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Bill Arceneaux
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Nurse Unseen (2023) |
A filmmaking victory that should be treasured. The best American documentary about COVID-19 since Totally Under Control. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Nov 03, 2024
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Giants Rising (2024) |
An encyclopedia in motion and is maybe the best of the best at it. Does great in making sure that every aspect of the Redwoods’ majesty is fully studied and captured. Mission accomplished, I say. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 28, 2024
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Just Above the Surface of the Earth (2024) |
A ripple of pain and frustration. It’s shocking just how intense the movie makes its topic look and feel so unappealing. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 28, 2024
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Chasing Time (2024) |
Beautifully shocking imagery makes up the bulk of this movie, acting as more horror than bittersweet sendoff for one man. On occasion, I mean. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 28, 2024
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The Cigarette Surfboard (2024) |
Incredibly engaging, very smart, and totally rad. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 27, 2024
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In the Whale (2023) |
Films like In the Whale come along rarely, but when they screen, smiles are mustered and tears are dropped. Astonishing with emotional impact. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 24, 2024
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Apple Cider Vinegar (2024) |
Probably the cutest and most inventive festival-released documentary of this year, and likely an award contender. Likely. Probably. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 24, 2024
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Water for Life (2023) |
Elevates the conversation of progress and greed over people and justice in an above-standard way. We should be so fortunate to see such a film. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 24, 2024
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Arthur Tress: Water's Edge (2024) |
A peek at a man of immense whimsy and lots of positive energy—the kind that might give an audience a secondary high. And that’s great. A complete surprise and a welcome character. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 19, 2024
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Running for the Mountains (2024) |
Running for the Mountains, even with faults outlined, maintains a brave & bold attitude for the truth, which is what matters most. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 19, 2024
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Cat City (2023) |
For its duration, Cat City is all personality, much like a, well, cat. There’s fun, there’s yearning, there’s genuine sentimentality, and there’s real-world depiction - showing the situation for what it is without dressing anything up. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Oct 19, 2024
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The 4:30 Movie (2024) |
There’s awkwardness in all the right places. There’s charm in spades too. Cute. It’s just cute. Well done, sir. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Sep 27, 2024
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You Gotta Believe (2024) |
It’s a movie stuck in the mud but heavy with passion and striving for victory. An underdog by design. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Sep 04, 2024
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Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024) |
Truly the stuff of cinematic proportions, even with the speaking-to-the-pews thing - though maybe others will listen too. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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Aggro Dr1ft (2023) |
As a “movie,” Aggro Dr1ft is almost egregious. With video game logic that’s made for vertical viewing, clip cutting, and social sharing, Aggro Dr1ft could be either prophetic or historical in some fashion. Or a time capsule. OR a nightmare. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Jul 05, 2024
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Queen of the Deuce (2022) |
An absolutely fabulous section of the film exhibition history in America. It is a classic “make it here, make it anywhere” immigrant tale—almost straight out of the movies. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Jun 25, 2024
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Gasoline Rainbow (2023) |
More shadowplay than traditional movie, and more real than reel, Gasoline Rainbow is one of the more fascinating films of the year. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Jun 25, 2024
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Happy Campers (2023) |
Made up entirely of beautiful shots, the kind that tells stories on their own, define the people that are featured, and move our hearts to beat at their fullest capacity. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Jun 05, 2024
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23 Mile (2024) |
Captures both the end of the world as we know it and the continuation of the same old same old in startling frames. A first-class flight through unrelenting noise. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Jun 05, 2024
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The Death Tour (2024) |
More than anything, this film is less about the wrestlers being on the road and facing physical and mental pain, but rather it’s about their go-get-them attitude when entering new places of heartache. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 31, 2024
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Who is Michael Jang? (2024) |
This is a film that’s partially about discovery after the fact and is all a human profile in the present moment. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 31, 2024
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My Own Normal (2024) |
Alexander Freeman is a real reel filmmaker, that’s for sure. And his movie is as tangible as a touch and a grasp. That’s indeed something that only a few artists can convey. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 31, 2024
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Film Is Dead. Long Live Film! (2024) |
There’s plenty of thoughtfulness and more than enough life given to the movie through the subjects found and the collections offered. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 31, 2024
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The Wheel of Heaven (2023) |
Completing a cycle of meta-chaos and matryoshka doll storytelling, filmmaker and master of the cosmic weird Joe Badon has crafted his most awesome and best movie to date. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (2023) |
This is a sort of twist on the idealistic businesswoman seeking more in life movie, and maybe it’s a twist of a knife to the belly. A modern laugh-out-loud classic. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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Mind Body Spirit (2023) |
Gimmicky without being exploitative, a trip into the pathetic and lost self, Mind Body Spirit’s small scale opens up enough to be compelling and tense - at least here and there. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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Scooter LaForge: A Life of Art (2023) |
To call this movie colorful would be an understatement. It’s practically coated with sugar. And it’s delicious. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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Off Ramp (2023) |
There’s gold found in the interactions between the strangers and neighbors and enemies and lovers that populate the story. That human spark and relatability amid Mississippi dumps and macabre beauty gives life to Off Ramp. All of its life. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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Challengers (2024) |
It’s an intimate spectacle that grinds epically (in more ways than what is suggested). With that, Challengers is a film that ought to live on and repeat in different ways, over and over. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted May 07, 2024
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The People's Joker (2022) |
An incredible coming of trans revolution. Provocative. Challenging. Confrontational. Hilarious. Daring. Personal without being esoteric. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Apr 25, 2024
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Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea (2004) |
Is this a hangout picture or a heartfelt testimony? I’m not sure. However fortunate or unfortunate, it is entertaining at least. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Apr 25, 2024
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Nat Bates for Mayor (2017) |
The documentary sees the whole picture of America and has only a presentation to offer - the answers are for us to figure out. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Apr 19, 2024
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Jack Has a Plan (2022) |
It’s confrontational and uncomfortable, but also peaceful and filled with celebration and uncut humanity. A rich, frank, and honest film. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Apr 12, 2024
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Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone (2010) |
A typical documentary in some sense, about a group of rockers who were and still are very atypical in all senses. So comfortable about such chaos. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Apr 12, 2024
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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) |
While things do play in fast forward sometimes, almost as if it’s in a crunch to be everything to everyone, Frozen Empire does get the basics right and its own evolution more so. It’s a give-and-take kind of flick, enjoyable to the last. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Apr 02, 2024
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Unfriending (2023) |
For any movie to be filled to the brim with such human ugliness and be comically clever from time to time has achieved an outstanding feat in my eyes. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Dad & Step-Dad (2023) |
Tickles me fanciful and happy. The film may have a light amount of people around it, but Dad & Step-Dad is no featherweight. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Mar 17, 2024
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Hundreds of Beavers (2022) |
An incredibly intricate thrill picture of heart and gags galore has been unleashed unto the world, and I mean that in the most biblically epic manner possible. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Circus of the Scars (2022) |
Has a magical and progressive look of the present and toward the future, with a humble attitude to a past of youthful adventures filled with startling skills of shock. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Feb 28, 2024
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Sorry, We're Dead (2024) |
Sorry, We’re Dead rises above a challenging premise just barely but successfully, and with a fine passion to boot. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Feb 15, 2024
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No One Asked You (2023) |
This film isn’t just another entry in the progressive politics genre of documentary filmmaking. It’s truly special - a road trip of grand proportion. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Feb 15, 2024
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Freud's Last Session (2023) |
If I want accuracy, I’ll go to the library. At the movies, I’m looking for a different kind of study, and Freud’s Last Session is perfectly that. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Feb 09, 2024
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It's a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point (2023) |
Filmmaker Daniel Kremer has crafted such an amazing work of biography, documentary, essay, argument, and almost damn near possession, that it should be considered an end-all/be-all moment of sorts in film theory and history. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Jan 16, 2024
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Fast Charlie (2023) |
'Fast Charlie' is made up entirely of shrugs and sighs, and is a pathetic genre attempt set in the humid Deep South. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Jan 09, 2024
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Big Easy Queens (2023) |
Talking, talking, then GORE! Talking, talking, then VOODOO! It has just enough flavor to be a tasty dish. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Dec 13, 2023
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Coup! (2023) |
A devious delight of a film. A complete riot and completely entertaining. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Dec 11, 2023
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Napoleon (2023) |
It’s as unique as a snowflake, or as a strike of lightning. Dreary for its time and deranged for all of time. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Nov 26, 2023
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Open (2023) |
The best independent Hollywood South flick of the year. Immensely entertaining. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Nov 02, 2023
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Sloane: A Jazz Singer (2023) |
Few profile documentaries capture the kind of honesty and intelligence of a person’s very being as this one does, and it does it well. Incredibly well, even. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Sep 04, 2023
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Shortcomings (2023) |
Quirky, offbeat, and cool. Its performances and arcs are pretty bold, thanks to Justin Min, Sherry Cola, and Ally Maki. - Moviegoing with Bill
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| Posted Aug 24, 2023
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