Marshall Shaffer

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Slant Magazine, Slashfilm, The Playlist
For 190 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 52% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Marshall Shaffer's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Marty Supreme
Lowest review score: 16 Anaconda
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 127 out of 190
  2. Mixed: 55 out of 190
  3. Negative: 8 out of 190
190 movie reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Marshall Shaffer
    The Invite
    Wilde toils feverishly to create the illusion of momentum and communicates to the audience that they must be feeling such a sensation. But for all the belabored artistry of this choppily cut enterprise, little in “The Invite” actually moves. It’s potential energy, unconvincingly trying to pass itself off as kinetic.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Marshall Shaffer
    Girls State
    For chafing against existing systems designed by and for men, the storytelling structure of the film befits the female experience in American politics.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 85 Marshall Shaffer
    Apples
    Apples maintains the droll wit and entrancing abstraction of Lanthimos, but the film does not feel quite as drenched in irony. Nikou’s storytelling remains deliberately opaque while also leaving plenty of room for genuine emotional connection.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Marshall Shaffer
    Kneecap
    The film captures the what of Kneecap but also the why, which makes all the difference.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 85 Marshall Shaffer
    The County
    Don’t expect any inspiring schmaltz from The County, but for those looking to understand the global nature of the struggles faced by those who dare to resist all-encompassing economic organizations, this movie delivers the goods.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Marshall Shaffer
    Murina
    Kusijanović storms out of the gate with a confident coming-of-age tale full of relationships as rocky as the craggy Croatian coast in which the story unfolds.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Marshall Shaffer
    Pavements
    There are meta-movies, and then there’s Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 38 Marshall Shaffer
    Ghost Trail
    Jonathan Millet’s film is unconvincing and unnaturally contorted into its shape.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 63 Marshall Shaffer
    The Order
    The Order illuminates the pipeline from economic insecurity and racial anxiety into outright white nationalism without casting a sympathetic eye toward the eponymous group’s tenets.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Marshall Shaffer
    Oh, Hi!
    While this send-up might not pass the scrutiny for a rewatch or cult classic, it’s at least good for one fun and unexpected go-round.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Marshall Shaffer
    Together
    It’s the rare film that can hit a nerve as well as an artery.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Marshall Shaffer
    Late Fame
    Its desire to resist easy storytelling paradigms around artists is admirable, but without punching up or down, the film feels like it’s pulling punches altogether.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Marshall Shaffer
    Bring Her Back
    When they can translate something into a tangible sensation, like the camera effects of focus that take viewers into Piper’s distorted field of vision, the film operates within a comfortable range for the directors. Where they struggle to locate resonance is in the emotional realm.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Marshall Shaffer
    Monica
    At its best, Pallaoro’s quiet film wields the paradoxical power of cinema to create pure illusion.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 55 Marshall Shaffer
    Origin
    Origin lacks both a center of gravity and a sense of scale.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Marshall Shaffer
    Rebuilding
    If there’s any sense of motion in the film, which is largely defined by its patient camerawork and editing, it’s in Dusty’s gradual recognition of and response to the emotions that accompany his corporal yearning to remain in place.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Marshall Shaffer
    A House of Dynamite
    Oppenheim’s script deepens that burgeoning pit of terror with its sequencing of events and information.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Marshall Shaffer
    Happyend
    Sora Neo struggles to balance the immediacy of adolescent angst with the long-range outlook of using the students’ experience as a canary in the coal mine for society at large.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Marshall Shaffer
    Bones and All
    The romance is a soaring spectacle to witness unfold, but it becomes a Trojan horse to explore notions of how and where people find validation. The film's embrace of two lovers does not close ranks around them, instead opening its arms to welcome anyone who has ever felt like a disowned outcast.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Marshall Shaffer
    Dune: Part One
    Audiences deserve to see the conclusion of an action film so immaculately crafted and patiently paced, one that's more focused on inspiring reverent amazement through the simplicity of durable storytelling structures rather than the complexity of cinematic universe building.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Marshall Shaffer
    A Couple
    While it’s great to see an example of a filmmaker refusing to rest on his laurels or stay inside the nearly defined box of his cultural reputation, a film must be a film – not just a concept. Un Couple never quite manages to transcend its origins as a precious pandemic project.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Marshall Shaffer
    Scrapper
    Scrapper is just the kind of scrappy triumph its title indicates. It's not the newness of the materials that matters here — it's how they are assembled with such care and consideration.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Marshall Shaffer
    Omaha
    In Webley’s empathetic rendering of a family’s dire dilemma, no one is absolved or blamed – yet everyone pays.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 63 Marshall Shaffer
    Final Destination: Bloodlines
    Bloodlines finds frights and fun alike in a string of gory kills.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Marshall Shaffer
    The Iron Claw
    With scalpel-like precision, the film exposes the agonies of fathers, sons, and brothers.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Marshall Shaffer
    Hoppers
    Amidst all the noise and nonsense, Hoppers makes a winning case for the enduring value of dignity and respect for all creation.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Marshall Shaffer
    Wet Season
    The film develops not in grand gestures but in an accumulation of small, gentle moments.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Marshall Shaffer
    Jay Kelly
    As Noah Baumbach sells the sappiness in Jay Kelly with the same sincerity of his convictions as in his more acerbic works, the film holds together as a lightweight delight.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Marshall Shaffer
    Athena
    Especially after the film’s stunning conclusion, Athena is destined to leave jaws on the floor and heart rates significantly elevated long after the credits roll. This is the painful, perilous present tense written in the flash of a smartphone camera and the blaze of a Molotov cocktail.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Marshall Shaffer
    Friendship
    The film plays right into Tim Robinson’s sweet spot of surrealistic and satirical comedy.
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