The Lens
The Lens is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this
publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following
Tomatometer-approved critic(s):
Andrew Wyatt
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
A
Roma (2018)
In Roma, CuarĂ³n has crafted not just a great feat of cinema, but a work that's destined to be savored and pored over for decades to come.
Posted Dec 19, 2018
2
A-
The deliriously fun, dimension-tripping Spider-Verse isn't just the best Spidey feature ever. It's one of the best superhero-comic films, full stop.
Posted Dec 12, 2018
3
C+
Boarding School (2018)
Boarding School often feels as if it's trying to cram too many concepts into a narrative container that is too conventional and constrictive to accommodate them all.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
4
B
What Keeps You Alive (2018)
A dark, gut-wrenching pleasure, anchored by Anderson's utterly chilling performance.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
5
D-
The whole thing is moronic and unpleasant as heck, redeemed only marginally by the anything-goes transgressive hokeyness of the homicidal set-pieces.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
6
C-
Down a Dark Hall (2018)
Dispiritingly bland gothic nonsense, more concerned with gloomy atmosphere and trite adolescent angst than with creating a compelling story.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
7
C
Summer of '84 (2018)
8
B-
Elizabeth Harvest (2018)
The limpid shocks and needless structural convolutions might be unmemorable, but the striking visuals and juxtapositions linger.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
9
C-
Ruin Me (2018)
Ruin Me is deficient in all the usual ways that mark a low-budget indie horror feature, but for all its flaws, the film still has one undeniably gratifying hook.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
10
B
Injects some vitality into the stale zombocalypse subgenre not by discarding the form's constraints, but by making compelling structural and storytelling choices.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
11
D+
The Devil's Doorway (2018)
One could quickly fill in a bingo card of post-Exorcist tropes as Clarke's feature goes through the fright-free motions of dribbling out allegedly sinister revelations.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
12
C+
SebastiĂ¡n gets impressive, squirm-inducing mileage out of modest resources, but his film is overly reliant on charm-free vulgarity and protracted histrionics.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
13
C
They Remain (2018)
They Remain has atmosphere in spades; unfortunately, there's remarkably little plot to go along with all the mood.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
14
D
Feral (2018)
The only truly scary thing about this film is that it runs out of narrative steam with 30 or 40 interminable minutes still to go.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
15
D+
Sequence Break (2017)
16
B-
Cargo (2018)
Cargo is a cruel, wrenching piece of work, if frustratingly beholden to the subgenre's tropes; the film's novel touches lend it just enough flavor for it to linger.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
17
C+
The Noonday Witch (2016)
A domestic sort-of-ghost story, so determinedly slow-burning that it almost forgets that it's supposed to be frightening.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
18
D
Family Blood (2018)
Vampire films are almost always chock-a-block with tropes, but this one doesn't have even a drop of originality.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
19
C-
The Cleanse (2018)
Ultimately lifeless and uninvolving, distinguished only by its faintly gnarly premise and its ugly-cute creature designs.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
20
C+
Downrange (2017)
The characters are indistinct and the performances lousy, but such deficiencies are less vexing when the blood, brains, and bullets are flying with such abandon.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
21
C-
Wildling (2018)
22
C+
Marrowbone (2018)
While some of its aesthetic and narrative components are vivid, Marrowbone as a whole feels simultaneously overstuffed and derivative.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
23
C+
Mon Mon Mon Monsters (2017)
24
D-
Demon House (2018)
The expected slurry of chintzy re-creations, leading interview questions, and endless, tedious footage that doesn't reveal much of anything.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
25
C+
Cold Hell (Die Hölle) (2017)
Formally striking but too scattered and sluggish to function as a truly crackerjack serial-killer thriller.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
26
B-
Ravenous (Les affamés) (2018)
What truly makes The Ravenous stand out in the overstuffed zombie landscape is the film's formal artfulness.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
27
B-
Mohawk (2018)
28
B-
Midnighters (2018)
29
C+
The Lodgers (2018)
The redolent threatens to become monotonous as characters shuffle around in circles and O'Malley takes his sweet time portentously spelling out motives and plot points.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
30
D+
31
C
Dead Shack (2017)
Despite its many problems, a distinctly Canadian sensibility of dopey, gross-out fun manages to rise to the surface of this teens vs. zombies curio.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
32
B
The Ritual (2017)
33
D
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
Paradox feels like a random assortment of indifferently mounted space-thriller and body-horror sequences that have been pulverized into an unintelligible narrative slurry.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
34
F
The Open House (2018)
Utterly insufferable and almost maliciously pointless.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
35
B
Mom and Dad (2018)
The specificity of the film's perverse conceit allows writer-director Brian Taylor to maintain a giddily satirical atmosphere throughout the blood-spattered proceedings,.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
36
D
Inside (2018)
This remake's bloody excesses can't conceal the fact that the film trades the 2007 original's aura of frantic peril for mere chintzy tedium.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
37
D
Devil's Gate (2018)
Devil's Gate plays something like a kludgy, aimless episode of The X-Files, one with too many half-baked ideas and the running time to indulge them all.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
38
C+
Before I Wake (2018)
39
A-
Phantom Thread (2018)
Phantom Thread remains a grounded yet exultant romance to its end, even when its love story snakes off in some disquieting and utterly unexpected directions.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
40
C+
The Final Year (2018)
41
B-
Hostiles (2018)
42
B-
Annihilation (2018)
Annihilation is a darn fine work of science-fiction cinema, one that steadily improves as its plot gets increasingly weird, unhurried, and abstract.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
43
B-
Red Sparrow (2018)
An exceedingly novel slice of pop entertainment: a sordid spy story for those who relish the genre's escapist titillation, but find martial arts and explosions wearying.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
44
A-
Thoroughbreds (2018)
Finley's feature doesn't want to be liked; it just wants the viewer's full attention. On that score, it's a wickedly engaging triumph.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
45
B-
The Death of Stalin (2018)
46
B+
Isle of Dogs (2018)
47
B+
A Quiet Place (2018)
It may not be bracingly original, but Krasinski's film executes its simple (one might say atavistic) formula with a wonderful intensity and focus.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
48
B-
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
49
B
Ultimately, it's Lu's sense of dizzy visual pluck that elevates the film above its sweet but straightforward fairy-tale foundation.
Posted Dec 7, 2018
50
B+
Revenge (2018)