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

handcrafted film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997

Substack, Patreon, and Paypal subscriptions restarting Feb 1st [more]
  • 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
  • 2023’s films ranked
    • 2022’s films ranked
    • 2021’s films ranked
    • 2020’s films ranked
  • all recent posts
    • archives by month
  • all reviews
    • A–M
    • N–Z
    • Oscars Best Pix
    • Oscars Best Animated Pix
  • new comments

crime

The Many Saints of Newark movie review: far from heaven

Fri, Sep 24, 2021
5 comments

The performances are terrific, the evocation of the period striking, but it feels redundant, more GoodFellas-lite than The Sopranos, and with several TV seasons’ worth of story crammed in.

| 5 Comments

Reminiscence movie review: remembering it for you retail

Fri, Aug 20, 2021
no comments yet

A cautionary tale about getting mired in the past is itself hamstrung by what has come before: overplayed noir tropes and underbaked sci-fi ideas. The fab cast at least elevates this to the mediocre.

| Leave a comment

Naked Singularity movie review: New York misery

Thu, Aug 19, 2021
3 comments

A very good cast makes a valiant go of it, but a hugely ambitious experimental novel has been boiled down to a tepid mishmash of genres: social-justice drama + black-comedy heist + sci-fi mind-bender.

| 3 Comments

Riders of Justice and Pig movies review: rethinking the revenge movie

Fri, Aug 06, 2021
7 comments

Two brilliant dramas upend cinematic tropes of male vengeance with precision, patience, and grim humor. These are radical rethinks in emotional maturity surrounding men’s grief, remorse, and shame.

| 7 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

Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer and A Crime on the Bayou documentaries review: Black history matters

Fri, Jun 18, 2021
no comments yet

Two new documentaries — one a shrewdly incisive work of journalism, the other a delicately elegant tale of injustice and friendship — tell all-but-forgotten histories of Black America. Of America.

| Leave a comment

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard movie review: kill me quickly…

Tue, Jun 15, 2021
9 comments

A movie to turn you off Going To The Movies, just as we are allowed to again, with its unlikeable characters, muddled action, and incomprehensible plot, all of which are magnified on the big screen.

| 9 Comments

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It review: possessed innocent?

Fri, Jun 04, 2021
7 comments

As credulous — or con-artist cheaty — as its demon-hunter protagonists, but lacking their charm. Worse, it can’t even be bothered to justify and satisfy the procedural approach to its mystery.

| 7 Comments

Locked Down movie review: criminally awful

Fri, Mar 19, 2021
1 comment

Ejiofor and Hathaway are game, but they’re grasping for something solid, and don’t find it. A deeply unsatisfying novelty artifact of the pandemic that fails to create a necessary sense of transgression.

| 1 Comment
Older posts
Newer posts
← Previous Page1 Page2 Page3 … Page55 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 and daily streaming recommendations via Substack.
Or make a one-time donation via Paypal.

shop to support




Watch on Apple TV

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 © 1997–2023 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