Seattle Refined - Rotten Tomatoes

Seattle Refined

Seattle Refined is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Candice McMillan
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
Parallel Mothers (Madres paralelas) (2021)

Candice McMillan

Though at times it may feel like a jerky, underdeveloped ride, the rollercoaster of emotions at each revelation is well worth the admission ticket.
Posted Jan 28, 2022
2
A Hero (2022)

Candice McMillan

By the time A Hero reaches crescendo, we are completely invested in Rahim's story, gripping our seats to see if he will succeed or if the house of cards will fall all around him.
Posted Jan 22, 2022
3
Scream (2022)

Candice McMillan

Scream has evolved from a semi-satirical, but mostly-earnest slasher that defined the genre into an on-screen memorial for beloved characters who should be put out to pasture, or, at the very least, allowed to enjoy their fictional lives in peace.
Posted Jan 15, 2022
4
The 355 (2022)

Candice McMillan

Striving to be mentioned in the same breath as Bond or Bourne, The 355 makes a major flaw in assuming its audience is unperturbed by a nonsense plot...The leads are too good for this suffocating killjoy parading as a serious action thriller.
Posted Jan 7, 2022
5
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

Candice McMillan

Fueled by its powerful performances and visceral stage-setting, The Tragedy of Macbeth succeeds in what it aims to do: tell the 400-year-old story with nuance, purpose and accessibility.
Posted Jan 2, 2022
6
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Candice McMillan

Is it blatant, downright good entertainment that nudges at our nostalgic hearts and reminds us how good these villains still are and how dearly we hold this franchise? You bet your spidey senses.
Posted Dec 19, 2021
7
Don't Look Up (2021)

Candice McMillan

The content is often too depressing to find funny or too outrageous to seem real, both of which are obvious objectives. Because what we have with Don't Look Up borders on the absurd ... making it hard to read and even harder to really enjoy.
Posted Dec 10, 2021
8
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Candice McMillan

Ghostbusters: Afterlife [is] truly a family affair, wrought with everything you'd expect from a family reunion - namely too much nostalgia and not enough entertainment.
Posted Dec 9, 2021
9
West Side Story (2021)

Candice McMillan

Spielberg doesn't just seek to repeat what worked so well in the 1961 film version. He keeps the things we want to see unchanged ... but allows for a new generation of viewers to enjoy the story without the problematic bits of the original.
Posted Dec 9, 2021
10
Belfast (2021)

Candice McMillan

A romanticized remembrance of a childhood filled with love and rife with imperfections, a personal view of an important time in history, but most importantly, a poetic note to the city itself and the people [writer-director Kenneth Branagh] left behind.
Posted Nov 12, 2021
11
Eternals (2021)

Candice McMillan

[Director Chloé Zhao] is in the mouth of the Marvel beast with this one. It can devour even the most able-eyed filmmaker, which is exactly what Eternals does.
Posted Nov 7, 2021
12
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)

Candice McMillan

Like the eccentric paintings for which he was known, the film has plenty of color, but this faux vibrancy of writer-director Will Sharpe's vision, while appealing and eye-catching, is underscored by a lack of depth.
Posted Nov 6, 2021
13
Antlers (2021)

Candice McMillan

We both see and feel the mood that Cooper establishes throughout the film like one might feel a pimple. It broods ominously, festering in horror and torture ... Picking this one will be painful and messy.
Posted Oct 31, 2021
14
Dune (2021)

Candice McMillan

The beauty and elegance of Villeneuve's grand epic is given the chance to shine ... You would be amiss to pass this one up.
Posted Oct 22, 2021
15
Halloween Kills (2021)

Candice McMillan

Halloween Kills is a long layover on our way home from a blow-out trip ... this part of the travel is as painful as it is forgettable.
Posted Oct 22, 2021
16
Lamb (2021)

Candice McMillan

The horror elements of the film, though they may be mild, accumulate into a festering, insidious feeling that rises up within us as the film reaches its climax, leaving by its end lots of juicy ideas and unanswered questions for us to graze on.
Posted Oct 13, 2021
17
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

Candice McMillan

There is not much to sink your teeth into ... apart from some alien parasite humor, a lifeless love triangle (square, should you count the extraterrestrial leech) and the predictable, short-lived rise and fall of a formulaic villain.
Posted Oct 3, 2021
18
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

Candice McMillan

A handful of hearty monologues, a mastery of the iconic chuckle and showcasing the character's Pompadourean hairstyles like conveyer belt sushi does not the biopic make.
Posted Sep 27, 2021
19
Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

Candice McMillan

I still find [the musical] pandering and modestly paced - a story that runs on a treadmill, trampling on the same emotional and moral trigger points over and again. However, the emotional resonance ... has returned, thanks to the medium of film.
Posted Sep 26, 2021
20
Cinderella (2021)

Candice McMillan

Silly, outrageous, garish, but beyond fabulous ... Brandy walked so that Camila could run. Whitney flew so that Billy could WERK, QUEEN.
Posted Sep 5, 2021
21
Candyman (2021)

Candice McMillan

The Candyman as a villain leaves much to be desired ... Candyman is often frustrating in its ambiguities and inconsistencies, but it does get us to approach uncomfortable topics that would have otherwise been left on the table.
Posted Aug 30, 2021
22
Annette (2021)

Candice McMillan

Its sensibilities are crude and self-indulgent. At no point is this a truly productive, insightful or enjoyable movie-going experience.
Posted Aug 30, 2021
23
The Suicide Squad (2021)

Candice McMillan

Mayhem is the name of the game in this iteration, and boy, has pandemonium never felt so good.
Posted Aug 7, 2021
24
Val (2021)

Candice McMillan

An enchanting reminder of the magnificent life lived.
Posted Aug 6, 2021
25
Jungle Cruise (2021)

Candice McMillan

The two leads are a majority of the draw and nearly one hundred percent the reason Jungle Cruise makes it to its destination, sputtering in a wonky boat on an unconventional mission.
Posted Jul 30, 2021
26
Old (2021)

Candice McMillan

Old will age you.
Posted Jul 29, 2021
27
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021)

Candice McMillan

Like the man himself, the film is neither all-encompassing nor exclusionary. It's multifaceted ... Bourdain, who abhorred sentimentalism after death, should, at the very least, be proud of the mark he made, and this film is a testament to it.
Posted Jul 19, 2021
28
Black Widow (2021)

Candice McMillan

There are still plenty of knives, guns, high-kicks and jumping-off-tall-buildings, but what Black Widow aims to do and, ultimately succeeds at doing, is showing fans the soft, sweet, misunderstood side to the hardened former-Soviet spy.
Posted Jul 12, 2021
29
The Tomorrow War (2021)

Candice McMillan

The many moving parts and oscillating tones, which could feel flimsy and cheap in less able hands, wobble and shake here and there, but ultimately hook, line and sinks, not just into the diabolical swarm of alien booty, but in the heart of the viewers.
Posted Jul 2, 2021
30
The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)

Candice McMillan

There is no comparison to draw between The Hitman's Bodyguard and The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, its long lost, weirdo cousin who may share some commonalities, but is someone you've learned to avoid at family functions.
Posted Jun 19, 2021
31
In the Heights (2021)

Candice McMillan

In the Heights is not just poignant and thought-provoking; it is a joyful, cathartic scream at the pandemic-made void.
Posted Jun 11, 2021
32
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

Candice McMillan

The parts of the film's plot are interesting pieces, fashioned together into a hodgepodge journey that is both an entertaining mystery and an underdeveloped literal witch hunt.
Posted Jun 5, 2021
33
A Quiet Place Part II (2021)

Candice McMillan

It may do more of the same, but it does it bigger and better, with greater jolts and jumps, extended time with the extraterrestrial foes and a writer-director who has honed in his voice, style and message. There is nothing to be quiet about with this one.
Posted May 30, 2021
34
Cruella (2021)

Candice McMillan

[Emma] Stone mixes Cruella with sweet vulnerability and stone cold insanity that is more reminiscent of a super hero character than a Disney one ... For once, it is better the de Vil you don't know rather than the one you grew up on.
Posted May 30, 2021
35
Four Good Days (2021)

Candice McMillan

The film is as harrowing as it is indulgent, as rooted in reality as it lost to hyperbole.
Posted May 23, 2021
36
Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)

Candice McMillan

If torture porn is still your thing, even in 2021, then "Spiral" was made with you in mind ... [But] like normal porn, the set-up is weak, the acting is over-the-top and the climax will leave you disappointed.
Posted May 14, 2021
37
Profile (2021)

Candice McMillan

The tension is palpable ... It's unbelievably believable. Or maybe believably unbelievable, depending on your tolerance for somewhat awkward transitions and hyperdrive plot development.
Posted May 13, 2021
38
Here Today (2021)

Candice McMillan

[Haddish's Emma] gives up her identity to care for a man she doesn't know and who, very shortly, won't know her. Some may call it selfless; I call it a senseless can of give me a break.
Posted May 8, 2021
39
Wrath of Man (2021)

Candice McMillan

In the end, this is Statham's party ... His strong screen presence fills the void and shields our eyes from the holes here and there that pock the road Ritchie has paved, making Wrath of Man the kind of watch we expect: surprisingly elevated fun.
Posted May 7, 2021
40
Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (2021)

Candice McMillan

The issue is that we see the con coming. The curtain is drawn back, and the Great and Powerful Oz is nothing more than the revival of a property with commercial appeal, ... an attractive, skilled lead and a faulty script.
Posted May 1, 2021
41
Voyagers (2021)

Candice McMillan

Despite its flirty premise, the primary problem that "Voyagers" faces is the seriousness with which it takes the morals that rest shakily at its core. The film is eager to address age-old philosophical questions ... without any strong, clear thesis.
Posted Apr 29, 2021
42
Mortal Kombat (2021)

Candice McMillan

If you aren't prepared for light eye rolling and regularly questioning "Why would they do that?", then you won't get to succumb to the raucously silly, easily forgettable, highly consumable fun it has potential to be.
Posted Apr 27, 2021
43
The Courier (2020)

Candice McMillan

We never feel tested by the subjects on screen. At no point is any of this over our heads, and, honestly, isn't that the fun of political thrillers: feeling like these people know more than you and will find the solution in a way you couldn't anticipate?
Posted Apr 20, 2021
44
Nobody (2021)

Candice McMillan

In short: a lot of balls and fury signifying...not much.
Posted Apr 20, 2021
45
Chaos Walking (2021)

Candice McMillan

All the Noise in the world can't save this flashy bit of futuristic melodrama from being blinded by its own conceit.
Posted Apr 3, 2021
46
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Candice McMillan

A gargantuan mess of a threequal that finds the giant lizard ... back to fight a bad guy, fight a good guy, fight for his reputation, but at no point do we fight our urge to laugh at its absurdity as we lament the film this could have been.
Posted Mar 31, 2021
47
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

Candice McMillan

Raya works so well because of its success in the world-building department ... We are transported on a quest of mythical proportions, one that moves quickly, but still allows us plenty of moments to soak in the message and appreciate the details.
Posted Mar 7, 2021
48
Land (2021)

Candice McMillan

Themes of recovering from tragedy and surviving a fatal dose of grief flutter throughout, though we find, by film's end, that we along with Edee are yearning for human interaction and... meaning.
Posted Mar 5, 2021
49
Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry (2021)

Candice McMillan

The documentary, whether you appreciate its format or if you yearn for more context and talking heads providing armchair insight, feels true to Eilish. It is raw, unassuming and endlessly fascinating.
Posted Feb 27, 2021
50
Nomadland (2021)

Candice McMillan

[Director Chloé] Zhao not only nails this American story, she revolutionizes it.
Posted Feb 21, 2021