Skip to content
  • weekly digest email
  • join my Patreon
  • join my Substack
  • my books
  • about/contact
  • twitter
  • rotten tomatoes
  • letterboxd
  • goodreads
  • pinterest
  • rss
FlickFilosopher.com

film criticism by maryann johanson | celebrating 25 years: 1997–2022

  • on Netflix
  • movies for the resistance
  • classic film virgin
  • directed by women
    • Where Are the Women? project
  • cinemas
    • US and Canada
    • UK and Ireland
  • dvd/vod
    • US and Canada
    • UK and Ireland
  • 2022’s films ranked
    • 2021’s films ranked
    • 2020’s films ranked
    • 2019’s films ranked
  • all recent posts
    • archives by month
  • all reviews
    • A–M
    • N–Z
    • Oscars Best Pix
    • Oscars Best Animated Pix
  • new comments

adventure

Top Gun: Maverick movie review: we’re well into the danger zone

Sat, May 28, 2022
22 comments

With its melancholy regret and bittersweet nostalgia, this is far superior to the 1986 blockbuster. But as the sun goes down on American imperialism here, the last-gasp celebration of it unsettles.

| 22 Comments

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent movie review: Cage, staged

Thu, Apr 21, 2022
4 comments

Amusing but instantly forgettable, fueled by a self-congratulatory smugness and self-reference. The best bits are the sincere stuff: a scene-stealing Pedro Pascal and a sweetly vulnerable Nic(k) Cage.

| 4 Comments

The King’s Daughter movie review: a royal disaster

Fri, Jan 21, 2022
11 comments

Ostensibly a movie in the same way that a Victorian folly is ostensibly a Japanese temple or a medieval castle. That is: not at all. Like a themed high-school prom from 1994, and an accidental horror.

| 11 Comments

No Time to Die movie review: no, Mr Bond, I expect you to retire

Thu, Oct 07, 2021
51 comments

In the era of COVID and Brexit, much of this overstuffed adventure feels redundant, farcical, inconsequential, and desperate. But Ana de Armas and Lashana Lynch show us the way to a future for 007.

| 51 Comments

The Suicide Squad movie review: primrose psychopaths

Tue, Aug 03, 2021
5 comments

Spanks the 2016 film and sends it off to the corner to think about what it did. This one is the definite article: Gory, grim, bleakly funny. Full of feverish, anarchic energy and exhausting cynicism.

| 5 Comments

Jungle Cruise movie review: raiders of the recent swashbucklers

Fri, Jul 30, 2021
14 comments

Wonderfully escapist, dripping with magnificently congenial charm thanks to the comic chemistry of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. Plus it’s sure to enrage people who use “woke” as an insult. Yay!

| 14 Comments

Peter Rabbit 2 (aka Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway) movie review: carrot and shtick

Fri, Jul 30, 2021
no comments yet

Cynical sequel — you know, for kids! — doubles down on the nihilistic money-grubbing of the original. Thinks that being clever and meta about its own disenchantment will win us over. It does not.

| Leave a comment

Zola movie review: speed bumps in the road trip

Fri, Jul 02, 2021
2 comments

A deliciously badass style — part 70s grindhouse, part verité pseudo-documentary — and all-in performances are undermined by an exploitive gaze, and a combination of failed caper and failed satire.

| 2 Comments

My Octopus Teacher documentary review: out of the way, human

Sun, May 09, 2021
3 comments

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.

| 3 Comments

Nomadland movie review: ain’t that America

Thu, May 06, 2021
no comments yet

Come on down for a gen-u-ine American dystopia at the crossroads of end-of-empire and late-stage capitalism. Chloé Zhao’s outsider’s eye is hugely sympathetic but unhindered by knee-jerk patriotism.

| Leave a comment
Post navigation
Older posts
Page1 Page2 … Page54 Next →

sf/f/h flash fiction by me

Cultural Artifacts cover
now on Kindle Unlimited!

try KU for free:
US Amazon
Can Amazon
UK Amazon

please help keep truly independent film criticism alive!
support my work at Patreon  support my work at Substack
Pledge your support now at Patreon or Substack.
Free weekly digest email at Substack.

shop to support




Watch on Apple TV

PayPalMe
PayPal me...
FlickFilosopher.com does not accept ads, guest posts, link placements, or sponsored content.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

member
Online Film Critics Society


member
Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Tomatometer-approved critic on
Rotten Tomatoes



top critic
Movie Review Query Engine

Amazon US author page
Amazon UK author page


executive member
International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences
Copyright © 1997–2022 MaryAnn Johanson. All rights reserved.
No content appearing on this site may be reproduced, reposted, or reused in any manner without express written permission.
privacy policy | hosted by Fused