Liz Braun

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Original-Cin
For 71 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 85% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 11% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 14.6 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Liz Braun's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 80
Highest review score: 100 Dust Bunny
Lowest review score: 50 Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 64 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 71
  3. Negative: 0 out of 71
71 movie reviews
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    • tbd Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Love, Harold
    Zweig’s hope is that his film helps give people permission to talk. Participants describe the decision-making involved in whether or not to disclose a loved one’s suicide — they don’t mind talking about it, but it can make other people uncomfortable. As one man says about his loss, “As hard as it is, please ask me about it.” Zweig asked. The result is a lean, unfussy, and very human documentary. May we all have Zweig’s courage.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    I Swear
    I Swear is what’s usually described as a “crowd pleaser” but there is an issue with the way the film conveys the alienation John Davidson feels. A viewer gets a pile-on of terrible events rather than the deep character dive required for emotional investment.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Michael
    If you don’t know much about Michael Jackson and are content to keep it that way, Michael is the film for you.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    The Things You Kill
    The Things You Kill is a challenging movie about the world men inhabit, about patriarchy, about intergenerational trauma and about all the exigencies of “masculinity.” Iranian-Canadian writer/director Alireza Khatami presents a family drama that has rich social and political underpinnings.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 67 Liz Braun
    In Cold Light
    None of it makes any sense, alas, and you’ll stop caring about what happens or who it happens to, fairly early on. There seems to be a lot of pseudo-Freudian yammer in the middle of this crime drama, or perhaps there’s a lot of drug-trade-related violence in the middle of a psychological family study; either way, it’s mystifying as hell.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Dreams
    This is pared-down storytelling that leaves you to draw your own conclusions, but nobody’s dreams are coming true here. Filmmaker Franco seems to assume his viewers will be paying attention, so Dreams is a typically understated affair, just slightly chilly in its detachment and stripped down in action and in dialogue. Money talks, though.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    The Moment
    It will be catnip for fans of the music star; others will find various aspects — such as the psychedelic flashing title cards — hugely annoying. Charlie XCX however, comes off well, feisty and self-deprecating. She never plays the victim. As the film concerns getting the fame one seeks and then disparaging the high cost of that fame, it’s a fine line to tread. She does it well.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Sheepdog
    Sheepdog is an intense drama, a tad overlong and amateurish in parts, but definitely an affecting crowd-pleaser with more than a dozen film fest “best movie” and “audience choice” awards to prove it.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    The Choral
    The Choral is a beautifully made film with a great cast and impeccable credentials, a collaboration between writer Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner, as were The History Boys and The Lady in the Van. Alas, it’s a bit dull.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Dust Bunny
    The mind behind TV’s Hannibal and Pushing Daisies makes his feature directorial debut with Dust Bunny, a wonderfully strange mix of murder, mayhem, and childhood monsters-under-the-bed.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Nuremberg
    The ponderous storytelling is such that you’re always aware you’re watching a movie.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Die My Love
    Die My Love has gorgeous cinematography, delicious nudity, way-cool music and Robert Pattinson, but the irresistible urge to check one’s watch kicked in early — at the one-hour mark. That’s not a good sign.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake)
    Falconer allows viewers a glimpse into the ordinary lives of richly developed characters in Sunfish. The filmmaker presents their stories in an understated and unhurried fashion, showing lives led against a bittersweet, end-of-summer landscape that is tinged with nostalgia.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    After the Hunt
    After The Hunt is elusive, but you won’t stop thinking about it after you see it — that’s a good thing.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Roofman
    The performances are uniformly good — Dunst is particularly appealing — but there’s something unsatisfactory about the storytelling.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Anemone
    Anemone is a redemptive tale, but slow and dark and haunting, sometimes slipping into fantasy and playing out like a fairytale, and sometimes unfolding like a Greek tragedy. As films go, it’s a triumph.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    American Sweatshop
    American Sweatshop is an anxiety-soaked story, but it’s not a thriller — it’s smarter than that. Director Uta Briesewitz has created a character study set in a kind of cautionary tale. Lili Reinhart’s understated performance is what keeps the story intriguing. American Sweatshop falters in its third act, but Reinhart will keep you watching regardless.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    The Roses
    This is a brisk, blackly comic film about love, marriage and the exigencies of adult life.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Honey Don't!
    It’s a bit of a shaggy dog story. It’s fun to look at. The cast is good. It’s instantly forgettable.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    My Mother's Wedding
    My Mother’s Wedding is a perfectly nice film. It’s tough not to think that it might have been much more.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Liz Braun
    The Home
    The Home has neither haunting atmosphere nor paranoid madness to recommend it; it’s just a weak story, badly executed and dragged along until it launches into a blood-spatter bonanza in the last five minutes.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Oh, Hi!
    All the intricacies — and absurdities — of creating a modern relationship are on display in Oh, Hi!, a clever comedy with Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman as a couple getting to know each other better.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Liz Braun
    Hot Spring Shark Attack
    Hot Spring Shark Attack is a broad spoof of Jaws, related monster movies, police procedurals, contemporary culture (think influencers) superhero sagas and other things. And it is initially quite a lark.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna
    Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna is informative (albeit distressing) but doesn’t offer any final answers about the accident that cost Hutchins her life.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Endless Cookie
    Endless Cookie is a treasure. It’s a fantastic family story — you will fall in love with Peter’s creative offspring — but also a disheartening look at the realities of Indigenous life in Canada.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Dangerous Animals
    It’s all claustrophobic and terrible and … wildly entertaining.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Liz Braun
    Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
    Not to put too fine a point on this or anything, but Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is an interminable slog.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    The Old Woman with the Knife
    Geriatric killers are nothing new at the movies — think of John Wick, Red or Taken — but The Old Woman with The Knife has a lot more than exhilarating action scenes going on. The way the elderly are regarded and treated underlies much of the storytelling, and there’s an emotional element that’s unexpected for the genre.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Rust
    The film is long and slow, but never boring. There is, however, a sense that the various storylines are not woven together completely.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Havoc
    Havoc is a frenetic action movie with tons of in-your-face violence and it’s kind of fun to watch — the carnage is so exaggerated that it becomes cartoonish.
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