The 59% Club: An Ode to the Almost-Fresh Movie
So close, yet so far.
Oh, we don’t mean like close to perfection, as seen in our other guide, The 99% Club: An Ode to the Almost-Perfect Movie. Here, “close” means a movie that was in striking distance of being marked Fresh on the Tomatometer. A 60% score is what you need to be Fresh, and all the movies featured in this list are exactly one percentage point away: They are the members of The 59% Club.
What makes up the bones of a 59% movie? Take a look through this guide and you’ll find they’re mostly well-intentioned, mostly efficient, but lacking the spark (or several of them) to be fully endorsed by critics. They’re comedies with some great jokes, and maybe not enough laughs. They’re serious movies with lots to say, and maybe without the technical filmmaking to back it up. They’re remakes that manage to not totally suck, but which couldn’t quite convince audiences they needed to exist in the first place. They’re even movies that are ahead of their time, waiting for the rest of us to catch up.
One thing for certain is that, hey, a majority of critics actually did like the movie. So why not give some a chance?
Because Tomatometer scores are a living thing, subject to change as reviews come in throughout the years, we’ll be checking in from now on with new entries, and even removals. Watch ’em while they’re still Rotten!
#83
Adjusted Score: 61.645%
Critics Consensus: A labyrinthine thriller with a host of memorable characters, 2 Days in the Valley is an uneven but intriguing thriller/black comedy.
Synopsis: A variety of crooks, losers, and working stiffs living in the shadow of Hollywood find their various personal crises overlapping...
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#82
Adjusted Score: 46.472%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The threat posed by a deadly evil forces Dr. Vaseegaran to reassemble his robot Chitti, his last resort to fight...
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#81
Adjusted Score: 60.111%
Critics Consensus: This documentary traces Franken's transformation from humorist to activist with entertaining, if uneven, results.
Synopsis: The makers of "The War Room" turn their cameras on yet another burgeoning political career. "Al Franklen: God Spoke" is...
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#80
Adjusted Score: 61.69%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The 1987 portmanteau comedy feature Amazon Women on the Moon lampoons several film genres in general and the 1954 sci-fi...
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#79
Adjusted Score: 41.913%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Jimmy is a terminally ill young man. He is also quite eccentric, bordering on plain old crazy, and starting today...
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#78
Adjusted Score: 41.913%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: For 27-year-old Ben, life couldn't be better. A well paid job, friends, parties, girls and nothing to tie him down....
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#77
Adjusted Score: 51.284%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Friends of a recently deceased minor painter Jean-Baptiste take a train in Paris for Limoges, where he wished to be...
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#76
Adjusted Score: 64.366%
Critics Consensus: This remake has been praised by some as an expertly made B-movie, and dismissed by others as formulaic.
Synopsis: This action-packed remake of the John Carpenter classic tells the tale of an under-manned Detroit police precinct on its last...
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#75
Adjusted Score: 67.977%
Critics Consensus: While it's certainly timely and beautifully filmed, The Bling Ring suffers from director Sofia Coppola's failure to delve beneath the surface of its shallow protagonists' real-life crimes.
Synopsis: In THE BLING RING, Oscar Winning filmmaker Sofia Coppola takes us inside the world of these teens, where their youthful...
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#74
Adjusted Score: 61.051%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After a decade of stardom in Israel, American dancer Bobbi Jene decides to leave behind her prominent position at the...
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Starring:
#73
Adjusted Score: 59.165%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: It's been 20 years since the corporations took over the world's governments. Their thirst for power and profits led to...
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#72
Adjusted Score: 59.239%
Critics Consensus: While it looks like shameless publicity for the semi-notorious Aussie surfing gang, the film packs a raw energy into this look at a culture of athleticism and male loyalty.
Synopsis: "Bra Boys" documents the cultural evolution of the inner-Sydney beach-side suburb of Maroubra and the social struggle of its youth--the...
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#71
Adjusted Score: 50.182%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Oscar (R) winner Adrien Brody, John Malkovich, and Antonio Banderas deliver the action in this riveting crime story filled with...
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#70
Adjusted Score: 59.234%
Critics Consensus: The Case for Christ shouldn't be dismissed, but like many faith-based productions, it's better at preaching to the choir than reaching the unconverted.
Synopsis: A hard-driving journalist, Lee Strobel was exactly where he expected to be at work: on top. His award-winning investigative reporting...
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#69
Adjusted Score: 59.752%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Tommy Akhtar (Riz Ahmed) - cricket fan, devoted son and deadbeat private eye - is just emerging from another hangover...
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#68
Adjusted Score: 65.982%
Critics Consensus: Despite the surprisingly distant, clinical direction, Crash's explicit premise and sex is classic Cronenberg territory.
Synopsis: After surviving a brutal car wreck, commercial director James Ballard finds himself slowly drawn to a mysterious subculture of people...
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#67
Adjusted Score: 59.217%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this hospital satire, second-year resident Dr. Werner Ernst winds up in the middle of a dispute between two sisters...
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#66
Adjusted Score: 43.286%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: On the road to a high-powered lunch meeting, smooth-talking ad man, Jackson Alder (Neil Hopkins), is brainstorming his next big...
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#65
Adjusted Score: 65.987%
Critics Consensus: It's perfectly pleasant for sports buffs and Costner fans, but overall, Draft Day lives down to its title by relying too heavily on the sort of by-the-numbers storytelling that only a statistician could love.
Synopsis: On the day of the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver (Costner) has the opportunity to save football in Cleveland...
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#64
Adjusted Score: 33.237%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Jamie Harris is a neurotic, bright 25 year-old with a career naming peculiar consumer products. Though she gives them their...
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#63
Adjusted Score: 59.217%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Richard Friedenberg scripted and made his directorial debut with this adaptation of Forrest Carter's 1992 award-winning coming-of-age novel detailing the...
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#62
Adjusted Score: 59.153%
Critics Consensus: Eleven Minutes makes for a decent fashion world primer, but is likely to appeal mostly to Project Runway diehards.
Synopsis: The documentary Eleven Minutes catches up with Jay McCarroll, winner of the first season of the Bravo reality series Project...
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#61
Adjusted Score: 43.286%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: THE END OF LOVE tells the story of struggling actor, Mark (played by writer/director Mark Webber), who is forced to...
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#60
Adjusted Score: 55.441%
Critics Consensus: Heartwarming and acidic in turns, this offbeat dramedy about two meter maids in love features solid performances from Samantha Morton and Jason Patric.
Synopsis: A sheltered meter maid and her disturbed fellow parking enforcer discover that love can bloom even while working in a...
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#59
Adjusted Score: 60.389%
Critics Consensus: The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir is undermined by its mawkish indulgences, but Dhanush's charming central performance is difficult to resist.
Synopsis: After his mother's death, a young fakir from the streets of Mumbai, AJATASHATRU or 'AJA' ("Dhanush"), leaves India for France...
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#57
Adjusted Score: 60.461%
Critics Consensus: Though it doesn't fully capture the electrifying spirit of its subject, Finding Fela! is a solid overview of the life and work of a musical revolutionary.
Synopsis: Finding Fela tells the story of Fela Kuti's life (1938 - 1997), his music, and his social and political importance....
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#56
Adjusted Score: 44.076%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: For the Plasma begins in a remote house on the coast of Maine, where a young woman named Helen has...
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#55
Adjusted Score: 59.326%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Documentary filmmaker Lee Fulkerson explores the possibility that so-called "diseases of affluence," such as heart disease, can be reversed by...
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#54
Adjusted Score: 59.217%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Bruno Barreto returned to his native Brazil after a ten-year absence to direct this fact-based political thriller that was nominated...
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#53
Adjusted Score: 59.143%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Following up on his two-fisted 2000 flick The Mission, Johnnie To, along with Wai Ka Fai, directs this high-octane shoot...
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#52
Adjusted Score: 56.698%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: 'Go Further,' explores the idea that the single individual is the key to large-scale transformational change. The film follows actor...
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#51
Adjusted Score: 62.076%
Critics Consensus: The Grand Seduction can't quite live up to the classic dramedies it seems to consciously evoke, but ambles sweetly enough to charm viewers in its own right.
Synopsis: A small fishing village must procure a local doctor to secure a lucrative business contract. When unlikely candidate and big...
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#50
Adjusted Score: 66.852%
Critics Consensus: The Grinch gives the classic Seuss source material a brightly animated update that's solidly suitable for younger viewers without adding substantially to the story's legacy.
Synopsis: Each year at Christmas they disrupt his tranquil solitude with their increasingly bigger, brighter and louder celebrations. When the Whos...
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#49
Adjusted Score: 59.763%
Critics Consensus: Although not terribly focused, Hannah Takes the Stairs contains refreshing realism.
Synopsis: American independent filmmaker Joe Swanberg's 2007 feature Hannah Takes the Stairs concerns Hannah (Greta Gerwig), a recent college graduate who...
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#48
Adjusted Score: 62.116%
Critics Consensus: Well-made and solidly acted, Hart's War is modestly compelling. However, the movie suffers from having too many subplots.
Synopsis: Based on the novel by John Katzenbach, author of Just Cause (1995), this prison camp drama combines elements of A...
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#47
Adjusted Score: 59.934%
Critics Consensus: There's no denying the seriousness of Heli's story or the raw power of its more uncomfortable moments, but they're used in service of a grimly alienating film that many viewers may ultimately find unrewarding.
Synopsis: Heli (Armando Espitia) is a young man living in a small town with his father, his wife,their baby and his...
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#46
Adjusted Score: 43.286%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Pedro returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico after years of working in the US, and struggles...
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#45
Adjusted Score: 69.645%
Critics Consensus: Though somewhat overwhelmed by its own spectacle, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ends Peter Jackson's second Middle-earth trilogy on a reasonably satisfying note.
Synopsis: From Academy Award (R)-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies," the third in a...
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#44
Adjusted Score: 60.281%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A seemingly ordinary man turns to violence in this independent thriller from Australia. Christian Forteski (Peter Marshall) is a businessman...
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#43
Adjusted Score: 62.971%
Critics Consensus: This Fear Factor for kids is good-natured and tasty enough.
Synopsis: An 11-year-old boy's first day in school devolves into a battle with the school bully. It leads to a dare...
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#42
Adjusted Score: 59.206%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A chronicle of the lives of five Cardiff pals who foray into the chemical-induced culture of the British rave scene...
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#41
Adjusted Score: 60.378%
Critics Consensus: Though Hurly Burly offers a showcase of powerhouse performances from its leads, it's held back by a meandering narrative and verbose explorations of cynicism.
Synopsis: David Rabe's popular play of Hollywood immorality and decadence is brought to the big screen by director Anthony Drazan and...
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#40
Adjusted Score: 33.237%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In the early '60s, the West African nation of Mali was under French rule as its people struggled toward independence,...
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#39
Adjusted Score: 53.963%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Survivor of sitcom hell, whipping girl for the Hollywood caste system, self-described slut, unabashed fag hag, and, above all, fabulously...
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#38
Adjusted Score: 60.411%
Critics Consensus: If it fails to make the most of its intriguing premise, In the Mouth of Madness remains a decent enough diversion for horror fans and John Carpenter completists.
Synopsis: This John Carpenter horror movie simultaneously honors and pokes fun at the work of author Stephen King as it depicts...
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#37
Adjusted Score: 34.78%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Documentary filmmaker Doug Block (51 Birch Street) has captured much of his daughter Lucy's life - and their relationship -...
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#36
Adjusted Score: 42.859%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Klown Forever follows estranged best friends Casper Christensen and Frank Hvam as they travel to the States seeking fame, fortune...
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#35
Adjusted Score: 54.241%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Lily and her best friend, Alison, live on the shores of the Salton Sea. Sprinting toward adulthood, Lily wants...
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#34
Adjusted Score: 60.185%
Critics Consensus: Unoriginal, with one-dimensional characters.
Synopsis: Noted screenwriter Richard LaGravenese made his directorial debut with this dramatic comedy about two unlikely people who find each other...
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#33
Adjusted Score: 59.968%
Critics Consensus: Jamie Thraves' debut film about British twenty-somethings effectively captures the nuances of its characters.
Synopsis: Frank is a restless young man in his late twenties whose life revolves around friends and work. Although he is...
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#32
Adjusted Score: 58.724%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Alec Baldwin stars in this thriller as Dr. Jed Hill, a brilliant young trauma specialist who begins to believe he...
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#31
Adjusted Score: 42.841%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: he Virgin Mary delivers a message to an 11-year-old girl....
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#30
Adjusted Score: 37%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The fates of a Mexican woman sold into sexual slavery, a car thief seeking to go straight, and a Japanese...
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#29
Adjusted Score: 61.751%
Critics Consensus: Paranormal Activity 2 doesn't cover any new ground, but its premise is still scary -- and in some respects, it's a better film than the original.
Synopsis: The terror continues as a young couple copes with a potentially evil spirit in their suburban home....
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#28
Adjusted Score: 59.494%
Critics Consensus: This Summer remembrance is brimming with nostalgic flourishes and easygoing charm, but is as stubbornly weightless as a Ping Pong ball.
Synopsis: The year is 1985. Rad Miracle is a shy 13-year-old white kid who's obsessed with two things: ping pong and...
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#27
Adjusted Score: 63.656%
Critics Consensus: Despite an interesting premise (and a starmaking turn from Vin Diesel), Pitch Black is too derivative and formulaic to fully recommend to sci-fi or action fans.
Synopsis: In this science fiction thriller, a spaceship is transporting a disparate group of people to a far-away galactic outpost called...
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#26
Adjusted Score: 54.13%
Critics Consensus: Flawed yet filled with finely detailed characters, Red Doors is a glimpse of the Asian-American experience that suggests great promise for writer-director Georgia Lee.
Synopsis: The retired patriarch of a New York-based Chinese-American family finds that escaping the insanity of his decidedly dysfunctional clan is...
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#25
Adjusted Score: 39.206%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The grandmother of a large, extended family is invited to become the matron of honor at her niece's wedding in...
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#24
Adjusted Score: 61.278%
Critics Consensus: Charming characters; loads of fun for kids and adults.
Synopsis: Based on the popular Nickelodeon TV series Rugrats, this is the first full-length feature animated movie to star the little...
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#23
Adjusted Score: 60.856%
Critics Consensus: Though it's not as good as it could have been, Scotland PA shows cleverness at utilizing its premise.
Synopsis: What happens if you take one of William Shakespeare's darkest tragedies and move it to a burger joint in the...
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#22
Adjusted Score: 63.937%
Critics Consensus: The Secret Life of Bees has moments of charm, but is largely too maudlin and sticky-sweet.
Synopsis: Set in South Carolina in 1964, the film is the moving tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who...
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#21
Adjusted Score: 64.375%
Critics Consensus: Shampoo trains a darkly comic lens on post-Nixon America, aiming at -- and often hitting -- an array of timely targets.
Synopsis: This film is set the day after Nixon's election in 1968. George is a Beverly Hills hairdresser whose services to...
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#20
Adjusted Score: 59.238%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Two of Korea's top secret intelligence agents investigate the murder of a notorious arms smuggler. The agents discover that the...
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#19
Adjusted Score: 59.111%
Critics Consensus: Though Skills Like This has little to distinguish, director Monty Miranda shows flashes of wit and talent.
Synopsis: When a failed writer discovers his previously untapped talent for larceny, his own life and the lives of his two...
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#18
Adjusted Score: 59.941%
Critics Consensus: Though at times melodramatic, Skins' harsh depiction of life on the reservation is an eye-opener.
Synopsis: One hundred years after the massacre at Wounded Knee, the painful legacy of the Indian wars still reverberates through the...
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#17
Adjusted Score: 61.511%
Critics Consensus: The story isn't the greatest, but there's an abundance of sci-fi eye candy to compensate.
Synopsis: Katsuhiro Otomo, director of the groundbreaking anime feature Akira (1988), returns with this visually striking fusion of the past and...
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#16
Adjusted Score: 61.172%
Critics Consensus: The Stoning of Soraya M. nearly transcends its deficiencies through the sheer strength of its subject material, but ultimately drowns out its message with an inappropriately heavy-handed approach.
Synopsis: Director Cyrus Nowrasteh teams with screenwriter Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh to illuminate the dangers of religious fundamentalism, gender apartheid, and mob...
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Directed By:
#15
Adjusted Score: 64.89%
Critics Consensus: A slick and well-made thriller that takes on new weight due to the current political climate.
Synopsis: When the president of Russia suddenly dies and is succeeded by a man about whom little is known, tension increases...
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Directed By:
#14
Adjusted Score: 59.69%
Critics Consensus: The Talent Given Us is an odd hybrid of reality and fiction, but works due to its engaging characters.
Synopsis: Fact and fiction begin to blur in this comedy drama in which a filmmaker casts his parents, his siblings, and...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 60.387%
Critics Consensus: It's oddly affecting in a deeply discomfiting way, but Trash Humpers pales in comparison with Harmony Korine's earlier, truly transgressive work.
Synopsis: Americana goes rancid in writer/director Harmony Korine's tale of three elderly cretins who brutalize dolls, molest fauna, and force themselves...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 59.365%
Critics Consensus: Excellent performances by Michelle Monaghan and Nathan Fillion and keenly-observed details of small town life elevate this otherwise predictable and inconsistent melodrama.
Synopsis: Michelle Monaghan stars as a self-reliant trucker forced to take on the responsibility of caring for her 11-year-old son when...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 56.698%
Critics Consensus: Two Men Went to War bungles an incredible fact-based story on a frustratingly uneven dramatization that turns wartime heroism into middling dramedy.
Synopsis: It's 1942 and the Nazis have occupied France. The Battle of Britain is being fought in the skies over London....
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#10
Adjusted Score: 63.819%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Director Steven Soderbergh jazzes up the 1949 Burt Lancaster film noir classic Criss Cross with elaborate flashbacks (and flash-forwards) in...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 59.122%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this visually stylish comedy, Angele is an attractive woman just edging into middle age who is looking for companionship...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 62.801%
Critics Consensus: Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show has some entertaining moments, but is a mostly hit-and-miss documentary.
Synopsis: Popular comic actor Vince Vaughn brings a newly invigorating sense of Old West attitude to the world of standup comedy...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 55.441%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Theodore Thomas, son of the late Walt Disney Studios animator Frank Thomas (1912-2004) and director of the acclaimed 1995 documentary...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 64.101%
Critics Consensus: It isn't always as funny as it should be, but Wanderlust benefits from an extremely talented cast and some of David Wain's most confident, assured work behind the camera.
Synopsis: George (Rudd) and Linda (Aniston) are an overextended, stressed out Manhattan couple. After George is downsized out of his job,...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 63.247%
Critics Consensus: With fine performances and a dark, dry sense of humor, The Weather Man is mostly cloudy with occasional rays of sunshine.
Synopsis: A man struggles to get a grip on a life that's spinning out of control in this emotional comedy drama....
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#4
Adjusted Score: 63.146%
Critics Consensus: Solid work from the cast - particularly a scene-stealing Matthew McConaughey - helps White Boy Rick make up for a number of missed opportunities in the script.
Synopsis: Set in 1980s Detroit at the height of the crack epidemic and the War on Drugs, WHITE BOY RICK is...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 60.424%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: American writer Tom Ricks comes to Paris desperate to put his life together again and win back the love of...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 56.018%
Critics Consensus: Though restrained by most torture porn standards, Would You Rather's brilliant premise is ultimately harmed by its tendency towards blood and guts.
Synopsis: In the wake of her parent's death, Iris (Brittany Snow) struggles to make ends meet while caring for her terminally...
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#1
Adjusted Score: 55.324%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: As Sam flees from a masked killer at camp, it slowly dawns on him that HE might be the killer....
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