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.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    We Were Dangerous
    We Were Dangerous is a cracking good story and an auspicious directorial debut from filmmaker Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 67 Liz Braun
    Queen of the Ring
    A new biopic of women’s wrestling pioneer Mildred Burke is nobody’s idea of a great movie, but it’s an entertaining cheese-fest with a lot of stagey charm.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    The Friend
    A gentle and affecting drama from directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee about grief, loss, and the unconditional love available from a dog.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Misericordia
    Moments of brilliance notwithstanding, the comedy and the dark look at human nature in Misericordia never quite meld. For any student of human nature, that unreliable narrator and the gang of unlikeable characters may eventually wear thin.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Opus
    As long as you don’t mistake Opus for a thriller, it’s a fun ride at the movies.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Last Breath
    This fictional recreation is wonderfully claustrophobic, but the storytelling does not include enough character development to leave a viewer fully invested.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Hard Truths
    Hard Truths is a film centered on a difficult, damaged human being. Watching the movie is not unlike the experience of being in the company of just such a person — uncomfortable, sobering, deeply moving.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Liz Braun
    Babygirl
    Their physical relationship seems highly unlikely in every element. It is weirdly mechanical and not remotely erotic, and worst of all, you never forget that you’re watching a movie.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Porcelain War
    Porcelain War is sometimes heavy-handed in spelling out its own higher meaning, but it is a rare look at the reality of war and the ordinary people compelled to defend their freedom and their way of life.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    The Girl with the Needle
    The Girl with The Needle is a harrowing drama based on real-life crimes that took place in Copenhagen around 1920. Directed by Magnus von Horn, the film is beautiful to look at but difficult to watch — this is dark, gripping, Bergman-esque fare.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    The Piano Lesson
    The Piano Lesson is a hugely energetic, albeit often bittersweet, film.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Juror #2
    A great script and a great cast are key to Juror #2, a gripping moral study dressed up as a courtroom drama.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Liz Braun
    Absolution
    The film’s various elements do not quite meld, and despite a few strong performances, none of the characters feel fully three-dimensional.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Liz Braun
    Here
    Watching the movie Here is a bit like eating a Big Mac — it’s all fine and inoffensive in the moment, but you don’t want to look too closely or think about it too much afterward.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Anora
    Anora is frenetic and entertaining and sometimes very funny, but it will break your heart.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Born Hungry
    Written and directed by Barry Avrich, Born Hungry is part travelogue, part Master Chef foodie outing, and part rags-to-riches Canadian success story. The parts don’t always meld together, but Simpson’s life is fascinating enough to hold a viewer’s attention throughout. He is a compelling individual.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Join or Die
    It’s fascinating to watch Join or Die and see how Putnam’s work has affected other areas of research, such as community connections and economic mobility.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Woman of the Hour
    This is an auspicious directing debut for Kendrick. Woman of the Hour has a big impact and may prompt viewers to search out more information about the Rodney Alcala case. It will certainly inspire some viewers to thread their car keys through their knuckles on the walk back to the car afterward.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    The Outrun
    It’s not accurate to say the film stars Saoirse Ronan. Saoirse Ronan is the movie, the luminous north star of every scene.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    The Wait
    The Wait is a modern morality fable that initially unfolds like a revenge Western but then transforms into a supernatural horror story.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Seeking Mavis Beacon
    Seeking Mavis Beacon starts off as one thing and then becomes another, overall a chaotic but intriguing journey about art, identity and history in cyberspace … where everything lasts forever.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    The Substance
    Writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s comedy is an inspired send-up of the contemporary emphasis on youth and beauty.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    The Critic
    This critic says The Critic is an imperfect film saved by a terrific cast. In particular, Sir Ian McKellen steals the show as a preening newspaper god in 1930s London.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Liz Braun
    You Gotta Believe
    You Gotta Believe is billed as family entertainment. Whose family, exactly, they never specify.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Strange Darling
    Strange Darling is a thriller structured as a complex series of surprises. Writing anything much about the story runs the risk of spoiling some of those surprises, so this will be a short review. Go and see it.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Sugarcane
    One hopes Sugarcane will be shown in schools all over North America.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    The Instigators
    Fast, funny and entirely forgettable, The Instigators is an entertaining if shopworn heist story.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Dìdi
    What holds it all together is a superbly understated performance from Wang, who is fully three-dimensional as Chris — a decent kid trying to figure it all out. Absent here are all the usual cinema cliches and exaggerations about teen life, thank the goddess.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Cora Bora
    If you know Stalter from HBO's Hacks then you know the general territory. In this case, the whole movie is Stalter and while her bizarre charm is formidable, it’s not quite enough to carry everything — a stronger script might have helped.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Valley of Exile
    Valley of Exile is a slow, closely observed and very personal story that distils the terrible cost of conflict and presents it on a relatable human scale. While the film celebrates the women’s resilience, it also shows the gradual, inexorable unravelling of family as all things familiar fall away.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Fly Me to the Moon
    It seems to be about a lot of things — a kinder, gentler America, early feminism, truth in advertising, an impartial media. But above all, it’s a pleasant few hours at the movies with charismatic actors Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    A Man of Reason
    At any rate, you’ll be entertained. What you won’t be is transported, and that’s kind of the goal.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
    Chapter 1 of this undertaking is imperfect, at times meandering and once or twice confusing, but it is never boring and never feels over-long. And it is spectacularly beautiful to look at.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Thelma
    Thelma is really entertaining. The cast (which includes Malcolm McDowell) is very strong. The performance from Squibb, a 70-year vet of the industry and Oscar-nominated for her work in Nebraska, is fantastic, and Roundtree is likewise magnetic.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 67 Liz Braun
    Longing
    Whatever magic that writer/director Savi Gabizon brought to the original seems to have evaporated for this second go.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 83 Liz Braun
    Ezra
    For this viewer, always on high alert for emotional manipulation, Ezra is an engaging movie that works because of sharp writing and terrific performances.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    Limbo
    The film is an indictment of law enforcement as it operates (or doesn’t) for aboriginal people.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 75 Liz Braun
    Back to Black
    This is perhaps a kinder, gentler Amy Winehouse story? Maybe so, but there’s no opportunity for emotional investment, despite Marisa Abela’s wonderful performance. It’s all a bit like seeing a good cover band.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    We Grown Now
    This coming-of-age film captures the exuberance of childhood even as it shows the gradual encroachment of outside social pressures.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    The Fall Guy
    The Fall Guy is hugely entertaining. A love letter to stunt persons and to filmmaking in general, the film is a romantic comedy for everyone who hates romantic comedies and an action thriller for those less than keen on the genre.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Liz Braun
    The Promised Land
    The Promised Land is visually splendid and utterly absorbing, a rags-to-riches/vengeance/love story packed with action and heartbreak.

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