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Movie Mezzanine

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
A
Out of the Past (1947) Jake Cole One of the quintessential works in a genre riddled with decay.
Posted Jan 08, 2026  Edit critic review
Rollerball (1975) Jake Cole Jewison’s slack style, all calm long shots and lethargic pans around the game track, rarely capture the visceral thrill that the sport is meant to conjure, which makes the game look sloppy and basic, not primal and invigorating.
Posted Jun 04, 2025  Edit critic review
B
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater (2013) Brogan Morris A valuable introduction to these two filmmakers' work for budding film enthusiasts.
Posted May 02, 2024  Edit critic review
C+
Time Is Illmatic (2014) Charles Bramesco Time Is Illmatic is well-informed but inessential, a making-of featurette barely expanded to feature length at a trim 74 minutes.
Posted Jul 15, 2020  Edit critic review
A-
The Original Kings of Comedy (2000) Joshua Brunsting Ostensibly a shot performance of a comedians Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Bernie Mac and Cedric The Entertainer, the film is not only genuinely funny, but also very much a cultural touchstone.
Posted Aug 07, 2019  Edit critic review
Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman (2017) Marshall Shaffer Even though it plays like the TV documentary that is [...], the filmmakers and subjects make a compelling case for an argument with the power to connect us all.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Oklahoma City (2017) Marshall Shaffer Oklahoma City is effective when connecting 1995 to the decades of militant white nationalism that preceded it, yet Goodman bungles the documentary's relevance to the present.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
A Ghost Story (2017) Marshall Shaffer Lowery introduces a narrative conceit to remove us from our traditional comprehension of time and leaves us to ponder what forces still operate in these conditions.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Landline (2017) Marshall Shaffer Robespierre and co-writer Elisabeth Holm craft an indelible portrait of the women in the Jacobs family, each at different life stages yet all struggling to feel the love with important companions.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Person to Person (2017) Marshall Shaffer The old pan that something is "less than the sum of its parts" does not quite apply here.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Call Me by Your Name (2017) Marshall Shaffer Luca Guadagnino's film is sumptuous, sultry, and sincere. It's soaked with sensuality but defined by restrained tension and yearning expectation.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Newness (2017) Marshall Shaffer Newness exceeds the corny "how we live now" tropes, too, by giving us two characters we want to see succeed in breaking their generational baggage.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Midnight Special (2016) Marshall Shaffer Midnight Special is missing a foundation in the pathos and humanity in which Spielberg and Carpenter firmly rooted their iconic films.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) Marshall Shaffer Affectionate time capsule though it might be, Linklater's film employs his detailed knowledge of the period to illuminate a truth about the narrow corridor between being a child and being a parent.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Weiner (2016) Marshall Shaffer Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's captivating political documentary Weiner could just as easily be named Huma, the film's second subject who proves equally as captivating.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Swiss Army Man (2016) Marshall Shaffer Those who embrace the surreal and the absurd in this bonkers debut feature from the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Scheinert) will find a film full of soulful surprises.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Other People (2016) Marshall Shaffer The film finds an emotionally resonant blend of tragedy and comedy that packs a wallop of as the story of a cancer-stricken mother (Molly Shannon, better than ever) reaches its inevitable end.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Morris From America (2016) Marshall Shaffer Every scene just made me feel warm inside, especially scenes with Morris' father Curtis, who Craig Robinson plays with the utmost sincerity.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Goat (2016) Marshall Shaffer Without indicting the fraternity system, co-writer/director Andrew Neel scrutinizes the viability of young men who look for a solution to the problems of masculine assertion and social cohesion within such groups.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Christine (2016) Marshall Shaffer Hall convincingly charts her character's winding road of descent into madness and despair.
Posted Apr 20, 2019  Edit critic review
Green Room (2015) Marshall Shaffer Saulnier clearly feels a good deal of kinship with the punks and gives them dynamic personalities that prove oddly compelling.
Posted Jan 24, 2019  Edit critic review
Certain Women (2016) Elena Lazic Certain Women is a timely reminder that another kind of womanhood is possible.
Posted Aug 28, 2018  Edit critic review
A
Virunga (2014) Casey Cipriani It is a saddening look at the environmental consequences of corporate expansion and the innocent lives and creatures lost because of money.
Posted Jul 03, 2018  Edit critic review
7/10
The Ticket (2016) Colin Biggs "You see "tour de force" thrown around a lot of blurbs, but this is one of those instances where the hype is deserved​. Dan Stevens is amazing.​"
Posted Apr 06, 2017  Edit critic review
Logan (2017) Andy Hoglund The result is easily the most varied, earnest and interesting take on a comic book character since The Dark Knight.
Posted Mar 03, 2017  Edit critic review
From Nowhere (2016) Vikram Murthi Even at its bluntest, most didactic, and sorely predictable, From Nowhere will likely move and outrage even the stoniest of the individuals.
Posted Feb 24, 2017  Edit critic review
The Girl With All the Gifts (2016) Mallory Andrews [Sennia Nanua's] performance is worth the price of a ticket.
Posted Feb 24, 2017  Edit critic review
My Life as a Zucchini (2016) Michael Sicinski Downbeat, dark, and often genuinely unpleasant, Zucchini is every bit as quintessentially French as Zootopia is American. This is brutal existentialism as observed through the eyes of society's castoffs.
Posted Feb 17, 2017  Edit critic review
Fifty Shades Darker (2017) Mallory Andrews The only really satisfying wish-fulfillment fantasy of Fifty Shades Darker come when the twenty-something Ana is both promoted from her entry-level position to replace her boss, and has her savvy opinions praised by two older men in a staff meeting.
Posted Feb 10, 2017  Edit critic review
War on Everyone (2016) Vikram Murthi Someone could easily take McDonagh and his film to task for its flippant approach to police brutality, but the film simply isn't good or bad enough to expend the energy. It's just a duck that eventually stops quacking.
Posted Feb 03, 2017  Edit critic review
A Hundred Streets (2016) Mallory Andrews Reader, I despise this movie.
Posted Jan 13, 2017  Edit critic review
Silence (2016) Vikram Murthi It's an awe-inspiring masterwork from a 74-year-old filmmaker with no indication of slowing down.
Posted Jan 06, 2017  Edit critic review
Paterson (2016) Mallory Andrews Paterson is a procedural of the creative process. Paterson is also the best love story of the year, of two different varieties.
Posted Jan 06, 2017  Edit critic review
Neruda (2016) Mallory Andrews The real trouble is that Neruda is never regarded as anything but a figure of mythic status by his allies.
Posted Dec 16, 2016  Edit critic review
Office Christmas Party (2016) Vikram Murthi As far as by-the-numbers, big-budget major studio comedies go, Office Christmas Party is perfectly adequate.
Posted Dec 09, 2016  Edit critic review
Jackie (2016) Mallory Andrews Unfortunately, Portman's performance is the kind of boilerplate biopic mimicry that, while certainly attractive to Oscar voters, is the antithesis of the kind of critique she and Larraín are attempting.
Posted Dec 02, 2016  Edit critic review
The Edge of Seventeen (2016) Vikram Murthi The Edge of Seventeen captures unadulterated self-loathing and its chaotic manifestations better than almost any film this year, rendering it the most compelling teen film this decade, if only by default.
Posted Nov 29, 2016  Edit critic review
Moana (2016) Josh Spiegel Moana is proof of one of the slightly less-repeated axioms of storytelling: It's OK to use familiar tropes as long as you use them well.
Posted Nov 23, 2016  Edit critic review
I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016) Mallory Andrews I refer to Feng Xiaogang's class comedy I Am Not Madame Bovary as painterly, in which Feng's studied use of unconventional aspect ratios are as distinctive a painter's brushstrokes.
Posted Nov 18, 2016  Edit critic review
Pinocchio (1940) Josh Spiegel Pinocchio is the greatest, most terrifying film in the Walt Disney Animation Studios canon.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
The Revenant (2015) Josh Spiegel Every scene in The Revenant may be remarkably staged, but feels rigorously planned.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
Zootopia (2016) Josh Spiegel ...a genuinely charming and funny film.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
The Jungle Book (2016) Josh Spiegel [The Jungle Book] stumbles because the people involved aren't willing to fully commit to either making a near-shot-for-shot remake or going in a completely different direction.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
Captain America: Civil War (2016) Josh Spiegel A perfectly fine brand deposit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) Josh Spiegel A 3D nightmare.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
Finding Dory (2016) Josh Spiegel Finding Dory is a good movie, meaning that Pixar has a batting average of four for five when it comes to sequels.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
The BFG (2016) Josh Spiegel The BFG is the latest example of Spielberg using the long take to experiment with digital technology, pushing himself as a filmmaker as much he pushes his characters or the audience through emotional experience.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
Kevin Hart: What Now? (2016) Josh Spiegel It is, perhaps, a bit telling and awkward that the best parts of What Now? are less about Kevin Hart being funny and more about people reacting to Kevin Hart.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
Moonlight (2016) Josh Spiegel Moonlight takes the concept of the bildungsroman to its natural end point in ways that many coming-of-age stories don't.
Posted Nov 17, 2016  Edit critic review
Doctor Strange (2016) Mallory Andrews What Doctor Strange possesses is an uncommonly cohesive thematic and visual language for a Marvel superhero movie.
Posted Nov 04, 2016  Edit critic review
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