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Rough Draft Atlanta

Rough Draft Atlanta is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Sammie Purcell.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Nouvelle Vague (2025) Sammie Purcell "Nouvelle Vague" is perfectly well made, well acted, and enjoyable – light, cozy entertainment that will most likely delight cinephiles in its exploration of how one of the most influential films of all time came to be.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
The Running Man (2025) Sammie Purcell "The Running Man" [is] a movie that’s a little too absurd for how seriously it takes itself.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (2025) Sammie Purcell ...with "Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk," [Sepideh] Farsi has proven once again that powerful emotion doesn’t have to stem from big, sweeping visuals. It can come from something as simple as an iPhone.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Wicked: For Good (2025) Sammie Purcell I can’t say that "Wicked: For Good" doesn’t have its moments ... But, outside of those few moments, "Wicked: For Good" feels immensely slow and ill-conceived.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Train Dreams (2025) Sammie Purcell Just like with "Sing Sing," in "Train Dreams" [Clint] Bentley and [Greg] Kwedar take a story that could easily feel trite or overwrought and instead come up with something deeply humane.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Eternity (2025) Sammie Purcell ...while it’s certainly entertaining, the lack of tension while you’re waiting for the inevitable to happen – or getting annoyed when the movie tries to pretend like something else will happen – makes "Eternity" feel far longer than its ... runtime.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Peter Hujar's Day (2025) Sammie Purcell [Ira] Sachs takes a simple story about the minutiae of being a living, breathing, working artist and gives it a cinematic edge.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Jay Kelly (2025) Sammie Purcell ["Jay Kelly" is] not subtle by any means, but the pure anguish that runs under the surface of [Noah] Baumbach’s latest work rings harsh and true by the film’s end.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Hamnet (2025) Sammie Purcell While a bit clunky in its narrative setup, "Hamnet" slowly nestles into your heart, evolving into a beautifully considered meditation on art and legacy...
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
The Housemaid (2025) Sammie Purcell This is a genre that thrives not on characters, or plot, or good writing, but rather on its ability to make you gasp, laugh, and groan in equal measure. And in that respect, "The Housemaid" does not disappoint.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Song Sung Blue (2025) Sammie Purcell ...the best parts of "Song Sung Blue" have nothing to do with [its] twists, but instead with the crowd pleasing charm and the musical spectacular of the two performers at the film’s center.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Marty Supreme (2025) Sammie Purcell ...at its heart, "Marty Supreme" is also a movie about coming into your own and growing up — all wrapped up in an immensely entertaining thrill ride.
Posted Jan 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Urchin (2025) Sammie Purcell As a filmmaker, [Harris] Dickinson certainly wears his references on his sleeve, but he also avoids a lot of the pitfalls that first-time filmmakers can so easily fall into.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
The Mastermind (2025) Sammie Purcell “The Mastermind” is exploring the same things [Kelly] Reichardt has always been interested in – the psyche of a uniquely American person at any given moment in time, discontent with their life but unsure of what it is they want.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Blue Moon (2025) Sammie Purcell Within Lorenz Hart, [Robert] Kaplow [and Richard Linklater] find the innate tension of the human condition – our self-destructiveness, our complexity, and our desire to be loved.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE (2025) Sammie Purcell “A House of Dynamite” is far less concerned with competence or lack thereof, and more concerned with what war means in the nuclear era.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Ballad of a Small Player (2025) Sammie Purcell ...despite its operatic sense of style, “Ballad of a Small Player” is missing the buoyancy of [Edward] Berger’s previous film. The stakes feel nonexistent, the characters disconnected, and the whole thing oddly lifeless.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
It Was Just an Accident (2025) Sammie Purcell Made in secret by a filmmaker who understands the evils of authoritarianism better than most, “It Was Just an Accident” offers a sharp rebuke to that authoritarianism, wrestling with complex questions about justice and humanity.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025) Sammie Purcell “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” is a title that evokes a feeling of complete and utter inadequacy, one that seeps through [Mary] Bronstein’s remarkably assured, piercing second feature directorial effort.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Hedda (2025) Sammie Purcell “Hedda” is a whirling dervish of power struggles, featuring a powerhouse performance from [Tessa] Thompson at the eye of the hurricane.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Christy (2025) Sammie Purcell “Christy,” the new film directed by David Michôd and co-written by Michôd and Mirrah Foulkes, rests on the inherent high drama of Christy’s story, refusing to engage with her beyond the surface, which leads to fairly surface level performances.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Bugonia (2025) Sammie Purcell For as silly as "Bugonia" can be, it is also a deeply sad exploration of one man’s conspiracy-filled journey to right a great wrong.
Posted Nov 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025) Sammie Purcell Watching “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” one thought kept crossing my mind – why has it taken this long for someone to put Jennifer Lopez in a musical?
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
The Smashing Machine (2025) Sammie Purcell While it’s an admirable goal, to make a sports movie that feels so rooted in realism, the attempt is far more interesting than the product.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Good Boy (2025) Sammie Purcell [Ben] Leonberg ... [creates] a movie that, while spare, effectively builds tension and emotion and makes a star out of its leading canine.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) Sammie Purcell The bare bones, dully-framed characters feel more like faint impressions of people than people themselves, and the script, penned by Seth Reiss, feels like a waste of both of its actors’ and Kogonada’s strengths.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Another End (2024) Sammie Purcell ["Another End" has] interminable pacing and a third act twist that feels somehow both out of nowhere and yet incredibly predictable,
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
One Battle After Another (2025) Sammie Purcell “One Battle After Another” is explosive and incisive – both blunt object and rapier, clear-eyed in its view of this country and all its insidious entrails.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
The Long Walk (2025) Sammie Purcell The obvious authoritarian allegory in “The Long Walk" ... is an overly broad one, almost cartoonish in its execution. But the walkers themselves – 50 in the movie instead of the book’s 100 – are far more richly considered.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Relay (2024) Sammie Purcell Your enjoyment of the film might rest on your ability to buy in, but in most other respects, “Relay” is a perfectly enjoyable paranoid thriller, a fresh take on a genre that feels too much like a throwback these days.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
Honey Don't! (2025) Sammie Purcell Should have worked, but didn’t – that could be the tagline for “Honey Don’t!”
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
Caught Stealing (2025) Sammie Purcell It’s a wacky premise, and one that is mostly well-served by [Charlie] Huston’s script and [Darren] Aronofsky’s direction. Except when it gets a little too … well, Aronofsky.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
Splitsville (2025) Sammie Purcell It’s over the top, but the comic anxiety in “Splitsville” stems from the very real insecurities that plague any 30-or-40-something attempting to navigate romantic relationships.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
Highest 2 Lowest (2025) Sammie Purcell As thrilling as ["High and Low"] is, it’s not a movie that you could conceivably call “funny,” or a “good time.” And yet somehow, Lee has turned this hard-bitten procedural into an exciting romp of a film.
Posted Aug 15, 2025  Edit critic review
Weapons (2025) Sammie Purcell [Zach Cregger] mixes humor and horror with ease and, more importantly, keeps the audience on their toes until the film’s nastily satisfying conclusion.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
Freakier Friday (2025) Sammie Purcell While not quite as tightly paced as its predecessor, “Freakier Friday” is a delight, and a lot of its success can be chalked up to its cast.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
Cloud (2024) Sammie Purcell “Cloud” is a parable – a funny, horrifying encapsulation of how we are slaves to an internet that makes us apathetic. And if we’re not careful, that apathy will kill us one day.
Posted Aug 05, 2025  Edit critic review
The Naked Gun (2025) Sammie Purcell It’s the funniest big studio comedy release to come along in years, playing in a similar sandbox to the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker films of yore, but in a new context with new toys.
Posted Aug 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Together (2025) Sammie Purcell The film’s final message falls a bit flat – unless you, like me, see it as perversely bleak – but it’s a fun ride to get there.
Posted Aug 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Oh, Hi! (2025) Sammie Purcell ... its attempts at satire are uneven at best, making for a hollow take on gender roles and the rules of contemporary dating.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
C'mon C'mon (2021) Sammie Purcell Over and over, through enchanting cinematography and nuanced, compassionate performances, “C’mon C’mon” reminds us that while there are certainly things to fear, there are things to treasure as well.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
Wolf (2021) Sammie Purcell Despite a committed performance from MacKay, the film’s storytelling is unfocused and dull, muddling its way through its central metaphor and never devoted enough to the physical carnality of its main character.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
Red Rocket (2021) Sammie Purcell On its surface, “Red Rocket” is a compelling story about one guy’s tendency to bulldoze through the lives of everyone around him. But dig a little deeper, and it becomes a hastily tacked together attempt at understanding Trump’s America.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
The Novice (2021) Sammie Purcell Hadaway’s unnerving film tells a familiar story from an unfamiliar perspective, using uncanny sound design and camera work to show the dark side of obsession, resulting in a psychological thriller about an underdog who can’t quite make the cut.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
Munich: The Edge of War (2021) Sammie Purcell The biggest issue with “Munich – The Edge of War” is it seems less interested in exploring a complex, ultimately bad decision, and more interested in clumsily lionizing the man who made it.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
Sundown (2021) Sammie Purcell “Sundown” is darkly humorous, sometimes shocking, and often apathetic to the point of catatonia.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
Turning Red (2022) Sammie Purcell From its arresting animation, to its sensitive and honest portrayal of friendship and girlhood, “Turning Red” proves that specificity is key in storytelling, amplifying emotions that a more vague approach would render impotent.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
No Exit (2022) Sammie Purcell Despite its flaws, “No Exit” skillfully ramps up the madness to a feverish climax that will leave you buzzing.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
The Northman (2022) Sammie Purcell Eggers’ third film is characterized by a systematic style of filmmaking, almost rigid in its execution, that creates a distance between the story and the audience that allows them to see Amleth’s quest for what it is.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
Senior Year (2022) Sammie Purcell Feeble attempts at absurdist comedy fall flat in a film that fails to weave its stabs at earnest emotion together with confused commentary that has nothing new to say about high school or its social hierarchies.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
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