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Joshua Polanski
Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:
Joshua Polanski is a film and culture writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His interests include the technical elements of filmmaking & exhibition, slow & digital cinemas, cinematic sexuality, as well as Baltic, East Asian, & Middle Eastern film.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Walter, Grace & the Submarine (2024) |
Mumblecore is usually a word I reserve as a slur. In the case of Walter, Grace & The Submarine, the first indie film from director Noah Bashore, it is a word I use affectionately. - Midwest Film Journal
Read More
| Posted Sep 19, 2024
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Aberdeen (2024) |
Perhaps it’s still an important film, but it’s not particularly good. - In Review Online
Read More
| Posted Sep 15, 2024
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The Critic (2023) |
[The film has] no wise artistic observations but still drawing attention to the importance of such observations through its titular critic, lacking fulfilling characters, and having the audacity to call itself a thriller without ever managing to thrill. - In Review Online
Read More
| Posted Sep 10, 2024
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Rebel Moon - Part Two: Director's Cut (2024) |
Snyder challenges that binary in Rebel Moon and in doing so uncovers a truth about heroism that the superhero movies never arrived at: heroism is something you do; it’s not who you are. - There Were No Gods Left
Read More
| Posted Sep 08, 2024
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Rebel Moon - Part One: Director's Cut (2024) |
One of the most quintessentially anthropocentric space fantasies on screen. - There Were No Gods Left
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| Posted Sep 08, 2024
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Maldoror (2024) |
To call Maldoror a critique of the system is much like labeling a pork loin kosher — it’s quite simply and egregiously false. - In Review Online
Read More
| Posted Sep 08, 2024
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Hero (2002) |
The sum of Hero’s collaborative artistry asserts itself as one of the most winsome and graceful moving pictures of the 21st century. Hero is a film worth celebrating. - In Review Online
Read More
| Posted Sep 08, 2024
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The Return of Frank James (1940) |
I did not enjoy watching The Return of Frank James and I suspect you won’t either. The colors look good, Fonda’s not bad and the courtroom stuff is a great change of pace, but the filmmaking is only competent. - Midwest Film Journal
Read More
| Posted Sep 06, 2024
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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) |
We took the Pirates of the Caribbean for granted and now we live with the consequences of our actions. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Aug 29, 2024
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Melchior the Apothecary (2022) |
Think Paddington (2014), only he’s a sexy Estonian apothecary instead of a talking British bear. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Aug 25, 2024
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The Beast (2023) |
Part of the experience of watching Bonello’s masterpiece is the longing for something more. - There Were No Gods Left
Read More
| Posted Aug 23, 2024
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Girl You Know It's True (2023) |
If the movie industry must continue with the old game of musician biopics, they should make more films like Girl You Know It’s True. It’s just not like the other ones, and sometimes creativity is all it takes to make a good movie. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Aug 08, 2024
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The Wandering Image (1920) |
The Wandering Image is not a great film. It is an important one, though. - Midwest Film Journal
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2024
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Queen of Justice - Sri Asih (undefined) |
Sri Asih is a remarkable achievement within the superhero genre. - Offscreen
Read More
| Posted Jul 31, 2024
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I Haven't Done Anything (2022) |
I Haven’t Done Anything, the first Korean screenlife film that I am aware of, proves that, like all of cinema, this powerful new medium [of screenlife] can be translated too. - Offscreen
Read More
| Posted Jul 31, 2024
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Whale Bones (2023) |
Whale Bones is the kind of film that even if it’s not your cup of tea, it would be difficult to dislike because it looks so damn good. - Offscreen
Read More
| Posted Jul 31, 2024
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Jango: Uncharged (2023) |
The symbols of American chattel slavery will never be conducive to comedy. Jango lost me with its very first scene. - Offscreen
Read More
| Posted Jul 31, 2024
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The Artifice Girl (2022) |
The directorial work is impressive but [Franklin] Ritch’s script and performance are something to marvel at. - Offscreen
Read More
| Posted Jul 31, 2024
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Event Horizon (1997) |
With inspirations varying from Hieronymus Bosch and Warhammer 40,000 to the literal architecture of the Notre Dame Cathedral and Fritz Lang, Paul WS Anderson’s ... Event Horizon [is] one of the great 20th-century space-horror films. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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Western Union (1941) |
The film’s big development lacks the character specifics that would have interjected it with a dramatic force, so the “twist” feels more like a pointless contortion that prolongs things for another 10 minutes or so. - Midwest Film Journal
Read More
| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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Light Light Light (2023) |
[Light Light Light] is a special queer film, in part because of how it rhetorically aims itself at teenagers and in part because of its artistic achievements. - Bay Area Reporter
Read More
| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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Kati Kati (2016) |
Kati Kati is remarkable for the amount of its achievement in such a limited runtime. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Death Race (2008) |
A full showcase of the director’s visual and thematic talents. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Circus Columbia (2010) |
[Danis] Tanović ... makes no effort to hide the film’s political workings... Tanović’s direction makes their hatred feel groundless and pathetic. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Space Sweepers (2021) |
Being flaunted as South Korea’s first space-opera, Space Sweepers (or Victory, in the English translation of the Korean title), is less operatic than myopic. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Paper Lives (2021) |
Çağatay Ulusoy’s performance sets the standard to beat for the best performing categories in awards season. - Boston Hassle
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| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Nobody (2021) |
Nobody ... makes no false pretenses in its practical re-creation of the Wick franchise - Boston Hassle
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| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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The Disciple (2020) |
A beautiful Netflix original that takes seriously religious mysticism... [and] navigates the ephemeral and enchants the viewer in the process. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Cruella (2021) |
Whether or not this intensely directed style works here, it’s a welcomed change from the recent corporate-productional feel of the most recent crop of Disney films. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Oslo (2021) |
The intensely sickifying tint of Oslo... is a product of its Western production. - Boston Hassle
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| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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The Ice Road (2021) |
The action itself is, technically speaking, good. But the stakes of the action are contrived, with cartoonish insurance agency antagonists who may as well have stepped out of a children’s movie like Sonic the Hedgehog or Detective Pikachu. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Gunpowder Milkshake (2021) |
Gunpowder Milkshake is most entertaining when Laurent Demianoff’s fight choreography takes precedence over any dialogue. - Boston Hassle
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| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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The Last Letter From Your Lover (2021) |
[The performances of the two leads are good but] do too little to ameliorate The Last Letter From Your Lover from the wounds of tropes and conventions. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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The Suicide Squad (2021) |
The Suicide Squad feels like the twilight of the age of superhero movies, making way for a new form of megablockbuster to exchange places. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) |
The Last Temptation of Christ ... is a movie that matters. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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Kubi (2023) |
Viewers would be wise to allow Kitano's vision to overwhelm them as thoroughly as possible. Then and only then can one properly evaluate and appreciate such a passion. - In Review Online
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
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The Last Duel (2021) |
The tri-perspective story emphatically works. It also has the benefit of making room for three excellent performances from the leads. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 18, 2024
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Passing (2021) |
Its pure existence may be a sign of hope to cinephiles. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 18, 2024
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King Richard (2021) |
King Richard suffers from ... a conflict of interest. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 18, 2024
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Near Dark (1987) |
[Near Dark's] style so precisely matches the content that every directorial choice feels indelible. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 18, 2024
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Chungking Express (1994) |
Wong Kar-wai is one of the best filmmakers from one of the most significant film movements... And, in my opinion, Chungking Express is his best film. Supposing one plus one still equals two, that makes this one of the best films ever made - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 18, 2024
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Don't Look Up (2021) |
The film suffers in that the human moments aren’t nearly human enough. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 18, 2024
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Dog (2022) |
Channing Tatum’s Dog is too mature—in comedic material if not always in theme—to completely fit into ... [the genre] expectations [and this] is probably the best thing that can be said about the defiantly mediocre film. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 18, 2024
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The Sky is Everywhere (2022) |
[Josephine Decker's] bold film grammar is innovative, in part, because Christian-Buddhism has never been taken seriously by a visual artist before. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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Yaksha: Ruthless Operations (2022) |
By sidestepping [the] basic moral conflict, Yaksha is artistically hollow. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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Anatolian Leopard (2022) |
The political metaphor mostly hits...as a pandemic-era film, such reflection on political incompetence isn’t that great of a reach for any audience, Turkish or American alike. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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Top Gun: Maverick (2022) |
It’s a good thing it looks good ... because the plot is bare-thin. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) |
[Irm] Hermann gives the best performance of the film—and she does so without saying a single word. In my opinion, it’s one of the best performances in Fassbinder’s legendary run, - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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Hustle (2022) |
Built from the ground up on the back of cameos, the atmospheric creating factor of the guest appearances separates Hustle from the completely “just because” ones in superhero movies. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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Glasshouse (2021) |
The sci-fi elements of The Shred just didn’t work with the period-piece aesthetics. - Boston Hassle
Read More
| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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