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Little Big Man
(1970)
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Sam Blazer
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Stalwarts? This film is filled with them -- on screen and off. Scope? And scale and spectrum? This film is entangled in them, awash with them. Finally it soars with them. Tongue in cheek? Heavy with it. Subtle too -- and generous.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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The Exorcist
(1973)
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Chris Van Ness
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The real hero of this film is the man who pulled it all together: director William Friedkin, who has well-deserved billing under the title. Friedkin, who cut his film teeth in television, has crafted a masterpiece of narrative filmmaking.
Posted Sep 27, 2023
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The Heartbreak Kid
(1972)
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Robert Sullivan
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The performances are excellent all the way through... Jeannie Berlin is perfect as the wife, and if her voice and manner seem oddly familiar it's probably because she is Elaine May's daughter.
Posted Feb 23, 2022
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Nothing But a Man
(1964)
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Byron Pumphrey
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It is a work of art.
Posted Jan 31, 2022
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Solaris
(1972)
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Ruth Batchelor
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A scientist-sweating, slow moving, seat-squeaking bore.
Posted Jun 30, 2021
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The Black Bird
(1975)
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Ruth Batchelor
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Black Bird is a funny movie.
Posted Jun 30, 2021
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Countdown at Kusini
(1976)
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Ruth Batchelor
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[Ruby Dee's] a fine actress and was wasted.
Posted Jul 11, 2020
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Easy Rider
(1969)
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Paul Schrader
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Easy Rider deals with the most important issues facing America -- and for that reason its superficiality is the more deplorable.
Posted Jul 01, 2020
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The Wild Bunch
(1969)
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Paul Schrader
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The result is one of the strongest emotional kickbacks of any film. The Wild Bunch does for the emotions what Shane did for the intellect.
Posted Jul 01, 2020
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Les Biches
(1968)
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Paul Schrader
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It passes over us with the full weight of its two hours. Les Biches is a sleeper, that is, it's soporific.
Posted Jul 01, 2020
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Belle de Jour
(1967)
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Paul Schrader
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Belle de Jour ranks with L'Age D'Or and Los Olvidados as a landmark not only of Luis Bunuel's career, but of the history of motion pictures.
Posted Jul 01, 2020
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The Sergeant
(1968)
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Paul Schrader
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The failure of the Sergeant rests on Steiger.
Posted Jun 30, 2020
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The Rise of Louis XIV
(1966)
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Paul Schrader
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Rossellini has created a monument to Louis in a film which stands as great as Versailles in architecture.
Posted Jun 30, 2020
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Support Your Local Sheriff!
(1969)
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Paul Schrader
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Mindless Entertainment Department: veteran screenwriter William Bowers has written a funny script for a film with the suspiciously corny title of Support Your Local Sheriff.
Posted Jun 30, 2020
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Baby Love
(1969)
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Paul Schrader
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It is well photograped and at least three scenes stand in the memory as being very well cut. But after one trims away the peripheral elements... there is nothing left but a cheesecake film.
Posted Jun 30, 2020
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The Learning Tree
(1969)
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Paul Schrader
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The Learning Tree gives the viewer breathing room, an opportunity to both take it in and leave it. And considering the film's subject matter, that is a sizable achievement.
Posted Jun 30, 2020
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If...
(1968)
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Paul Schrader
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The is an acute sense of disappointment about If, not only over the great film Anderson failed to create, but also the lesser film he passed by.
Posted Jun 30, 2020
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(undefined)
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Richard Whitehall
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On the whole the rich possibilities of the subject are thinly realized.
Posted Jun 01, 2020
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Fearless Frank
(1967)
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Richard Whitehall
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Technically there is nothing wrong with the movie... but, in the final analysis, the work is as juvenile as the genre it is satirizing, not cutting enough, not funny enough, not imaginative enough.
Posted Jun 01, 2020
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(undefined)
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Richard Whitehall
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[Heinosuke] Gosha's greatness as adirector is nowhere left in doubt.
Posted Jun 01, 2020
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Inside North Vietnam
(1967)
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Gene Youngblood
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Hawks and doves alike will benefit by seeing it.
Posted Apr 09, 2020
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Laughter in the Dark
(1969)
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George Kaplan
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By and large, [Tony Richardson's] direction is intelligent and disciplined.
Posted Apr 09, 2020
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(undefined)
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Richard Whitehall
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Without thinking it to be in any way a masterpiece, I find Mailer's movie pretty sharp, a probing into the role of the police in contemporary society.
Posted Mar 17, 2020
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Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
(1964)
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Ridgely Cummings
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It was a most uncomfortable experience. It was about as funny as a creeping case of cancer... Despite this carping I must admit that Dr. Strangelove was a memorable film, one worth seeing and one which took courage to make and even to exhibit.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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The World's Greatest Sinner
(1962)
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Abby Kunkin
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If Mr. [Timothy] Carey plans to make more religious films of this type, Hell may really break loose in the art-film houses.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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The Cool World
(1964)
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Norman Hartweg
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While Shirley Clarke's latest film, The Cool World... does not deal directly with the recent rioting that has turned Harlem into a shambles, it is nonetheless the most important document to date of the situation itself.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Fail-Safe
(1964)
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Merl Edelman
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It's a well done television play that somehow got on a large screen where its literate but talky script and excellent acting can't make up for the lack of action or monotony of pace that so bog it down.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Topkapi
(1964)
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Merl Edelman
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It's strictly entertainment, but Peter Ustinov and Robert Morley are worth it for fun even without the ingenious jewel robbery around which this colorful spoof focuses.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Ashes and Diamonds
(1958)
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Merl Edelman
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This honest film shows a greater degree of artistic and political freedom in Poland (at least in 1959) than we are led to expect.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Cleopatra
(1963)
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Merl Edelman
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Worth a look.... for a single performance: Rex Harrison as Caesar.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Joy House
(1964)
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Merl Edelman
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Though Joy House, with its pyramid of tricks, chases, surprises, secret panels - the lot - never quite thinks to poke the finger of fun at itself, viewers make no such mistake.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Becket
(1964)
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Merl Edelman
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Worth a look... for a single performance:... Peter O'Toole as Becket's king, Henry II.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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The Kitchen
(1961)
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Merl Edelman
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Arnold Wesker's off-beat and interesting view of a restaurant kitchen as a microcosmic world tells some truths about us all. A good film, often hard to find.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Zorba the Greek
(1964)
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Merl Edelman
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[Director Michael] Cacoyannis' skills as a craftsman are considerable.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Woman in the Dunes
(1964)
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A. Fredric Franklyn
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Certainly the central inspiration, of going into the earth itself to dig out a story of man, is a compelling cinematic reach.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Girl With Green Eyes
(1964)
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Frank Urbach
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Rita Tushingham is sheer delight as the girl.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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The Americanization of Emily
(1964)
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Merl Edelman
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Despite a title which smacks of war-bride sop, [the film] is in some ways the most impressive film since Strangelove.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(1964)
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Chris Breyer
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What makes Les Parapluies a delight is its almost total involvement with the cinematic medium; its delight in color, movement and gesture; the making of fantasy out of the most common objects of modern existence.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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36 Hours
(1964)
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Merl Edelman
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Even when it becomes just another spy thriller, it's as well done as the best of the genre.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Intentions of Murder
(1964)
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Frank Urbach
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Film has a new poet. His name is [Shohei Imamura].
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Marriage Italian Style
(1964)
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A. Fredric Franklyn
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De Sica's latest is tricky, thin and dishonest.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Muriel
(1963)
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Norman Hartweg
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An absorbing and beautiful film.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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Death Is a Woman
(1967)
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Lewis Teague
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It is this feeling of freedom that pervades the entire film and makes it so exciting, so significant to the true nature of experiencing the full imact of the cinema.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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The Pawnbroker
(1964)
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Frank Urbach
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It is our statement that Nazerman is as much Lumet's creation as Steigers: mood and visuals combine with the performance to present a screen creation wholly worthy of Emil Janning's work with Von Sternberg in Blue Angel.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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The Soft Skin
(1964)
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Edward Zatlyn
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The film opens with a kind of urgency that never really lets up.
Posted Feb 05, 2020
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The Knack... and How to Get It
(1965)
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Edward Zatlyn
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The screenplay by Charles Wood (based on the play by Ann Jellicoe) is alive, written for the cinema with as many sight gags and visual trips as can be packed or stacked into the thin little story line.
Posted Feb 04, 2020
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Circle of Love
(1964)
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Digby Diehl
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Has taken the plot material of [Arthur Schnltzler's play La Ronde] and turned it into a square dance.
Posted Feb 04, 2020
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Diary of a Chambermaid
(1964)
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Shelley Burton
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Impressive in the film is the graceful, mature manner in which the characters subtly reveal the dramatics of the story.
Posted Feb 04, 2020
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Red Desert
(1964)
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Don Campbell
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For the images, color, and the sound alone, Michelangelo Antonioni's The Red Desert is worth it.
Posted Feb 04, 2020
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The Collector
(1965)
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Don Strachan
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The Collector's weaknesses are not enough to destroy an essentially good film. It passes the ultimate critical test in that it compels a fair degree of involvement.
Posted Feb 04, 2020
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