film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
An iconic story from the classic era of the British cult TV favorite comes to US big screens for one night only… and the cleaned-up FX as well as its deceptively simple tale hold up rather well.
The devastating cultural experience Spielberg’s masterpiece presented to us 25 years ago felt then like a piece of history. Today, from the bowels of 2018, it feels like a warning, a premonition, a harbinger.
One of the most beloved British films ever is now even more lush, more gorgeous, more humanist in a glorious new restored edition.
An action masterpiece newly remastered in gorgeous 4K (and rejiggered for superfluous 3D) reveals how fresh it remains not only technically but thematically.
Riveting and repulsive, with a claustrophobic perspective that mirrors its subjects: all id, all in the moment. But it’s also shallow, all on the surface.
It’s easy to see an anti-feminist “Just look what happens to women who break the rules” underneath what is most obviously simply straight-up salaciousness.
A significant new retrospective of the legendary and hugely influential Russian filmmaker is a fresh opportunity to see some gorgeous films on a big screen.
A fiercely cinematic experience of startling metaphors, sweeping battles, intense characters, and vivid color that deserves to be seen on a big screen…
Serious film fans will appreciate the 4K restoration of this 1939 French melodrama, which has been all but unseen for 75 years.
As with every other 3D conversion of older classic films, it’s the chance to see a wonderful movie once more up on the big screen that’s the real reason to revisit it.
