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Easy Reader (California)

Easy Reader (California) is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Neely Swanson.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
The Secret Agent (2025) Neely Swanson Quiet, determined, devoted, Moura is the everyman, the ordinary citizen thrust into extraordinary circumstances... It is difficult to imagine anyone else in this role.
Posted Dec 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Blue Eyed Girl (2025) Neely Swanson A story that’s been told before but tell it well and it’s worthwhile to revisit. “Blue Eyed Girl” is told very well with a winning cast of characters, the very definition of an independent film.
Posted Nov 24, 2025  Edit critic review
Rebuilding (2025) Neely Swanson “Rebuilding” is a simmer of a movie on a low, steady fire. There’s no action, no noise, no explosive reveals; just a slow melding of sights and sounds and smells yielding a fragrance of human emotions.
Posted Nov 14, 2025  Edit critic review
Peter Hujar's Day (2025) Neely Swanson Whishaw melts into the character, pulling you into the time and place... In a career full of interesting characters, this is one of his best.
Posted Nov 10, 2025  Edit critic review
Die My Love (2025) Neely Swanson Jennifer Lawrence, always a marvel and a reason to see any film in which she appears, exhibits even more depth and range than she has previously. See the movie for her performance but not for the film.
Posted Nov 07, 2025  Edit critic review
Eleanor the Great (2025) Neely Swanson This charming film, with unexpected depth and humor, tells a story that, in lesser hands, would teeter on the edge of poor taste and mawkish sentimentality, but instead boldly exploits a sensitive topic to great effect.
Posted Sep 30, 2025  Edit critic review
Code 3 (2025) Neely Swanson Unfortunately what keeps “Code 3” from taking off is the lead, Rainn Wilson as Randy. His effectiveness comes in waves. Funny in the lighter moments, he has trouble mediating the emotions of the fraught times.
Posted Sep 24, 2025  Edit critic review
The Baltimorons (2025) Neely Swanson Programmatic, it’s easy to guess what will happen and why... But stick with it because Michael Strassner, Cliff, and Liz Larsen, Didi, find their footing and add a layer of depth that wasn’t there at the beginning.
Posted Sep 10, 2025  Edit critic review
Love, Brooklyn (2025) Neely Swanson An unusual story of depth, “Love, Brooklyn,” delivers more than one would expect of a film exploring a triangle.
Posted Sep 06, 2025  Edit critic review
Diva (1981) Neely Swanson This movie is the very embodiment of style over substance and succeeds wildly. It is advised that you let “Diva” sweep over you, like the tsunami of action that it is. Don’t try to keep up, you’ll drown.
Posted Sep 03, 2025  Edit critic review
East of Wall (2025) Neely Swanson Beecroft has purposely blurred the lines of reality and fiction by casting [Tabitha and Porshia Zimiga], but it works. You will ride with them anywhere.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
The Musicians (2025) Neely Swanson An enlightening, charming movie that is sometimes as tense as a newly strung violin.
Posted Aug 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Souleymane's Story (2024) Neely Swanson Without the amazing Abou Sangare who played Souleyman, it is doubtful the film would have been as effective as it is. Sangare, in his first role, is a revelation.
Posted Aug 06, 2025  Edit critic review
Shari & Lamb Chop (2023) Neely Swanson An educator to the end, the surprising Ms. Lewis was more than the sum of her parts and we were the benefactors.
Posted Jul 22, 2025  Edit critic review
On Swift Horses (2024) Neely Swanson This is a movie told in inadvertent vignettes; inadvertent because Minahan was probably aiming for a gestalt with his characterizations and instead got the pieces that never resulted in a whole.
Posted Apr 23, 2025  Edit critic review
Universal Language (2024) Neely Swanson There is absolutely no way to make any of this comprehensible which is why you must allow the characters to wash over you... The illogical end is still wholly satisfying, if only because of the belly laughs along the way.
Posted Feb 14, 2025  Edit critic review
Bring Them Down (2024) Neely Swanson The cast is pitch perfect, believable even when the circumstances don’t seem to be.
Posted Feb 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Santosh (2024) Neely Swanson Hillege’s photography will have you choking on the dust and sweating in the heat. The acting is excellent all around, led by the extraordinary Shahana Goswani as Santosh and Sunita Rajwar as a very complex Sharma.
Posted Jan 11, 2025  Edit critic review
The Girl With the Needle (2024) Neely Swanson It is difficult to watch a story as bleak as this one but there are a number of reasons to recommend it. The Girl with the Needle is an accurate portrayal of the abandoned underclass in a society that provided no safety net.
Posted Dec 03, 2024  Edit critic review
Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story (2023) Neely Swanson It fills in gaps you didn’t know existed and does it with humor, music and intelligence. I am, quite frankly, mad about the boy.
Posted Oct 08, 2024  Edit critic review
Daaaaaali! (2023) Neely Swanson This surrealistic homage to the master is laugh-out-loud funny, capturing him better than a straight biopic could possibly have done. After all, how do you catch lightning in a bottle?
Posted Sep 30, 2024  Edit critic review
Lee (2023) Neely Swanson Neither the director, the many writers nor the star found a way to tell the tale with passion and excitement.
Posted Sep 26, 2024  Edit critic review
Wolfs (2024) Neely Swanson Watts’ film isn’t high art and has more holes than swiss cheese but the dialogue is crisp and the two stars keep it afloat until the end when it no longer matters.
Posted Sep 20, 2024  Edit critic review
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2023) Neely Swanson Performance, direction, writing, cinematography all work together to make this a film that will sneak up on you and open your heart to forgiveness and possibility.
Posted Sep 20, 2024  Edit critic review
Coup! (2023) Neely Swanson This is a delightful little black comedy of elitism, privilege, the games people play to convince themselves that they aren’t better than others, and how easy it is to tear away that fabric of civility.
Posted Aug 27, 2024  Edit critic review
Good One (2024) Neely Swanson This insightful and beautiful film is enhanced by the very nature being explored, one that will occasionally have you gasping at the landscapes. In his feature debut as a cinematographer, Wilson Cameron has captured the wilderness in its greatest glory.
Posted Aug 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Swan Song (2023) Neely Swanson Even those who profess a dislike of classical ballet will be entranced by the inner workings of the showmanship onstage and off.
Posted Jul 30, 2024  Edit critic review
The Convert (2023) Neely Swanson There are films that defy expectations and there are those that turn those expectations upside down. Lee Tamahori’s The Convert is a movie that does both.
Posted Jul 12, 2024  Edit critic review
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint (2023) Neely Swanson There are many laugh-out-loud moments to cherish. If you believe in heaven and hell, or more particularly if you don’t, you’ll get new insights from this exercise in theater of the absurd.
Posted Jul 05, 2024  Edit critic review
Green Border (2023) Neely Swanson Green Border is one of the most relentlessly depressing and horrifying films I have ever experienced. That is not to say it is without worth; it is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking.
Posted Jun 21, 2024  Edit critic review
Wildcat (2023) Neely Swanson Did I like it? Hard to say. Yet it did make me think, and on reflection I’m glad I watched.
Posted May 07, 2024  Edit critic review
Io Capitano (2023) Neely Swanson It opens our eyes to the dangers faced by migrants searching for a better life. The vilification of those trying to escape poverty is unconscionable in this day and age.
Posted Feb 22, 2024  Edit critic review
Ordinary Angels (2024) Neely Swanson You’ve seen this story, either fictional or real life, a million times. “Ordinary Angels” isn’t the best of them but it’s definitely not the worst. The talented cast alone makes this worth watching.
Posted Feb 20, 2024  Edit critic review
God & Country (2024) Neely Swanson Polemics aside, this very worthy, frightening and effective documentary is an illuminating explanation of the who, the what and the why of this national trend towards an increasingly right wing ideology.
Posted Feb 16, 2024  Edit critic review
Tótem (2023) Neely Swanson Avila has written and directed a character piece, a narrative that unwraps over one day but is a reflection of time past and time to come. The story is what you choose to make of it.
Posted Jan 26, 2024  Edit critic review
American Star (2024) Neely Swanson The pieces are all there but, in the end, don’t entirely work. It isn’t just the hitman who is inscrutable.
Posted Jan 21, 2024  Edit critic review
Burt Reynolds: The Last Interview (2023) Neely Swanson As oral history, you must consider the source of information and it is lacking. But as an introduction or reminder of the man’s quick wit, you won’t find much better.
Posted Jan 06, 2024  Edit critic review
Clean Slate (1981) Neely Swanson “Coup de Torchon” is one of the most devastatingly sly, raw and brilliant indictments of man’s inhumanity to  man as viewed through a colonial prism.
Posted Jan 01, 2024  Edit critic review
Freud's Last Session (2023) Neely Swanson Although I liked the film, I’m still uncertain of what Brown was trying to say.
Posted Dec 19, 2023  Edit critic review
Our Son (2023) Neely Swanson This is a universal story, made more universal when seen from a different angle.
Posted Dec 05, 2023  Edit critic review
La Syndicaliste (2022) Neely Swanson This is the well-told story of a whistleblower who was unable to combat the steamroller coming for her.
Posted Dec 01, 2023  Edit critic review
Fallen Leaves (2023) Neely Swanson If Kaurismäki intended this to be love among the lonely and poor, he hasn't made that case to me, although apparently I'm an outlier.
Posted Nov 27, 2023  Edit critic review
It's a Wonderful Knife (2023) Neely Swanson This is a relatively fun, mindless 90 minutes.
Posted Nov 07, 2023  Edit critic review
Bella (2022) Neely Swanson Although seen entirely through her eyes, suffering no contrary opinions, it is wonderful to renew an acquaintance with one of the most important dancers of the 20th century.
Posted Nov 06, 2023  Edit critic review
Subject (2022) Neely Swanson More in depth than just “where are they now,” the filmmakers try to dig into the long-term effects of living a part of your life in front of an audience.
Posted Nov 01, 2023  Edit critic review
King on Screen (2022) Neely Swanson “King on Screen” is more than the sum of its parts, so much so that you can forgive the director the lame imitation of King in her opening foray before she dives into the meat of the issue with the director interviews and fun film clips.
Posted Aug 25, 2023  Edit critic review
Love Life (2022) Neely Swanson A melancholic treatise on life and love, Fukada gives us a portrait of a people wrestling with the very idea of family.
Posted Aug 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Passages (2023) Neely Swanson The story is strong, character is well developed and the direction flows.
Posted Aug 02, 2023  Edit critic review
Revoir Paris (2022) Neely Swanson Efira needs little or no dialogue to communicate what she’s feeling. Her expressive eyes are truly the window into her characters’ souls.
Posted Jul 20, 2023  Edit critic review
Close to Vermeer (2023) Neely Swanson There are many takeaways from this remarkable film, not the least of which is the sheer enjoyment of seeing something from the inside out even if you couldn’t see the exhibit itself.
Posted Jul 16, 2023  Edit critic review
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