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
78 `Munich’: Steven Spielberg’s complex, politically aware look at the Middle East and the politics of assassination, based on George Jonas’ book “Vengeance,” about an off-the-books Israeli squad that goes after the killers of the country’s athletic team at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Like “Syriana,” this is a modern political thriller of almost icy sophistication and bruised idealism, but it’s more expertly done. The multi-textured script was co-written by Tony Kushner; the top-notch cast is headed by Eric Bana as the disillusioned hit team leader.
70 `Casanova’
Lasse Hallstrom
68 `The Ringer’
Barry W. Blaustein
65 `The White Countess’
James Ivory
58 `Wolf Creek’
Greg McLean
55 `Fun With Dick and Jane’
Dean Parisot
35 `Rumor Has It …’
Rob Reiner
28 `Cheaper by the Dozen 2′
Adam Shankman
Movies now playing
74 `Brokeback Mountain’
Ang Lee
74 `King Kong’
Peter Jackson
72 `Gilles’ Wife’
Frederic Fonteyne
68 `The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’
Andrew Adamson
59 `The Family Stone’
Thomas Bezucha
51 `Memoirs of a Geisha’
Rob Marshall
New DVDs
86 `The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach’: The everyday family routine and sublime music-making of Johann Sebastian Bach are re-created by Germany’s Jean-Marie Straub in this unusual 1967 bio-drama, in which Bach is played (and his works performed) by master keyboardist Gustav Leonhardt. Tied for top DVD honors this week: “Seven Men from Now,” Budd Boetticher’s great 1956 Randolph Scott “B” western, another of the bullfighter-director’s tense corridas of gunplay and death, with Scott as the taciturn hero, Lee Marvin as the charming, murderous heavy.
83 `Grizzly Man’
Werner Herzog
83 `The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill’
Judy Irving
82 `2046′
Wong Kar-Wai
81 `Toy Story 2′
(2-disc special edition)
Ash Brannon, John Lasseter
71 `Vodka Lemon’
Hiner Saleem
69 `The Brothers Grimm’
Terry Gilliam
68 `Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express’
Carl Schenkel
64 `Chicago’–The Razzle-Dazzle Edition
Rob Marshall
64 `The Great Raid’
John Dahl
63 `Serenity’
Joss Whedon
59 `Dark Water’
Walter Salles
55 `Must Love Dogs’
Gary Goldberg
54 `Four Brothers’
John Singleton
38 `The Exorcism of Emily Rose’
Scott Derrickson
32 `Diary of a Mad Black Woman’
Darren Grant
17 `Rebound’
Steve Carr
Previously released DVDs
87 `Airplane’–The `Don’t Call Me Shirley’ Edition
Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, David Zucker
83 4 Films by Otar Iosseliani
Otar Iosseliani
