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Todd McCarthy, Variety

1. The Company Men 2010 full review
2. Howl 2010 Admirable if fundamentally academic. full review
3. The Missing Person 2009 A drab, pale-looking affair without a trace of visual style, this cross-country pursuit yarn fights a losing battle to sustain viewer attention via narrative alone, so much does it flounder for lack of imagistic flair. full review
4. American Violet 2008 Earnestly presented and well acted, particularly by newcomer Nicole Beharie in the central role, the film shares with many other such agenda-driven dramas a complete lack of narrative surprise, merely connecting the dots. full review
5. Downloading Nancy 2008 Renck indisputably proves he's able to sustain a tone, but it's a pretentiously solemn one in which the wallow in extreme psychological and emotional realms are continuously disrupted by silly and distracting real-life details. full review
6. An American Crime 2007 Not even the considerable talents of lead thesps Catherine Keener and Ellen Page can alleviate the artistic nullity that is An American Crime. full review
7. Chop Shop 2007 The third feature by Iranian emigre Ramin Bahrani follows the lead of his last pic, Man Push Cart, in tightly observing a protag on the most invisible margins of U.S. life. full review
8. The Go-Getter 2007 Writer-director Martin Hynes takes advantage of the vast possibilities of the open road and what can only be refashioned personal experience to invigorate The Go-Getter, an unusually fresh-feeling indie with a nice sense of style. full review
9. Conversations With Other Women 2005 The battle of the sexes is restaged to clever but inconsequential effect in Conversations With Other Women. full review
10. Swimmers 2005 Eventually drowns from dramatic inertia. full review
11. Return to Sender (Convicted) 2004 full review
12. Anger Management 2003 A couple of brakes-off set pieces to the side, the antics here are strained, graceless and tiresomely crude, the sorts of things audiences feel they're supposed to laugh at rather than well-developed situations that generate genuine amusement. full review
13. CSA: Confederate States of America 2003 full review
14. The Hunted 2003 An unpleasant action suspenser more dedicated to hurtling relentlessly forward than to vesting audience interest. full review
15. Identity 2003 full review
16. In the Cut 2003 full review
17. Touching the Void 2003 Awesome and harrowing. full review
18. The Pianist 2002 full review
19. We Were Soldiers 2002 full review
20. XX/XY 2002 full review
21. Black Hawk Down 2001 full review
22. Atlantis - The Lost Empire 2001 This blandly conceived and executed attempt at a juve-style Indiana Jones with Jules Verne trappings recycles familiar adventure and cartoon devices with minimal wit and flair. full review
23. The Deep End 2001 full review
24. Pootie Tang 2001 full review
25. Vanilla Sky 2001 full review
26. Waking Up in Reno 2001 A hillbilly romantic comedy in which the hillbillies show up but the romance and comedy never do. full review
27. Chasing Sleep 2000 full review
28. Meet the Parents 2000 Flat-out hilarious. full review
29. Quills 2000 full review
30. Traffic 2000 full review
31. Forever Mine 1999 full review
32. Man on the Moon 1999 All the audience is left with is the impression of a thoroughly obnoxious man you'd never want to meet in real life. full review
33. The Muse 1999 Typically fresh and idiosyncratic in the writing but often flat directorially. full review
34. My Life so Far 1999 full review
35. Ride with the Devil 1999 Admirably expressive. full review
36. Runaway Bride 1999 Quite clever and appealing! full review
37. Snow Falling on Cedars 1999 Impeccably crafted but dramatically dull. full review
38. Frank Lloyd Wright 1998 full review
39. The Impostors 1998 full review
40. Jerry and Tom 1998 full review
41. The Mask of Zorro 1998 The Mask of Zorro stands as a pointed riposte to those who say they don't make 'em like that anymore. full review
42. Next Stop Wonderland 1998 full review
43. Primary Colors 1998 Travolta's warmth and expansiveness effectively amplify and embellish the likable and personable side of Stanton. full review
44. Velvet Goldmine 1998 full review
45. What Dreams May Come 1998 A heaping serving of metaphysical gobbledygook wrapped in a physically striking package. full review
46. As Good As It Gets 1997 A sporadically funny romantic comedy with all the dramatic plausibility and tonal consistency of a TV variety show. full review
47. Breakdown 1997 full review
48. Chasing Amy 1997 Amusing and appealing. full review
49. Cop Land 1997 Although too simplistic in its good-guys/bad-guys approach to morally and emotionally ambiguous material, Cop Land emerges as an absorbing and dramatic yarn about exposing the evil doings of some of New York's finest. full review
50. The Devil's Own 1997 full review
51. Face/Off 1997 Watching John Travolta and Nicolas Cage square off and literally exchange roles brings back the old-fashioned pleasure of astutely judged movie star pairings in a major way. full review
52. The Frighteners 1997 Story was originally conceived as an episode of "Tales From the Crypt," and that is perhaps what it should have remained, as the thinness of the conceit shows throughout, painfully so in the first half. full review
53. Gridlock'd 1997 An engaging look at a mangy day in the lives of two junkies trying to kick, Gridlock'd would have been a good mid-level B.O. performer even without the interest surrounding it, due to the recent death of co-star Tupac Shakur. full review
54. How to Be a Player 1997 full review
55. Jackie Brown 1997 Offers an abundance of pleasures, especially in the realm of characterization and atmosphere. full review
56. Liar Liar 1997 Close to an ideal jumping-off point for Carrey, who spends the better part of an hour grotesquely physicalizing his scummy lawyer's struggle with being obliged to utter cold, hard facts. full review
57. Mimic 1997 full review
58. The Peacemaker 1997 full review
59. Private Parts 1997 full review
60. The Rainmaker 1997 Coppola has never been particularly known for his comic touch, but here he seems bent on leavening the melodrama with as many laughs as possible, and they are generally honest and well-earned. full review
61. Red Corner 1997 full review
62. Michael Collins 1996 Intelligent, enormously accomplished and seriously problematic, Neil Jordan's ambitious account of the activities of arguably the central figure in Ireland's painful, bloody fight for independence from the British Empire has a great deal to offer... full review
63. 101 Dalmatians 1996 full review
64. Beautiful Girls 1996 This startlingly uneventful compendium of thick-headed boy-talk and female tolerance squanders a fine cast on incredibly ordinary characters and situations. full review
65. Big Night 1996 full review
66. Citizen Ruth 1996 full review
67. Curdled 1996 full review
68. Daylight 1996 full review
69. Flirting With Disaster 1996 full review
70. The Pallbearer 1996 full review
71. Sling Blade 1996 full review
72. Trees Lounge 1996 full review
73. Walking and Talking 1996 full review
74. Bad Boys 1995 Even when it's not particularly funny, their interplay is engaging, and their lively, raucous personalities keep the proceedings punchy and watchable for the slightly overlong running time. full review
75. Fire on the Mountain 1995 full review
76. Picture Bride 1995 full review
77. Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead 1995 full review
78. Bad Girls 1994 full review
79. Blue Chips 1994 A deafness-inducing but otherwise ho-hum would-be expose of shady recruiting practices by college basketball programs. full review
80. Clear and Present Danger 1994 Narrative complexity and momentum make this a true cinematic equivalent of an absorbing page-turner. full review
81. The Crow 1994 A seamless, pulsating, dazzlingly visual revenge fantasy that stands as one of the most effective live-actioners ever derived from a comic strip. full review
82. Hoop Dreams 1994 A prodigious achievement that conveys the fabric of modern American life, aspirations and incidentally, sports, in close-up and at length, Hoop Dreams is a documentary slam dunk. full review
83. Love and a .45 1994 full review
84. Nell 1994 full review
85. Pulp Fiction 1994 A spectacularly entertaining piece of pop culture. full review
86. Swimming with Sharks 1994 full review
87. The Beverly Hillbillies 1993 It's thin stuff, but the ingratiating naivete of the characters and the aw-shucks friendliness of the cast are disarming, and it becomes easy to just let this go down as a country tune with some moonshine on the side. full review
88. The House of the Spirits 1993 full review
89. In the Name of the Father 1993 Miscarried justice often provides the vehicle for emotionally wrenching drama and histrionic fireworks, and such is the case in spades with In the Name of the Father. full review
90. Indecent Proposal 1993 full review
91. The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 The dazzling techniques employed here create a strikinglook that's never been seen in such sustained form, making this a unique curio that will appeal to kids and film enthusiasts alike. full review
92. What's Eating Gilbert Grape 1993 Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom and his fine cast have endowed the story with a good deal of behavioral truth and unstressed comedy. full review
93. Glengarry Glen Ross 1992 full review
94. Reservoir Dogs 1992 Undeniably impressive pic grabs the viewer by the lapels and shakes hard, but it also is about nothing other than a bunch of macho guys and how big their guns are. full review
95. Sarafina 1992 full review
96. The Last Emperor 1987 Constantly absorbing and tremendously interesting. full review
97. Platoon 1986 The artistic veneer Stone applies, along with the simpy narration provided for Sheen in the way of letters to his grandmother, detract significantly from the work's immediacy. full review
98. Ordinary People 1980 A powerfully intimate domestic drama. full review
99. Apocalypse Now 1979 full review