Lipsky tries to use dialogue to cover up weaknesses in other areas - such as why these people behave the way they do. Some of the movie is inviting, some of it off-putting.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 11, 2011

It doesn't work but I doubt you'll regret seeing it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 12, 2011

Reiners and Gummer have respective moments where their talents shine, but there's not enough here to keep any but the most masochistic even moderately interested.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 6, 2011

This sort of emotional-chaos-in-suburbia (it all takes place in Iowa) has been done well, of course, and at times it is here. But Lipsky's overly arch and tangential dialogue has too many curlicues, and everyone's emotions seem just this side of affected.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Mar 25, 2011

For all the promising fodder, the talky, acrid "Twelve Thirty" feels soulless, an emotion-free zone that deals its darkness in a shockingly flip manner.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 18, 2011

It is a film that gradually draws the viewer into its thrall and builds to an unpredictable but effective climax.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 3, 2011

While movies with a gay look at hetero mating habits may not be sympathetic, at least some authenticity is a must. And this film dodges just that, as a closet gay spouse self-liberates from his dysfunctional family, fleeing the all-female Cuckoo's Nest.

Full Review | Jan 22, 2011

Wrongheaded, off-putting portrait of Midwestern family dysfunction.

Full Review | Jan 21, 2011

The paradox of aggressively pursuing intimacy and discovering the idiosyncratic chaos inside everyday people runs to the heart of Twelve Thirty.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 14, 2011

It wears out its welcome well before the two-hour mark.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 14, 2011

A film more satisfying in occasional isolated moments than as a coherent dramatic entity.

Full Review | Jan 12, 2011

Despite a few moments of surprising insight, Twelve Thirty comes off as more mechanistic than organic; it's composed rather than truly lived.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 12, 2011