film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
Terrific doc unpacks trans representation in Hollywood, unspoken attitudes about gender, sexuality, and race that most people, trans and cis, may never have clocked before… ideas that affect us all.
Supplementary explanations for my Where Are the Women? rating criteria. [This post is not behind the paywall.]
The members of the Online Film Critics Society — of which I am one — have jointly ranked the 86 movies that have won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Jenna at Jezebel attended the first of a series of free screenings at New York’s The New School of movies focused on fashion, and in her writeup she quotes New Yorker writer Judith Thurman, who introduced Annie Hall: In 1978 in Nairobi, I got this bag. I got it because it was Annie Hall’s bag. … more…
We all know how it is. You’d like to get out to see a new movie this weekend, but the Old Testament stippled with fart jokes ain’t your idea of a good time. But you can have something close to that blockbuster experience at home with the proper application of DVDs. In fact, you might … more…
Like a New England version of Northern Exposure, The Love Letter is full of intriguingly offbeat characters — from the nosy postmistress to the suspicious cop to Helen’s dotty grandmother (Titanic’s Gloria Stuart) to Miss Scattergoods (Geraldine McEwan), who works at the local historical society — with their own romantic secrets. Unsentimental and wonderfully modest, The Love Letter is that rare pleasure: a prickly yet succulent romantic comedy.
Annie Hall is kinda Seinfeld: The Motion Picture. Of course, Woody Allen’s self-deprecating, nebbishy stand-up comedian was around long before Jerry Seinfeld’s show about nothing, but it’s really amazing how much they have in common.
