The Mermaid (Mei ren yu) movie review: the biggest movie on the planet you haven’t heard of
A wacky fantasy lark, half screwball comedy, half Looney Tunes. Chinese audiences have thrown half a billion dollars at it. Prepare for Hollywood imitators.
romantic comedy
Aloha movie review: hello, and good-bye
A mess of a romantic dramedy full of colonialistic offensiveness, forced quirkiness, implausible emotion, and oblivious masculine self-centeredness.
How to Be Single movie review: more like how not to be single
Hollywood does not know how to make a movie about women that isn’t about the pursuit of romance. Even when women say they don’t want romance, they’re lying.
Tumbledown movie review: letting go of the past
A portrait of grief that borrows the conventions of romantic comedies. There may not be a lot of passion here, but there is plenty of pleasant zing.
Trainwreck movie review: all aboard
A breath of half-nasty, half-nice fresh air, set somewhere near the intersection between a parody of a romantic comedy and a straight-up example of one.
Results movie review: emotional workout
Bracingly off-kilter, a sort of anti rom-com that sends up a cultlike subculture while embracing the full, curious humanity of those who live in it.
Man Up movie review: lie cute
I hate movies like this, in which it’s meant to be adorable when people lie in the name of love. And I particularly hate what this movie does to Lake Bell.
Strange Magic movie review: bad spell
Apparently this was inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but it has about as much in common with that as Burger King does with Macbeth.
The Film Critic (El Critico) movie review: it stinks!
A film critic turned filmmaker seems intent on confirming negative stereotypes about critics… and that’s before his movie gets truly unpleasantly smug.
The DUFF movie review: a kinder shade of cruel
This high-school comedy avoids the worst clichés of the genre and resists rather than indulges the worst tendencies of adolescence. Which is a rare thing.
