instantwatcher.com

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

1. The Frankenstein Theory 2013 Fourteen years after "Blair Witch," has the whole found-footage-horror genre jumped the shark? Maybe. Weiner, however, manipulates its well-worn tropes deftly. full review
2. John Dies at the End 2013 I stopped taking notes when the woman disintegrated into a ball of writhing snakes. full review
3. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry 2012 A useful primer, though it also focuses a bit more on the activism than on the art. full review
4. Bachelorette 2012 It's a sour, only fitfully funny affair, wasting the abilities of its otherwise talented cast, which includes Kirsten Dunst, James Marsden, Adam Scott and Isla Fisher. full review
5. Blue Like Jazz 2012 It is - somewhat surprisingly, given the heavy-handed subject - neither sanctimonious nor preachy. full review
6. Casa de mi padre 2012 It's perfect for a short clip on FunnyorDie.com. Padded out to feature length, with a bunch of other slight and unmemorable laughs, it wears thin. full review
7. Crooked Arrows 2012 The lacrosse angle aside, "Crooked Arrows" seems less interested in breaking ground than in following a path that has been trod a thousand times before. full review
8. Deadfall 2012 A genre characterized by often grisly violence, high style and a distinctly nihilistic outlook. full review
9. The Deep Blue Sea 2012 Maddeningly oblique and incomplete, despite paying what at times feels like excruciating attention to the minutiae of a dying love affair's final hours. full review
10. Elena 2012 A nicely noirish, cynically satisfying drama set in a gritty, urban Moscow that would otherwise not seem to be a haven for wildlife. full review
11. Elles 2012 The acting by Binoche and her two young co-stars is more nuanced than the film deserves. full review
12. For Greater Glory 2012 "For Greater Glory" is at times so heavy-handed that the movie itself seems at war. Unfortunately, the enemy is not just a repressive administration, but the audience. full review
13. The Forgiveness of Blood 2012 It's a thriller that feels like a documentary. full review
14. The Paperboy 2012 The entire cast of "The Paperboy" glistens with a golden sheen, as if they've been sprayed with Pam cooking oil. full review
15. Safety Not Guaranteed 2012 "Safety Not Guaranteed" is most vibrant and vital at its edges, in the way that the characters interact with each other while waiting for something to happen. full review
16. Silent House 2012 A scary, yet thoughtful - some might even say deep - art-house frightfest. full review
17. Special Forces 2012 If you turned the sound off and removed the subtitles, you might actually think you were watching an old Hollywood shoot-'em-up. full review
18. Tai Chi Zero 2012 A martial-arts adventure with more video-game and comic-book DNA than the traditional kung fu flick, "Tai Chi Zero" is good, if empty-headed, fun. full review
19. Take This Waltz 2012 In the end, it's a story of misplaced faith. In what? Not love exactly, but in the rush of infatuation, and the illusion that this feeling can be maintained, indefinitely, without crashing. full review
20. Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie 2012 At times, the movie has the look and feel of the cheaply made late-night commercials that it mercilessly, and occasionally hilariously, mocks. full review
21. Unforgivable 2012 The way Techine holds them up to the film's unforgiving light, they sometimes seem less like people than like insects in a jar. full review
22. Waiting For Lightning 2012 Only for the converted. full review
23. We Have a Pope 2012 "We Have a Pope" is a nuanced, moving and profoundly humane exploration of doubt, faith, weakness and resolve. full review
24. Whores' Glory 2012 "Whores' Glory" takes a deadpan, nonjudgmental approach, which generally works well, even if the fly-on-the-wall technique makes clear that what attracts flies usually stinks. full review
25. Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey 2011 The film is filled with so much insider Muppet lore that, at times, it strains even the goodwill that Clash generates. full review
26. Bellflower 2011 After a while, "Bellflower" feels like it can't stop checking itself out in the mirror. It's a pose, not a movie. full review
27. Conan O'Brien Can't Stop 2011 Partly about the making of the stage show and partly about the anger and compulsion underlying the making of it, the movie is often very funny. And when it's not, it's revelatory. full review
28. The Devil's Double 2011 The bodies pile up, but they don't amount to anything. full review
29. Gerhard Richter Painting 2011 Richter offers multiple explanations of how he knows when a painting is done. They range from the mundane to the lofty. full review
30. The Hedgehog 2011 "The Hedgehog" is a treat: a movie that's smart, grown-up, wry and deeply moving. full review
31. Hell and Back Again 2011 The film suggests that it doesn't really matter whether Harris ever gets back in uniform. He's forever carrying around a piece of unexploded ordnance in his head. full review
32. Machine Gun Preacher 2011 The Lord may work in mysterious ways, but "Machine Gun Preacher" is downright confounding. full review
33. Magic Trip 2011 It isn't exactly boring. But it's hard being the designated driver at someone else's bacchanal. full review
34. Margin Call 2011 A smart, harrowing and mordant drama set inside a fictional Wall Street firm at the trip-wire moment just before the 2008 financial collapse. full review
35. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 2011 A movie of such dark, smoldering intensity that it's easy to forget that half of it takes place in near darkness. full review
36. Page One: Inside the New York Times 2011 The movie is a clear-eyed and engrossing look at an important subject. full review
37. Polisse 2011 It's messy, boring, funny, suspenseful, touching, jubilant and tragic. full review
38. Scream 4 2011 The problem is, the movie doesn't really care if we are laughing with it or at it. full review
39. Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview 2011 The most fascinating aspect of listening to him talk comes not from what he says about what he did, but how he talks about it. full review
40. Surviving Progress 2011 Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks's powerful but pessimistic documentary look at the corner we humans seem to be painting ourselves into, economically, ecologically and otherwise. full review
41. There Be Dragons 2011 I like grandeur and richly nuanced storytelling. I also like lobster bisque. But I don't want to drink a gallon of it in a single sitting. full review
42. This Must Be The Place 2011 If you give Penn (and the movie) a chance, the character works, movingly and somewhat miraculously. full review
43. Young Adult 2011 There's enough grit in the film's gears to keep the forward motion from ever getting too smooth. full review
44. Blood Done Sign My Name 2010 Its intended audience is anyone with enough heart to be horrified by the events it depicts, but also with enough plausible deniability to point the finger of blame at someone else. It's a movie you can feel good about feeling bad about. full review
45. Casino Jack 2010 Spacey's portrayal of Abramoff gets at the man's contradictions - his ostensibly devout Jewish faith next to an almost sociopathic blindness to his misdeeds - but it never even partly explains them. full review
46. Cherry Tree Lane 2010 full review
47. City of Life and Death 2010 It's a muscular, physical movie, pieced together from arresting imagery and revelatory gestures, large and small. full review
48. Freakonomics 2010 [It] isn't freaky enough. full review
49. Henry's Crime 2010 A felony of a movie ... tedious and improbable... full review
50. I'm Still Here 2010 The movie is as damnably perplexing as the subject himself. full review
51. Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work 2010 The insecurities that seem to feed Rivers's often angry humor -- and that have left her face looking like a mask frozen in horror -- are left unexamined. full review
52. Monsters 2010 "Monsters" is no ordinary horror film. If it were, it might be a bit better than it is. As the movie stands, it's a less-than-compelling relationship drama, with aliens. full review
53. Rubber 2010 "Rubber" is a silly thing. But it doesn't stop at silly. full review
54. The Tempest 2010 Most plays-turned-movies try to open things up. Taymor still thinks like a theater director, ending up with a "Tempest" that takes place in a teapot. full review
55. Today's Special 2010 It's a film where the plating outshines the flavor. full review
56. The Whistleblower 2010 A classic example of a film that doesn't trust the strength of its source material - or the intelligence of its audience. full review
57. The Fourth Kind 2009 At a recent preview screening, the most common audience response to this nonsense was laughter, not gasps of horror. full review
58. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 2009 The final, deeply satisfying conclusion to the trilogy of Swedish thrillers based on Stieg Larsson's bestselling novels. full review
59. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2009 It's the rare 2 1/2 -hour film that doesn't make you look at your watch once. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is such a film. full review
60. Last Train Home 2009 It's depressing enough to watch this family's struggles with life. But their pain really hits home when you think that the pants you might be wearing could have contributed to it. full review
61. Ondine 2009 Silkies aren't the only creatures who can inhabit two worlds. As Annie knows, and as Jordan's film makes clear, stories enable us to step outside the quotidian world and dream, if only for an hour or two. full review
62. The Perfect Game 2009 Anyone much older than, say, 10, will likely find the underdog saga sappy and manipulative, not to mention filled with sports movie cliches, including the following statement: "It will take a miracle to make them into a real team." full review
63. Survival of the Dead 2009 It has been six days since the dead began to walk, and a powerful emotion is gripping the land. Boredom. full review
64. Vincere 2009 It's grand, heartbreaking material, made even more riveting by the fact that it is very likely true. full review
65. Wild Target 2009 It's never a good idea to cast Bill Nighy as a buttoned-down hit man. full review
66. American Violet 2008 What does it taste like? There's a slight aftertaste of force-feeding, to be sure. But mostly, thanks to excellent, nuanced performances by Beharie, Woodard, Nelson and Patton, it tastes like justice. full review
67. Management 2008 [Steve Zahn] is the single biggest reason why Management is a delightfully screwball romantic comedy and not a crazed-stalker film. full review
68. We Live in Public 2008 Josh Harris focuses the lens on himself. You probably have never heard of him. And when the film is over, you may wish you still hadn't. full review
69. The Yellow Handkerchief 2008 The Yellow Handkerchief is a love story. Two, really. At its center is the sweetly fractured ticking of a broken heart on the mend. full review
70. Hogfather 2007 full review
71. Phoebe in Wonderland 2007 Elle Fanning, and her audience, deserve better. full review
72. Four Brothers 2005 If Four Brothers spent half as much energy making us feel something for its heroes as it spent making us feel nothing for their victims, it would be a far better, and far more engaging, film. full review
73. The Longest Yard 2005 The pleasure is entirely like eating cake made from cake mix. It's not like you don't know how it's going to turn out, or how it tasted the last time you ate it. full review
74. My Summer of Love 2005 full review
75. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind 2004 Neither wholly cynical nor wholly romantic, Kaufman's story is a balance of smarts and sentiment. full review
76. The Passion of the Christ 2004 Puts us in a situation where we can't help but feel Jesus's pain. If only Gibson had taken the time to tell more of us why it mattered.
77. Vanity Fair 2004 Witherspoon moves director Mira Nair's version of Thackeray's social satire forward at a good clip, making Becky's rising and falling fortunes an intensely watchable spectator sport. full review
78. Hollywood Homicide 2003 A buddy film starring two people who, even as the closing credits roll, appear to have just met. full review
79. The Machinist 2003 Psychological suspense at its finest. full review
80. Once Upon a Time in Mexico 2003 Depp, a mere two months after his scene-stealing turn in Pirates of the Caribbean, once again is the best thing about a very silly movie.
81. Primer 2003 It's dense, and in a way that doesn't begin to reward the effort required to untie it. full review
82. Radio 2003 Gooding once again embarrasses himself in public with a performance that knows no shame, a habit he's getting frighteningly at ease with these days.
83. Bukowski: Born into This 2002 A portrait of a sometimes surly, often foulmouthed, always brilliant artist that is at once humane, horrific, hilarious and deeply moving. full review
84. Equilibrium 2002 Just because it's a good idea doesn't mean it's easy to do well. full review
85. Igby Goes Down 2002 Wickedly funny, jarringly transgressive, obdurately unpigeonholeable and startlingly moving.
86. Rollerball 2002 For those with the stomach and stamina for its heartbeat-quickening intensity and body-slamming action, Rollerball delivers exactly what it promises: A people's hero you can really get behind.
87. Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams 2002 Rodriguez seems to have forgotten that making a spectacle is not the same thing as creating a sense of wonder.
88. Star Trek - Nemesis 2002 The cheesiness so endemic to the Star Trek franchise ... is back in full force.
89. The Animal 2001 Schneider manages to make it all more palatable than nauseating, genial rather than an affront to good taste. full review
90. The Fluffer 2001 More tasteful, sensitive and original than you might imagine.
91. Manic 2001 Shows more hopelessness than optimism but is never less than honest.
92. The Musketeer 2001 The Musketeer rollicks and rolls.
93. Scary Movie 2 2001 It's a lot more tightly focused than the first outing. full review
94. Shaolin Soccer 2001 Shaolin Soccer really loves what it mocks, after all, and that grandly goofy affection -- nay, joy -- for all things chop socky is purely, utterly contagious.
95. Tape 2001 Implodes under the weight of its own 'excessive linguistic pressure.'
96. Tomcats 2001 At times, it doesn't seem like movies can achieve any further debasement in the gross-out sweepstakes. And then along comes Tomcats. full review
97. Beautiful Creatures 2000 Why should boys have all the fun in the movies? full review
98. Superstar 1999 Sluggish and predictable. full review