MaryAnn’s quick take: No snark, no spandex pantomime spectacle. The Batman is just noir mystery, Robert Pattinson’s sad recluse a detective in a cesspit of corruption. Relentlessly grim, all darkness and despair, not escapist but of our time. Read the review…
directed by women
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché documentary review: a howl out of the past for today - A loving appreciation, but never a blinkered one, of the punk philosopher, a woman ahead of her time and still timely: iconoclastic, creative, ever-searching, a cultural observer who saw deep and far.movies for the resistance
Maxima and Mothers of the Revolution documentaries review: women getting it done - Two new documentaries tell inspiring stories about ordinary women radicalized into revolutionary action, from anti-nuke protests in the 1980s to anti-corporate and anti-corruption activism today.on netflix
Passing movie review: the realities and fallacies of race - Everything about this astonishing, just-plain-satisfying film feels like a revelation. Bone-deep subversive yet universal, dripping with a quiet dread yet also beautiful and beautifully wise.maryann sez…
- loaded question: what does film criticism mean to you in 2022?
- loaded question: what’s your favorite Oscar Best Picture?
- my picks for tonight’s 94th Academy Awards (the Oscars for 2021-ish’s films) (winners indicated)
- new commenting features (including a special badge for Patreons/Substackers)
- loaded question: what movie do you most associate with springtime?
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finest internets
- curated: why are movies and TV shows so muddy-looking these days?
- curated: why movie dialogue can be so difficult to hear nowadays
- curated: Oscar Isaac and Timothée Chalamet on playing father and son
- curated: say hello to photographer John Benton-Harris
- curated: the boy who was almost Anakin Skywalker
- curated: “Trailers Use Slower and Moodier New Versions of Classic Songs to Lure Viewers”
- curated: “Loki as Other: Why Do Queer and Female Viewers Love the Trickster?”
- curated: “Arctic thriller’s film crew struggled to find true frozen waste”
- curated: “The San Diego Comic-Con News Generator”
- curated: “The Movies Are Back. But What Are Movies Now?“


