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Movie Brief

Movie Brief is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Michael Nordine.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
3/4
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) Michael Nordine In even bothering to ponder such questions, The Bone Temple expands the franchise’s mythos and shows it has more on its mind than most of its genre ilk.
Posted Jan 23, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
A Useful Ghost (2025) Michael Nordine Almost certainly the best movie ever made about a possessed vacuum cleaner.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) Michael Nordine Just because these movies don’t need to exist doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be glad they do.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
The Testament of Ann Lee (2025) Michael Nordine As bold and audacious as any biopic in years.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Is This Thing On? (2025) Michael Nordine Funny in a sad way and sad in a funny way.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
The Plague (2025) Michael Nordine "Hell is other people," especially when those people are 12-year-old boys.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
Dead Man's Wire (2025) Michael Nordine Chekhov’s gun by way of Saw.
Posted Jan 08, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
The Mother and the Bear (2024) Michael Nordine It’s rare to see a performance worth discussing in a movie released in the first week of January, but Sara is so charming and likable in every small movement and gesture that you’re on her side from the moment you meet her.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
No Other Choice (2025) Michael Nordine A master among masters, Park Chan-wook is the rare filmmaker whose every movie feels like an event unto itself.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
Marty Supreme (2025) Michael Nordine In applying his usual approach to something ostensibly banal, Safdie has found a sweet spot between subject and style.
Posted Dec 19, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Rosemead (2025) Michael Nordine It’s unbelievable yet somehow true that this is Liu’s first leading role in a drama; let’s hope it’s not the last.
Posted Dec 11, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Little Trouble Girls (2025) Michael Nordine What emerges from that struggle is a graceful meditation on faith, desire, and the internal strife that can arise when the two intermingle in the heart of someone who doesn’t know where one ends and the other begins.
Posted Dec 04, 2025  Edit critic review
Hamnet (2025) Michael Nordine It’s also a little contrived, the kind of emotional climax that feels increasingly ersatz and even manipulative once feeling gives way to thinking.
Posted Dec 03, 2025  Edit critic review
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) Michael Nordine Too clever by half and never picks up as much narrative momentum as the original or its sequel.
Posted Dec 03, 2025  Edit critic review
The Secret Agent (2025) Michael Nordine You will quite literally never guess where a subplot involving a severed leg found inside of a shark is headed.
Posted Dec 03, 2025  Edit critic review
Train Dreams (2025) Michael Nordine Seamlessly blends the idyllic and the morbid.
Posted Dec 03, 2025  Edit critic review
Die My Love (2025) Michael Nordine There’s a way to be exasperating while still being compelling, a needle Die My Love threads more often than not.
Posted Dec 03, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Left-Handed Girl (2025) Michael Nordine Joyful in a way that only the most bittersweet stories can be.
Posted Nov 26, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Sirāt (2025) Michael Nordine There may be nothing new under the sun, but under the harsh rays of the desert, Sirāt looks like few other movies in recent or distant memory.
Posted Nov 26, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Sentimental Value (2025) Michael Nordine Trier, one of Norway’s most accomplished filmmakers, is decidedly unsentimental. (He is Scandinavian, after all.)
Posted Nov 06, 2025  Edit critic review
Frankenstein (2025) Michael Nordine Like a certain mad scientist’s most (in)famous creation, it's uniquely compelling in a way that only a mishmash of familiar parts can be.
Posted Nov 03, 2025  Edit critic review
Dracula (2025) Michael Nordine The logic behind using AI to point out that most of its practitioners are creatively bankrupt is debatable; it’s also typical Jude, whose movies often feel like middle fingers directed at whatever’s caught his attention at the time.
Posted Nov 03, 2025  Edit critic review
The Mastermind (2025) Michael Nordine Anyone who’s seen Reichardt's prior movies will know that she always rewards our patience — even if she rarely rewards her characters’ bad behavior.
Posted Nov 03, 2025  Edit critic review
The Smashing Machine (2025) Michael Nordine Despite its attempt to be more akin to Raging Bull than Rocky, this is still a fairly pedestrian sports drama.
Posted Nov 03, 2025  Edit critic review
There Was, There Was Not (2024) Michael Nordine An especially vital document of a place that, like far too much of Armenia’s rich cultural tapestry, can only be referred to in the past tense.
Posted Nov 03, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE (2025) Michael Nordine Since a more conventional narrative arc would be letting both the viewer and this entire system off the hook, Bigelow instead models hers after after a nuclear bomb: once in flight, catastrophe is certain no matter where it lands.
Posted Oct 30, 2025  Edit critic review
4/4
Sound of Falling (2025) Michael Nordine A powerful reminder of what movies — and only movies — can do, Sound of Falling is, quite simply, the best film of the year.
Posted Oct 30, 2025  Edit critic review
The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) Michael Nordine Roger Ebert once described the movies as “a machine that generates empathy.” Judged on those terms, The Voice of Hind Rajab is an incredible machine.
Posted Oct 30, 2025  Edit critic review
Magellan (2025) Michael Nordine Finds the slow-cinema luminary blending his distinct sensibility with the biopic form to immersive, inventive effect.
Posted Oct 30, 2025  Edit critic review
Ghost Elephants (2025) Michael Nordine I could tell you the context for lines like this one, but I’d rather let it stand on its own terms: “I know I should not romanticize this, but I feel, surrounded by chickens, it cannot get any better than this.”
Posted Oct 30, 2025  Edit critic review
We Believe You (2025) Michael Nordine Nothing is resolved in We Believe You, but much is revealed.
Posted Oct 30, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Bugonia (2025) Michael Nordine Funny in a way no other director’s movies are, unsettling in a way no other director’s movies are, and intriguing in a way no other director’s movies are.
Posted Oct 22, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/4
It Was Just an Accident (2025) Michael Nordine An incisive exploration of the self-destructive nature of revenge made even richer by the unique circumstances of one of the world’s bravest filmmakers.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Roofman (2025) Michael Nordine Jeffrey’s attempt to reconcile those two conceptions of himself might not be one to emulate, Roofman makes it exceedingly difficult to condemn him for it.
Posted Oct 09, 2025  Edit critic review
One Battle After Another (2025) Michael Nordine Has the same problem as Anderson’s other would-be masterpieces: fading from the mind as soon as the credits roll.
Posted Oct 06, 2025  Edit critic review
The Long Walk (2025) Michael Nordine Hoffman once again shows he’s very much his father’s son.
Posted Oct 06, 2025  Edit critic review
Happyend (2024) Michael Nordine Sora is keenly aware that living in the world for the last decade has made it easy to be pessimistic about whatever awaits us in the next one, but Happyend isn’t a downer so much as an early-detection system.
Posted Oct 06, 2025  Edit critic review
The Baltimorons (2025) Michael Nordine Like a good Christmas present, The Baltimorons isn’t any less enjoyable just because it’s predictable.
Posted Oct 06, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
The Ice Tower (2025) Michael Nordine There’s a fine line between mesmeric and pretentious, atmospheric and boring, but Hadžihalilović’s steady hand ensures that The Ice Tower always falls on the right side of it.
Posted Oct 01, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Chain Reactions (2024) Michael Nordine Succeeds in offering new perspectives on an old saw.
Posted Sep 25, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
My Sunshine (2024) Michael Nordine There’s beauty in this elegant fragility, but also looming heartache.
Posted Sep 19, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025) Michael Nordine A fond farewell that bows out at just the right moment and avoids overstaying its welcome.
Posted Sep 11, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Preparation for the Next Life (2025) Michael Nordine Preparation for the Next Life will tug at your heartstrings, but it will also stress you out.
Posted Aug 29, 2025  Edit critic review
Honey Don't! (2025) Michael Nordine Feels, for better and for worse, like a fully realized Ethan Coen movie.
Posted Aug 29, 2025  Edit critic review
Lurker (2025) Michael Nordine The power dynamic is constantly shifting, built as it is on parasocial relationships among immature narcissists, but Lurker is never as shallow as its characters.
Posted Aug 29, 2025  Edit critic review
Eden (2024) Michael Nordine Floreana: nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there.
Posted Aug 29, 2025  Edit critic review
Shin Godzilla (2016) Michael Nordine This is the most frightful, downright invincible the King of Monsters has ever looked.
Posted Aug 29, 2025  Edit critic review
The Naked Gun (2025) Michael Nordine Spoofs the genre without undermining its source material — a small but key distinction.
Posted Aug 29, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Stranger Eyes (2024) Michael Nordine Lives up to its voyeuristic premise by demanding our undivided attention as it slowly evolves from a kidnapping drama into a slow-burning surveillance thriller.
Posted Aug 29, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Harvest (2024) Michael Nordine Tsangari constantly keeps us on our toes as she gives the sense, from the opening scene, that something is amiss.
Posted Aug 21, 2025  Edit critic review
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