instantwatcher.com

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

1. Black Snake Moan 2007 Any movie that can make Samuel L. Jackson convincing as a great Memphis bluesman must be doing something right. full review
2. Charlie Bartlett 2007 A rebellious teen comedy that isn't as good or as radical as Pump Up the Volume, but still feels like a shot in the arm and is full of irreverent energy. full review
3. Day Watch 2007 Narrative incoherence continues to reign supreme. full review
4. Paranoid Park 2007 Elephant said much more about teenagers and said it better. full review
5. The Rape of Europa 2007 Filmmakers Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, and Nicole Newnham do a superb job of telling this neglected story in vivid detail. full review
6. Copying Beethoven, (Klang der Stille) 2006 Agnieszka Holland directs with obvious feeling rather than cynicism, and I was swept away by it despite the story's anachronisms. full review
7. Fay Grim 2006 The involved backstory and Hartley's own generic music both prove burdensome; the main attraction is the cast's amusing way of handling Hartley's mannerist dialogue and conceits. full review
8. Klimt 2006 [It's] an eyeful. full review
9. Lady Chatterley 2006 Ferran's sureness in charting every step in the couple's discovery of each other never falters; when they eventually find the opportunity to remove their clothes before having sex, it's a major achievement, and celebrated as such. full review
10. Slither 2006 Gross-out horror comedy is my least favorite genre, but this movie's so skillful I have to take my hat off to it. full review
11. This Is England 2006 Masterfully charted and acted, as are the boy's early forays into sex. full review
12. The Treatment 2006 Chris Eigeman finally gets to show his range in this romantic comedy. full review
13. United 93 2006 Greengrass takes pains to keep events believable and relatively unrhetorical, rejecting entertainment for the sake of sober reflection, though one has to ask how edifying this is apart from its reduction of the standard myths. full review
14. The Wind That Shakes the Barley 2006 As frequently happens in both Loach films and history, the betrayal of ideals, socialist and otherwise, leaves a harsh aftertaste, which made me feel sadder but not much wiser. full review
15. World Trade Center 2006 The story of what they experienced is gripping and inspiring, but however true it is to their lives... the way it's told restricts what the movie can say about the larger tragedy. full review
16. Color Me Kubrick 2005 Writer Anthony Frewin and director Brian Cook uses Conway's unlikely saga to mount an appreciative send-up of a certain style of gay extravagance, with John Malkovich having a field day as Conway. full review
17. The Constant Gardener 2005 Fernando Meirelles, codirector of City of God, stresses old-fashioned storytelling and takes full advantage of his cast, including Danny Huston. full review
18. The Lost City 2005 The film suggests a dutiful if clunky pastiche of The Godfather and a right-wing Reds, with Fellove and his brothers and parents representing a spectrum of possible responses to the Cuban revolution. full review
19. This Film is Not Yet Rated 2005 Thumbing one's nose at prudes can be fun, but it can also be childish and ultimately patronizing. full review
20. Big Fish 2004 Burton shows the rivalry between father and son but not the rancor, which seems to fit with the film's calm lyricism. But the father-son conflict is meant as the dramatic crux, and a forceful actor would have given it some much-needed bite. full review
21. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind 2004 [Kaufman] clearly surpasses himself. full review
22. The Passion of the Christ 2004 If I were a Christian, I'd be appalled to have this primitive and pornographic bloodbath presume to speak for me. full review
23. Gigli 2003 Brief but flamboyant cameos by Christopher Walken and Al Pacino helped keep me distracted from the noble intentions and the silliness. full review
24. The Hours 2002 David Hare's screen adaptation reduces Woolf and her art to a set of feminist stances and a few plot points, without reference to style or form. full review
25. Irreversible 2002 So formally and stylistically aggressive that this aspect overpowers what it has to say, which isn't much. full review
26. Lost in La Mancha 2002 I'd like Lost in La Mancha more if it didn't take the easy but misleading route of dovetailing Gilliam's frustrations into Welles's, and then dovetailing both into Quixote's. full review
27. The Master of Disguise 2002 George W. Bush in the flesh would have been much funnier than this movie's impersonation. full review
28. The New Guy 2002 It isn't very good, but it doesn't seem to care, which turns out to be rather refreshing. full review
29. America's Sweethearts 2001 A clunky ribbing of the movie industry. full review
30. Gosford Park 2001 full review
31. No Such Thing 2001 full review
32. Lara Croft - Tomb Raider 2001 [A] movie based on a video game that's unafraid to look absurd but lacks the self-conviction needed to come off as camp. full review
33. Beautiful Creatures 2000 Writer and coproducer Simon Donald offers an efficient plot, and director Bill Eagles knows how to pace the actors and action while delivering it. full review
34. Memento 2000 More a puzzle than a meaningful story, it reminds me of how Edmund Wilson compared reading a mystery to eagerly unpacking a box of excelsior, only to find a few rusty nails at the bottom. full review
35. Quills 2000 full review
36. Traffic 2000 I don't see this slightly better-than-average drug thriller, with slightly better-than-average direction by Steven Soderbergh, as anything more than a routine rubber-stamping of genre reflexes. full review
37. Being John Malkovich 1999 This outrageous comic fantasy may not sustain its brilliance throughout its 112 minutes, but it keeps cooking for so much of that time that I don't have many complaints. full review
38. For Love of the Game 1999 For the first 100 minutes or so I found this hokey but serviceable; after that my watch became more meaningful than anything I could locate on-screen. full review
39. An Ideal Husband 1999 Much of the four acts of An Ideal Husband, a serious comedy, is constructed out of flip one-liners, most of which remain, though Parker has added a few, all unworthy of the master. full review
40. The Muse 1999 full review
41. Waking the Dead 1999 I can cite only one unequivocal reason for seeing Waking the Dead, and that's Jennifer Connelly. full review
42. Eternity and a Day 1998 I was moved and captivated throughout its 132 minutes. full review
43. The Apostle 1997 full review
44. As Good As It Gets 1997 How [Brooks] emerged an abler artist is worth puzzling over; I suspect it has something to do with sheer instinct triumphing over industry machinery. full review
45. Breakdown 1997 Breakdown has plenty of deft action sequences, and what they add up to is nifty garbage disposal, with all of us -- characters, filmmakers, viewers -- ultimately spiraling down the same drain. full review
46. Chasing Amy 1997 Neither PC nor crudely anti-PC, this tough and tender movie, like its characters, is prepared to take emotional risks, and the comic book milieu is deftly sketched in. full review
47. Face/Off 1997 A dizzying, beautiful ride. full review
48. Jackie Brown 1997 Quentin Tarantino puts together a fairly intricate and relatively uninvolving money-smuggling plot, but his cast is so good that you probably won't feel cheated. full review
49. She's So Lovely 1997 full review
50. Trekkies 1997 full review
51. Basquiat 1996 There isn't a boring shot anywhere, and writer-director Schnabel is clearly enjoying himself as he plays with expressionist sound, neo-Eisensteinian edits, and all sorts of other filmic ideas. full review
52. Citizen Ruth 1996 full review
53. The First Wives Club 1996 full review
54. The Nutty Professor 1996 Murphy outdoes himself by bringing pathos as well as sweetness to the character, arguably making him a viable update of Lewis's bucktoothed Julius Kelp. full review
55. Pocahontas 1996 Overall this seems like a reasonable stab at an impossible agenda. full review
56. Scream 1996 Craven has expressed a desire to get out of the horror business. Maybe that's why he's set out to make more than a horror movie. He's contributing to a long tradition of reflexive films, going back as far as the turn of the century. full review
57. Sgt. Bilko 1996 [A] celebration of high jinks. full review
58. Sling Blade 1996 full review
59. Trainspotting 1996 It would be pushing it to call Trainspotting a serious work of art or a major statement about anything, but as an edgy, artful piece of entertainment it beats any Hollywood release of the summer by miles. full review
60. Bad Boys 1995 The cops never seem to know what they're doing, but then neither do the filmmakers, though I can't imagine that casual audiences will care since there are plenty of big explosions at the end to reward them. full review
61. Clueless 1995 Though this drifts at times as storytelling, it's mainly lightweight but personable fun. full review
62. Dead Man 1995 full review
63. The Doom Generation 1995 Striking to look at, though often offensively opportunistic, this mainly comes across as a throwaway shocker with energy to spare. There's not much thought in evidence though. full review
64. Eye For An Eye 1995 [A] really awful, hysterical thriller. full review
65. Fire on the Mountain 1995 full review
66. Four Rooms 1995 The results are mainly awful, and even Roth got saddled with a mannered part that he can't comfortably play. full review
67. Bad Girls 1994 It's the usual combo of high concept and low execution, and not even Jonathan Kaplan's background as an exploitation director can bail him out. full review
68. Blue Chips 1994 Not even an unsentimental basketball fan like director William Friedkin can wash away all the corn syrup. full review
69. Heavenly Creatures 1994 Unlike the campy excess of Jackson's earlier Dead Alive, deliberate overkill ltimately points toward a dearth of ideas rather than a surfeit. full review
70. Hoop Dreams 1994 A heady dose of the American dream and the American nightmare combined -- a numbing investigation of how one point on an exam or one basket or turnover in a game can make all the difference in a family's fortunes. full review
71. Pulp Fiction 1994 The overall project is evident: to evict real life and real people from the art film and replace them with generic teases and assorted hommages. Don't expect any of the life experiences of the old movie sources to leak through. full review
72. Addams Family Values 1993 The comedy has moved into high gear and become one of the funniest, most mean-spirited satirical assaults on sunny American values since the salad days of W.C. Fields. full review
73. The Beverly Hillbillies 1993 Four writers worked on the script, and they all should hang their heads in shame. full review
74. The Eye of Vichy 1993 full review
75. The Good Son 1993 There's wonderful use made of a Maine port town, and Ruben gets a dizzying thrill or two out of overhead shots, but the conceptual overload finally prevents this from coming together. full review
76. In the Name of the Father 1993 The acting's so good it frequently transcends the simplicities of the script, and whenever Day-Lewis or Postlethwaite is on-screen the movie crackles. full review
77. The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 The set designs are ingenious and the songs (music and lyrics by Danny Elfman) are fairly good. full review
78. The Piano 1993 Sweetie and An Angel at My Table have taught us to expect startling as well as beautiful things from Jane Campion, and this assured and provocative third feature (1993) offers yet another lush parable. full review
79. The Snapper 1993 Better-than-average sitcom stuff, enhanced by the lively performances, Doyle's own adaptation, and the able direction of Stephen Frears. full review
80. What's Eating Gilbert Grape 1993 Even if you have a taste as I do for movies about dysfunctional families, you may be a little put off by the Grapes. full review
81. 35 Up 1992 There's certainly plenty of food for thought here, but most of it is served raw rather than cooked -- most of the significance of the development of faces, physiques, aspirations, and attitudes over three decades is left to the subjects themselves. full review
82. Reservoir Dogs 1992 It's unclear whether this macho thriller does anything to improve the state of the world or our understanding of it, but it certainly sets off enough rockets to hold and shake us for every one of its 99 minutes. full review
83. Barton Fink 1991 This creepy satire is full of laughs and flaky twists, but by the end you may still be scratching your head. full review
84. Dead Again 1991 As the twists come thick and fast and the plot gets progressively more and more baroque, Branagh shows himself to be at least as intelligent as Brian De Palma in delivering over-the-top stylistic filigree. full review
85. The Doors 1991 The movie does a pretty good job with period ambience. But it's a long haul waiting for the hero to keel over. full review
86. Mobsters 1991 High concept, sleek stylishness, low content. full review
87. The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear 1991 A feeble sequel. full review
88. Sleeping with the Enemy 1991 It's the sort of movie where all of the characters and plot moves (if one wants to call them that) are tailored to the thriller mechanics and have no existence apart from their crude functionality. full review
89. Soapdish 1991 This movie certainly has its dopey moments, but if you're feeling indulgent you're likely to have a good time with it. full review
90. Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991 As a fancy mechanism fueled by the pleasure of watching legions of people and equipment being summarily destroyed, this is pretty hot stuff. full review
91. The Grifters 1990 A mannerist thriller that doesn't begin to work despite the number of talented hands involved. full review
92. Miller's Crossing 1990 It never fully convinces in terms of either period or plot. full review
93. Earth Girls Are Easy 1989 full review
94. My Left Foot 1989 For all his character's travails the film as a whole winds up surprisingly upbeat. full review
95. Biloxi Blues 1988 Perhaps this movie isn't as wise or as profound as Simon wants it to be, but it is certainly a cut above sitcom complacency, and packed with wit and charm. full review
96. Casual Sex? 1988 full review
97. Colors 1988 full review
98. Eight Men Out 1988 Baseball fans might find this marginally absorbing; for anyone else it's as conscientious and stylistically pedestrian as Sayles's other films, and a mite overlong to boot. full review
99. A Fish Called Wanda 1988 Like many of the best English comedies, much of the humor here is based on character, good-natured high spirits, and fairly uninhibited vulgarity. full review
100. The Last Temptation of Christ 1988 Concentrating on the humanity and fallibility of Jesus in continual conflict with his divinity, the film falters as a contemporary statement mainly in its primitive view of women. full review
101. Madame Sousatzka 1988 full review
102. The Naked Gun - From the Files of Police Squad! 1988 Not quite up to Airplane! or Top Secret!, but there are still laughs aplenty. full review
103. Poltergeist III 1988 full review
104. Rain Man 1988 Valeria Golino is appealing as Cruise's girlfriend; Hoffman makes his character pretty believable without milking the part for pathos and tears, and it's nice to see Cruise working for a change in a context that isn't determined by hard sell and hype. full review
105. Scrooged 1988 Tacky in the extreme, this self-congratulatory 1988 film is an exercise in hypocrisy, indulging every form of Christmas exploitation that it pretends to attack, and many of the laughs are forced. full review
106. Tucker: The Man and His Dream 1988 Francis Coppola's stylish and heartfelt tribute to the innovative automobile designer Preston Thomas Tucker turns out to be one of his most personal and successful movies. full review
107. Dirty Dancing 1987 While the music on the soundtrack is predictably overloud, the period detail is refreshingly soft-pedaled. full review
108. Fatal Attraction 1987 While billed as a romance and a thriller, the film strictly qualifies as neither, appealing to our prurience, guilt, hatred, and dread. full review
109. Hellraiser 1987 Minor grisly fun, but don't expect the movie to linger when it's over. full review
110. The Last Emperor 1987 It's a tribute to the film's intelligence and its feeling for dialectics that it views both the Forbidden City and the detention center as prisons, and that when Pu Yi winds up as a gardener there's a sense of gain as well as loss. full review
111. No Way Out 1987 It's the kind of intricately plotted suspense film with juicy secondary parts (Will Patton, George Dzundza, Iman, Howard Duff) that used to be churned out in the 1940s. full review
112. The Untouchables 1987 The results are watchable enough, with a particularly adept use of Sean Connery, Chicago locations, and period details. full review
113. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 1978 Indescribably awful. full review
114. Car Wash 1976 Critics seemed to like this less than audiences; personally, I had a ball. full review
115. Terror of Mechagodzilla 1975 full review
116. The Paper Chase 1973 James Bridges manages to do a fair job with the semihokey material. full review
117. 8 1/2 1963 It's Fellini's last black-and-white picture and conceivably the most gorgeous and inventive thing he ever did. full review
118. Who's Minding the Store? 1963 full review
119. The Savage Innocents 1959 Nicholas Ray's epic film about Eskimo life and its remoteness from 'civilized' values represents his first -- and, in many ways, most ambitious -- attempt to break free from the Hollywood studios and forge an independent route. full review
120. House On Haunted Hill 1958 If one had to pick the best of the campy horror films that made [Castle's] reputation, this 1958 feature would probably be it. full review
121. Twelve O'Clock High 1949 Sincere, square, and interminable. full review
122. The Naked City 1948 A first-rate police thriller. full review
123. Sleep, My Love 1948 full review
124. The Outlaw 1943 One of the weirdest westerns of all time, reflecting the eccentricities of its producer and credited director, Howard Hughes. full review
125. Faust 1926 This extraordinary piece of artistry and craftsmanship integrates its dazzling special effects so seamlessly that they're indistinguishable from the film's narrative, poetry, and, above all, metaphysics. full review
126. Seven Chances 1925 full review