MaryAnn’s quick take: The performances are terrific, the evocation of the period striking, but The Many Saints of Newark feels redundant, more GoodFellas-lite than The Sopranos, and with several TV seasons’ worth of story crammed in. Read the review…
on netflix
My Octopus Teacher documentary review: out of the way, human (#Netflix) - This otherwise gorgeous nature documentary is marred by the banal self-therapy of its human protagonist... and he is nowhere near as interesting as the manic pixie dream octopus who changes his life.movies for the resistance
The Body Fights Back documentary review: food for thought - Honest, compassionate, and very necessary, this is a provocation, a challenge to our individual and cultural preconceived notions about and neurotic relationships to food, weight, and body image.on vod in us
The Truffle Hunters documentary review: following a passion right into the ground - One of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. Delightful in its simplicity and profound in its wisdom. Specific yet universal, it’s an empathetic portrait of charming subjects. It’s also really funny.maryann sez…
- question of the weekend: do you listen to a film’s score or soundtrack before you’ve seen the film?
- question of the weekend: do you miss video-rental stores?
- question of the weekend: what movie do you most associate with autumn?
- ‘Cultural Artifacts’ now on Kindle Unlimited
- question of the weekend: what is your seminal movie?
get all recent posts starting here
who is maryann, anyway?
finest internets
- 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?“
- curated: “in defence of historical inaccuracy,” particularly re colorblind casting
- curated: why so much movie criticism, and the movies themselves, are so awful these days
- curated: “Donald Trump‘s Presidency Was Supposed to Be Great for Art. It Wasn‘t”
- curated: 10+ minutes of glorious dancing in movies, so you can forget 2020 for a bit
- curated: how we look at art… and how we think about looking at art