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Joanna Connors
Joanna Connors's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
Publications:
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Alien Resurrection (1997) |
For all its visual imagination and classic themes, Alien Resurrection is more fascinating than it is enjoyable... But for what he manages to inject into the formula, Jeunet has made the best Alien of the bunch. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Aug 06, 2024
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Twister (1996) |
Crichton has unparalleled showman's instincts. He knows exactly what will sell on TV, in bookstores and at the movies, and what sells at the movies is what you can't create on TV: amusement-park thrills. So Twister delivers them. And how. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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When Harry Met Sally... (1989) |
Reiner and Ephron deftly thread Casablanca through Harry and Sally's on-again, off-again relationship. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jul 12, 2024
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Almost Famous (2000) |
In Crowe's generous telling, Almost Famous expands from the "me" to the "we," becoming the autobiography of an entire generation. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Mar 26, 2024
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Smoke Signals (1998) |
The handsome Beach and the very amusing Adams anchor an ensemble of terrific actors, including Tantoo Cardinal as Victor's spirt-weary mother, Farmer as the troubled, guilt-ridden Arnold Joseph, and Irene Bedard as Suzy Song. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Nov 08, 2023
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Traffic (2000) |
In an ensemble of more than a dozen major roles and a hundred speaking roles, not a single performance misfires. [A stand-out is] Del Toro, whose quiet, intent, soulful performance should at last make him a star (if there is justice in this world). - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Sep 08, 2023
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Magnolia (1999) |
If Magnolia is, ultimately, a failure, at least it's a vibrant, grand, reckless failure. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 30, 2023
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Armageddon (1998) |
Obviously, Armageddon is to summer movies what Long Island Iced Tea is to summer parties. So drink up, offer many toasts to the genius of Bruce Willis, and don't even think about how you'll feel m the morning. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 20, 2023
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The Truman Show (1998) |
The Truman Show is that rare thing, a provocative movie that is at once deeply thoughtful and hugely entertaining. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 14, 2023
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The Big Lebowski (1998) |
Leave it to Joel and Ethan Coen to wake up a drowsy movie genre with a bucket of ice water, a giant alarm clock and a fistful of No-Doz. The Big Lebowski... injects a mammoth syringe of adrenaline lunacy directly into the overdosed heart of film noir. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jan 24, 2023
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Love & Basketball (2000) |
he two stars are immensely appealing (Epps possesses the most liquid, soulful eyes of any actor since Omar Sharif) and create a real chemistry together. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Mar 09, 2022
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Godzilla (1998) |
It is not just a bad movie; it is depressingly bad, in large part for what it says about the prevailing atmosphere of utter contempt for the art -- and the audience -- in which movies now are designed and produced. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 05, 2022
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The Blair Witch Project (1999) |
It sticks with you, as much for its old ideas as for its new ideas. "Blair Witch" may represent the cutting-edge of independent filmmaking, but its heart is as ancient and familiar as a Grimm's fairy tale. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 04, 2022
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American Beauty (1999) |
[It's] a movie that years from now will end up on the lists of greatest movies ever made. It's a complete original, at once hugely entertaining and deeply thoughtful, combining comedy, tragedy and philosophy in surprising and gratifying ways. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 04, 2022
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Beloved (1998) |
Beloved is not for the faint of heart. Its violence disturbs, and its themes challenge our complacency about our shared past, which, it reminds us, continues to haunt our present. But nothing good is easy: Beloved is a classic. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 02, 2022
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Who Is Arthur Chu? (2017) |
In any case, the hero of the film turns out to be Eliza. You end up rooting for her to achieve her dream. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Apr 05, 2017
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Jackie (2016) |
Enormously moving, but flawed. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Dec 15, 2016
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Hell or High Water (2016) |
Every element of the movie feels at once lived-in and alive. Don't miss it. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Aug 19, 2016
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Indignation (2016) |
Indignation is a film in a minor key, one that engages the intellect but not, quite, the emotions. Still, Schamus plays it beautifully. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Aug 11, 2016
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The Innocents (2016) |
[A] sometimes ponderous but devastating film. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Aug 04, 2016
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The Land (2016) |
I was blown away by this movie. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Aug 03, 2016
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Café Society (2016) |
Sitting through this movie, it's hard to imagine there was time when the release of a new Woody Allen film was exciting. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jul 28, 2016
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Captain Fantastic (2016) |
You know what's really fantastic about this movie? Ross asks his audience to think about who's right, too. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jul 28, 2016
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Tickled (2016) |
An amazing and disturbing documentary by David Farrier and co-director Dylan Reeve. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jul 15, 2016
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Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) |
The story, told in Wes Anderson-style storybook chapters with titles like "Goodbye Ricky Baker" and "Close to the Sky," grows ever more absurd, almost to the breaking point. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jul 15, 2016
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The BFG (2016) |
If it's not quite scrumdiddlyumptious, The BFG sends you out of the theater lighter of heart, and very glad to have met Rylance's wonderful BFG. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 30, 2016
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Swiss Army Man (2016) |
A lot of talented people went all in on this movie, including Dano and Radcliffe, as well as the inventive scene designers and whoever did Radcliffe's makeup. They committed to the Daniels' ridiculous junior-high-school concept. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 29, 2016
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Our Kind of Traitor (2016) |
The only thing that brings the film to life is Skarsgard's fantastic performance, by turns jubilant and despairing, and always absolutely riveting. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 29, 2016
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Free State of Jones (2016) |
Ross generates excitement in the skirmishes and stand-offs as the story builds to its climax, but he then kills his own momentum by cutting away at various times to a courtroom in the 1940s. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 23, 2016
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Raiders! (2015) |
Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, does just what its title promises and then some. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 22, 2016
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Genius (2016) |
Perkins' joylessness weighs down a film already heavy with a sepia-toned palette and filled with dust motes and rain, its Depression-era look turning into actual depression. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 16, 2016
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Dark Horse (2015) |
Midway through it I scrawled in my notebook: "This is the movie that 'Seabiscuit' wanted to be, and wasn't." - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 09, 2016
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Maggie's Plan (2015) |
Familiar stuff, but Miller makes this mini-genre all her own, turning the world of New York academics and intellectuals into the perfect setting for a wickedly smart screwball comedy. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 09, 2016
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Weiner (2016) |
If Weiner sounds like an amusing, even funny take-down of a narcissistic politician (and aren't they all), think again. It's illuminating, but not all that much fun, to watch a troubled man disintegrate in public. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Jun 03, 2016
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The Meddler (2015) |
Sarandon carries the movie with her full-blooded performance, taking Marnie well beyond the stereotype of the title by gradually showing the raw, unexamined emotions she's buried underneath her compulsive charm. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted May 18, 2016
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The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015) |
Irons and Patel, each playing deeply reserved, almost secretive men who disagree on almost everything but mathematics, give the conflict an emotional nuance that is both rare and moving. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted May 12, 2016
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A War (2015) |
This is an extraordinary film, not to be missed. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted May 12, 2016
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Captain America: Civil War (2016) |
Civil War resonates not only with our current climate of hostile political divisions and questions about American intervention in foreign conflicts. It also carries echoes of American anxieties that stretch back to the beginning of the 20th century. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted May 04, 2016
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Green Room (2015) |
Sualnier tucks genuine mysteries into the plot, but gives a sly wink to genre tropes like don't-go-there basements as he keeps you on edge and guessing. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Apr 28, 2016
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Miles Ahead (2016) |
[Cheadle] delivers a spectacular performance. It's clear that Miles Ahead is the very definition of the term labor of love... Alas, much like its difficult, cranky, unpredictable and genius subject, it is a very hard movie to love. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Apr 20, 2016
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Elvis & Nixon (2016) |
Spacey and Shannon are among the best American actors working today, and you can see how much fun they're having together in this movie. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Apr 20, 2016
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Growing Up Smith (2015) |
This immigrant clash-of-generations set-up risks falling into clich, and sometimes does, but director Frank Lotito and the screenwriters find enough specificity and comedy in Smith's dilemma to keep the genial, family-friendly story afloat. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Mar 30, 2016
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My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) |
It may not be hip or cool or young, or even particularly hilarious, but a night with the Portokaloses is like any family reunion: fun, awkward, funny, sometimes embarrassing, but full of love. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Mar 23, 2016
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The Bronze (2015) |
The movie doesn't abandon its gleefully caustic tone, or its often disagreeable (but just as often funny) protagonist easily. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Mar 16, 2016
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Embrace of the Serpent (2015) |
For those who surrender to its atmosphere, and appreciate an unconventional cinematic experience, it's extraordinary. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Mar 10, 2016
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The Lady in the Van (2015) |
Maggie Smith gives a performance so vibrant, so sharply funny and at the same time so painfully honest, she single-handedly rescues the movie from the lesser angels of its nature. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 18, 2016
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Touched With Fire (2015) |
Dalio steers the film away from the movie clichés that romanticize the condition. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 18, 2016
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Race (2016) |
Owens' performance at the Olympics, a series of beautifully shot scenes, are of course among the highlights of the movie, as are the scenes at the 1935 Big Ten track meet, when he set three world records and tied a fourth. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 18, 2016
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Son of Saul (2015) |
Nemes is unsparing -- almost merciless -- in his insistence that we go beyond merely bearing witness. He wants us to go deeper, to feel and hear and see, up close, what the prisoners of Auschwitz experienced. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 12, 2016
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Hail, Caesar! (2016) |
This is one of those movies where the actors are plainly having a great time; they're all terrific and give the Coens loose, funny, deadpan performances. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
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| Posted Feb 04, 2016
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