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Filmjourney

Filmjourney is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Doug Cummings.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Buzzard (2014) Robert Koehler Buzzard is in fact a salad of cinephilia.
Posted Mar 17, 2014  Edit critic review
Something's Gonna Live (2009) Doug Cummings What sets the film apart are its tender sense of camaraderie (felt in many candid, informal conversations) and its thematic heft: these artists genuinely want to reflect the human condition, a value often lost in today's technological extravaganzas.
Posted Sep 15, 2010  Edit critic review
The Secret of the Grain (2007) Doug Cummings Through his superlative cast of performers, Kechiche's family portrait is a doting record of the innate resiliency of this beloved community.
Posted Apr 23, 2008  Edit critic review
The Unforeseen (2007) Doug Cummings It provides a multilayered examination of what it means for society to "develop" and "grow" while depleting its natural resources.
Posted Nov 14, 2007  Edit critic review
The Testament of Dr. Cordelier (1959) Doug Cummings It's the kind of role that can inspire brilliance, and Barrault is remarkable, suggesting a deranged mime who moves in a series of spasms and ticks before breaking into wild, inexplicable violence.
Posted Oct 31, 2007  Edit critic review
Diary of the Dead (2007) Doug Cummings This time out, the elements seem particularly impassioned and conscientiously formed.
Posted Oct 16, 2007  Edit critic review
Blade Runner (1982) Doug Cummings The film's noisy sound mix and congested pictorialism--as if it had been directed by a crazed, postmodern Von Sternberg--is a direct corollary to its moral ambiguity and sense of climactic human expiration (technological and social).
Posted Oct 08, 2007  Edit critic review
The Violin (2005) Doug Cummings by turns shocking, observant, picturesque, and thought-provoking, the film is a moving expression of the tumultuous existence of countless Mexican lives.
Posted Sep 26, 2007  Edit critic review
Out 1, Noli Me Tangere (1971) Doug Cummings Out 1 has been accurately described as a "film-fleuve," and though its current may be slow, its volume is massive; one could easily follow any one of its many tributaries to vast thematic territory.
Posted Aug 21, 2007  Edit critic review
The Coward (1965) Doug Cummings A deeply felt and observantly rendered mood piece that pivots on setting, camera placement, actor positions, and an editing structure that incorporates flashbacks via emotional associations
Posted Aug 21, 2007  Edit critic review
Tekkonkinkreet (2006) Doug Cummings If it doesn't quite achieve seamless plotting and colorful dialogue, it makes up for it by merging highly stylized animation with live action aesthetics in remarkably immersive ways.
Posted May 08, 2007  Edit critic review
Cria! (1976) Doug Cummings The film's vaguely uncanny and disquieting tone is due to several factors, including its emphasis on death, loss, and decay...In many ways, the film is a lament and warning for Spain's future.
Posted Apr 01, 2007  Edit critic review
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) Doug Cummings Hollywood melodramas do not often compare to timeless masterpieces of world cinema, but this does, largely through McCarey's sophisticated blend of tragic pathos, psychological insight, and rich, knowing humor.
Posted Mar 21, 2007  Edit critic review
Leyenda del tiempo (2006) Doug Cummings A seemingly effortless, but enigmatic and deeply engaging observation of modern San Fernando islanders.
Posted Mar 08, 2007  Edit critic review
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987) Doug Cummings One of the more astonishing aspects of the film (one that also incriminates the viewer) is [its] shocking moral fury.
Posted Mar 08, 2007  Edit critic review
Hamlet (1964) Doug Cummings Kozintsev emphasizes the imprisoning moral architecture of Elsinore, not by obvious claustrophobic visuals, but by a rich, widescreen frame and purist, black-and-white imagery...
Posted Nov 07, 2006  Edit critic review
Who's Camus Anyway? (2005) Doug Cummings While it's chock full of film references, colorful characters, and social eccentricities, its true sophistication emerges gradually, posing complex questions about the roles of fantasy, identity, and volition in modern life.
Posted Nov 01, 2006  Edit critic review
La commune (Paris, 1871) (2000) Doug Cummings Filled with wall-to-wall political debate, pleas for social equality and critiques of power, the film is a furious, provocative, and rousing experimental documentary that reenacts the Commune's historical moment.
Posted Oct 27, 2006  Edit critic review
The Road to Guantanamo (2006) Doug Cummings To its credit, the film isn't sensationalistic nor is it political agitprop. While the violence is concrete and upsetting, it's virtually tame by contemporary Hollywood standards.
Posted Jun 22, 2006  Edit critic review
Mr. Arkadin (1955) Doug Cummings While the plot sometimes seems too fragmented for its own good, Welles' consistently inventive imagery nevertheless ensures that the action remains thoroughly engrossing.
Posted Jun 21, 2006  Edit critic review
Cavite (2005) Doug Cummings The film maintains an impressive narrative momentum throughout, but its documentary details make the biggest impression.
Posted Jun 13, 2006  Edit critic review
The Buffalo Boy (2004) Doug Cummings In a lesser film, the copious floods would signal pat themes of life and renewal, but Nguyen-Vo emphasizes the water's destructive power as well.
Posted Jun 06, 2006  Edit critic review
Our Times (2002) Doug Cummings A personal and informative time capsule of a crucial moment revealing the ongoing cultural tensions in Iran between conservatism and progress.
Posted Mar 22, 2006  Edit critic review
The Future of Food (2004) Doug Cummings With alarming and concise analysis, it highlights the way traditional farming in the US has become a corporate-controlled, less diversified business with global repercussions.
Posted Mar 17, 2006  Edit critic review
Tony Takitani (2004) Doug Cummings The characters and narrative are so lightly sketched, the film's gravity sneaks up on the viewer through the gradual force of its form and rhythm.
Posted Aug 31, 2005  Edit critic review
A State of Mind (2004) Doug Cummings The film is also admirably intimate, giving a human face to those living in a totalitarian society; their fears, joys, inspirations, and hopes.
Posted Aug 28, 2005  Edit critic review
Darwin's Nightmare (2004) Doug Cummings Sauper is no polemicist, and his close observation and eye for challenging juxtaposition provides more than enough impetus for engagement.
Posted Aug 21, 2005  Edit critic review
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) Doug Cummings Robert Bresson's aesthetic of realist, material sounds and images assembled in paradoxical ways virtually defines the cinematic parable...
Posted Jun 14, 2005  Edit critic review
Howl's Moving Castle (2004) Doug Cummings ...heartfelt humanism once again enlivens the filmmaker's craft, yet this time around the film seems quieter, more charming and eccentric than awing.
Posted Jun 13, 2005  Edit critic review
L'Argent (1983) Doug Cummings L'Argent showcases the filmmaker at the height of his formal ingenuity, particularly his use of narrative ellipses and fragmented space (close-ups of legs, hands, objects).
Posted Jun 11, 2005  Edit critic review
Funny Ha Ha (2003) Doug Cummings Dollenmayer's low-key naturalism is a perfect compliment to the camera's hand-held gaze, presenting a touching combination of amiable nonchalance and emotional yearning.
Posted Jun 06, 2005  Edit critic review
(undefined) Doug Cummings George Lucas isn't the only filmmaker who can turn ancient myth, graphic eye candy, doomed romance, and Buddhist non-attachment into box office gold...
Posted Jun 03, 2005  Edit critic review
The Tracker (2002) Doug Cummings [T]he film emphasizes its fable qualities and sets the stage for its moral structure, which hinges on the merging of power and racism and the possibility of resistance.
Posted Jun 01, 2005  Edit critic review
White Dog (1982) Doug Cummings A powerful, inspired critique of racism, tapping into the relationship between humans and animals in a way that places it within the ranks of cinematic masterpieces...
Posted May 14, 2005  Edit critic review
Fury (1936) Doug Cummings Fury offers a striking portrait of the structure of society; its assorted classes, organizations and technologies, and methods of law and order...
Posted May 12, 2005  Edit critic review
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) Doug Cummings [A] passionate call for a more accurate account of the diverse struggles, hopes, and joys to be found throughout the city of angels.
Posted May 08, 2005  Edit critic review
Killer of Sheep (1978) Doug Cummings If this sounds depressing, it's not, largely due to Burnett's ability to highlight warmth, humor, and unexpected moments of compassion.
Posted May 04, 2005  Edit critic review
F for Fake (1973) Doug Cummings An almost impossibly lively pastiche of images and ideas that never tires.
Posted May 01, 2005  Edit critic review
The Best of Youth (2002) Doug Cummings It avoids the pratfalls of easy melodrama by maintaining a psychological distance from its characters; there are never any obvious explanations for their choices or behaviors.
Posted Mar 22, 2005  Edit critic review
The River (1951) Doug Cummings The film's scenario is merely a loose framework for emphasizing its setting through various festivals, bazaars, and imaginative legends.
Posted Mar 21, 2005  Edit critic review
Star Spangled to Death (2008) Doug Cummings It's a stimulating, labyrinthine experience provided by a master of the American avant-garde and an historical artifact that is nevertheless piercingly contemporary.
Posted Feb 14, 2005  Edit critic review
The House is Black (2008) Doug Cummings Farrokhzad breaks through the repugnant aura that has often haunted victims of [leprosy] and affirms their resilience and human beauty.
Posted Feb 14, 2005  Edit critic review
It's All True (1993) Doug Cummings ...the film at once seems like a visually dynamic conflation of a Robert Flaherty film and a proto-neorealist fable comprised of photogenic locals and working class heroics.
Posted Dec 10, 2004  Edit critic review
Tell Them Who You Are (2004) Doug Cummings Mark Wexler's film is the latest success in the blooming genre of therapeutic, first-person, digital essay films exploring the filmmaker's personal life.
Posted Dec 10, 2004  Edit critic review
I Vitelloni (1953) Doug Cummings Although the plot moves between set pieces, its dramatic structure is centered on the characters, individuals caught between terminal stasis and illegitimate dreams.
Posted Dec 02, 2004  Edit critic review
The Milky Way (1969) Doug Cummings More witty than Dogma and more aesthetically refined than the original Bedazzled, the film is affectionately irreverent and adventurous storytelling.
Posted Dec 02, 2004  Edit critic review
Umberto D (1952) Doug Cummings Like Falconetti as Joan of Arc, Battisti offers one of those rare performances that is so perfectly realized, it automatically negates the possibility of any future roles.
Posted Dec 02, 2004  Edit critic review
Jacquot (1991) Doug Cummings A portrait that is at once a love letter to the movies, a critical perspective on one of its celebrated artist's, and a personal tribute.
Posted Dec 02, 2004  Edit critic review
Salt of the Earth (1954) Doug Cummings More than a typical Miramax/Tarantino extravaganza, it's films like this that establish the historical precedent and importance of truly independent American filmmaking.
Posted Dec 02, 2004  Edit critic review
Tokyo Story (1953) Doug Cummings Ozu's style is one based on restriction, rigor, and repetition, which paradoxically expands his emotional meanings.
Posted Dec 01, 2004  Edit critic review
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