Alissa Simon

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Variety
For 88 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 10% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 6.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Alissa Simon's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 Rocks in My Pockets
Lowest review score: 30 Euphoria
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 71 out of 88
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 88
  3. Negative: 3 out of 88
88 movie reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Alissa Simon
    Rocks in My Pockets
    Boasting a narrative of extraordinary complexity and density, stuffed with irony, humor and tales-within-tales, the imaginative animated memoir Rocks in My Pockets merges a mini-history of 20th-century Latvia with that of helmer Signe Baumane and her forebears.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    Rams
    As Hakonarson’s beautifully modulated film progresses, recurring images contrast and poignantly resonate with meaning.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    Love It Was Not
    The result of long years of research, Love It Was Not is remarkable not only for its unusual central story and unique creative execution, but also for its extensive eyewitness testimonies.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    Night Will Fall
    Night not only conveys the almost unbelievable atrocities captured by the Russian, American and British camera teams and photographers, but also highlights the dedication of the team determined to document and disseminate this evidence and the changing policies of those in charge of postwar reconstruction.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    In Between
    What makes this spiky dramedy so compelling are the Palestinian-Israeli protagonists, whose split lives have rarely been depicted on screen.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    Happy Birthday
    Goher, a screenwriter and producer making her feature debut, proves herself to be a director-writer of uncommon sensitivity.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    The Teacher
    Although dealing with weighty matters, Jarchovsky’s script (which is based on a real-life incident he experienced during primary school) is leavened with welcome humor and irony.... As usual, Hrebejk’s direction is smooth and the ensemble performances top-notch.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    Cinema Sabaya
    Based on helmer-writer Orit Fouks Rotem’s experience as a teacher and the real women she encountered, the film is full of life, love, humor and authenticity without being didactic. At the same time, it cleverly questions the ethics and responsibility of filmmaking.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    Those Who Remained
    In his sophomore feature, the France-born, Budapest-based helmer (perhaps best known for his prize-winning 2018 short “Chuchotage”) sensitively establishes and sustains an affecting but understated dramatic tone, aided by his superb leads.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    Ruben Brandt, Collector
    While Krstić is especially good at providing noir atmosphere (jazzy, smoke-filled dives, ominous shadows, and references to Mike Hammer films), he positively excels at high-octane action.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Alissa Simon
    Three Minutes: A Lengthening
    Stigter’s method is simultaneously creative and forensic, but never sentimental. Working with a digitized copy that bears the blemishes left by the deterioration of the original celluloid, she conjures up exactly what she declares in the subtitle: a lengthening.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    Scaffolding
    [A] gripping, realist drama.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    Josep
    The strong subject matter as well as the eponymous subject’s storied life makes one wish for a longer running time than 72 minutes.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    Tempestad
    Mexican-Salvadorean helmer Tatiana Huezo superimposes her subjects’ recollections over lyrical images that complement the emotions conveyed by their voices.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    What Will People Say
    "People” represents a big step up from Haq’s more modestly scaled debut, but it’s a move she handles with assurance and aplomb. She develops the father-daughter relationship visually as well as verbally, showing the action from both their perspectives.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    Wet Season
    Chen’s delicate, nuanced portrait of the heartbreaks afflicting a dedicated schoolteacher and dutiful wife is suffused with love and humor, and directed with striking maturity and restraint.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    About Elly (2009)
    While not equaling the depth of characterization of Farhadi’s previous films, About Elly takes the complexity of his storytelling to a fascinating level. However, the variable quality of the thesping also prevents the pic from being his best work.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    Blue Sun Palace
    More akin to European art films than to American indies, “Palace” prioritizes mood over plot. Tsang allows her experienced actors plenty of breathing space to convey the melancholy of their existence in situations where dreams are more likely to be deferred than to come true, but are necessary nevertheless.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    It's Not the Time of My Life
    In addition to the highly relatable situations shot in a style of heightened naturalism and the Robert Altman-like overlapping dialogue, the drama gains further conviction from setting the action in the actual apartment lived in by the director and his wife, who, along with their real-life son, play the host family.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    Shoshana
    In addition to sterling work by the three young principals, Ian Hart gives a standout performance as the British High Commissioner’s ubiquitous righthand man, offering a supercilious, world-weary gravitas that seemingly epitomizes the official British attitude to the Mandate.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    The Other Side of Everything
    Mila’s film honors Srbijanka’s legacy of activism and brings her spirit of honor and responsibility to a new generation and a wider audience.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    My Love Affair with Marriage
    With My Love Affair with Marriage, animator Signe Baumane creates another dense personal narrative that expresses complicated concepts and ideas in images.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    The Swallows of Kabul
    An involving adaptation of Yasmina Khadra’s elegant literary fiction.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    Tove
    Marking her fifth feature, Bergroth flexes her considerable cinematic powers, conjuring vibrantly expressive visuals and confident performances from her talented cast, especially the petite theater thesp Pöysti, who excels in her first leading film role and strongly resembles the real Tove.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    Alam
    This intelligent, sensitive treatment of the rarely seen, everyday lives of young Palestinian citizens of Israel marks tyro feature writer-director Firas Khoury as a talent to watch.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    Brighton 4th
    The tender screenplay by Boris Frumin captures characters living in the new world in much the same fashion as they did in the old. It also offers a touching showcase for Levan Tediashvili, a non-professional actor and real-life wrestler.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    H is for Happiness
    Provides feel-good entertainment for the entire family without pandering — and definitely without sacrificing style or substance.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    And Breathe Normally
    What might, in other hands, be melodramatic or emotionally manipulative remains resolutely unsentimental here.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    The Other Story
    The screenplay, co-written by Nesher and psychology professor Noam Shpancer, feels well-researched, poignantly highlighting the little things parents do that unintentionally traumatize their children. It also brims with the snappy dialogue that Nesher’s films are known for.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Alissa Simon
    My Favorite War
    The result of a nine-year labor of love from a Norwegian-Latvian team, it combines distinctive cutout animation with family photos and archival footage to forge a look at an authoritarian society through a young girl’s eyes. It also encompasses her eventual realization of the painful history repressed beneath the platitudes and propaganda of her school days.
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