In Darkness

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  Director: Agnieszka Holland , studio Sony Pictures ,
Release Date: 2012-02-10
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Starring: Robert Wieckiewicz – Leopold Socha Benno Furmann – Mundek Margulies Agnieszka Grochowska – Klara Keller Maria Schrader – Paulina Chiger Herbert Knaup – Ignacy Chiger

From acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland, In Darkness is based on a true story. Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland, one day encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them for money in the labyrinth of the town’s sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something very unexpected, the unlikely alliance between Socha and the Jews as the enterprise seeps deeper into Socha’s conscience. The film is also an extraordinary story of survival as these men, women and children all try to outwit certain death during 14 months of ever increasing and intense danger. — (C) Sony Pictures Classics

V.A. Musetto

2011-12-09 original_score 3/4 freshness fresh

New York Post Holland has said that she wanted her harrowing and rewarding epic to run long so it would make viewers feel that they’re in the sewers as well. In this she succeeds.

Stephen Whitty

2011-12-09 original_score 3/4 freshness fresh

Newark Star-Ledger As many Holocaust stories as we’ve seen this one still has a fresh and important lesson about heroism – and how it has the habit of springing from some all-too-human places.

A.O. Scott

2011-12-08 original_score 3/5 freshness fresh

New York Times It is suspenseful horrifying and at times intensely moving. But the ease with which it elicits these responses from the audience feels more opportunistic than insightful.

 

Perfect Sense

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  Director: David MacKenzie , David Mackenzie , studio IFC Films ,
Release Date: 2012-02-10
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Starring: Eva Green – Susan Ewan McGregor – Michael Connie Nielsen Ewen Bremner Stephen Dillane – Samuel

Eva Green plays Susan, an expert in epidemics who, after having her heart broken, sees a patient who has lost the ability to smell anything after an unexpected crying jag. Turns out there is a small percentage of people who are experiencing emotional upheavals and then losing one or more of their senses. As she begins to research this condition, she comes to understand that the malady threatens the entire world. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Tirdad Derakhshani

2011-10-27 original_score 2/4 freshness rotten

Philadelphia Inquirer The film loses its charm with annoying sequences that have a narrator explain to us The Meaning of it All and then tell us What Really Matters in life Love. Love. Love.

Duane Byrge

2011-02-08 freshness none

Hollywood Reporter

 

The Iron Lady

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  Director: Phyllida Lloyd , studio The Weinstein Co. ,
Release Date: 2012-01-13
Genre: Art House & International
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Starring: Meryl Streep – Margaret Thatcher Jim Broadbent – Denis Thatcher Harry Lloyd – Young Denis Thatcher Anthony Head – Geoffrey Howe Alexandra Roach – Young Margaret Thatcher

The Iron Lady is a surprising and intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep), the first and only female Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. One of the 20th century’s most famous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male dominated world. — (C) Weinstein

Robert Levin

2011-12-30 original_score 3/4 freshness fresh

The Atlantic The film views Thatcher with sympathy and admiration; the effect is a strange movie that manages to compel while also coming off as shortsighted.

2011-12-30 freshness none

New York Times

Joe Morgenstern

2011-12-30 freshness rotten

Wall Street Journal Takes a blandly nonpartisan approach to one of the most controversial as well as influential politicians in British history.

 

Beauty and the Beast (In 3D)

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  Director: Gary Trousdale , Kirk Wise , studio Buena Vista ,
Release Date: 2012-01-13
Genre: Animation
MPAA Rating: G
Starring: Mia Farrow – Narrator Paige O’Hara – Belle Robby Benson – Beast Jerry Orbach – Lumiere Angela Lansbury – Mrs. Potts

Belle, whose father is imprisoned by the Beast, offers herself instead and discovers her captor to be an enchanted prince.

Janet Maslin

2008-10-18 original_score 4.5/5 freshness fresh

New York Times It is a surprise in a time of sequels and retreads that the new film is so fresh and altogether triumphant in its own right.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

2008-09-10 freshness fresh

Chicago Reader Despite some excessive narrative streamlining this 1991 release was the best Disney animated feature in years full of charm and humor.

Richard Corliss

2008-09-01 freshness fresh

TIME Magazine Its animators’ pens are wands; their movement enchants.

 

Carnage

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  Director: Roman Polanski , studio Sony Pictures Classics ,
Release Date: 2011-12-16
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Starring: Jodie Foster – Penelope Longstreet Kate Winslet – Nancy Cowan Christoph Waltz – Alan Cowan John C. Reilly – Michael Longstreet Elvis Polanski – Zachary

Carnage is a razor sharp, biting comedy centered on parental differences. After two boys duke it out on a playground, the parents of the “victim” invite the parents of the “bully” over to work out their issues. A polite discussion of childrearing soon escalates into verbal warfare, with all four parents revealing their true colors. None of them will escape the carnage. — (C) Sony Pictures Classics

Lou Lumenick

2011-09-29 original_score 3/4 freshness fresh

New York Post Fast furious and often funny.

Todd McCarthy

2011-09-01 freshness fresh

Hollywood Reporter Snappy nasty deftly acted and perhaps the fastest paced film ever directed by a 78-year-old this adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s award-winning play God of Carnage fully delivers the laughs and savagery of the stage piece…

 

London River

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  Director: Rachid Bouchareb , studio Cinema Libre ,
Release Date: 2011-12-09
Genre: Art House & International
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Starring: Brenda Blethyn – Elisabeth Sommers Sotigui Kouyate – Ousmane Roschdy Zem – Butcher Sami Bouajila – Imam Bernard Blancan – Logger

London 2005–It’s the story of Ousmane and Mrs Sommers, both humble people living ordinary lives, he in France, she in the Channel Islands. He has a son – she has a daughter – they both are students in London. On July 7th 2005, without any news of their dear children, they decide to start a journey together in search of the two teenagers. And although they come from different religious backgrounds – Ousmane is Muslim and Mrs Sommers’ Christian – they will share the same hope in finding their children alive. Putting aside their cultural differences, they will give each other the strength to continue the search and maintain the faith. — (C) Official Site

Rick Groen

2011-01-13 original_score 3/4 freshness fresh

Globe and Mail The emotion feels credible the connections seem real and if only briefly the title truly earns its metaphor — the same river does run through us all.

Gary Goldstein

2009-11-13 original_score 4/5 freshness fresh

Los Angeles Times Blethyn brings tremendous empathy to the introspective determined Elisabeth while the tall gaunt and dreadlocked Ousmane fleshes out his less-dimensional role with a haunting sadness that speaks volumes.

 

We Need to Talk About Kevin

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  Director: Lynne Ramsay , studio Oscilloscope Pictures ,
Release Date: 2011-12-09
Genre: Mystery & Suspense
MPAA Rating: R
Starring: Tilda Swinton – Eva John C. Reilly – Franklin Ezra Miller – Kevin Ashley Gerasimovich – Celia Siobhan Fallon

A suspenseful and gripping psychological thriller, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin explores the factious relationship between a mother and her son. Tilda Swinton, in a bracing, tour-de-force performance, plays the mother, Eva, as she contends for 15 years with the increasing malevolence of her first-born child, Kevin (Ezra Miller). Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, We Need to Talk About Kevin explores nature vs. nurture on a whole new level as Eva’s own culpability is measured against Kevin’s innate evilness. Ramsay’s masterful storytelling simultaneously combines a provocative moral ambiguity with a satisfying and compelling narrative, which builds to a chilling, unforgettable climax. — (C) Oscilloscope

Liam Lacey

2011-09-08 original_score 2/4 freshness rotten

Globe and Mail Ezra Miller’s sneering absurdly precocious evil-child performance makes him just another bad-seed horror villain.

Kirk Honeycutt

2011-05-17 freshness fresh

Hollywood Reporter This is in a way a real horror film about everyday things and a disconnected family.

Leslie Felperin

2011-05-13 freshness fresh

Variety Present in every scene so that there’s no doubt that her character’s consciousness is filtering what’s seen Swinton delivers a concrete-hard central perf that’s up there with her best work.

 

Shame

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  Director: Steve McQueen (III) , studio Fox Searchlight ,
Release Date: 2011-12-02
Genre: Art House & International
MPAA Rating: NC-17
Starring: Michael Fassbender – Brandon Carey Mulligan – Sissy James Badge Dale – David Nicole Beharie – Marianne Hannah Ware – Samantha

Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a New Yorker who shuns intimacy with women but feeds his desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his wayward younger sister (Carey Mulligan) moves into his apartment stirring memories of their shared painful past, Brandon’s insular life spirals out of control. — (C) Official Site

Laremy Legel

2011-09-14 original_score A- freshness fresh

Film.com It’s a tribute to McQueen’s steady directorial hand that he’s able to evoke such exceptional performances.

Todd McCarthy

2011-09-14 freshness none

Hollywood Reporter

Andrew O’Hehir

2011-09-13 freshness fresh

Salon.com A visual and sonic symphony and a Dante-esque journey through a New York nightworld where words are mostly useless or worse.

 

The Legend of Pale Male

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  Director: Frederic Lilien , studio Balcony Releasing ,
Release Date: 2011-11-24
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Starring: Mary Tyler Moore Charles Kennedy Lincoln Karim Marie Winn Alexander Fisher

The Legend of Pale Male is the true account of one of the most surprising and remarkable love stories in the history of New York City. It begins in 1993, when a young man from Belgium looking to change his life has an unexpected encounter in Central Park. He meets a hawk. Not just any hawk, but a wild Redtail, a fierce predator that has not lived in the City for almost a hundred years. Affectionately known to New Yorkers as Pale Male, the hawk becomes a magnificent obsession -a metaphor for triumph against all odds. His nest, perched high on a posh Fifth Avenue co-op, starts out as a novel curiosity to a handful of avid birdwatchers but becomes an international tourist destination – a place of pilgrimage. Then, without warning, one December afternoon the building manager dismantles Pale Male’s nest. The act unites an unlikely family of birdwatchers, movie stars, poets, children, dogs, reporters, and celebrities, including Mary Tyler Moore and David Letterman. What unfolds next could only happen in New York. — (C) Balcony Releasing

Ty Burr

2010-12-22 original_score 2.5/4 freshness fresh

Boston Globe It’s notable for some astounding urban wildlife footage and for the way it unintentionally reflects the giddy narcissism of the primate known as homo sapiens.

Walter V. Addiego

2010-12-09 original_score 3/4 freshness fresh

San Francisco Chronicle An entertaining documentary that is more heartfelt than polished.

Jeannette Catsoulis

2010-11-24 original_score 2.5/4 freshness rotten

New York Times A sugary aggressively anthropomorphized story of one avian interloper and a whole bunch of human obsessives.

 

The Artist

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  Director: Michel Hazanavicius , studio The Weinstein Company ,
Release Date: 2011-11-23
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Starring: Jean Dujardin – George Valentin Berenice Bejo – Peppy Miller John Goodman – Al Zimmer Zimmer James Cromwell – Clifton Penelope Ann Miller – Doris

Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky’s the limit – major movie stardom awaits. The Artist tells the story of their interlinked destinies. — (C) Weinstein

Joe Morgenstern

2011-09-09 freshness fresh

Wall Street Journal Illustrates the movie medium’s deathless pleasures.

Laremy Legel

2011-08-25 original_score A freshness fresh

Film.com Delightful and lovely a little gift of cinema.