Niagara Gazette - Rotten Tomatoes

Niagara Gazette

Niagara Gazette 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 Calleri
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
Rifkin's Festival (2022)

Michael Calleri

The acting by the entire gleaming cast is flawless. Legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro compels you to consider booking a visit to gorgeous San Sebastian. "Rifkin's Festival" unreels like an alluring short story.
Posted Jan 30, 2022
2
Drive My Car (2021)

Michael Calleri

To a person, the acting in "Drive My Car" is exceptional. Hamaguchi lets his film's rhythm play out carefully and quite beautifully.
Posted Jan 22, 2022
3
Original Cast Album: Company (1970)

Michael Calleri

Pennebaker's prowling and probing cameras offer a thrilling close-up of the intense and riveting world of Broadway professionalism.
Posted Jan 14, 2022
4
Belle (2022)

Michael Calleri

The movie is about the beauty of U's diversity and the ability of the fantasy world to bring people together, especially those young people who feel the pangs of isolation overwhelming them.
Posted Jan 14, 2022
5
The Lost Daughter (2021)

Michael Calleri

All of the symbolism and subtext about the expectation of women as mothers and the ugly belief that women who do not have children are making a mistake rises to the fore. This is, in fact, a potent cinematic exploration of women and motherhood.
Posted Jan 13, 2022
6
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Michael Calleri

Somewhere along the production line, it was decided to go big or go home, or not go home considering the title. Everything has to be louder, crazier, and over-the-top.
Posted Jan 13, 2022
7
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Michael Calleri

"The Matrix Resurrections" carries on as if it has something important to impart to folks looking to see cats in mirrors and bullets in slow-motion. There is action, but it seems remarkably old-fashioned.
Posted Jan 13, 2022
8
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

Michael Calleri

The most sublime acting is from Kathryn Hunter, who plays all three witches. It's a unique creative choice to have one person tackle the trio of roles, and what Hunter magnificently delivers is shapeshifting genius.
Posted Jan 13, 2022
9
West Side Story (2021)

Michael Calleri

Director Spielberg and his screenwriter Tony Kushner needed to find thematic points in the original that demanded to be explored and amplified. This is not the case with their "West Side Story."
Posted Jan 13, 2022
10
Don't Look Up (2021)

Michael Calleri

Meryl Streep is wonderful, and she's joined in her wonderfulness by Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry, both hilarious, as program hosts on a spiky news channel. The world is going to end, but how do I look on camera three?
Posted Jan 13, 2022
11
The Hand of God (È stata la mano di Dio) (2021)

Michael Calleri

Paolo Sorrentino's direction is perfect. His cinematographer, Daria D'Antonio, has captured Naples beautifully. The film focuses on a tight-knit family, but in its telling, it plays out like an epic.
Posted Jan 13, 2022
12
The Power of the Dog (2021)

Michael Calleri

The director has gotten fine performances from Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, but her failure to rein in Benedict Cumberbatch, whose bellicosity becomes absurd, knocks the film sideways.
Posted Jan 13, 2022
13
Licorice Pizza (2021)

Michael Calleri

The true jewel in the movie's crown is musician Alana Haim as Alana, a woman with no direction in her life and a fast-talking teenager swooping after her.
Posted Dec 24, 2021
14
Nightmare Alley (2021)

Michael Calleri

A stranger haunted by his own secret arrives. Stanton "Stan" Carlisle is his handle. Is it real? Who knows? He's well-built. He's willing to work. He's acted by Bradley Cooper with taciturn gentleness and a curiously calm curiosity. What's his game?
Posted Dec 17, 2021
15
Being the Ricardos (2021)

Michael Calleri

"Being The Ricardos" focuses on the sordid and the mundane, and there are moments when you literally wonder if you're watching a movie about a comedy treasure - both a person and a program - or a hit-job.
Posted Dec 10, 2021
16
House of Gucci (2021)

Michael Calleri

The acting by Pacino and Irons is best. Driver is good, but he looks more like legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, than the Gucci he's portraying. Leto seems to have waddled in from a circus movie.
Posted Dec 4, 2021
17
King Richard (2021)

Michael Calleri

Basically, Smith still wants to be the lovable Fresh Prince of Bel Air, only this time around it's the Fresh Prince of Bel Air teaches tennis.
Posted Nov 26, 2021
18
tick, tick...Boom! (2021)

Michael Calleri

In Andrew Garfield, director Miranda has found the perfect actor to play the young musical artist. Garfield brings an exuberance that is infectious and a determination that is sympathetic.
Posted Nov 19, 2021
19
Last Night in Soho (2021)

Michael Calleri

"Last Night In Soho" is something special. Director Edgar Wright and his co-screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns have made a horror movie that is spectacularly original.
Posted Nov 11, 2021
20
Dune (2021)

Michael Calleri

It looks terrific, but it feels a bit empty, as if Herbert's bold and invigorating ideas are still, like the movie's sandworms, lurking in the shadows.
Posted Nov 11, 2021
21
Sunken Roads: Three Generations After D-Day (2020)

Michael Calleri

[Director] Juergens was a 20-year-old filming and talking to people who were in their 90s, which made them at least 70-years older than she was. Some were older. Their words are riveting. Their emotions powerful.
Posted Nov 11, 2021
22
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)

Michael Calleri

Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as Wain is magnificent. He captures brilliantly the character's strangeness and also his melancholy. The absolute highest praise goes to Erik Wilson for his breathtakingly beautiful cinematography.
Posted Oct 21, 2021
23
No Time To Die (2021)

Michael Calleri

Through it all, Craig's Bond rarely cracks a smile. He's no longer a secret agent. He's a mope. However, as the torpid tale progresses, he has to return to being a secret agent. But he will not stop being a mope.
Posted Oct 16, 2021
24
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

Michael Calleri

Once seen, you may have difficulty imagining another actor playing this teenage heir to a mobster's life. Michael looks a lot like James, but without the hard edges. You recognize that teenage Tony truly is the child within the man.
Posted Oct 13, 2021
25
Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

Michael Calleri

At 137-minutes, it's too long and feels dated and tired. The acting by the cast seems hermetically sealed on a musty stage.
Posted Sep 24, 2021
26
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

Michael Calleri

Tammy Faye had the common touch and alluring traits that audiences cherished, including her fabulous eyelashes, off-kilter singing, and willingness to love all God's children, especially drag queens.
Posted Sep 24, 2021
27
Surge (2020)

Michael Calleri

What follows is a series of increasingly manic actions that will mesmerize you, especially because of Ben Whishaw's utterly brilliant performance as Joseph. It's acting taken to an entirely new level.
Posted Sep 24, 2021
28
The Card Counter (2021)

Michael Calleri

As [Tell] slowly alters the overview of his own philosophical and moral code, you see him chaffing at the possibility of constraints even the slightest agreements would create.
Posted Sep 17, 2021
29
Cinderella (2021)

Michael Calleri

The nastiness of Cinderella's stepmom and stepsisters has been toned down. All three are more pouty than perilous. Thank goodness [Idina] Menzel has talent to spare and knows how to give banality a boost.
Posted Sep 17, 2021
30
Yakuza Princess (2021)

Michael Calleri

Where the movie shines is in its action sequences, some of which are exceptional, the result of Danilo Lemos's razor-sharp editing. People who go to adventure pictures like this for the action should not be disappointed.
Posted Sep 3, 2021
31
Beckett (2021)

Michael Calleri

"Beckett" has all the prerequisites at which Hitchcock excelled. An amiable, reasonably good-looking man, generally in control of his life, must flee damaging forces beyond his control.
Posted Aug 26, 2021
32
Respect (2021)

Michael Calleri

The beats of Aretha's life that she choses indicate that director [Leisl] Tommy wanted to cram as much as possible into the laborious 2-hour and 25-minute running time as she could.
Posted Aug 21, 2021
33
Nine Days (2021)

Michael Calleri

Edson Oda's feature directorial debut is not only memorable, but it also heralds a promising filmmaker. Oda has written and directed something strikingly unusual.
Posted Aug 15, 2021
34
Ailey (2021)

Michael Calleri

"Ailey" is a richly explored tale of artistic triumph. Ailey, himself, was a stern dance company impresario, but he enthusiastically exuded a love of the art form to his dancers and the legions of followers of his celebrated company.
Posted Aug 15, 2021
35
CODA (2021)

Michael Calleri

Director Heder avoids sugarcoating the trials and tribulations of life, and she has a cast, especially the four principals, that delivers the goods in every frame.
Posted Aug 15, 2021
36
Stillwater (2021)

Michael Calleri

This revelation sets the unfailingly polite Baker on the trail to solving the mystery. Suddenly he's Columbo, asking questions as he schlepps around Marseille in a baseball cap and denim jacket and speaking no French.
Posted Aug 5, 2021
37
Vivo (2021)

Michael Calleri

Lin-Manuel Miranda's on-board the "Vivo" express, traveling from Havana to Miami in a family feature that should please parents and children alike.
Posted Aug 5, 2021
38
The Swimming Pool (La Piscine) (1969)

Michael Calleri

The boiling point for simmering jealousy, male-female possessiveness, and the hint of violence are at the core of the story.
Posted Aug 5, 2021
39
Old (2021)

Michael Calleri

An unexplained force prevents folks from fleeing the sandy cove, sort of like Luis Bunuel's "The Exterminating Angel," albeit less existential.
Posted Aug 5, 2021
40
Pig (2021)

Michael Calleri

A world-class meal that's served doesn't seem out of place with the off-beat obsessions available on writer-director Michael Sarnoski's menu.
Posted Jul 22, 2021
41
Joe Bell (2021)

Michael Calleri

[The] tragedy was the momentum for Jadin's heartbroken father Joe, an average working-class family man, to learn some truths about the human condition.
Posted Jul 22, 2021
42
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021)

Michael Calleri

I thought [Bourdain] was a great storyteller - the lively, witty, wonderfully descriptive, and occasionally acerbic monologues he wrote and spoke are gloriously good.
Posted Jul 20, 2021
43
Summer of 85 (Été 85) (2021)

Michael Calleri

"Summer Of 85" is wonderfully acted by all. France's northwest coast looks especially appealing thanks to beautiful cinematography by Hichame Alaouie. The era's music is apt.
Posted Jul 9, 2021
44
Black Widow (2021)

Michael Calleri

As talented as Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh are, nothing they do or say feels honest or character-driven.
Posted Jul 8, 2021
45
Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (2021)

Michael Calleri

The movie primarily looks at these two prodigiously talented writers through their own words about similar subjects and, most deliciously, about what they thought about each other.
Posted Jul 6, 2021
46
F9 (2021)

Michael Calleri

Everybody in the cast hits their marks and figuratively offers a warm embrace of the meaning of family and friends to moviegoers. Are the actors and actresses cogs in a wheel? You bet they are. In fact, they're cogs riding on four screaming wheels.
Posted Jun 24, 2021
47
The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)

Michael Calleri

There's a cartoonish quality to "The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, although the cartoon is dreary.
Posted Jun 19, 2021
48
In the Heights (2021)

Michael Calleri

[Claudia] embodies the spirit of Washington Heights. Her wisdom touches everyone's lives. Her words about dignity are truth wrapped in power. Her tenderness reaches out into the audience.
Posted Jun 11, 2021
49
A Quiet Place Part II (2021)

Michael Calleri

There is a sequence in "A Quiet Place Part II" that, in its own way, recalls Hitchcock's respect for storytelling and use of technique as a way to unsettle, even destroy an audience's equilibrium.
Posted May 27, 2021
50
Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021)

Michael Calleri

Director Taylor Sheridan apparently decided that if a movie is going to deliver action based on truly evil characters and a forest fire set by the heroine, than it needs be over-the-top. He tosses subtlety out the window.
Posted May 21, 2021