R. Kurt Osenlund

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Slant Magazine
For 76 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 44% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 50% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 11 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

R. Kurt Osenlund's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 55
Highest review score: 100 Dear White People
Lowest review score: 0 Jobs
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 76
  3. Negative: 19 out of 76
76 movie reviews
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    • 54 Metascore
    • 12 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
    A choppy, feature-length progression of crude, predictable gags, the film plays like a variety show, and yet its main attraction is barely funny enough to warrant his own brief sketch.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 38 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Fifth Estate
    The film is guilty of some of the same quick judgment it clearly doesn't endorse, exploiting Julian Assange's unmistakable appearance to help give itself a boogeyman.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Romeo & Juliet
    Not even when the doomed Juliet reaches for Romeo's dagger do you feel a single vicarious pain in your gut.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Nebraska
    In the film, Alexander Payne's overview of America is extraordinarily, multifariously profound.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 88 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Concussion
    The near-imperceptible finesse of Abby's characterization reflects writer-director Stacie Passon's effortless, interesting mix of richness and economy.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Captain Phillips
    It works too hard to keep matters on an even, we're-all-more-alike-than-different keel, which is just one part of its chief problem of forcefully conveying information and intent.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Le Week-End
    Both keenly calculated and flowing with offbeat, naturalistic detail, Hanif Kureishi's jewel of a script reflects his sensibilities as a playwright.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 88 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Mother of George
    Beautiful, poetic, and hard-hitting without the use of excessive force and deeply layered with evolving and regional nuances of feminine experience
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Wadjda
    It doesn't play like reality, but like boilerplate filmic fantasy, and its novel setting and inception struggles seem positioned as a beard--or veil, if you will--to mask its mediocrity.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 25 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Adore
    So deadly serious and yet so goofily unbound that, in some scenes, incest truly seems like it's on the scandalous menu.
    • 22 Metascore
    • 25 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Getaway
    Though always speeding forward in some gear of ridiculousness, the film is a lot more fun when it's completely nonsensical, before its baddie's motives and harebrained plot are funnel-fed to the viewer.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
    The movie blasts by for a while as an odd and busy slice of highly watchable garbage.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Short Term 12
    There's tremendous dramatic value to the aching and sometimes devastating scenes that home in on these kids' private torments.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 0 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Jobs
    Steered by a lead actor and director, Joshua Michael Stern, who are both way out of their respective leagues, Jobs is excruciating, failing to entertain and all but pissing on its subject's grave.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 25 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Planes
    The film feels second-rate in every sense, from the quality of its animation to its C-list voice cast.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 12 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
    I'll tell you what's insane: the probability that folks will go easy on this dreck because it's aimed at younger viewers, who are being distressingly trained to expect little from their art.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    2 Guns
    Viewer/character solidarity only holds up for so long, and the film falls hard into twisty, nonsense territory, skipping over its stronger themes in the process.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Wolverine
    This may be the year's best superhero movie because, for a sufficient amount of time, it doesn't feel like a superhero movie at all.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Turbo
    As a film about social issues, and simply being yourself, it's commendably progressive, going so far as serving as a kind of coming-out story.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 38 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Lone Ranger
    The movie, of course, barrels toward climax upon climax, and while possibly better photographed, the crashes, bangs, and booms are no less numbing than anything else you've seen in this summer of garbage blockbusters.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 25 R. Kurt Osenlund
    White House Down
    Roland Emmerich makes love of country into a thing of unabashed hokum, which bleeds through every nook of this overstuffed jumble and leaves no character untouched.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 25 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Unfinished Song
    Part end-of-life romance, part grossly manipulative mush, the film tries to stare grief and mortality in the face while practically shitting rainbows.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Bling Ring
    Sofia Coppola seems curiously unmotivated to bring full analysis or provocation to her themes, leaving the film feeling like a disappointingly toothless satire.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 25 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Free Samples
    An angry indie that favors hollow ridicule over credibility.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 12 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Jack the Giant Slayer
    This epic waste of $190 million plunders the grab bag of overused plotlines, failing to put its own stamp on much of anything.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 75 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Identity Thief
    Melissa McCarthy is riveting in simply-penned moments of remorse and confession, adding tearful depth to her ace timing and formidable physical comedy.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    LUV
    As a film that largely works as a subdued twist on the familiar drama about crime and family, LUV needed more intimacy and focus.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Guilt Trip
    Mothers and sons deserve an amiable comedy they can share, but this one proves to be faulty long before the requisite freeway breakdown.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2
    Characters are better employed; emotions are, for once, palpable; and the selfishness of Bella, author Stephenie Meyer's avatar, is finally somewhat squelched.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 R. Kurt Osenlund
    Price Check
    The script is teeming with informed jargon about the business of supermarket pricing, and with actors like Posey as its vessel, the dialogue rings with an unlikely blend of fascination and farce.
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