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FlickFilosopher.com

handcrafted film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997

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biography

Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. documentary review: the multiple identities of a modern artist

Wed, Sep 26, 2018
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A tremendous backgrounder, intimate and personal, on the massively popular — and massively political — hip-hop artist. Here is the source of all her anger and passion, and here is why she needs to be heard.

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Jane Fonda in Five Acts documentary review: the political is her personal

Sun, Sep 23, 2018
2 comments

An extraordinarily intimate and perceptive new biography of the legendary actor and activist. Fonda reveals insecurities and anxieties that are achingly raw and very personal, but which many women will see themselves in.

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Whitney documentary review: an 80s icon contemplated, venerated, mourned

Tue, Jul 03, 2018
1 comment

Deeply moving, truly tragic; a biography with a keenly journalistic but hugely sympathetic eye. Powerful compassion and a get-up-and-dance deployment of Houston’s music may well bring her a new generation of fans.

| 1 Comment

Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist documentary review: counterculture’s wise elder woman

Sun, Jun 10, 2018
2 comments

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.

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McQueen documentary review: the tragedy of the fashion provocateur

Fri, Jun 08, 2018
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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.

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RBG documentary review: though she be but little she is fierce

Mon, Apr 30, 2018
6 comments

A marvelous, funny, deeply moving biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from her rise as a legal champion of women’s rights in the 1970s to her ascension as a Supreme Court justice and social-media hero “Notorious RBG.”

| 6 Comments

Funny Cow movie review: standing up for herself

Thu, Apr 19, 2018
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This is scorched-earth cinema that challenges us to find moments of grace and triumph among misery, cruelty, and emotional frugality. Maxine Peake is absolutely incendiary.

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The 15:17 to Paris movie review: hell on wheels

Mon, Feb 12, 2018
7 comments

Clint Eastwood turns a terrorist attack into a bit of post-hoc reality “entertainment” with the stunt casting of the actual heroes as themselves in a stilted, tone-deaf piece of Christian-American propaganda.

| 7 Comments

Molly’s Game movie review: absolutely aces

Fri, Dec 29, 2017
8 comments

Bold, tough, hugely entertaining. Like a new GoodFellas, except about a woman caught up in her own impudence and daring. Jessica Chastain is badass.

| 8 Comments

I, Tonya movie review: a woman at war with herself

Thu, Dec 14, 2017
5 comments

A black comedy about domestic violence, parental abuse, and low self-esteem (and it works!), one that challenges our appreciation of how true based-on-fact might be.

| 5 Comments
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