handcrafted film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists — of which I’m a member and a member of the board — have announced the winners of our 2009 EDA awards. Select highlights (links go to my reviews): • Best Film: The Hurt Locker • Best Animated Film: Up • Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker … more…
UPDATE: 3:40PM: I’ve gotten confirmation from my Fox rep that the embargo has indeed been lifted. I’m writing my review now and will post asap… I was told, concerning Avatar: “Please hold reviews until opening day, December 18th.” I realize that’s a bit vague, but I generally take that to mean that I cannot post … more…
Last week the members of the Online Film Critics Society were asked what primary rules we follow as critics — click through to read them. (Yes, we’re trying to build traffic there.) I’ll reveal my primary rule here, though: I always think, when I sit down to write a review, “How did this movie make … more…
So, Armond White of the New York Press wrote a negative review of District 9. No biggie: not everyone loves the same movies, and there’re always gonna be a few critics who buck trends and revile a film that almost everyone else, to varying degrees, loves. The thing is, fans have been noticing that White … more…
You may have heard already: Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz have gotten the boot as the hosts of the syndicated TV series At the Movies, long the bastion of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. They’ve been replaced by the New York Times’ A.O. Scott and the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips. But this isn’t necessarily good … more…
“Whatever criticism is, it is not a democracy.” —Jonathan Jones, Guardian art critic
That beauty? The creativity of film critics reaching to new heights of metaphor and poetry in our attempts to encapsulate just how the experience of a bad film impacted us. At the moment, that bad film that is inspiring so much cleverness is, of course, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I wish I’d come up … more…
Another post at the new blog of the Online Film Critics Society that you might appreciate and like to comment upon (over there, if you would), about how deeply many people, including longtime critics and former studio execs, completely fail to understand the power of the Internet and the fact that some smart and worthwhile … more…
I’m trying to build traffic at the new blog for the Online Film Critics Society, so if you’re of a mind to talk about the weird misconceptions that some people have about film critics (or perhaps ideas that are not misconceptions that we critics should be working to fix), please check out this post, and … more…
Because I’ve got nothing else better to do, I got myself elected to the Governing Committee of the Online Film Critics Society. And as one of my first joint efforts — with my two co-GC members, Eric Snider and Scott Weinberg — we’ve launched an OFCS news blog and OFCS Twitter feed. Follow, or not, … more…
