instantwatcher.com

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice

1. 5 Broken Cameras 2012 Startlingly intimate and direct, this first-person doc by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi requires multiple viewings for anyone eager to work out how it could have been shot with such precision and visual ingenuity under such plainly chaotic conditions. full review
2. The Assault 2012 The Assault is so tense, it seems to pass in a single held breath-so quickly, in fact, that you don't register its narrative flimsiness until later on. full review
3. Citizen Gangster 2012 Morlando shows commendable focus (even Cox dials it down), and his movie's modest aspirations nicely reflect the condition in which Boyd, his damaged charisma spent, finally thrives. full review
4. Detachment 2012 The movie's motives might be admirable, but its execution is so bogged down in impenetrable old-white-guy self-pity that the real problems facing public education and its practitioners get buried in the wallow. full review
5. The Girl from the Naked Eye 2012 There are dozens of better, riskier, more interesting films that go unreleased every year-why this militantly dull effort is taking their place is its only worthwhile mystery. full review
6. Intruders 2012 With nothing tangible at stake, Intruders is just an aggregation of influences that's as blank as its bogeyman. full review
7. Payback 2012 Cinematic globe-trotting doesn't necessarily trump reading a good book, it turns out; then again, more movies should be burdened with the flaw of being too intellectually curious. full review
8. Pink Ribbons, Inc. 2012 Above all, Pink Ribbons, Inc. is an argument for reintroducing into the public discourse the uncertainty, fear, and complexity that cancer sufferers and their loved ones know all too well. full review
9. Sleepless Night 2012 Jardin ... brings a restless intelligence and disciplined glee to Sleepless Night that far surpasses its cinematic influences. full review
10. Whores' Glory 2012 Whores' Glory demystifies trick turning with a bluntness and sneaky artistry that's sure to make even the most jaded of us choke on our next sitcom-hooker-joke chuckle. full review
11. Buck 2011 Despite these odds, Brannaman grew into a preternaturally gentle adult who channels hard-earned patience and compassion into his work. full review
12. Hobo With a Shotgun 2011 The setup could also be read as an allegory of/justification for Dubya's invasion of Iraq (think about it), but that presumes more of an engagement with the non-cinematic world than Hobo ever really displays. full review
13. Paranormal Activity 3 2011 There's something to be said for giving people what they want, but in genre movieland, that strategy droops into lazy cynicism quicker than you can say Saw 3D. full review
14. There Be Dragons 2011 The geriatric pacing, flat-footed Old Hollywood pastiche, and Joffe's inexplicable penchant for tear-jerking Catholic mysticism make Dragons more punishing than a hundred Hail Marys. full review
15. American Grindhouse 2010 Nitpicky enough to please film-history nerds but lively in a way that should tickle the merely curious. full review
16. Bill Cunningham New York 2010 No passion for fashion is required to enjoy this absorbing portrait of legendary New York Times "On the Street" photographer Bill Cunningham, but a sense of history and tragedy might help. full review
17. Black Death 2010 The movie's real coup is in how it repeatedly shifts our allegiance from Christians to pagans, interrogating the unfathomably still-popular notion that barbarism is best countered with more of the same. full review
18. The Human Resources Manager 2010 Tender irony and dark humor abound in Israeli director Eran Riklis's latest account of bureaucracy colliding with burgeoning compassion. full review
19. End of the Spear 2005 Coy crypto-Christian claptrap masquerading as feel-good ethnography. full review
20. Bukowski: Born into This 2002 Charles Bukowski, the bard of post-war L.A.'s working-class underbelly, was no ordinary cult writer, and John Dullaghan's thorough, compelling doc Bukowski: Born Into This does a credible job of showing why. full review
21. Ram Dass: Fierce Grace 2002 A sober and affecting chronicle of the leveling effect of loss. full review
22. Rollerball 2002 It's almost enough to make Burton's Apes retread seem like a work of artistic ingenuity. full review
23. No Such Thing 2001 Too intensely focused on the travails of being Hal Hartley to function as pastiche, No Such Thing is Hartley's least accessible screed yet. full review
24. Dark Days 2000 Marc Singer's feted 2000 doc about a Manhattan subterranean community has lost none of its power since its debut. full review