The Movie Cricket - Rotten Tomatoes

The Movie Cricket

The Movie Cricket is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Sean P. Means
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
3.5/4
Aftershock (2022)

Sean P. Means

While hospitals send out anodyne statements that "every death is a tragedy" without taking responsibility, these families show in detail the emotional costs of systemic bias.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
2
3.5/4
Fire of Love (2022)

Sean P. Means

Dosa has pored through hundreds of hours of the Kraffts' footage, much of it astonishing in its beauty and danger level.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
3
3.5/4
Emergency (2022)

Sean P. Means

For all of its sly humor and observations about race in America, "Emergency" is at its heart a buddy picture, and these [Cyler and Watkins] make that friendship feel like the real thing.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
4
3/4
Master (2022)

Sean P. Means

As microaggressions grow larger, and for Jasmine and Gail take on a menacing supernatural element, Diallo builds the tension to a peak. But that peak hits a bit early, and the finale stumbles a bit as subtext becomes the text.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
5
3.5/4
Watcher (2022)

Sean P. Means

Monroe has to carry Julia's swirling emotions - loneliness, apprehension, paranoia, and anger that Francis doesn't believe her - and does so with grace and fury.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
6
3.5/4
Descendant (2022)

Sean P. Means

"Descendant" becomes not just a vital account of history, but an example of William Faulkner's maxim that "the past is never dead. It's not even past."
Posted Jan 29, 2022
7
3.5/4
Nanny (2022)

Sean P. Means

Writer-director Nikyatu Jusu neatly blurs the lines of reality and myth for Aisha, until she's not entirely sure what's up or down.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
8
3/4
Jihad Rehab (2022)

Sean P. Means

Smaker's interview subjects, both the former Gitmo detainees and the center's staff, set some sort of personal record for most "would you look at the time?" Interview walkouts in a single movie.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
9
3/4
Dual (2022)

Sean P. Means

In some ways, "Dual" follows some of the contours of Stearns' last movie, 2019's "The Art of Self-Defense," another story of a lonely character finding purpose through personal combat.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
10
3.5/4
You Won't Be Alone (2022)

Sean P. Means

The line between folk legend and fairy tale is a blurry one, and there's something that's satisfyingly Grimm in the way the story plays out.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
11
3.5/4
Hatching (2021)

Sean P. Means

Heikkilä makes a compelling wicked queen in this fractured fairy tale, but Solalinna, in her first movie, is a real find - bringing out all of Tinja's doubts and vulnerabilities, and twisting them as the story reaches its shocking conclusion.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
12
2.5/4
Breaking (2022)

Sean P. Means

The problem with "892" is that Corbin and her co-screenwriter, playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, try to cram all those side stories into the film, and only a few of them rise above the cacophony.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
13
3.5/4
Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)

Sean P. Means

Raiff has a knack for off-kilter dialogue, and for staging intimate conversations between characters where much is both spoken and unspoken.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
14
3.5/4
Free Chol Soo Lee (2022)

Sean P. Means

The film works because it finds the tricky balance between describing Lee's hard life and exploring how his prison experience inspired a movement that was bigger than he was - and how he struggled to live up to those expectations.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
15
4/4
I Didn't See You There (2022)

Sean P. Means

The swirl of color and texture, reminiscent of one of Stan Brakhage's experimental films, illustrates a view of the world people out of wheelchairs might never notice.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
16
3.5/4
The Mission (2022)

Sean P. Means

What makes "The Mission" so compelling is that Anderson doesn't take sides - this is neither a screed against religious neo-colonialism, as the church's detractors may put it, or a church-produced film about how wonderful missionary work is.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
17
2.5/4
Blood (2022)

Sean P. Means

Where Chloe could have catharsis, instead we get stasis - but it's a pretty limbo, populated by characters you hope eventually will figure it out.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
18
3.5/4
The Janes (2022)

Sean P. Means

While the movie's narrative stops in 1973, when Roe v. Wade made the Jane network unneeded, the undertone of this vital chronicle is that history is on the verge of repeating itself.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
19
3.5/4
Navalny (2022)

Sean P. Means

Even with a foregone conclusion, Roher's movie has the feel of a gripping political thriller. Credit the drum-tight editing by Langdon Page and Maya Daisy Hawke, and the intriguing cast of characters.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
20
3/4
TikTok, Boom. (2022)

Sean P. Means

The problem with a documentary like "TikTok, Boom" is that its shelf life is as short as the app's. By the time this movie gets out to a general audience, it's quite possible that the next social-media platform will already be trying to replace it.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
21
3.5/4
Aftershock (2013)

Sean P. Means

While hospitals send out anodyne statements that "every death is a tragedy" without taking responsibility, these families show in detail the emotional costs of systemic bias.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
22
2.5/4
Palm Trees and Power Lines (2022)

Sean P. Means

There's something ponderously predictable in the telling, that sense that we can all see the slow-motion train wreck long before it happens - and when it hits, there's no relief, only despair.
Posted Jan 29, 2022
23
3.5/4
The Exiles (2022)

Sean P. Means

The star is still Choy, as cantankerous at the end of this journey as she was at the beginning, acerbically noting that China couldn't get away with killing potentially thousands of its young people without some complicity from international leaders.
Posted Jan 27, 2022
24
3.5/4
Alice (2022)

Sean P. Means

People are going either love it or hate it. I loved it, and was impressed with Ver Linden's talent for keeping audiences on their toes.
Posted Jan 24, 2022
25
2.5/4
House of Gucci (2021)

Sean P. Means

Clearly Scott has told Gaga to go big or go home, and she goes big in every scene, until the law of diminishing returns takes her and the movie down. But it's a wild ride along the way.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
26
2.5/4
Bruised (2021)

Sean P. Means

The weak link is the script, by rookie screenwriter Michelle Rosenfarb, which recycles every boxing and child cliche this side of Wallace Beery in "The Champ" (1931.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
27
3.5/4
Julia (2021)

Sean P. Means

With a life as full and as rich as Julia Child's, any documentary will feel like a trifle - but filmmakers Julie Cohen and Betsy West do an admirable job getting to the essence of the famed chef in "Julia."
Posted Dec 21, 2021
28
3.5/4
The Power of the Dog (2021)

Sean P. Means

Director/screenwriter Jane Campion's first feature film in more than a decade, "The Power of the Dog," is a shatteringly beautiful return to form, a prickly tale of strained family bonds in the not-so-old West.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
29
3/4
Benedetta (2021)

Sean P. Means

Not everything in "Benedetta" tracks as a coherent narrative, and Verhoeven is more interested in throwing rocks in the pond than exploring the aftermath of the splash.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
30
3/4
Encounter (2021)

Sean P. Means

Part of the tension that Pearce and co-screenwriter Joe Barton build here is in leaving that central question - is Malik saving his kids or putting them in more danger? - up in the air for as long as possible.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
31
3.5/4
West Side Story (2021)

Sean P. Means

Why would Spielberg remake "West Side Story" when the original still exists? Think of it as following the Broadway tradition of reviving classic works every few years, to let a new generation of talent test itself against the material.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
32
3.5/4
Being the Ricardos (2021)

Sean P. Means

"Being the Ricardos" fits squarely in the Sorkin canon of walking-and-talking workplace dramas ..., where smart people are thrown together in a pressure-cooker situation and come out making magic.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
33
2/4
Don't Look Up (2021)

Sean P. Means

"Don't Look Up" suffers from not being absurd enough, because the surreal truth of American politics outpaced the incredulity of fiction sometime around the 2016 election.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
34
3.5/4
The Hand of God (È stata la mano di Dio) (2021)

Sean P. Means

The reality Sorrentino creates here is sumptuous and sensuous, whether the cool bay where the family goes swimming or the decaying Neapolitan buildings where you might find a fully lit chandelier sitting askew on the floor.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
35
2.5/4
The King's Man (2021)

Sean P. Means

However noble Vaughn's intentions with "The King's Man," the film itself doesn't deliver on what it promises, either as an action movie or a wartime drama.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
36
3/4
Swan Song (2021)

Sean P. Means

None of the logistical or philosophical questions about cloning are particularly fresh... . What makes "Swan Song" worth a look is the way Cleary and Ali tackle those ideas, with quiet emotion and genuine curiosity.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
37
3.5/4
The Novice (2021)

Sean P. Means

Hadaway, who rowed for Southern Methodist a decade ago, brings a painful authenticity to Alex's rowing experiences - something a viewer feels in every cramp, every bead of sweat, every blister on her palm.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
38
3.5/4
Nightmare Alley (2021)

Sean P. Means

"Nightmare Alley" is another case of Del Toro - as he's done with "The Shape of Water," "Crimson Peak" and so many other movies - building a fully realized world that draws us in with its seductive menace.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
39
3/4
The Tender Bar (2021)

Sean P. Means

Affleck, giving the second strong supporting performance of the year (the earlier one was in "The Last Duel"), creates the uncle and the bartender we all wish we had: Good-natured, supportive, street-smart and free of judgment.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
40
2.5/4
Sing 2 (2021)

Sean P. Means

An improvement on its 2016 predecessor "Sing," but that's not saying a lot.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
41
3.5/4
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Sean P. Means

Reeves and Moss - ages 57 and 54, respectively - still have the kick-ass charisma and unflappable allure that was as important to the cool factor of the original "Matrix" as the trench coats and bullet-time effects.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
42
3.5/4
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Sean P. Means

Holland has now played Peter in more movies than either Maguire or Garfield have - three with "Spider-Man" in the title, plus "Captain America; Civil War" and two "Avengers" movies - and has made the role his own.
Posted Dec 13, 2021
43
3/4
Eternals (2021)

Sean P. Means

"Eternals" isn't a terrible Marvel movie, just an average one. Considering the talent at work, and the potential of such a world-changing set of heroes, it could have been so much more.
Posted Nov 19, 2021
44
2/4
Red Notice (2021)

Sean P. Means

Gadot seems to be having the most fun here, letting out the evil side that we never see her display as Wonder Woman. But even with her wrapping a sensuous leg around Johnson on a dance floor, there's no chemistry on view.
Posted Nov 19, 2021
45
3.5/4
Spencer (2021)

Sean P. Means

"Spencer" becomes a fascinating showcase for Stewart, giving the toughest and most brilliant performance of her career. She captures the fragility and, eventually, the maternal ferocity that made Diana a people's princess.
Posted Nov 19, 2021
46
3/4
Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021)

Sean P. Means

I can be as cynical as the next critic, but even I can tell when a children's movie is doing its job, weaving its movie magic with sincerity and a minimum of phony emotions or toilet humor - the way "Clifford the Big Red Dog" does.
Posted Nov 19, 2021
47
3.5/4
Belfast (2021)

Sean P. Means

"Belfast" is an imperfect recollection, since the light of history is refracted through the distorting lens of childhood. But the memories are sweet and magical, and it's difficult to begrudge Branagh's desire to live them again.
Posted Nov 19, 2021
48
1/4
Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)

Sean P. Means

It's a bold move, I suppose, to remake a beloved Christmas comedy and invert the roles - where the pre-teen hero is now the loathsome villain, and the scummy bad guys are now sympathetic characters. Doomed, but bold.
Posted Nov 19, 2021
49
3/4
tick, tick...Boom! (2021)

Sean P. Means

It may be cruel to assign a movie's faults to a dead man, but the weakness in "tick, tick... BOOM!" is Larson's story and song score.
Posted Nov 19, 2021
50
3.5/4
Encanto (2021)

Sean P. Means

"Encanto" is, as its name suggests, quite enchanting in its depiction of a family dealing with external crises and internal strife - but weathering them together, to the beat of the music.
Posted Nov 19, 2021