The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

Suzette Smith

The premise is played, but there's still some fun to be had, and you can see it with your kids.
Posted Feb 14, 2019
2
High Flying Bird (2019)

Erik Henriksen

Soderbergh's reliable skill aside, it's Holland, Gregg, and Beetz who end up with much of High Flying Bird's glory, turning in performances that're clever, vulnerable, and-most importantly-surprising.
Posted Feb 14, 2019
3
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

Suzette Smith

I'd rather talk about what this film is: a fun, exhilarating realization of a sci-fi story that, even now, audiences may not be ready for.
Posted Feb 13, 2019
4
Lords of Chaos (2019)

Dave Segal

Sheer cinematic sadism
Posted Feb 13, 2019
5
Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

Ned Lannamann

The humor is wry and dry and enjoyably mean, and while the story's more ridiculous elements eventually dominate, Buzzsaw's never less than effortlessly watchable.
Posted Feb 1, 2019
6
Fyre Fraud (2019)

Ciara Dolan

It's interesting to hear the madness explained, but Hulu's documentary Fyre Fraud zooms out to contextualize Fyre Festival as a symptom of a much greater issue.
Posted Jan 28, 2019
7
Fyre (2019)

Ciara Dolan

The takeaway is simply that the whole truth of what happened at Fyre Festival and its aftermath is presented by neither-that's what makes them so interesting.
Posted Jan 28, 2019
8
The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)

Ben Coleman

Thankfully, writer/director Joe Cornish brings the same sublime toolbox he used for the gleefully anarchic Attack the Block, transforming the stultifyingly bland public spaces of contemporary Britain into a fantastical playground.
Posted Jan 28, 2019
9
Stan & Ollie (2019)

Erik Henriksen

In Coogan and Reilly's performances, one senses a richness that never makes it to the screen, and hints of a better story that's left untold.
Posted Jan 28, 2019
10
Adult Life Skills (2019)

Leilani Polk

The premise of Adult Life Skills isn't remarkable or ground-breaking, but its execution is near impeccable and the result is a film that is quietly poignant, quirkily endearing, and humorous without seeming to try too hard.
Posted Jan 18, 2019
11
One Armed Swordsman (1967)

Charles Mudede

If you want an idea of how the unspoken class issues of the Jedi movies could have been represented or expressed, you only have to watch martial-arts masterpiece One-Armed Swordsman.
Posted Jan 18, 2019
12
Glass (2019)

Bobby Roberts

I'm fine with slow and talky. What sucks is how this talent is completely wasted on this material.
Posted Jan 18, 2019
13
Cold War (Zimna wojna) (2018)

Charles Mudede

When together, they are madly in love, fight a lot, and make beautiful jazz. The film has a perfect ending.
Posted Jan 18, 2019
14
Half Widow (2017)

Gillian Anderson

Half Widow is beautifully filmed and the story has an emotional resonance.
Posted Jan 10, 2019
15
Sicilian Ghost Story (2018)

Charles Mudede

It is the fairy-tale mood that makes this movie special.
Posted Jan 3, 2019
16
Vice (2018)

Ned Lannamann

The performances really are something, but more than that, it's refreshing to see a movie that's this angry, and is so unconcerned with hiding it.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
17
Aquaman (2018)

Erik Henriksen

Aquaman is super fun when it embraces its silliness-there's an octopus that plays the drums! There's an army of cranky crab-men!-but by the end, it just feels bloated and squishy.
Posted Dec 27, 2018
18
Welcome to Marwen (2018)

Ned Lannamann

It looks dreadful-the actors are given computer-rendered doll counterparts that superficially resemble them eerily well, but in every other way are lifeless, distended, and grotesque.
Posted Dec 21, 2018
19
Bumblebee (2018)

Bobby Roberts

Nothing about it ever threatens to edge into "great" territory, but it's winsome, earnest and good-hearted, and that's more than enough to make it easily the best movie in the series.
Posted Dec 20, 2018
20
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

Marc Mohan

Mary Queen of Scots should help tide you over until Game of Thrones returns in April.
Posted Dec 20, 2018
21
On the Basis of Sex (2019)

Elinor Jones

Ginsburg is framed in the same manner as Hawking was-with a plucky, wide-eyed enthusiasm that makes everyone else in the movie smirk at her, until they are won over by the sheer force of her brilliance. In other words, it's patronizing.
Posted Dec 20, 2018
22
If Beale Street Could Talk (2019)

Jasmyne Keimig

Although the film is beautifully shot and filled with great performances, ultimately If Beale Street Could Talk lacks that deep gut punch that makes a movie stick.
Posted Dec 20, 2018
23
Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Wm. Steven Humphrey

Emily Blunt is so very good. But let's face it: How can trying to re-create the magic of what is arguably Disney's greatest film result in anything other than disappointment?
Posted Dec 20, 2018
24
People's Republic of Desire (2018)

Chase Burns

It's surreal. While the director seems to be unable to land on a subject, the spectacular strangeness of the way people interact on YY is enough to earn viewers' attention.
Posted Dec 19, 2018
25
Mortal Engines (2018)

Suzette Smith

Mortal Engines is the sort of movie that you watch when you get home from a rave at 3 a.m. and you're still too high or amped up to go to sleep.
Posted Dec 14, 2018
26
Roma (2018)

Erik Henriksen

Roma unfolds so naturally, so realistically, and so affectingly that it's best seen and heard on its own terms. So see it big, and see it loud.
Posted Dec 14, 2018
27
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Erik Henriksen

Ugh. YOU GUYS. This movie is just SO GOOD.
Posted Dec 14, 2018
28
Shoplifters (Manbiki kazoku) (2018)

Charles Mudede

It is a carefully and beautifully crafted work that appears to be about one thing (the strong bonds of family life), but is really about something else-the way a city forces us to invent our lives.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
29
Dumplin' (2018)

Ciara Dolan

Although it's not perfect, Dumplin' made my cold, prune-like heart grow three sizes.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
30
The Favourite (2018)

Ned Lannamann

The Favourite is a fiendishly fun time.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
31
Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival (2016)

Charles Mudede

Haraway, in her work and in this documentary, critiques the cultural productions of this sociality. Her philosophy also constructs new modes of living and dying that weirdly resemble Margulis's ambient symbiotic planet.
Posted Nov 27, 2018
32
Green Book (2018)

Ned Lannamann

The movie's really nice, and it's hard to get too mad at it. Ali and Mortensen are both awfully good, and the script, for all its familiarity, is kind of comforting in its shticky predictability.
Posted Nov 26, 2018
33
Robin Hood (2018)

Ned Lannamann

The movie is not unpleasant. But it is very, very, very dumb. It's so dumb that it will be a good 20 or so years before anyone dares to make a Robin Hood movie again, which really sucks, because the Robin Hood story is legitimately awesome.
Posted Nov 26, 2018
34
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Ned Lannamann

Scruggs doesn't behave like a typical movie-not even a typical Coen brothers movie. But these two have been amusing themselves-and us-with evasive, masterful films for more than three decades
Posted Nov 26, 2018
35
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Jenni Moore

Luckily, some truly remarkable cinematography and delightful cast of magical folk and beasts make the ride an enjoyable one, even when you're feeling overwhelmed with new information.
Posted Nov 16, 2018
36
Widows (2018)

Ned Lannamann

Widows is an overflowing plateful of entertainment, piled high with juicy plot, buttery performances, and plenty of sweet genre pie. It's a mash-up of pulp and prestige that shouldn't work well on paper, but plays out tremendously well on-screen.
Posted Nov 16, 2018
37
The Front Runner (2018)

Ned Lannamann

The large, great cast makes The Front Runner worth watching... so long as you ignore the movie's promotional campaign that insists Hart's downfall was the moment American history changed forever.
Posted Nov 16, 2018
38
Overlord (2018)

Andrew Wright

Overlord's combination of heavy artillery and horrid creatures should prove to be pretty irresistible. When it comes to B-Movies, nasty, brutish, and short all count as positive traits.
Posted Nov 15, 2018
39
Prospect (2018)

Charles Mudede

Prospect is a deeply Northwest film. We live on this strange moon.
Posted Nov 7, 2018
40
Making Montgomery Clift (2018)

Chase Burns

The documentary manages to be not only a strikingly honest take on Clift but also a moving exploration of a lost relative and a meta-analysis of the ways media creates a biography.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
41
When the Beat Drops (2018)

Chase Burns

Their fantasy imagines a world where they are celebrated and writ large like the majorettes they admire. When the Beat Drops allows them to take it one step further: These men are bigger than the football stadium they imagine.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
42
First Man (2018)

Erik Henriksen

First Man bears the familiar curse of the biopic-it somehow feels both overlong and unsatisfying-and never quite escapes the shadow of The Right Stuff.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
43
London Fields (2018)

Ciara Dolan

The cinematic equivalent of a sewage truck colliding with a tanker full of gasoline.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
44
Suspiria (2018)

Ciara Dolan

The whole thing feels like a tormented fever dream-intoxicating and at times barely coherent. But that's why it's great. Argento's Suspiria sucks you in and traps you within, woozy and disoriented from some unknown spell.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
45
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

Elinor Jones

This all sounds sad, I know, but there's warmth underneath, thanks to Israel's friendship with the charming, equally self-destructive Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant).
Posted Nov 6, 2018
46
Wildlife (2018)

Erik Henriksen

The whole thing feels deflated and streeeeetched, with the story just kind of laying there... and even watching Mulligan and Gyllenhaal carefully, skillfully reveal different facets of their characters isn't enough to make Wildlife feel alive.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
47
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

Elinor Jones

The whole experience is all over the place.
Posted Nov 2, 2018
48
Suspiria (2018)

Joule Zelman

It's more ambitious than Argento's predilection for lecherous male bloodlust, but it's ultimately confusing.
Posted Nov 2, 2018
49
Suspiria (2018)

Kim Selling

But this clear failure of vision mirrors the trajectory of the film itself, which bounces along at a medium pace until the sixth act, in which it not only drops the ball, it chucks the ball completely out the window.
Posted Nov 2, 2018
50
The Price of Everything (2018)

Leah St. Lawrence

How artists value their work verses how the collectors/buyers assign value is the stark contrast that is rarely seen with such distinction as it is in this film.
Posted Oct 26, 2018