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CultureCatch

CultureCatch is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Brandon Judell.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Ride or Die (2025) Brandon Judell These are 2 beautiful, talented actresses sensuously embodying the chaotic characters . . . . A nominee for Best U.S. Narrative Feature at Tribeca, you just know everyone involved here will have a long career, collecting SAG benefits long after I’m dead.
Posted Jul 13, 2025  Edit critic review
6/10
The Phoenician Scheme (2025) Brandon Judell Brilliantly visual and intermittently entertaining, the timely comic romp that decimates the rich, the powerful, the religious, and the self-involved certainly seems to embrace Schopenhauerism.
Posted Jul 13, 2025  Edit critic review
Honeyjoon (2025) Brandon Judell A wry tale of mother and daughter clashing, melding & loving each other amidst private masturbatory gropings, flirting, & hiking. Moral: “Happiness comes in waves, in little moments, but it’s not forever, even more reason to ride the wave when it comes.”
Posted Jul 13, 2025  Edit critic review
All to Play For (2023) Brandon Judell This engaging, no-holds-barred look at the working class and their battles with the State and with themselves . . . is an emotional wringer of a tale.
Posted Apr 12, 2024  Edit critic review
7/10
Toni (2023) Brandon Judell What might seem overly familiar plot-wise is really quite entertaining, thanks to the scintillating Camille Cottin as the fretful maternal figure. You'll recognize Ms. Cottin from Netflix's Call My Agent!
Posted Apr 07, 2024  Edit critic review
9/10
L'amour fou (2010) Brandon Judell A true must-see if you adore fashion, interior design, the Sixties and Seventies, travel, and an exploration of depressed genius with guest appearances by Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger.
Posted Feb 02, 2024  Edit critic review
6/10
Age of Consent (2014) Brandon Judell A history of the Hoist, a London leather bar. This heartfelt chatter fest argues that this S&M club almost brought about gay liberation in England by providing a friendly place for guys to f**t each other. There’re numerous staged acts of lasciviousness.
Posted Sep 17, 2022  Edit critic review
Futuro Beach (2014) Brandon Judell The film doesn't hold together due to a splintered, dissatisfying dramatic arc. . . Some out-of-character behavior is never explained, and what could have been an aesthetic Valentine to a grand besottedness eventually dissolves into a spiceless churrasco.
Posted Aug 14, 2022  Edit critic review
2551.01 (2021) Brandon Judell Inarguably, if you were streaming 2551.01 and continually halting the film, you'd notice every image is worthy of being framed. Yes, this might just one of the most completely realized artistic visions that's reflective of what we're all living through.
Posted Aug 14, 2022  Edit critic review
7/10
Rifkin's Festival (2020) Brandon Judell The directors latest, a pungent paean to Neurosis with a capital N plus a master's bow to the classic films of Buñuel, Fellini, Welles, et al. . . boasts several bona fide laughs and many more wry observations. Shawn displays a marvelous world weariness.
Posted Apr 19, 2022  Edit critic review
10/10
Parallel Mothers (2021) Brandon Judell A thrilling blend of deceit, lust, love, and a tale of two unwed heterosexual women . . . . Almodovar continues to fill in the void created by the deaths of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Posted Feb 17, 2022  Edit critic review
9/10
Flee (2021) Brandon Judell The result is one the more engaging film experiences of this past year. Besides its queerdom and its ability to move you to well-earned tears, Flee is not without its moments of humor.
Posted Feb 08, 2022  Edit critic review
Pursuit of Equality (2005) Brandon Judell Throughout, the audience went wild, booing and cheering, depending on who was on screen. Most didnt noticed that no gay male couples are shown kissing on the lips. Only the lesbians smooch. But whatd you expect from a pair of well-meaning straight guys?
Posted Feb 06, 2022  Edit critic review
In the Heights (2021) Brandon Judell The production has inarguably broken Hollywood's self-imposed taboos on depicting the Hispanic experience in the States, not to mention upending the studios' reluctancy to allow Hispanics to be groomed for stardom.
Posted Nov 02, 2021  Edit critic review
Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me? (2021) Brandon Judell Spirited, touching, and droll, Sensei is one of the many must-sees at the NYAFF. After all, in what other film, can the following line be one of seduction? "With you sitting beside me, I can press the gas pedal."
Posted Nov 01, 2021  Edit critic review
The Capote Tapes (2020) Brandon Judell If you arrived too late on the planet to have been enamored by Capote's antics - he did die in 1984 after all - fear not. The joy he wrought and the outrage he often elicited is captured in Ebs Burnough's deliciously wry new documentary.
Posted Nov 01, 2021  Edit critic review
Dear Evan Hansen (2021) Brandon Judell But that incomparable voice of Platt! Who'd want to miss out on that? And to be able to see the actor who created a major role on stage recreate it on screen does carry some resonance. Who wouldn't have rather seen Ethel Merman belt out in Gypsy?
Posted Oct 31, 2021  Edit critic review
We All Think We're Special (2021) Brandon Judell The screenplay, especially its WTF ending, could be finessed a little, but if you find a bottle of tequila in your teen's sock drawer, lock them in the room with WATWS, and they'll never drink again, possibly not even water.
Posted Jun 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Attack of the Demons (2019) Brandon Judell This quick-moving tale grabs you visually and never lets you go, even though you pretty much know you know where it's going.
Posted Nov 06, 2020  Edit critic review
She Dies Tomorrow (2020) Brandon Judell This is sort of a Rorschach test for critics and audiences alike. The picture gains power by being released during the current pandemic. If it had been released during the measles outbreak, oy! would you have gotten different reactions.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
So I Married an Anti-Fan (2016) Brandon Judell While not quite on the same laugh level as 'Schitt$ Creek' and 'Little Britain,' 'Life is Easy' is often quite amusing with a genuine knee-slapper now and then. The show explores what it's like to suddenly have a non-surgically transformed crotch.
Posted Aug 12, 2020  Edit critic review
8/10
I, Pastafari (2019) Brandon Judell One of the more delicious, amusing, and relevant documentaries of the year. Thanks to Mike Arthur's deft direction, what at first seems just a Monty-Python-like fun fest actually becomes an in-depth take on religious institutions.
Posted Jul 08, 2020  Edit critic review
8/10
Marona's Fantastic Tale (2019) Brandon Judell Throughout, limbs stretch and contort and fly this way and that, faces crumble and reassemble, and every artistic phase from early Picasso onwards seems to be reflected here with quantum fluctuations of line.
Posted Jun 15, 2020  Edit critic review
8/10
You Don't Nomi (2019) Brandon Judell 'You Don't Nomi' otherwise never hits a false note. What you have in the end here is a 'Tiger King' for cinephiles.
Posted Jun 10, 2020  Edit critic review
American Muslim (2019) Brandon Judell This is a timely doc that addresses an ignorance-fueled hatred embraced by so many FOX-aholics. Yet if any of these MAGA-capped folks would ever watch Zucker's applaud-worthy offering, their bigotry might be decimated.
Posted May 15, 2020  Edit critic review
The Quarry (2020) Brandon Judell Writer/Director Scott Teems' sophomore narrative feature shows great promise.
Posted Apr 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Harriet (2019) Brandon Judell With the emotional restraints of a Lifetime movie, 'Harriet,' though no doubt thoroughly researched, has a way of making the truth seem counterfeit.
Posted Jan 16, 2020  Edit critic review
Loose Cannons (2010) Brandon Judell Openly gay Turkish film director Ferzan Ozpetek has never been nelly about scattering characters of his own persuasion throughout his oeuvre. . . .Here he again explores the plight of closeted homosexuals in a gentle farce full of fond stereotypes.
Posted Mar 02, 2019  Edit critic review
The Happytime Murders (2018) Brandon Judell Sort of 'The Big Sleep' meets 'Basic Instinct' meets 'Pee-Wee's Playhouse,' 'The Happytime Murders' wants you to laugh while never letting you forget that here is a hard-hitting parody of our racist, misogynistic society. Well, almost.
Posted Aug 26, 2018  Edit critic review
10/10
We the Animals (2018) Brandon Judell Through the use of music, animation, handheld camera footage, and razor-sharp editing, Zagar creates a brilliant cinematic equivalent of Torres's tome, a task much harder than you might imagine.
Posted Aug 13, 2018  Edit critic review
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) Brandon Judell This latest installment of the Mission Impossible franchise is unmitigated fun with its deliciously overwrought motorcycle chases, hellish helicopter skirmishes, frenzied fisticuffs, plus rooftop jumpings galore.
Posted Jul 14, 2018  Edit critic review
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) Brandon Judell What follows is the standard "good humans vs. bad humans" trope with a healthy dash of "unrestrained capitalism is evil" for seasoning.
Posted Jun 22, 2018  Edit critic review
Guns on the Clackamas (1995) Brandon Judell Get ready for one of the funniest films of the past decade. Do your best to catch this madcap comic enterprise that will have you howling from beginning to end, and even days afterward.
Posted Jun 12, 2018  Edit critic review
The Misandrists (2017) Brandon Judell If John Waters and Karl Marx co-directed a remake of The Beguiled, the resulting feature would be very much like Bruce LaBruce's The Misandrists.
Posted Jun 08, 2018  Edit critic review
Family Tree (2000) Brandon Judell A mildly affable comedy of familial dysfunction that wants to chide the times for being both morally and emotionally obtuse. Instead, The Family Tree winds up being little more than a film uprooted.
Posted Jan 20, 2017  Edit critic review
Batched (2014) Brandon Judell The Riot Club is less a free-for-all-brawl than a somewhat grating kerfuffle. Sherfig who won us over with An Education lost her way a bit here, no doubt because Wade couldn't transform her own play into a thoroughly enticing screenplay.
Posted Mar 31, 2015  Edit critic review
Appropriate Behavior (2014) Brandon Judell If Woody Allen were a tall Iranian bisexual woman with a gawky Sandra-Bullockish beauty and an exasperating, egocentric outlook on the world, Appropriate Behavior would have been his Annie Hall.
Posted Jan 25, 2015  Edit critic review
Strange Circus (2005) Brandon Judell This unforgettable Grand Guignol of an entertainment, chronicles a school principal's incestuous relationship with his twelve-year-old daughter, whom he sometimes encases in a cello case with peepholes, so she can watch him making love to her mother.
Posted Dec 04, 2014  Edit critic review
Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013) Brandon Judell The whole over-the-top on-screen affair is chaotic with loads of crosscutting that lead up to an outrageous half-hour skirmish with so much blood on the screen you can imagine you're watching a tour of a Heinz ketchup factory.
Posted Nov 02, 2014  Edit critic review
Two Shots Fired (2014) Brandon Judell A farcical delight that strives to satirize Modern Life, an epoch where everyone goes through the motions but fails to connect in any genuine manner. The film achieves its goals.
Posted Sep 22, 2014  Edit critic review
Starred Up (2013) Brandon Judell If a Brit film ever begged for English subtitles, this is the one. Unintelligibility aside, the acting is solid, the direction spot on, and if you want to scare your children into leading a straight life, this film will achieve the task.
Posted Aug 27, 2014  Edit critic review
9/10
Lilting (2014) Brandon Judell Khaou's debut feature is exhilarating in its craft, its performances, and its tale of the eventual fusing of two disparate hearts.
Posted Aug 06, 2014  Edit critic review
Cupcakes (2013) Brandon Judell The whole schmear is predictable, the dialogue is uninspired, and the direction slapdash, yet you wind up feeling cheery the way only silly films with happy endings can make you feel.
Posted Jul 25, 2014  Edit critic review
The Foxy Merkins (2013) Brandon Judell Part John Waters, with a dash of Paul Morrisey and a whole lot of Sappho, this delirious comedy is the must see girl-on-girl comedy of the new millennium.
Posted Jul 25, 2014  Edit critic review
Lyle (2014) Brandon Judell Aided by cinematographer Grant Greenberg's visual mastery, Gaby Hoffman has you on the edge of your seat as her paranoia grows in leaps and bounds, especially as you watch her run through the streets, scamper down staircases, and Skype.
Posted Jul 25, 2014  Edit critic review
3/10
Sex Tape (2014) Brandon Judell Jake Kasdan is to directing comedy what Friedrich Nietzsche is to baking apple strudel. Not much.
Posted Jul 16, 2014  Edit critic review
We Are Mari Pepa (2013) Brandon Judell Pulling no punches, Leopo scrutinizes teenhood south of the boarder with rigor and compassion.
Posted Jul 13, 2014  Edit critic review
Natural Sciences (2014) Brandon Judell In this pursuit for completeness, the two leads pass through the hardworking, blue-collar, not-so-charming rustic world of Argentina. The performances are never less than convincing, the direction straightforward, and the journey wholly moving.
Posted Jul 13, 2014  Edit critic review
El hijo del barrio (2000) Brandon Judell A compelling recreation of a students/workers' strike in the Uruguay of 2002 as experienced by one young man, Ariel (Philip Dieste), who's a great believer in the power of the masses, but one without leadership capabilities.
Posted Jul 13, 2014  Edit critic review
Casa Grande (2014) Brandon Judell Barbosa's engrossing Casa Grande or The Ballad of Poor Jean spotlights how the downward spiraling of a seemingly wealthy Brazilian family's bankbook propels upward the moral consciousness of its self-involved, horny son, Jean (Thales Cavalcanti).
Posted Jul 13, 2014  Edit critic review
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