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David Ansen

Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications:

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Boogie Nights (1997) 91% EDIT “One of those breakthrough movies that leaves no doubt you are in the presence of a natural-born filmmaker. Like Spielberg's Sugarland Express or Scorsese's Mean Streets, Anderson's mesmerizing movie announces the arrival of a major career.” – Newsweek Sep 24, 2025 Full Review Explorers (1985) 49% EDIT “The early stuff is aimed at the kids, the payoff can be properly savored only by adults, the finale is limp.” – Newsweek Jul 11, 2025 Full Review Superman II (1980) 89% EDIT “Whether bumping into doors as that bumbling preppie Clark Kent, or fielding tossed cars on the streets of Metropolis, Reeve's bashful gallantry is thoroughly winning.” – Newsweek Jun 25, 2025 Full Review Spaceballs (1987) 52% EDIT “If Spaceballs lurches erratically from gut laugh to groaner, perhaps it’s because the Star Wars movies aren’t the most fertile soil for a feature-length sendup... [Still,] when Spaceballs connects, you remember why Brooks was once comedy’s MVP.” – Newsweek Apr 4, 2024 Full Review Traffic (2000) 93% EDIT “Traffic's engines are already revved when it starts, with a drug bust in the Mexican desert, and it careers through its multiple stories with a documentary-style urgency that never lets up.” – Newsweek Sep 7, 2023 Full Review Moscow on the Hudson (1984) 73% EDIT “Mazursky here barely seems to be on a first name basis with his characters. They're mere ideas to him, which makes his fulsome celebration of their diverse humanity disingenuous. ” – Newsweek Aug 22, 2023 Full Review The Color Purple (1985) 73% EDIT “Ultimately, it’s hard not to be moved by Spielberg’s ‘Color Purple and its formidable cast. But it’s not that simple: Spielberg’s limitations as well as his brilliance are on full display.” – Newsweek May 31, 2023 Full Review Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) 84% EDIT “Indiana Jones dishes out the action so generously and with such good- humored confidence you feel like an ingrate for carping. This thrice-told tale gives you your money’s worth. Now it’s time to hang up the bullwhip and move on.” – Newsweek May 1, 2023 Full Review Evil Dead II (1987) 88% EDIT “Keep your eye on Raimi: it's not easy to pitch a comedy at a level this flamboyant and then keep topping the gags. ” – Newsweek Mar 29, 2023 Full Review One Sings, the Other Doesn't (1977) 65% EDIT “Though Valérie Mairesse and Thérèse Liotard are captivating performers and Varda's direction has a sweet, unforced race, the result is a movie whose emotional temperature never rises above lukewarm. ” – Newsweek Mar 7, 2023 Full Review Valentino (1977) 46% EDIT “It's as if the director, impatient to get to his highlights, lost interest in the fine-tuning that makes a good idea a good movie. But Rudolf Nureyev as Rudolph Valentino is a good idea that pays off. ” – Newsweek Mar 7, 2023 Full Review Citizens Band (1977) 100% EDIT “Demme has lots of fun, and, aided by a fresh, talented cast, he artfully modulates his moods from raunchy farce to somber pathos. ” – Newsweek Mar 7, 2023 Full Review La Dentelliere (1977) 86% EDIT “Dominated by Isabelle Huppert's magnificent performance, The Lacemaker is like "The Story of Adèle H." seen through the other end of the telescope. It may lack Truffaut's broad scale, but it has a deeper ring of truth. ” – Newsweek Mar 7, 2023 Full Review Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) 70% EDIT “The director was reportedly in despair at the random violence of Italian society just before his death; that despair permeates his final work and gives it a posthumous significance. ” – Newsweek Mar 7, 2023 Full Review Short Eyes (1978) 92% EDIT “The flaws ultimately don't matter. Like the prison jargon, the sense of which is always clear even if the words are incomprehensible, Piñero's angry eloquence -- and his sudden flashes of tenderness -- burn away one's esthetic qualms. ” – Newsweek Mar 7, 2023 Full Review Dawn of the Dead (1978) 92% EDIT “For blood, guts and chuckles, most horror fans will undoubtedly find Dawn of the Dead finger-lickin’ good.” – Newsweek Oct 7, 2022 Full Review Platoon (1986) 89% EDIT “Platoon captures the crazy, adrenalin-rush chaos of battle better than any movie has done before. Stone is ruthless in his deglamorization of war, but not at the expense of the men who fought there.” – Newsweek Aug 18, 2022 Full Review Rain Man (1988) 88% EDIT “In every detail -- the superb soundtrack, the rich cinematography, the distinctively edgy editing -- Rain Man reveals itself as a move made with care, smarts and a refreshing refusal to settle for the expected.” – Newsweek Aug 4, 2022 Full Review The Last Emperor (1987) 86% EDIT “If at times The Last Emperor is closer to DeMille than Dostoevsky, and its parts greater than the whole, when was the last time a pageant offered such splendors? ” – Newsweek Aug 2, 2022 Full Review Terms of Endearment (1983) 81% EDIT “Scene by wonderful scene, Terms of Endearment may be the most emotionally satisfying Hollywood movie this year. ” – Newsweek Jul 20, 2022 Full Review Amadeus (1984) 90% EDIT “Hulce, like the movie, may not be quite ideal, but that should not scare anyone away. There is enough enchantment in this big, generous, flawed movie for most everybody. ” – Newsweek Jul 11, 2022 Full Review Thief (1981) 80% EDIT “There's a strain of self-consciousness in Mann's macho, mechanistic style, but he's got power on his side. Thief envelops you in its tough, doom-laden grip and never lets go. ” – Newsweek Jul 7, 2022 Full Review 9 to 5 (1980) 70% EDIT “Colin Higgins' movie is a disappointment. Not a fiasco, a disaster or a scandal. But not as funny as it should have been, and not the trenchant office satire one was led to expect. ” – Newsweek Jun 17, 2022 Full Review Popeye (1980) 60% EDIT “One succumbs to a state of glazed indifference. The fault is not in the performances by Williams and Duvall, but rather, I suspect, in Altman's refusal to allow any movie star to violate the one-dimensional texture he's created. ” – Newsweek Jun 17, 2022 Full Review Tess (1979) 81% EDIT “The magnificent cinematography... achieves more than mere loveliness. The beauty of Tess hurts, evoking a world of natural splendor that mocks Hardy's benighted characters like a cosmic jest. ” – Newsweek Jun 17, 2022 Full Review
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