2018’s films ranked
I rank films on the fly as I see them for the 2018 awards year.
new and ongoing cinema releases, US/Can, from Wed Jun 13
A simple listing of movies opening this week and in continuing release.
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri Jun 15
Animated Holly Hunter and Sarah Vowell battle supervillains; Madelyn Deutch battles the postcollege blues…
Eating Animals documentary review: where’s the beef (coming from)?
The philosophical and the sentimental trump the practical in this exposé of factory farming that, while effective in showing us the horrors, offers only simplistic solutions.
new and ongoing cinema releases, UK/Ire, from Thu Jun 14
A simple listing of movies opening this week and in continuing release.
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Thu Jun 14
Toni Collette fights family demons; Sylvia Syms fights to stay with her husband; Mc Linn Da Quebrada fights bigotry.
The Happy Prince movie review: in the gutter, looking at the stars
Writer, director, and star Rupert Everett’s labor of cinematic love, about the last years of Oscar Wilde, is a small wonder of contradictions: nightmarish yet sanguine, a bit sordid yet full of grace.
Ocean’s Eight movie review: revenge of the women
Breezy fun that sticks a shiv into Hollywood’s — and the larger culture’s — disdain for women. Wonderfully subtle comic performances from a great cast having a ball make for a perfectly suitable light diversion from the world right now.
curated: Brie Larson wants more diverse film critics; white dudes unhappy
Newsflash!
Studio 54 documentary review: inside the velvet ropes
A hugely entertaining exploration of the mythology of the legendary nightclub as something truly worth celebrating, and a towering Scorsese-esque drama of the men who invented it brought down by hubris.
new and ongoing dvd & vod releases, US/Can, from Jun 12-15
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
new and ongoing dvd & vod releases, UK/Ire, from Jun 11-15
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
curated: even when women film critics exist, we’re ignored by gatekeepers
The story of my life.
Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist documentary review: counterculture’s wise elder woman
There’s nothing fawning and plenty ironic about this essential first documentary to cover a major female fashion designer, a woman whose life is almost a perfect reflection of the trajectory of 20th-century feminism.
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri Jun 08
Does every wide release in North America this week feature a female protagonist or female ensemble? Wow.
Half the Picture documentary review: a woman’s place is behind the camera (#SundanceLondon2018)
Authoritative and insightful, this essential film gives much needed cultural breathing room to some remarkable Hollywood women to discuss how they are undermined or shut out entirely from the industry.
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Wed Jun 06
Bryce Dallas Howard revisits Jurassic Park. Zosia Mamet revisits an old relationship.
McQueen documentary review: the tragedy of the fashion provocateur
There’s so much fresh air in this stunningly good biography that it feels like you’ve never encountered a rags-to-riches, tortured-artist story before. Not just for fashion lovers.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom movie review: back to Isla Nublar… again
Hollywood finds a way. To keep telling the same stories over and over again, that is. There’s too much going on in Fallen Kingdom, and yet somehow not enough, either. Still: dinosaurs!
Hereditary movie review: the haunting is coming from inside the family (#SundanceLondon2018)
The sinister ambiance has a terrible grace, but its raw and honest portrait of grief and guilt is ultimately diminished by the supernatural horror that is also at play.
curated: horrible “fans” hound Kelly Marie Tran off Instagram
Disgusting. How do these pathetic excuses for fans live with themselves?
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri Jun 01
Shailene Woodley faces disaster at sea; Claire Danes confronts trouble at home; and more…
curated: Lando Calrissian, space vlogger
I love this.
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Fri Jun 01
Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen are friskily inspired by Fifty Shades of Grey; and more…
A Kid Like Jake movie review: the kid is all right; the parents are freaking out
A movie as generous and as nonjudgmental as its protagonists, as frustrated yet as gently questing as they are. Claire Danes and Jim Parsons are extraordinary.
My Generation documentary review: when London was swinging
A brilliantly thrilling look back at the flowering of creativity and freethinking spirit of 1960s London, through the thoroughly charming perspective of Michael Caine.
curated: now I *really* want to see Lord & Miller’s Han Solo movie
Whatever they shot… that footage exists somewhere.
dreaming of a female-gazey Han Solo movie…
…maybe one directed by a woman who understands why we love this scoundrel.
thank the Maker, the Brian Daley Han Solo novels are available on Kindle
I haven’t read these since I was a kid, but back in the day, they did fulfill my tween hankering for more Han Solo.
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri May 25
Elle Fanning invents science fiction; Natalie Dormer overhears a murder; more…
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Fri May 25
Sheila Hancock climbs a mountain; Saara Chaudry becomes a boy; more…
The Breadwinner movie review: a daring girl’s adventure
Beautiful and startling, bursting with both brutality and hope, this animated adventure is too intense for young children, but the brains and bravery of its young heroine will inspire older kids and adults alike.
Edie movie review: go scream it on the mountain
This is no twee old-lady adventure. The magnificent Sheila Hancock crafts a portrait of elder womanhood as a tangy triumph of risk-taking over regret, and resolution over resignation.
curated: ‘Show Dogs’ gets recut following complaints it helps pedophiles
The movie is still complete shit, and no one should see it.
Solo: A Star Wars Story movie review: where has our scoundrel gone?
A Star Wars–flavored juice drink* of a movie (*contains 10% real juice) that tells us nothing of significance we didn’t already know about Han Solo, in an incarnation that lacks his essential charisma and precarious danger.
1945 movie review: a reckoning for the collaborators
A quiet horror movie about grief and regret as spiritual possession, about rationalization and denial as immorality. We don’t tell ourselves stories that whisper, as this one does, The Nazis had help. We need to.
On Chesil Beach movie review: no sex, please, we’re British
This stilted, utterly implausible film manages the astonishing feat of being both histrionic and monotonous at the same time, trolling us with absurd clichés, yet doing so with a quiet solemnity.
gendered abuse I have received
The misogynistic insults I’m getting in response to my review of Deadpool 2 are about as original as the movie itself…
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri May 18
Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen read a book.
Show Dogs movie review: everything is awful
Embarrassingly bad CGI; pratfalls; genital humor; denigration of cat ladies; horrible clichés and stereotypes. This is the cinematic equivalent of stepping in dog poop. You know, for kids!
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Fri May 18
Saoirse Ronan has trouble on her honeymoon; Laetitia Dosch has trouble with everything; plus, documentaries about women navigating personal and political strife.
Deadpool 2 movie review: kryptonite for superheroes
This is the death of the comic-book movie. Or it should be. The savage, inhumane nihilism here says, Yup, comics haters are right: this is dangerous nonsense with no morality or redeeming qualities.
Jeune Femme (aka Montparnasse Bienvenüe) movie review: the heroine of her own life
Laetitia Dosch burns with a passionate anxiety in French writer-director Léonor Serraille’s debut, a clever, wise, wildly unsentimental portrait of a woman learning how to be herself.
Saving Brinton documentary review: the man with a mission to rescue a slice of cinema history
A charming tribute to one remarkably dedicated cinema fan and historian, and to his decades-long hard work to save an essential piece of the pop-culture past and cultivate its story for the future.
Revenge movie review: better served unhot
This rape-revenge action horror is solid as pure grindhouse exploitation. But the rendering of its rage-fueled female protagonist is too salacious for this to ever be considered feminist.
curated: has the Internet killed cultural criticism?
Signs point to yes.
is it wrong to see a ‘Quiet Place’ soundtrack album as wrong?
I mean, ya gonna listen to the score to remind you how quiet the movie is?
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri May 11
Elisabeth Moss, Saoirse Ronan, Mare Winningham, and Annette Bening take on Chekhov; Gemma Arterton runs away from her family; and more…
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Thu May 10
A thriller about a real-life female Indian spy, a documentary about a Saudi woman who fights religious extremism, and more…
Anon movie review: brings a whole new meaning to ‘private eye’
This sci-fi riff on the end of privacy is not as provocative as it would like to be, and its mystery completely falls apart in the end. But its visual worldbuilding is fascinating.
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