Janice Page

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Boston Globe
For 152 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 0% same as the average critic
  • 50% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Janice Page's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 88 Marooned in Iraq
Lowest review score: 12 Alone in the Dark
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 87 out of 152
  2. Mixed: 33 out of 152
  3. Negative: 32 out of 152
152 movie reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    The Biggest Little Farm
    Think “An Inconvenient Truth” meets “Babe,” or “The Good Earth” meets a biodiverse “Marley & Me,” with a dash of the Food Network’s “Pioneer Woman” tossed in. Among other things, that means furry critters romping to a folksy soundtrack with tubas and banjos employed unironically. It means circle-of-life lessons and sun-dappled everything. It means check your cynicism and snark at the gate, if you dare.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Monkey Kingdom
    New rule: All Disneynature films must be narrated by Tina Fey.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Blackfish
    What’s on camera is both damning and expertly assembled, a filmmaking effort worthy of standing with 2009’s Oscar-winning documentary about dolphin abuse, “The Cove.”
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Somewhere Between
    Knowlton has landed on four stories that deserve to be told, and she's told them in a straightforward way that gets the job done, with obvious dedication and love.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    China Heavyweight
    Where Wiseman excelled in respecting the broad rhythms and pure storytelling of the ring, Chang's new documentary focuses on the stories of three boxers and weaves them into a compelling narrative that rivals anything Hollywood could script.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Three Stars
    Maybe because Hachmeister has a background in journalism, his movie endeavors to educate by covering a lot of ground in its 90-plus minutes, which is certainly commendable, it's just not that satisfying.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Ballplayer: Pelotero
    A well-crafted, bravely revealing little film that could be considered essential education for baseball fans. It's just a bonus that the documentary is so entertaining.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    To the Arctic
    More storytelling and less preaching would have served those messages better.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Big Miracle
    It needs only to entertain. And that it does thoroughly, leaving us both charmed and enriched without feeling very preached at. Praise be.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Kung Fu Panda 2
    It's still Black's franchise, though. And part of the problem with this sequel is how little it lets its star just riff with silly abandon, as he did throughout the original.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Born to Be Wild
    Ironically, Born to Be Wild banks solely on its tameness to captivate and inspire, aided by an upbeat, sometimes incongruous soundtrack.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Secret Ballot
    Ride it out, and you will find the rewards modest but meaningful.
    • Boston Globe
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Praying with Lior
    There's an honest, unfiltered quality to what you see and hear.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Before the Fall
    Unusually compelling, even if it's treacly enough to be "The Chorus" in goose step.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Tattoo
    Maybe Tattoo is creepy and stylized enough to pull you along anyway, but if you like your thrillers to dig below the familiar epidermis, look elsewhere.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Empathy
    At the very least, some of the answers and observations offered up in this hybrid documentary/drama/thesis project will surprise you.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Formosa Betrayed
    As a political thriller, Formosa Betrayed has enough suspense and intrigue to pull viewers along willingly. It doesn’t try too hard, which is refreshing.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Evelyn
    Isn't just a feel-good movie; it's a feel-good-and-righteous movie. And audiences will forgive its flaws.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Mean Creek
    Adults should find its simmering drama at least as compelling as teens will, even if parental figures are only slightly more present here than in a " Peanuts" comic strip.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Mongolian Ping Pong
    In Mongolian Ping Pong the point is to look under the majestic vistas and see value in ordinary things -- ping-pong balls included.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Manito
    Because Manito is really just an opera without the violins or Viking hats, you probably don't need to have everything spelled out. Its Spanish-English script is secondary to the universal language and timeless drama of family, community, dreams made and dreams dashed.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Love and Diane
    fully devotes itself to painting a family portrait seldom allowed such rich cinematic detail.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    The Blood of My Brother
    Combines an insider's perspective with what can only be described as gutsy cinematography.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Chaos
    The best that can be said of the men in Coline Serreau's Chaos is that some of them are pimps.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    The Backyard
    The most disturbing thing about this grass-roots-inspired extreme-wrestling documentary by Paul Hough is how much worse you expect the violence to be.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    The Weight of Water
    Though it never rises to its full potential as a film, still offers a great deal of insight into the female condition and the timeless danger of emotions repressed.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    The World's Fastest Indian
    The film is at its best in Utah, both because in David Gribble's exhilarating cinematography we finally get to feel the full power and intoxication of the sport.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Look Both Ways
    The debut live-action feature of Australian animator Sarah Watt has several other things to recommend it as well, including a black-humored screenplay, realistic performances, eye-catching artwork, and a few creative turns on some well-worn themes.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?
    A rousing, sometimes funny, frequently depressing documentary.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
    The movie's heart is in the right place, but all its messages of tolerance might resonate better if the Spanish-accented pirate didn't get drawn with a gold tooth and the turban-wearing Khalil wasn't an opportunistic rug merchant.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Earth
    This Earth doesn't really have anything new to say, but it does present some newly entertaining ways of saying it.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    The Warrior
    What really makes 'The Warrior worthwhile is its indomitable soul.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Piccadilly [re-release]
    As casually insensitive and careless as you might expect from a film of this era, but it's also surprisingly crafty about finding ways to incite discussion
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    October Country
    What results is both real and surreal, giving and self indulgent. That’s the country we all live in.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Friday Night
    Has a sultry and complex psychological intent all its own, yet it's reminiscent of some earlier Denis works, including ''Nenette and Boni.''
    • 40 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Margaret Cho: Assassin
    Assassin is funnier and less awkward than her last concert film, 2004's ''CHO Revolution," but nowhere near as consistently gut busting as 2002's ''Notorious C.H.O." or (first and still best) 2000's ''I'm the One That I Want."
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    After Midnight
    Can be quite amusing and enjoyable to watch.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    My Sister Maria
    Artful, especially in the ways it avoids sentimentality and employs vintage film clips of truly riveting performances...But Maximilian's narcissistic examination of his theatrical family -- can be boring, and his creative license with the truth is kind of troubling.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Marooned in Iraq
    As full of joy as pain, it's a perspective we need to see more often.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    NASCAR: The IMAX Experience
    It is at least an "experience" that has to be labeled exhilarating.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Air Guitar Nation
    A semiserious documentary about a cult of performance art that until recently was never meant to be taken seriously.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family
    One of the smartest things Kaplan does, besides getting talented Boston folk singer Catie Curtis to contribute to the soundtrack, is hang around long enough to see how this three-headed relationship plays out.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Cradle 2 the Grave
    This is a ride, a video game, a soundtrack -- unapologetic and clearly labeled as such. It has no middle speed.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Donkey Skin (re-release)
    It's practically a primer on how to rework a literary classic into an impressively restrained movie with something fresh and intelligent to say.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Paper Clips
    Inspirational.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Jesus, You Know
    Whatever blend of fact and fiction is really at work in this latest offering from ''Dog Days" director Ulrich Seidl -- known, by the way, for playing fast and loose with the documentary format -- the irony-laced ''Jesus, You Know" does persuade viewers to sit up and take notice of its inspired conceit.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Wolf Creek
    Wolf Creek is ultimately all about the torture and the trauma. Happy holidays.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Shaolin Soccer
    As goofy action comedies go, Shaolin Soccer is one of the best.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Self Medicated
    It's worth noting that the movie's spiritual underpinnings are sometimes fairly subtle and other times veer into "Touched by an Angel" territory. The third act is downright Bible-thumping.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Kings of Pastry
    Kings of Pastry, goes inside an intense event that few Americans know much about - a kind of tradesmen's Olympics.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Alias Betty
    Miller is certainly faithful to the spirit of Rendell's psychologically probing, class-dissecting novels, even if his probing doesn't go nearly as deep and his storytelling isn't as compelling.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    China Blue
    A poignant, all-too-common tale of casual abuse in a workplace that is candidly labeled "better than most."
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Godzilla
    A definitive, low-tech stomping of every sci-fi clone that has sprung up in the original's wake.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    The Cats of Mirikitani
    It takes a special first-time director to stick her neck out, personally as well as professionally. As much as anything else, The Cats of Mirikitani is a testament to good breeding.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Home
    Meier’s soft touch with the offbeat material is surprisingly mature, to the point of maybe being a bit too reserved.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Cherish
    The cast is up to the challenges of that arc, but the plot doesn't always keep them afloat.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Little Black Book
    Actually an above-average farce, at least as featherweight chick flicks go.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    The President's Last Bang
    Writer-director Im Sang Soo's coolly stylized political satire doesn't provide a lot of answers, unfortunately, but it does show how the future of a nation might turn on a few drunken insults thrown around at a high-level dinner party.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Below
    With more character development this might have been an eerie thriller; with better payoffs, it could have been a thinking man's monster movie.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Saints and Soldiers
    For a certain kind of moviegoer, Saints and Soldiers provides above-average nostalgia. Others, more hardened, might call it child's play.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Shanghai Ghetto
    May not be as dramatic as Roman Polanski's ''The Pianist,'' but its compassionate spirit soars every bit as high.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Stephanie Daley
    Tamblyn's surprisingly measured performance commands attention.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times
    Would have benefited from putting a wider lens on the man and his detractors.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Tully
    The film's unhurried pace is actually one of its strengths. Entirely appropriately, the tale unfolds like a lazy summer afternoon and concludes with the crisp clarity of a fall dawn. That's not just a farm movie, that's life.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    The Sea Is Watching
    As rich and literary a work as you might expect.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    The Seagull's Laughter
    Lively and beautiful filmmaking. It may leave you scratching your head, but it shouldn't leave you cold.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Journey from the Fall
    Even when its wires are showing, the movie's soul is always evident.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Grisbi (re-release)
    Roughly translated, Touchez pas au Grisbi means ''don't touch the loot.'' But in literal terms, this film version of Albert Simonin's blockbuster really couldn't care less who ends up with the cash.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Horns and Halos
    The film means to provoke a closer look at the faces of good and evil. It questions whether we really live in a world that can be divided neatly into black hats and white hats.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Black Gold
    You buy "fair - trade" coffee; you assume you're being socially responsible. But now, along comes Black Gold to tell you that all fair-trade coffee is not created equal, and that Ethiopia, the "birthplace of coffee" and home of some of the world's best beans, may be getting the least fair shake of all.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Offside
    As funny as it is sharp.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust
    What's unique about this documentary is that it grips history with both hands, shakes it, examines it, and exits with the entire wrinkled contents bravely in tow.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Zelary
    This is just humble, heartwarming storytelling with good acting and lush visuals.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Rana's Wedding
    An invitation to see something a little less pretty, and potentially more enduring.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
    Hits far more marks than it misses. And no work has brought viewers deeper inside the psychology of war. [06 Apr 2007, p.D10]
    • Boston Globe
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Skins
    Maybe the redemptions offered are simplistic in the context of this place, but they make for a dramatic (if heavily foreshadowed) conclusion.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Step Into Liquid
    Serves up enough action and passion to stay afloat, but at the end of the day it's just not the perfect ride those earlier films were.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    $9.99
    A movie that entertains and enlightens without being preachy - in fact, most of its beliefs are strenuously ambiguous; that’s a key part of the joke.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Katakuri-ke no kôfuku
    If there's one image that sums up the filmmaking style of Takashi Miike, it's the close-up of a bubbling hot pot on the family dinner table.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Following Sean
    If ''Sean" was about conviction and revolution, Following Sean is about ambivalence and resignation. In either case it's pretty easy for a funny-provocative kid to stand out.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    The Nazi Officer's Wife
    One of the most compelling films the Holocaust has yet produced.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII
    These children are indeed the faces of war. It's just harder to recognize them because they're the ones someone cared enough to save.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    In the Mirror of Maya Deren
    Intimidated by the words "avant-garde film"? Then hand yourself over, without reservation, to the skills of documentarian Martina Kudlacek and her astonishingly accessible primer, In the Mirror of Maya Deren.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Mambo italiano
    No sophisticated dance, but it moves about with an open heart. And hey, it's at least as funny as that Greek thing.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Nicotina
    While obviously not a unique or uniquely satisfying experience, the film still does the job in a pinch, and looks cool doing it.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    King Corn
    It's fair to say that a meaner documentary might have packed more punch. But it's hard to imagine Michael Moore turning out anything that feels as pleasantly nourishing.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    The Gatekeeper
    Isn't the most seductive film ever made about border life or undocumented immigrants, but in a way it's unfair to compare it to such artistic triumphs as ''Touch of Evil,'' ''El Norte,'' ''Lone Star,'' and ''Traffic.''

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