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Film Occasionally

Film Occasionally is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Michael Nordine.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Kinds of Kindness (2024) Michael Nordine Through all the unrelenting oddity — like the husband who tells his wife to cut off a finger and cook it for him — what emerges is a perplexing, at times touching meditation on what we do for the people we love.
Posted Jun 21, 2024  Edit critic review
In a Violent Nature (2024) Michael Nordine There’s a reason why Laurie Strode is as synonymous with Halloween as Michael Myers is.
Posted May 29, 2024  Edit critic review
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) Michael Nordine Furiosa spends more time revving its engine than any of its predecessors, but once it kicks into gear it’s just as worth witnessing as any of them.
Posted May 24, 2024  Edit critic review
Aggro Dr1ft (2023) Michael Nordine A gimmicky-sounding setup that, to no one’s greater surprise than my own, results in some of the most arresting visuals in recent memory.
Posted May 16, 2024  Edit critic review
I Saw the TV Glow (2024) Michael Nordine An affected, self-consciously evocative sophomore feature with the adolescent sensibility of an actual sophomore.
Posted May 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Napoleon (2023) Michael Nordine A good movie that has yet to achieve the greatness it was destined for.
Posted Nov 17, 2023  Edit critic review
Your Lucky Day (2023) Michael Nordine Your Lucky Day is good verging on great, and suggests that Cloud was well on his way to becoming great too.
Posted Nov 10, 2023  Edit critic review
The Killer (2023) Michael Nordine It’s a movie that never raises its voice, forcing you to lean in and listen carefully lest you miss a single word.
Posted Oct 27, 2023  Edit critic review
Priscilla (2023) Michael Nordine This account of Priscilla Presley and the rock star who gave her her last name might be thought of as the anti-Elvis, which is to say that it’s actually good.
Posted Oct 27, 2023  Edit critic review
The Others (2001) Michael Nordine After coming around to her daughter’s interpretation of events, Grace admits to feeling the presence of “something which is not at rest” — an apt description of the film itself, not to mention anyone watching it for the first time.
Posted Oct 24, 2023  Edit critic review
Freaks (1932) Michael Nordine That such a daring, transgressive film was made by a major studio in the early ‘30s remains a marvel (thanks, Irving Thalberg); that it irreparably harmed the career of its director is disheartening if not surprising.
Posted Oct 24, 2023  Edit critic review
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) Michael Nordine Nothing either man says or does is nearly as intriguing as the mere sight of Gladstone’s visage, which is so naturally expressive it would make Norma Desmond proud.
Posted Oct 19, 2023  Edit critic review
The Exorcist: Believer (2023) Michael Nordine Resurrecting these franchises may be another vulgar display of power from an industry that’s been relying on existing ideas for far too long, but at least they’ve appointed a dedicated caretaker.
Posted Oct 06, 2023  Edit critic review
Dream Scenario (2023) Michael Nordine A feature-length version of Mr. White’s proclamation from the first scene of Reservoir Dogs: “You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.”
Posted Sep 30, 2023  Edit critic review
Stopmotion (2023) Michael Nordine You’ll wonder who dreamt up something so ghastly even as you find yourself wishing for a longer glimpse.
Posted Sep 30, 2023  Edit critic review
Concrete Utopia (2023) Michael Nordine “Can’t people just be humane, peace-loving citizens?” asks one of the more well-meaning survivors. If they could, movies like this wouldn’t exist.
Posted Sep 30, 2023  Edit critic review
River (2023) Michael Nordine It might sound like faint praise to call River an instant classic in the time-loop canon, but Junta Yamaguchi’s lighthearted charmer is a worthy complement to the likes of Groundhog Day all the same.
Posted Sep 30, 2023  Edit critic review
The Creator (2023) Michael Nordine When people bemoan the lack of new projects in Hollywood, which loves producing sequels and reboots more than some people love their own children, The Creator is exactly the kind of movie they’re missing.
Posted Sep 30, 2023  Edit critic review
Eileen (2023) Michael Nordine What is a great movie if not a beautiful dream of another world?
Posted Sep 25, 2023  Edit critic review
Saltburn (2023) Michael Nordine Fennell does a sly job of altering the interpersonal dynamics all throughout and not revealing her characters’ true natures until the very end, but she also overplays her hand in a third act that irreversibly reverses the clever-to-silly ratio.
Posted Sep 25, 2023  Edit critic review
Tiger Stripes (2023) Michael Nordine Puberty is hard enough when it doesn’t involve a bodily transformation that would make Seth Brundle blush.
Posted Sep 25, 2023  Edit critic review
Out of Darkness (2022) Michael Nordine Wisely observes the most important rule of making a movie that may or may not feature a monster: showing it as little as possible.
Posted Sep 25, 2023  Edit critic review
Falling Stars (2023) Michael Nordine There’s little in the way of overt scares or action in this grounded, decidedly un-supernatural approach to the supernatural. That’s very much a choice, as the kids say, but mostly a good one.
Posted Sep 25, 2023  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Talk to Me (2023) Michael Nordine This is horror of the highest order, the kind that leaves you feeling both giddy and unsettled — almost as though you’ve allowed some strange force in and aren’t sure whether you want it to leave.
Posted Aug 01, 2023  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Oppenheimer (2023) Michael Nordine There’s more than one way to lose your life to a bomb.
Posted Jul 19, 2023  Edit critic review
1/4
Clerks III (2022) Michael Nordine I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever seen a sequel that put less effort into expanding on its source material in any meaningful way.
Posted Dec 23, 2022  Edit critic review
3/4
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) Michael Nordine That The Way of Water is engaging nevertheless is a grand testament to Cameron’s abilities — as an immersive spectacle that no other medium could hope to replicate, it’s unlike anything we’ve seen since, well, probably the first Avatar.
Posted Dec 13, 2022  Edit critic review
3/4
The Whale (2022) Michael Nordine The six-minute standing ovation Fraser received in Venice wasn’t long enough.
Posted Dec 07, 2022  Edit critic review
3/4
The Fabelmans (2022) Michael Nordine It's nice to finally receive a love letter to cinema that I didn’t want to return to sender.
Posted Nov 23, 2022  Edit critic review
2/4
White Noise (2022) Michael Nordine The material gets away from Baumbach in a way it never does with DeLillo.
Posted Nov 18, 2022  Edit critic review
3/4
Prey (2022) Michael Nordine Unlike so many other franchises, I now hope this one doesn’t go extinct anytime soon.
Posted Aug 11, 2022  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) Michael Nordine Bodies Bodies Bodies is sus.
Posted Aug 05, 2022  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Medusa (2021) Michael Nordine As in Kill Me Please, da Silveira is as attuned to the growing pains of troubled adolescents as she is to the troubling undercurrents in her native Brazil.
Posted Jul 29, 2022  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Umma (2022) Michael Nordine While it’s hardly an exemplar of the genre, one hopes its lukewarm reception doesn’t prevent similar projects from being made in the future.
Posted Jul 24, 2022  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Nope (2022) Michael Nordine Peele’s most ambitious film yet, but also his most disjointed.
Posted Jul 22, 2022  Edit critic review
3/4
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) Michael Nordine If this inspires a few eye rolls, it’s nothing compared to how many smiles it elicits.
Posted Jul 22, 2022  Edit critic review
2/4
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) Michael Nordine Scene after scene of potential gravitas is undercut by Waititi’s need to remind us at every turn how clever he is.
Posted Jul 13, 2022  Edit critic review
3/4
Little Fish (2020) Michael Nordine Even someone with the memory of a goldfish can see how tragic it is.
Posted Feb 05, 2021  Edit critic review
2/4
Malcolm & Marie (2021) Michael Nordine If witnessing one of these potentially relationship-ending arguments play out in excruciating detail doesn't sound like the making of a compelling movie, that's because it isn't.
Posted Feb 05, 2021  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Atlantis (2019) Michael Nordine Makes a habit of providing just enough detail to pique our interest and ensure that we're giving the film our undivided attention.
Posted Jan 31, 2021  Edit critic review
3/4
Beginning (2020) Michael Nordine If this year sees even a handful of films as beautifully shot as Beginning, it won't have been a total bust.
Posted Jan 31, 2021  Edit critic review
3/4
The Little Things (2021) Michael Nordine Though no Zodiac (to which it's clearly indebted), this is a genuinely compelling procedural with a gloriously bittersweet ending.
Posted Jan 28, 2021  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Saint Maud (2019) Michael Nordine The kind of movie that used to get banned in several countries and condemned by the Catholic Church, which I mean as a compliment.
Posted Jan 28, 2021  Edit critic review
3/4
News of the World (2020) Michael Nordine In addition to being more timely than it was probably intended to be, News of the World has the feel of a warm blanket on a cold winter night.
Posted Jan 15, 2021  Edit critic review
2.5/4
The Dig (2021) Michael Nordine Stone handles this thematic bedrock with all the care of an archaeologist brushing his latest find as it emerges from the dirt.
Posted Jan 15, 2021  Edit critic review
3/4
Promising Young Woman (2020) Michael Nordine Ms. 45 this is not, but the spirit of righteous vengeance lives in it just as strongly.
Posted Jan 08, 2021  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Pieces of a Woman (2020) Michael Nordine Like its heroine, Pieces of a Woman can't help but feel directionless after its first-act climax.
Posted Jan 08, 2021  Edit critic review
Nomadland (2020) Michael Nordine It's quiet and spare in a way I admired more than I actively loved.
Posted Jan 05, 2021  Edit critic review
Mank (2020) Michael Nordine It never gives the impression of having needed to be made by Fincher as opposed to some replacement-level director of autumnal prestige pictures.
Posted Jan 05, 2021  Edit critic review
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