The National Society of Film Critics is a 57-member group comprising critics from major newspapers and magazines across the U.S. Movies and DVD/videos in their first national release (some of which have yet to open in Chicago) are ranked by NSFC members for the poll on a scale of 100 possible points. The averaged ratings correspond to the following key: 100-81 = excellent; 80-61 = good; 60-41 = average; 40-21 = fair; 20-0 = poor.
The NSFC Web site, which contains more complete rankings of films and video past and present, as well as film descriptions, links to reviews by NSFC members, and the group’s history can be visited at http://nsfc.zap2it.com/nsfc/cda/index.jsp.
NSFC chairman: David Sterritt (Christian Science Monitor).
Poll editor: Michael Wilmington (Chicago Tribune).
New movies
79 `March of the Penguins’: Directly in the tradition of the two great Jacques Perrin nature documentaries “Microcosmos” and “Winged Migration,” this Americanized version of Luc Jacquet’s “La Marche de l’Empereur” is a heart-warming, sometimes awe-inspiring film on a truly offbeat subject: love among the Antarctic penguins. Cleverly and sensitively translated, the ice-bound romance is done with spectacular photography, scientific savvy, playful anthropomorphic humor and winning voice-over monologues from Morgan Freeman, the emperor of current movie narrators.
74 `Dark Water’
Dir., Walter Salles
72 `Yes’
Dir., Sally Potter
59 `Fantastic Four’
Dir., Tim Story
On its way
83 `The Beat That My Heart Skipped’ (opens July 15)
Dir., Jacques Audiard
Movies now playing
82 `George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead’
Dir., George A. Romero
81 `Rize’
Dir., David LaChapelle
77 `Heights’
Dir., Chris Terrio
71 `My Summer of Love’
Dir., Pawel Pawlikowski
70 `War of the Worlds’
Dir., Steven Spielberg
67 `Me and You and Everyone We Know’
Dir, Miranda July
62 `Herbie: Fully Loaded’
Dir., Angela Robinson
55 `Bewitched’
Dir., Nora Ephron
New DVDs
87 `Point Blank’: No one ever saw Los Angeles like director John Boorman does in this movie, a modern film noir that plays like some bizarre collaboration between Michelangelo Antonioni, Alain Resnais, Robert Aldrich and Don Siegel. Lee Marvin stars as a double-crossed thief/killer tracking down the shadowy figures who set him up, mob bosses who seem to symbolize universal evil. Backing (or possibly back-stabbing) him are Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O’Connor and John Vernon.
80 `Hukkle’ (Hungarian with English subtitles)
Dir., Gyorgy Palfi
74 `Nadine’
Dir., Robert Benton
74 `The Good Father’
Dir., Mike Newell
72 `Georgy Girl’
Dir., Silvio Narizzano
71 `Dillinger’
Dir., Max Nosseck
69 `Dear Frankie’
Dir., Shona Auerbach
56 `Bride and Prejudice’
Dir., Gurinder Chadha
53 `In My Country’
Dir., John Boorman
46 `Hide and Seek’
Dir., John Polson
20 `Prozac Nation’
Dir., Erik Skjoldbjaerg
Previously released DVDs
97 `Au Hasard Balthazar’
Dir., Robert Bresson
91 `Weekend’
(French with English subtitles)
Dir., Jean-Luc Godard
90 `Heaven Can Wait’
Dir., Ernst Lubitsch
87 `Outsider’
Dir., Bela Tarr
85 `Prefab People’
Dir., Bela Tarr
84 `Jaws’
(special edition)
Dir., Steven Spielberg
82 `Family Nest’
Dir., Bela Tarr
76 `Gunner Palace’
Dir., Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker
45 `Diary of a Mad Black Woman’
Dir., Darren Grant
