instantwatcher.com

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

1. John Dies at the End 2013 When you're having great fun at a movie and suddenly you're not, where's the fun? full review
2. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry 2012 The film's greatest distinction is its intimacy. full review
3. Ballplayer: Pelotero 2012 The next time I see some superstar athlete giving an interview that suggests the absence of a functioning soul, I'll think of the two tense, joyless boys at the center of this quietly devastating documentary. full review
4. The Cabin in the Woods 2012 Zest counts for a lot, and resonance carries the day. full review
5. Compliance 2012 Too condescending to be trusted, too manipulative to be believed, too turgid to be enjoyed, too shameless to be endured and, before and after everything else, too inept to make its misanthropic case. full review
6. The Dictator 2012 Now [Cohen is] turning material both fresh and rancid into tepid gruel. full review
7. The Flat 2012 Goes from intriguing to astonishing by way of unfathomable. full review
8. The Forgiveness of Blood 2012 A work of fiction, based on present-day fact, that's quietly affecting and surprisingly dramatic, so long as you're willing to watch it unfold at its own deliberate pace. full review
9. Friends With Kids 2012 It's shrill in tone, awash in unexamined narcissism-kids are just pretexts for laughs, rather than objects of love-and afflicted by explosive verbal diarrhea. full review
10. Haywire 2012 There's no deeper meaning to Steven Soderbergh's thriller than what meets the eye, yet its lustrous surfaces offer great and guilt-free pleasure. full review
11. Headhunters 2012 "Headhunters" is smart, funny, scary and surprising, so it's hardly any wonder that an American version is in the works. The big question is whether the remake can measure up. full review
12. How to Survive a Plague 2012 Tune in to the passionate voices in David France's brilliant documentary ... full review
13. The Hunger Games 2012 The first book of Suzanne Collins's prodigiously popular trilogy has been brought to the screen with a Jumbotron sensibility, a shaky camera to emphasize the action and a shakier grip on the subject's emotional core. full review
14. I Wish 2012 This wise and funny film, in Japanese with English subtitles, works small miracles in depicting the pivotal moment when kids turn from the wishfulness of childhood into shaping the world for themselves. full review
15. The Island President 2012 "The Island President" personalizes the threat of global warming, and nationalizes it too, by focusing on Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives. full review
16. Jiro Dreams of Sushi 2012 At the age of 85, the subject of this fascinating documentary not only dreams of sushi but still drives himself to make it better. full review
17. The Loneliest Planet 2012 Though the film moves as slowly as its hikers, it demands, and deserves, to be watched closely. full review
18. Marley 2012 The director, Kevin Macdonald, searches for clarity amid the contradictions of Marley's life and reaches no conclusions, but that's a tribute to his subject's complexity in a film of fascinating too-muchness. full review
19. Monsieur Lazhar 2012 What makes the film enthralling is the wisdom and grace with which it addresses the twin subjects of grief and healing, and the quiet beauty of Mohamed Fellag's performance in the title role. full review
20. A Royal Affair 2012 With its sumptuous settings, urgent romance and intellectual substance, A Royal Affair is a mind-opener crossed with a bodice-ripper. full review
21. The Adventures of Tintin 2011 The action grows wearisome as it grinds on, and the film becomes a succession of dazzling set pieces devoid of simple feelings. full review
22. Bellflower 2011 A daring feature debut by Evan Glodell, "Bellflower" looks like it was shot with the digital equivalent of a Brownie box camera, and generates an almost palpable aura of anxiety. full review
23. Buck 2011 It keeps you fascinated, even enthralled; elicits astonishment, even wonderment, and makes you grateful for the chance to meet someone remarkable. full review
24. Coriolanus 2011 Riches of character are revealed, with copious visual invention. full review
25. First Position 2011 Beneath the jetes and bleeding feet, First Position is about toughness of mind as much as visions of beauty. In one case it's about a transformation so profound as to be unfathomable. full review
26. Hugo 2011 Thematic potency and cinematic virtuosity -- the production was designed by Dante Ferretti and photographed by Robert Richardson -- can't conceal a deadly inertness at the film's core. full review
27. Make Believe 2011 Terrifically likable without trying too terribly hard. full review
28. Margin Call 2011 Chilling and enjoyable in unequal measure. Entertainment predominates, but entertainment with smarts, and a well-honed edge. full review
29. No Strings Attached 2011 It's a smart, sexy romcom that turns the neat trick of staying sweetly human. full review
30. The Other Woman 2011 I didn't like a single one of these insufferable narcissists, the kid included. full review
31. Polisse 2011 What makes it such a singular experience is the convergence of fine acting, moral urgency and a willingness to linger on moments of great intensity. full review
32. Rango 2011 I've made a good case for seeing "Rango," and why not; an eye feast is still a feast in this lean multiplex season. full review
33. Revenge of the Electric Car 2011 Fascinating in its own right. full review
34. Snow Flower And The Secret Fan 2011 While the action flashes back and forth in increments of centuries, years or months, we're adrift in the here and now, trying to get a grip on the characters and their relationships, yet finding it loosened with every new dislocation. full review
35. Super 8 2011 This new film isn't perfect, and may not be a world-changer, but it's certainly a world-pleaser. full review
36. This Must Be The Place 2011 Bizarre can be good when it's done deftly. In this case, however, it's done ponderously and sententiously. full review
37. Trishna 2011 Spectacular visually, though awfully somber dramatically. full review
38. All Good Things 2010 The script draws insistently obvious psychological connections. full review
39. Cave of Forgotten Dreams 2010 The unknowable or the mysteriously ambiguous in human behavior is what sets Mr. Herzog's synapses to firing with singular intensity. full review
40. City of Life and Death 2010 This is hardly a film to recommend as entertainment. As an act of remembrance, though, it is singular and, in its way, soaring. full review
41. Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer 2010 Say what you will about Eliot Spitzer, he's a marvelous subject for a documentary, and Alex Gibney has made a film worthy of him... full review
42. Cold Weather 2010 Something finally happens about 40 minutes into Aaron Katz's amiably low-key feature. full review
43. The Conspirator 2010 What it most suggests ... is the sort of classroom film that has kept generations of students off the edge of their seats. full review
44. Exit Through The Gift Shop 2010 Droll, aerosol-thin and ultrameta, a movie about a movie that supposedly was but actually wasn't being made about Banksy by his amiably bonkers Boswell, a compulsive French videographer named Thierry Guetta. full review
45. Four Lions 2010 Morris and his writers-four of them in this film as well -- like to torture logic with absurdist dialogue, and some of their gang's escapades are amusing rather than laughable. Yet "Four Lions" lacks a moral base. full review
46. Heartbeats 2010 The film couples high comedy with spiritual solitude. That's not just a slo-mo stunt, it's a cockeyed triumph. full review
47. If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle 2010 I was strongly impressed. full review
48. Inhale 2010 All of the beatings, betrayals and bitter ironies leave a bad taste in your head. full review
49. Monsters 2010 What brings Monsters down from its extremely low perch is a conspicuous lack of monstrosity -- the best the filmmaker's laptop has come up with is fleeting glimpses of supersize squid -- together with the vacuousness of the hero and heroine... full review
50. Morning Glory 2010 This production is a mess for many reasons, most of them having to do with its frantic efforts to be funny. full review
51. Night Catches Us 2010 Merits admiration as an ambitious debut feature, though the impact of its splendid cast is blunted by the awkward structure of its screenplay. full review
52. Restrepo 2010 This movie will stir your heart and open your mind. It's a group portrait of practicing patriots. full review
53. True Grit 2010 Joel Coen and Ethan Coen fill the film with self-conscious good humor-hey, it's the Coen brothers-and the charmingly old-fashioned locutions of the Charles Portis novel. full review
54. An American Affair 2009 This is not, by any reasonable definition of the term, a professional film, even though several experienced and established actors have been inveigled to inhabit it full review
55. Antichrist 2009 By turns repellent, powerful and ludicrous, Antichrist piles horror on horror with pitiless passion. full review
56. The Art Of The Steal 2009 I found it fascinating for a number of reasons, balanced reporting not among them. full review
57. Cairo Time 2009 [Clarkson] makes yearning palpable. She turns mysterious silences into a language of love. full review
58. Creation 2009 Mr. Bettany is a fine and resourceful actor, but Creation is a battle he was doomed to lose. full review
59. The Eclipse 2009 A leisurely and quite lovely drama that honors the conventions of gothic ghost stories without the slightest stain of self-irony. full review
60. Fish Tank 2009 Fish Tank is a coming-of-age story for Mia, who will at least have a shot at happiness, and a coming-into-mastery story for the writer-director, Ms. Arnold, whose prospects seem limitless. full review
61. The Fourth Kind 2009 Mr. Osunsanmi's chutzpah exceeds his skill. full review
62. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 2009 An overgenerous helping of recapitulation, a long procedural that's more about Lisbeth's persecutors and protectors than about her. full review
63. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2009 A stylish thriller with real complexity, people with interesting faces, a sensational actress cast as an ambisexual Goth hacker heroine -- the news about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is nothing but good. full review
64. Ondine 2009 Why is the dialogue so muffled and clipped that it's hard to understand? Why didn't Mr. Jordan spend more time grounding his self-enchanted script in some semblance of reality? full review
65. The Secret of Kells 2009 The soul of the film lies in its ravishing colors, and in exuberantly stylized images that pay homage to Celtic culture and design, together with techniques and motifs that evoke Matisse, Miyazaki and the minimalist cartoons of UPA. full review
66. Soul Kitchen 2009 You could call Soul Kitchen a romance with sensational music, or a hymn to friendship with romantic resonances. Whatever you want to call it, the thing is bursting with life. full review
67. Disgrace 2008 Demanding but ultimately rewarding... full review
68. Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema 2008 Startlingly original, if occasionally overambitious. This is Tsotsi without the feel-good glow, a tale of entrepreneurship's perils and boundless pleasures. full review
69. Let the Right One In 2008 [Director Tomas] Alfredson's style is as elegant and laconic as Twilight is amateurish and campy. full review
70. Man on Wire 2008 Part of what makes Man on Wire so enthralling, and so entertaining, is the filmmaker's skill in laying out the illegal caper's logistics, mainly through interviews with Philippe and his support team. full review
71. Management 2008 The plot is too sprawling for the structure. That's often the way with debut films: so many notions, so little time. full review
72. New York, I Love You 2008 What's remarkable here is the consistency of the mediocrity, the uniform fraudulence of the minipremises, the reliable awkwardness of such almost-English lines as "Your eyes would suffice to give tired men hope." full review
73. Religulous 2008 A provocation, thinly disguised as a documentary, that succeeds in being almost as funny as it is offensive. full review
74. Unmistaken Child 2008 full review
75. Charlie Bartlett 2007 The movie as a whole is a sweet pill to swallow. full review
76. Paranoid Park 2007 In the space of 78 minutes, Mr. Van Sant and his cinematographer, the peerless Christopher Doyle, manage to suffuse that state with haunting sadness, ubiquitous danger, pulsing power and flickers of hope. full review
77. Phoebe in Wonderland 2007 It's that kind of movie, full of therapeutic notions paraded as poetry and scenes that seem to carry explanatory labels. full review
78. Trumbo 2007 The substance of those letters, along with documentary footage and a touching appearance by Kirk Douglas, throws a baleful light on a bleak chapter of American history. full review
79. Deep Water 2006 An enthralling documentary about an Englishman named Donald Crowhurst who, in 1968, set off on a solitary, nonstop circumnavigation of the globe. full review
80. Heading South 2006 Cantet's fascinating, troubling drama has many meanings. full review
81. An Inconvenient Truth 2006 The film succeeds powerfully, even though it's short on practical solutions, makes some questionable statements of fact and, given Gore's current ambiguous position in public life, requires a tighter focus on the message than on the messenger. full review
82. Maxed Out 2006 James Scurlock's documentary serves up cautionary tales of epic abuse, though the overall tone is faux cheerful and sometimes genuinely entertaining, especially in the use of clips from an old educational film that looks too fatuous to be faux. full review
83. Mission: Impossible III 2006 The summer's first action epic does exactly what it's supposed to do, more clearly than M:i:I, and more likeably than M:i:II. full review
84. World Trade Center 2006 The filmmaker and his colleagues have brought the sensibility of an old-fashioned Hollywood disaster movie, and a mediocre one at that. full review
85. Grizzly Man 2005 full review
86. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man 2005 The strength and beauty of Cohen's songs is, if anything, enhanced by the treatment they get from such folk legends -- and legends in the making -- as Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and Kate's son and daughter, Rufus and Martha Wainwright. full review
87. Touching the Void 2003 full review
88. Gosford Park 2001 full review
89. Pi 1998 full review
90. Beautiful Girls 1996 full review
91. Big Night 1996 full review
92. Carrie 1976 More superpowers from Brian De Palma, this time in high school, in a screen version of a Stephen King novel that's become a horror classic. full review
93. Battle of Britain 1969 full review
94. Dumbo 1941 full review