Marc Savlov

Select another critic »
Austin Chronicle
For 2,177 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 57% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 12 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Marc Savlov's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 54
Highest review score: 100 Dunkirk
Lowest review score: 0 Darkness
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,039 out of 2177
  2. Mixed: 612 out of 2177
  3. Negative: 526 out of 2177
2177 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Apocalypse Now Redux
    Such gorgeous explosions, such a terrible vision, such an amazing work of art. Go. Now.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Control
    Even though we're aware of the tragic trajectory of the singer's life, for a while it almost seems as if reality got it wrong and Curtis might just squeak past the reaper's scythe with no more than a shave and a haircut.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    The Look of Silence
    Harrowing and important documentary.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    House of Usher
    Corman's legendary parsimony has rarely been so inobvious; House of Usher has the look and feel of a film made for far more than its tiny $200K budget (and on a tight, 15-day shooting schedule). Its authentically creepy dream-sequence – all grasping hands and hazy blue-gelled fog swirls –­ is a minor surrealist masterpiece by its own right.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Ran
    One of the 10 best films ever made, period.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Monos
    A pure cinematic experience like Monos is a rare and precious gem. Colombian director Landes has created a surreal, sumptuous assault on the senses that’s as lushly beautiful as it is unforgettable.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    First Reformed
    This knuckle-whitening depiction of a man of God toppling into his own spiritual abyss is one of Schrader’s finest and most excoriating films to date.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Dunkirk
    Nolan maintains gut-wrenching suspense throughout by cross-cutting between the various characters and their plights. I’d go so far to say that Dunkirk could easily serve as its own master class in the art of film editing. Add to that an absolutely terrifyingly discordant score from Hans Zimmer and the result is, well, a bona fide classic.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Mandy
    Mandy, though, is flat-out orders of magnitude a more emotionally adept and shockingly powerful film in virtually every department, from the dazzlingly insane cinematography and lysergically–inclined production design to what I can only believe is Nicolas Cage’s single best performance to date.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Mad Max: Fury Road
    Unstoppable and righteous, it roars across the no-lane hardpan like the four-iron horseman of the kinetic apocalypse, amped up on bathtub crank and undiluted movie love. Oh, what a movie. What a lovely movie!
    • 98 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Some Like It Hot
    Arguably the best cross-dressing comedy of all time, it's also one of director Billy Wilder's most fluid, vibrant, laugh-out-loud accomplishments, rife with zippy one-liners delivered in Lemmon's impeccable style, and a rakishly outrageous Cary Grant impersonation from Curtis. Monroe is at her gooey, blonde best here as the pouty, hard-drinking Sugar.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Battleship Potemkin
    To this day one of the most riveting, horrific, and empathetically turbocharged pieces of motion picture history ever recorded, Eisenstein's mind-bogglingly complex composition – utilizing a seeming cast of thousands of extras in addition to the unnamed, iconic main figures – is a gory ballet of marching Cossacks, frantic Odessites, trampled innocence, and doomed dissent.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    mother!
    It’s an absolutely crazed fever dream of a film, and like a febrile infant it begins with a few odd notes and barely heard, often off-camera sounds, and then proceeds to build those seemingly minor instances of weird until it crescendos into an ear-piercing, panic-inducing visual and aural shriek.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Tower
    Director Keith Maitland’s film is one of the finest documentaries ever made, and it’s also one of the most unusual.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
    Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is as real as it gets, a snapshot stolen from the very year everything turned to sh-t. It’s a masterpiece.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Kung Fu Hustle
    It's a short, sharp, shock to the cinematic system that's virtually impossible to dislike, and if you don't leave the theatre grinning your face off, then buddy, movies just aren't for you.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Marc Savlov
    Twelve Monkeys
    Gilliam keeps the audience guessing, and in doing so creates a startlingly effective rumination on the nature of sanity and madness cloaked in the shroud of a sci-fi thriller.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Black Mother
    Like the culturally complex and often overwhelming island nation itself, Black Mother is a haunting and singular experience unlike any other.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    I Am Cuba
    Audacious, thrilling, erotic (and in three languages, no less), I Am Cuba is a lost masterpiece of filmmaking finally seeing the light of day 30 years after its production.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Traffic
    It's a thrilling, powerful movie, and one that certain people in certain quarters may have at one time called dangerous. Some of them may yet still.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Garden State
    There's even a Simon and Garfunkel tune on the soundtrack, which makes Braff's character seem like the only living boy in New Jersey, which, of course, he may well be. L'chaim!
    • 80 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Lean on Pete
    Lean on Pete is a methodical and memorable film primarily because director Haight, adapting from Willy Vlautin’s novel, keeps a distance from his characters, never taking the easy route, and never, ever letting the movie enter the killing fields of the corny or cliched.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Underground
    At almost three hours, it's a masterwork of brilliant editing and design; not a frame is unwarranted, not a scene excessive, and it holds together over its lengthy running time in a way few films half its length can manage.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    It
    Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Skarsgård) is as joltingly nightmarish as fans could have hoped for.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Amy
    The gut-wrenching Amy is, in the end, as much an indictment of our celebrity-obsessed (global) pop culture as it is of the perils of rampant success arriving unexpectedly fast, tires squealing and driving a hearse.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Pianist
    Szpilman takes to performing sonatas in thin air, eyes closed, those jittery fingers stroking nothing but air. It's a wonderful moment in a wonderful, ghastly film, and one of the most moving arguments for the redemptive powers of art ever made.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Spider-Man 2
    Love, death, hope, and hatred: Spider-Man 2 has ’em all, in spades.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Ajami
    Electrifying and decidedly downbeat slice of life and death in Ajami.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Good Thief
    One of Jordan's best films, and almost certainly in Nolte's top two percentile.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    A Tale of Two Sisters
    An unexpected classic.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Avatar
    It's thrilling and lovely and sad and explosive in all the right ways, and it needs to be seen – on the big screen, in 3-D – to be believed.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Audition
    Audition's take on the war between the sexes is bleak and almost entirely devoid of hope. --It's enough to make you give up dating altogether.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Mystic River
    Mystic River asks plenty of questions but rarely if ever offers any answers, and certainly no easy ones. If this fine and sorrowful film is what can be expected from our aging cinema icons, here’s to the golden years, dark though they may be.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Downfall
    Much has been made about the film's "humanizing" of Hitler, but he's only human here in the most prosaic of terms.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Jodorowsky's Dune
    As a documentary on the origins and backstory of the unfilmed film, Jodorowsky’s Dune is unsurpassable. More than that, however, it also allows audiences a rare glimpse inside the furiously creative mind of Jodorowsky, who still, at 84, is a wonderfully mad genius of the moving image.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Coco
    Coco is animatedly empowering entertainment for anyone who’s ever had to go against the wishes of their family to achieve their most heartfelt dreams.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Cloverfield
    Cloverfield is the most intense and original creature feature I've seen in my adult moviegoing life, and that's coming from a guy who knows his Gojira from his Gamera and his Harryhausen from his Honda. Cloverfield isn't a horror film – it's a pure-blood, grade A, exultantly exhilarating monster movie.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    From Dusk Till Dawn
    This is horror with a wink and a nod to drive-in theatres and sweaty back seats. This is how it's done.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Piglet's Big Movie
    Piglet, your time has arrived. Sooth us.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Illusionist
    Absolutely mandatory viewing for aspiring animators and filmmakers. (In terms of pacing, scoring, editing, and narrative, it's a film school unto itself.) For the rest of us, however, it's simply magic.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Maiden
    This riveting documentary about powerhouse never-say-die Aussie yacht skipper Tracy Edwards is every bit as thrilling and emotionally grueling as "Mad Max: Fury Road." And it’s all true.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Tape
    This is what great dialogue -- and by extension great movies -- is made of.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Slumdog Millionaire
    Like Mumbai, Slumdog pulses and throbs with raw, unadulterated life and the hope for a better Bombay, today. It's brilliant.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Love Is Strange
    There are many questions raised and answered in this film, but one that isn’t is why on Earth it’s garnered an R rating. Love Is Strange is anything but. It’s a seriocomic romance of the most genteel sort, full of heartfelt “I love yous,” brief (and definitely unerotic) snuggling, and a wealth of tremendously fine acting from all involved.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Hate U Give
    Screenwriter Audrey Wells adapts Thomas’ YA novel with a sure hand and the supporting cast – especially Hornsby’s deeply protective and loving father, and Sabrina Carter as one of Starr’s white besties who just doesn’t get it – are pitch perfect.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
    While the evil that men do to one another in this film may well be rooted in the Cain-like enabling of original sin from one doomed brother to another, the final familial tragedy feels exactly like classic Lumet.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    They Shall Not Grow Old
    The end result goes far beyond the simple colorization of moldering battlefield documentation. It restores the humanity of the combatants, both the British and, surprisingly, the German. Ultimately, it’s a you-are-there time capsule of enormous emotional and historical importance.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Map of the Human Heart
    Spanning three decades, Map of the Human Heart is one of those rare films that illuminates a single human story, and does it so well that you're hardly aware you're watching a movie.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
    This is high fantasy of the best kind.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Small Engine Repair
    Small Engine Repair is a real American horror story, skillfully shot, perfectly cast and acted, and carrying a sorrowful message that resonates with brutal truth.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Beautiful People
    It's an audacious, affecting, and unexpectedly hilarious debut, and most definitely the most original film I've seen all year.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Pollock
    Pollock is that rare breed, a biopic that makes you want to learn more about its subject, as much as you can, as fast as you can.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Ain't Them Bodies Saints
    The balance between the slight, near-mythic narrative and the eye-wateringly beautiful cinematography (courtesy of Bradford Young), as well as the aching, spare score by Daniel Hart, create a movie that’s a more lovingly crafted tone poem than anything you’re likely to see on Texas screens this summer.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Departed
    This is a dream cast for both Scorsese and the viewer, and everyone is working at the peak of their craft. Nicholson's flawless performance as the increasingly unhinged crime boss is a marvel of manic, paranoid ruination.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Under the Skin
    What makes Under the Skin such a mind-blower has everything to do with Johansson’s chillingly unempathetic turn as the, well, whatever she is, coupled with cinematographer Daniel Landin’s disorienting, hallucinogenic visuals.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Delicatessen
    Set in some sort of post-apocalyptic Parisian deli o' the damned, this lunatic's take on the future of man is so delightfully warped that it's impossible to shake it out of your head and go get a decent night's sleep.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Maria Full of Grace
    This may be the first film to examine the intricacies of the Colombia-to-U.S. drug route in any detail.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Of Gods and Men
    It's something of a Tiananmen Square face-off, minus the overt politics, which makes it all the more spellbinding.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The River and the Wall
    By the end of this epic and thoughtful expedition, you’re left with the unmistakable feeling that some things – in this case, the natural splendor of the Rio Grande ecosystem – should and indeed must remain unsullied by cheap Washington grandstanding and election year promises.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Inside Man
    As with all of Lee's films, there's much more going on beneath the surface than is immediately apparent.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Twin Falls Idaho
    At once emotionally charged and genuinely, disconcertingly surreal...a marvel of subdued, genuine filmmaking.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Twister
    It's a keeper, a tumultuous love story set against the backdrop of 24 hours of really, really inclement weather in the Oklahoma heartland.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Bukowski: Born into This
    The bulk, the heft, and the girth of Bukowski: Born Into This arrives in the form of the author himself, giving beery readings to Berkeley audiences clearly enjoying a contact high or sitting, ill-kempt but quiet, pensive, Heineken in one yellowy paw, in his apartment.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The King's Speech
    It's a "keep calm, carry on" wartime melodrama of the first order, and stiff though it may be, it is never less than brilliantly done.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War
    The most costly and the most popular film in South Korean history is also one of the most gripping and epic war films ever made, and certainly the only one I can think of the portrays the Korean war from the viewpoint of both sides of the conflict.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Face/Off
    Face/Off works like a charm right on down the line thanks to brilliant, exhilarating performances from Cage and Travolta, and the many tremendously enjoyable action set-pieces that are Woo's hallmark.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Cruise
    Miller has somehow, inadvertently by his own admission, managed to capture the essence of the human throng, in all its maddening, scintillating permutations. It's a tour unlike any you have ever taken.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Girl on the Bridge
    New and amazing -- it takes you back to the days when French filmmaking and French filmmakers were the darlings and saviors of the cinematic cutting edge. It's a great film, simply told, and a pleasure to watch.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Everybody Wants Some!!
    While there’s hardly a plot to speak of, that’s never hobbled Linklater before and is indeed the director’s keenest, cleverest trick: the ability to make something sweet, honest, and true out of the ephemeral marginalia of youth minus the rose-tinted bullshit.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Demon
    The Polish/Israeli co-production picked up the Best Horror Feature award at Fantastic Fest 2015, and it’s a shame that Wrona is gone, but at least we have this superlative example of his cinematic brilliance.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
    Sophie Scholl plods along inexorably, one step after another, to its grim, sad end. It's almost unbearable.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Citizenfour
    Citizenfour is obviously in Snowden’s corner, but as an example of pure cinema vérité, this is the finest – and most disturbing – political documentary since Alex Gibney’s Oscar-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side."
    • 79 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Fences
    This is Denzel Washington’s third at bat behind the camera while directing himself and, holy smokes, does he knock it out of the park with a vicious, visceral performance that fairly sets the screen ablaze.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Waves
    As if the dazzling performances and audaciously intertwined storylines weren’t enough, Waves is a visual stunner, too, thanks to director of photography Drew Daniels, whose restless, reckless camerawork paints a family tragedy in dizzying, near-psychedelic hues, mirroring the increasingly frenetic storyline.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Why Don't You Play in Hell?
    Why Don’t You Play in Hell? isn’t for everyone, but neither was Stravinsky’s "The Rite of Spring." Genius is genius, no matter how many audience members may riot.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Skin I Live In
    Banderas, taking time off from voicing kids' films and appearing in Robert Rodriguez outings, plays Ledgard with just the right amount of borderline-freaky, intensity, and Anaya is another of Almodovar's terrifically talented and shockingly beautiful female leads.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    A Single Man
    Everything fits perfectly, from titles to fin, but most of all Firth, who dons the role of George like a fine bespoke suit.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
    The decidedly defiant grande dame of African American literature is shown here as an intellectual and creative dynamo who, at the age of 88, shows zero signs of deceleration; if anything, she appears to be just getting warmed up. Haters beware.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Saving Private Ryan
    A bitter, bloody masterpiece with adrenalized emotions and hyper-realized images, this is perhaps as close to battle as any sane human being should ever hope to tread.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Closer
    Closer is an un-love story as honest and naked as Cupid in the devil's dock, the whole truth, and nothing but.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    August Evening
    This quiet, contemplative gem of a film paints a painfully accurate portrait of familial love, loss, and healing-by-degrees among the migrant communities bordering San Antonio.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Ju-on: The Grudge
    Shimuzu sees darkened staircases and hears the rustle of dead autumn leaves and reacts as if from the devil’s own haiku. And his dread is catching.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Lumumba
    As fluid and intellectually stimulating as the man himself, a tragic, heartfelt take on an event some 40 years old that feels as fresh as yesterday's Times.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Show Me Love
    So full of good stuff that it's impossible not to fall in love with it.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Beasts of the Southern Wild
    It's a jaw-droppingly good performance from this pint-sized, first-time actor.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Darwin's Nightmare
    Sauper's delicately horrific documentary is a short, sharp slap in the face of the developed world, and a long overdue one at that.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Pillow Book
    Greenaway and his picture-perfect cast weave so many interlacing threads into the story, and so many curious subtexts - stylistic and otherwise - that it sometimes leaves us scratching our heads in wonderment.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space
    As we are informed in the film’s prologue, "Cats live in loneliness, then die like falling rain." Sh--, man, whatever. This is so stupid it’s positively genius.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Others
    A spare, discomfiting score and uniformly excellent performances, and you have a quiet little masterpiece of dark and chilling beauty.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Waltz with Bashir
    Be forewarned: Folman closes his film with a grisly, real-death denouement that may give you some nightmares of your own. As well it should.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood
    Once Upon a Time is an elegiac mash note to Hollywood 1969, at times sublimely, almost surrealistically moving while simultaneously managing to be the director’s funniest and least violent film to date.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Zombieland
    Zombieland is dead set against being dead serious. Its tonal pallor has more in common with a foreshortened "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" than with "28 Days" or "Weeks Later," and then, again, there's that jaw-dropping cameo. It'll kill ya.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Paranoid Park
    Paranoid Park shows the Portland-based director to be working at the pinnacle of his art in every frame, in every composition. It's breathtaking, heartbreaking, tragic, gorgeous, and true all at the same time.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    We Live in Public
    Harris' thought-provoking performance art/life isn't yet over, but by film's end he's become unplugged, both literally and metaphorically.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Incredibles
    An order-of-magnitude leap forward in animated storytelling.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Babel
    It's a masterful film, the kind you itch to see twice or more, as elliptical as a dream and as direct as the short sharp shock of lead kissing flesh.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Iron Giant
    Clearly the single best, the single coolest (to borrow from Harry Knowles) animated film in a great while.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Host
    The Host is a freewheeling mix of high style and goofy, good-natured fear-mongering.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    Metropolis
    By the time the explosive finale arrives (with a wistful Ray Charles crooning over shots of cataclysmic destruction, no less), you'll be hard pressed to name a recent film with this much action, pathos, and smarts.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 89 Marc Savlov
    The Shape of Water
    A romance of fantastique proportions, a cautionary tale that revels in throwing caution to the wind, and a de facto monster movie with loose but loving ties to director Jack Arnold’s classic "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and Cocteau’s "Beauty and the Beast," del Toro’s latest is a masterpiece of compassion and insight into the (in)human condition and the transformative power of love.
prev
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »