is sweet, moving, and frustrating. full review
6. The Forgiveness of Blood 2012 Marston demonstrated his ability to sustain almost unbearable dramatic tension in his debut feature film, Maria Full of Grace. His sophomore effort, The Forgiveness of Blood, illustrates an impressive deepening of that skill. full review
7. The Front Line 2012 Quick, unexpected flashes engross the viewer in this Korean War tale even as the script is filled with conventional war movie tropes and types. full review
8. The Giant Mechanical Man 2012 Fischer ... imbues Janice with a wounded soulfulness that cuts right through the cliches. full review
9. High Ground 2012 [An] impressively restrained documentary ... full review
10. Painted Skin: The Resurrection 2012 The whole thing can be hard to follow, but the energy (and pulchritude) of the cast make it a perfectly fine bit of popcorn escapism. full review
11. The Perfect Family 2012 Renton's competing tones and intentions result in a film at odds with itself and its lead performance. full review
12. Pray For Japan 2012 Filmed over a period of six weeks and supplemented with animated music sequences and chilling news footage of the terrifying deluge, Pray is both an elegy and a love letter. full review
13. Angel of Evil 2011 You can all but feel the checklist being marked off, and the viewer is never really drawn into the world or made to care what's happening. full review
14. Farmageddon 2011 A lesser effort in the burgeoning canon, it's still effective in its goals: illuminating how denigrated and dangerous our food supply is. full review
15. One Fall 2011 The cast is engaging, and there are a few light-chuckle moments, but the script needed another rewrite, and the film itself needed to be guided by a thornier sensibility than Fuller's. full review
16. Spork 2011 Ghuman might have managed to salvage the film from its weak script if he'd had a firmer grasp on tone, and a better melding of the mish-mash of pop culture references. full review
17. Surviving Progress 2011 The anticapitalism prognosis is grim, and the hope offered is slim indeed. full review
18. Where Soldiers Come From 2011 Much of what's presented is familiar territory, but it's the moments that fracture prejudices and expectations that stick with you. full review
19. The Big Uneasy 2010 Shearer builds an airtight case to prove his thesis, and one of his most chilling arguments is a roll call of brave souls whose lives and careers have been systematically wrecked in pursuit of the truth. full review
20. The Killing Jar 2010 The film has no pulse and feels interminable, with its stilted dialogue, static staging, and usually fine actors who are horrendous here. full review
21. Descent 2007 A well-acted trifle straining to be a hard-hitting morality play. full review