Jonathan Rosenbaum

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Chicago Reader
For 1,935 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 42% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 56% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 4.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Jonathan Rosenbaum's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Breathless
Lowest review score: 0 Bad Boys
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 961 out of 1935
  2. Mixed: 744 out of 1935
  3. Negative: 230 out of 1935
1935 movie reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    The Matrix
    There's not much humor to keep it all life-size, and by the final stretch it's become bloated, mechanical, and tiresome.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Sling Blade
    Perhaps the most remarkable thing here is Thornton's nuanced performance, but the film has other rare virtues: all the characters are fully and richly fleshed out (with some unexpected turns by John Ritter and singer Dwight Yoakam), and the story's construction is carefully measured.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Offside
    So accessible and entertaining.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 30 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
    It has its moments, but not many, and generally speaking it runs neck and neck with Dune as the least successful and least interesting Lynch feature.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Half Nelson
    A dedicated, charismatic, crack-addicted history teacher is the most believable protagonist in an American movie this year.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    The Fabulous Baker Boys
    This pared-away comedy-drama, which concentrates exclusively on the three characters, has plenty of old-fashioned virtues: deft acting, a nice sense of scale that makes the drama agreeably life-size, a good use of Seattle locations, fluid camera work (by Michael Ballhaus), a kind of burnished romanticism about the music, and a genuine feeling for the characters and their various means of coping. And Pfeiffer turns out to be a terrific singer.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    About Schmidt
    Much more deserving of plaudits is the secondary cast--Hope Davis as Schmidt's resentful daughter, Dermot Mulroney as the waterbed salesman she's engaged to, and, above all, Kathy Bates in a hilarious turn as the latter's New Age mother.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Unforgiven
    As a moral reconsideration of the role of violence in previous Eastwood films, this is strong and sure, and characters who play against genre expectations give the film a provocative aftertaste. The only limitation, really, is that the picture hasn't much dramatic urgency apart from its revisionist context.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    The Wages of Fear (1953)
    A significant influence on Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, this grueling pile driver of a movie will keep you on the edge of your seat, though it reeks of French 50s attitude, which includes misogyny, snobbishness, and borderline racism.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    The Pursuit of Happyness
    Smith is resourceful in the role, though the story stretches one's credulity about his character's resourcefulness.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Cinderella
    This 1950 effort shows Disney at the tail end of his best period, when his backgrounds were still luminous with depth and detail and his incidental characters still had range and bite.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    The Sacrifice
    As with Nostalghia, Tarkovsky’s previous work of exile, it’s possible to balk at the filmmaker’s pretensions and antiquated sexual politics and yet be overwhelmed by his mastery and originality, as well as the conviction of his sincerity.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Taking Care of Business
    This is a pretty stupid comedy in spots, with holes wide enough to drive trucks through, and director Arthur Hiller is as clunky as ever, but the cast is so funny and likable—above all, costars Jim Belushi and Charles Grodin, and newcomer Loryn Locklin—that they almost bring it off in spite of itself.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Grisbi (re-release)
    Jean Gabin wasn't yet 50 when he starred as a big-time, high-style gangster hoping to retire, but he still looks pretty wasted, and this pungent tale about aging and friendship, adapted from a best-selling noir thriller by Albert Simonin, would be hard to imagine without his puffy features.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
    The results are high-spirited, with nice ensemble work from Almodovar's team of regulars, but the playlike structure (originally derived from Cocteau's The Human Voice but drastically reworked) is disappointingly conventional.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Stalker
    His mise en scene is mesmerizing, and the final scene is breathtaking. Not an easy film, but almost certainly a great one.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    The Iron Giant
    An E.T. spin-off, but it's a very likable and imaginative one.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 50 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Paranoid Park
    There's some striking camerawork by Christopher Doyle (in 35-millimeter) and Rain Kathy Li (in Super-8), though this doesn't alter the overall feeling of random, nihilistic drift.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 30 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Out of Sight
    Out of Sight engaged me less and less, until by the end I no longer cared which of the characters lived or died. Not even the engaging Jennifer Lopez, George Clooney, Albert Brooks, Don Cheadle, and Ving Rhames or the talented secondary cast can survive the abbreviations and last-minute shoehorning their characters receive.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    The Big Risk
    Terse and fatalistic.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Get on the Bus
    Here the director is more self-conscious about his didactic aims, which limits him in some respects, but there's an engaging roughness about his visual approach that keeps this movie footloose and inventive.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Children of Men
    The film gradually devolves into action-adventure, then the equivalent of a war movie. But the filmmaking is pungent throughout, and the first half hour is so jaw-dropping in its fleshed-out extrapolation that Cuaron earns the right to coast a bit.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Broadcast News
    The film is full of relevant insights into the kinds of compromises, trade-offs, and combinations of skills and personalities that produce media, and the personal stories are deftly integrated.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Husbands and Wives
    Allen's conception of character is as banal and shallow as ever, but the lively performances of some of his actors—mainly Davis, Pollack, and Juliette Lewis (as a creative writing student of Allen's who has a brief flirtation with him)—and the novelty of the film's style make this more watchable than many of his features.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    High Hopes
    Leigh displays a passionate affection for and commitment to his leading characters that never precludes a critical distance.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 88 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Wise Blood
    This is arguably John Huston's best literary adaptation, and conceivably his very best film.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Lantana
    Striking for its performances -- especially Anthony LaPaglia.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    The Joy Luck Club
    A highly emotional epic about what it means to be both Chinese and American.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Men in Black
    Don't expect any psychological depth here, but the cool wit and fun... are deftly maintained, and Sonnenfeld provides a bountiful supply of both fanciful beasties and ingenious visuals.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Trafic
    Traffic is a masterpiece in its own right—not only for the sharp picture of the frenetic and gimmick-crazy civilization that worships cars, but also for many remarkable formal qualities: an extraordinary use of sound (always one of Tati’s strong points), a complex interplay of chance and control in the observations of everyday behavior, and, in some spots, a development of the use of multiple focal points to articulate some of the funniest gags.
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