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Film Quarterly

Film Quarterly is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): B. Ruby Rich, Pauline Kael, Stephen Farber, Susan Sontag, Vernon Young.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Shampoo (1975) David Ehrenstein The sixties framework simply drives the irony home all the harder.
Posted Mar 03, 2025  Edit critic review
Muriel (1963) Susan Sontag [Resnais's] films lack tonicity and vigor, directness of address. They are cautious, somehow, overburdened and synthetic. They do not go to the end, either of the idea or of the emotion which inspires them, which all great art must do.
Posted May 03, 2024  Edit critic review
The Virgin Spring (1959) Vernon Young With [this film], Ingmar Bergman has moved without further hesitation into the deep crucial places of tragic art, into the abiding forest which surrounds our daytime and gives the lie to our belief that all contingent evils can be socialized away.
Posted Jan 30, 2024  Edit critic review
Girl With a Suitcase (1961) Vernon Young Zurlini’s direction is at its best when by keeping his camera high in the intimate scenes he catches the little mobilities of social mannerism and reveals the personal hesitant explorations of the pair.
Posted Jan 17, 2024  Edit critic review
The Great War (1959) Vernon Young Monicelli’s tempered wit makes him a formidable contender for a prominent directorial place in the sun, since La Grande Guerra is a funny film haunted by a sickening sense of waste; it’s also an adroit piece of move-making.
Posted Jan 17, 2024  Edit critic review
Il bell'Antonio (1960) Vernon Young Il Bell'Antonio is lyrical, savage, and astute.
Posted Jan 17, 2024  Edit critic review
Two Women (1960) Vernon Young [Sophia Loren] doesn’t give a performance; she gives an existence.
Posted Jan 17, 2024  Edit critic review
The Magician (1958) Vernon Young [The Magician], written by Bergman himself, is quite the richest of the Swedish director’s achievements -- which is not necessarily to call it the greatest.
Posted Jan 11, 2024  Edit critic review
Hud (1963) Pauline Kael This response to Hud may be the only time the general audience has understood film makers better than they understood themselves.
Posted Oct 17, 2023  Edit critic review
Billy Budd (1962) Pauline Kael A clean, honest work of intelligence and craftsmanship.
Posted Sep 11, 2023  Edit critic review
One, Two, Three (1961) Pauline Kael One, Two, Three is overwrought, tasteless, and offensive -- a comedy that pulls out laughs the way a catheter draws urine.
Posted Sep 11, 2023  Edit critic review
The Innocents (1961) Pauline Kael The Innocents is not a great movie, but it’s a very good one, and maybe Deborah Kerr’s performance should really be called great.
Posted Sep 11, 2023  Edit critic review
Adventures of a Young Man (1962) Pauline Kael I think it is a disgrace and a moral offense to take short stories by Hemingway and a piece of a novel and combine them with incidents from his life in a sentimental pastiche which is then presented as some sort of biographical film.
Posted Sep 11, 2023  Edit critic review
West Side Story (1961) Pauline Kael This is a movie that pretends to deal with racial tensions. The lyrics keep telling us this is what it's about and the critics seem to accept the authors' word for it.
Posted Jul 29, 2022  Edit critic review
The Dirty Dozen (1967) Stephen Farber The Dirty Dozen is not the first movie to treat its audience with contempt. But the film is uncannily, frighteningly in keeping with today's military mentality.
Posted Jul 18, 2020  Edit critic review
Unholy Rollers (1972) Paul Schrader It's hard, fast, and vulgar, full of life and personality.
Posted Jun 30, 2020  Edit critic review
Old Cats (2010) B. Ruby Rich A masterful cast, patient camera, narrative immediacy, and tremendous compassion all combine to make Old Cats an utter jewel of a drama. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Crime After Crime (2011) B. Ruby Rich The documentary and the case became entangled in fascinating ways and suggest that filmmakers may have more power than they usually think they do.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
The Interrupters (2011) B. Ruby Rich A one-woman peace squad, [Ameena Matthews] burns up the screen whenever she's on it.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) B. Ruby Rich The result is astonishing, for stereotypes have long since replaced the vivid realities of that moment; now, revivified, its actors spin back into action, misconceptions corrected, history set straight.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Another Earth (2011) B. Ruby Rich All believably rendered with great economy.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Perfect Sense (2011) B. Ruby Rich Scottish director David Mackenzie's Perfect Sense, play with the best kind of futurism: just like today, except for one crucial difference.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
The Future (2011) B. Ruby Rich Despite the brilliant July touches... the tone became too winsome, the narrative too forced, the performances too twee.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (2011) B. Ruby Rich Pointed jokes and sweetheart ending mark Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same as a modern-day lesbian fairy tale.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Pariah (2011) B. Ruby Rich The tone is tragicomic, the genre is coming-of-age, and the execution is impeccable.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Circumstance (2011) B. Ruby Rich With an eye for detail and atmosphere reminiscent of Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta, [Maryam] Keshavarz nimbly reworks the diaspora narrative with a fresh, stylish, sexy style.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Keep the Lights On (2012) B. Ruby Rich This gay domestic drama is a fascinating turn for Sachs.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
5 Broken Cameras (2011) B. Ruby Rich A documentary that needs to be seen in the U.S. and around the world: its evidence of the campaign of terror waged on Palestinian villages in Gaza by the Israeli military is incontrovertible.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Young & Wild (2011) B. Ruby Rich Young and Wild is an impressive artistic achievement that etches a lineage back to Lucrecia Martel's The Holy Girl and Catherine Breillat's A Real Young Girl.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
The House I Live In (2012) B. Ruby Rich Elegantly edited [and] thoroughly researched... Deservedly took the jury award for best U.S. documentary.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
We're Not Broke (2011) B. Ruby Rich The history is shocking, the data stunning.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
How to Survive a Plague (2012) B. Ruby Rich For anybody who doubts that individuals can combat giant governmental and corporate forces and win, this is a great how-to manual.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) B. Ruby Rich A monumentally original fable.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Big Sur (2013) B. Ruby Rich Sparked an awareness of drama and documentary's interconnectedness and the impossibility of truly separating their elements in a digital age.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Stories We Tell (2012) B. Ruby Rich The pay-off that Polley leads us to is real enough to hang a movie on.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Google and the World Brain (2013) B. Ruby Rich Clearly the editing wasn't finished... yet the passions captured over 24 months by Nezhat's cameras and a battalion of local chroniclers were undeniable.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
After Tiller (2013) B. Ruby Rich This portrayal of [the doctors'] work, dedication, and grace under pressure is heart-breaking in so many ways.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Salma (2013) B. Ruby Rich A haunting look at one remarkable woman's survival and triumph.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
The Stuart Hall Project (2013) B. Ruby Rich In the end, audiences not well versed in the intricacies of Hall's career, and even some who are, will be lost - but then found through the remarkable scenes and sounds of a lifetime of Hall speeches, television interviews, and thoughts.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Pit Stop (2013) B. Ruby Rich Yen Tan's gift for long takes and his comfort with silences makes demands on the audience that films ought to make - and pays them back with a surprising happy ending.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Anita (2013) B. Ruby Rich Anita's ace in the hole is its archival footage, especially the riveting scenes of Hill's original testimony.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Concussion (2013) B. Ruby Rich A crazy set-up, but this is one part screwball comedy, one part sex romp, so it works.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
Interior. Leather Bar. (2013) B. Ruby Rich [Travis] Matthews made a sophisticated bit of sexual time-travel that allowed Franco to create another bit of self-reflection.
Posted Feb 28, 2020  Edit critic review
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