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Critics at Large

Critics at Large is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): CJ Sheu.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy (2025) CJ Sheu Despite my enjoyment, I must concede that making the dozens of viewers in my position the target audience can hardly be called a sound adaptation strategy.
Posted Aug 07, 2025  Edit critic review
Whisper of the Heart (1995) CJ Sheu Whisper achieves what we hope the best children’s fantasy does.
Posted Jun 10, 2025  Edit critic review
An Impossibly Small Object (2018) CJ Sheu The entire [third] act is shot in the same magical realist style that makes the first act such a success, and the ending, though answering exactly zero questions, re-balances the tone, giving the film a sense of closure.
Posted Jan 01, 2025  Edit critic review
Au Revoir Taipei (2010) CJ Sheu It’s my favorite Taiwan film. [...] it’s one of the few contemporary films to nail a natural-sounding Taiwanese Mandarin.
Posted Sep 19, 2022  Edit critic review
Gerry (2002) CJ Sheu What makes Gerry worth watching is in how it perfectly captures what it’s like to get lost in the wilderness.
Posted Aug 19, 2022  Edit critic review
1 Dimension (2013) CJ Sheu [N]ot only have you never seen anything like it, you’ve probably never heard this exact story either, though the archetypes will be familiar. Or at least <i>seem</i> familiar.
Posted Jul 14, 2022  Edit critic review
Death of a Shadow (2012) CJ Sheu Death of a Shadow (2012) is a paragon of economical world building. [...] [T]the actors play it straight and are earnest enough to keep the clichés more or less at bay.
Posted Jul 14, 2022  Edit critic review
Town Bloody Hall (1980) CJ Sheu At first I wanted to say that the presentation perfectly matched the subject, but in truth I don't know if what we have is form following content or content following form.
Posted Oct 26, 2021  Edit critic review
Dune (2021) CJ Sheu [The film] has many shortcomings. But it ... gets the most important thing right: the mood ... of prophesied destiny. And it's hard to imagine a more fitting adaptation.
Posted Oct 13, 2021  Edit critic review
Cosmopolis (2012) CJ Sheu Rarely have I encountered a film with such single-minded focus: everything here, from production design to camera angles to score, [serves] the dialogue. As it should be.
Posted Oct 06, 2021  Edit critic review
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) CJ Sheu The magic of "Beyond" is that it makes it feel like life can offer a preplanned narrative.
Posted Oct 05, 2021  Edit critic review
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011) CJ Sheu If it weren't for Twilight's first-movie advantage, [this film] would take the top spot, because its plot is also entirely to do with Bella and Edward's romance[.]
Posted Sep 10, 2021  Edit critic review
Twilight (2008) CJ Sheu The first film grounds everything, and does a fine job of world-building; even the climactic fight scene is fully integrated into the emotional core[.]
Posted Sep 10, 2021  Edit critic review
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) CJ Sheu After the lightning strike of Bella and Edward, it's nice to see a more gradual and human romance blossom, even if we know that it's doomed from the start.
Posted Sep 10, 2021  Edit critic review
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) CJ Sheu [E]ssentially a detour of a plot, and my interest waned along with the film's decreased focus on the character relationships.
Posted Sep 10, 2021  Edit critic review
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012) CJ Sheu Finally we come to the nadir of the saga. Filmed back to back with the first part, [this film] is built around the ... boring premise ... of gathering forces[.]
Posted Sep 10, 2021  Edit critic review
Stowaway (2021) CJ Sheu These heady considerations are grounded in the film's fluent visual language [...] It's gratifying to see a film that makes a habit of conveying key information wordlessly.
Posted Jul 24, 2021  Edit critic review
The Park (2016) CJ Sheu Things get surreal. [...] The film as a whole is so engrossing[.]
Posted Apr 15, 2021  Edit critic review
Antigone (2019) CJ Sheu Now, thanks to Québécois writer-director-cinematographer [and co-editor] Sophie Deraspe ... , we finally have the film that [Jean] Anouilh deserves.
Posted Dec 01, 2020  Edit critic review
Mulan (2020) CJ Sheu It may look like a film and quack like a film, but something's just not right with the new Mulan[.]
Posted Oct 03, 2020  Edit critic review
The Disaster Artist (2017) CJ Sheu [T]he decision to film Disaster as a comedy relegates the characters' moral objections to fodder for the funnies.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Kate Plays Christine (2016) CJ Sheu The [lure] of a gory spectacle is what keeps us slogging through this two-hour circular meditation, ... to showcase Greene's ability to manipulate viewers into self-disgust[.]
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
The Florida Project (2017) CJ Sheu But it's the elevation of the source material into such a delicate yet layered narrative that evinces true artistry.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
American Animals (2018) CJ Sheu The film entices us to empathize with the leads so that it can hit us on the head with our own empathy. But that's the thing about empathy: It literally doesn't judge.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (2012) CJ Sheu Resnais displays an immaculate instinct for when to use which actors, ... and [how to use sound] to elicit the emotions that on stage would emerge from variations in volume.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Cloud Atlas (2012) CJ Sheu Cloud Atlas is a glorious reward for readers who've slogged through a brilliant but flawed novel, and the soundtrack is the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Dancing Ninja (2010) CJ Sheu It points up the utter ridiculousness of comic-book superhero conventions while wearing its love of comic-book superhero conventions on its sleeve.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
La La Land (2016) CJ Sheu The meta qualities of La La Land, which have led many to call it a love letter to classic musical films, owe a great deal to this [atmospheric framing] device.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
West of Her (2016) CJ Sheu The film does have a few missteps ..., but what works far, far outstrips what doesn't, and by the end you'll be sad that it's over.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Beautiful Things (2017) CJ Sheu Beautiful Things opens the door to l'art pour l'art in the machine age.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Paterson (2016) CJ Sheu What makes Paterson such a wonderfully coherent and satisfying film ... is its cinematic conceit: we are seeing the world as it is perceived by ... the protagonist[.]
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Dealt (2017) CJ Sheu [T]he way that it introduces its subject, follows him through a turning point in his life, and conveys it all with a purposeful cinematicity just begs to be unpacked.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Green Book (2018) CJ Sheu What the film does is less idiotic, more insidious: it erases historical and institutional legacies of racism.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Metropolis (1927) CJ Sheu Fritz Lang must have been a rare kind of genius.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
The Future (2011) CJ Sheu [T]he film is so distinctive and eloquent in style that ... [the two protagonists] are utterly compelling to watch as they relinquish their lives to fate and whimsy.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Hunter Killer (2018) CJ Sheu Don't think for a second that I don't recognize Hunter Killer for the nearly uninterrupted series of clichés that it is. Yet ... it can be quite engaging.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Widows (2018) CJ Sheu I hesitate not a whit in calling Widows the most satisfying heist film of the year.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Mountain (2017) CJ Sheu It's truly an awesome experience.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Hostile (2017) CJ Sheu [T]he melodramatic direction, tone-deaf dialogue, predictable plot, and overly intellectual transitions caused me to check out, mentally[.]
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Shirkers (2018) CJ Sheu Alas, Shirkers the narrative feature wasn't to be ... But that's okay: Shirkers the documentary is already full of creative magic.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Phoenix (2014) CJ Sheu [A]n allegory has to string together coherent narratives in two distinct registers at once in a high-strung balancing act. Phoenix manages this remarkable feat[.]
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Burning (2018) CJ Sheu The filmmaking is assured to the point where long takes go unnoticed, and the impeccable pace makes the 148-minute running time feel all too short[.]
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Apocalypse Now Redux (1979) CJ Sheu It's about the absurd tragedies that occur when a rational strategy or cultural institution is guided by humans and their inherent irrationalities.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Nostalghia (1983) CJ Sheu What results is a work of devastating beauty just ripe for the GIFing.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Maborosi (1995) CJ Sheu It's a very Japanese understanding of suicide: as not bluntly tragic or a waste, but alluring, mysterious, not subject to total comprehension ... the state of grief itself.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Speed Racer (2008) CJ Sheu Speed Racer has the extraordinary style down pat, and its sense of abstraction is what sells the vast race-fixing conspiracy lurking in the background of the plot.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Aquaman (2018) CJ Sheu [T]hat the locales are announced via subtitle, often before the characters ... know where they are, evokes the levels and stages of an adventure game. [T]hat's what [it] is.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Blunt Force Trauma (2015) CJ Sheu But for those, like me, who see a fascinating culture and want to know more, this film is a languorous gondola ride for the mind.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
High Life (2018) CJ Sheu In its final moment, High Life transforms the scientific unknown into transcendent hope - the only kind of hope it accepts.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Serenity (2019) CJ Sheu But view it first and foremost from the perspective of a video-game aesthetic and Serenity starts to make sense.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
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