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FlickFilosopher.com

film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997

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Ben Kingsley

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

movies for the resistance: Schindler’s List

Mon, Dec 03, 2018
no comments yet

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.

| Leave a comment

The Ottoman Lieutenant movie review: erasing the past with sleight of cinematic hand

Fri, Mar 10, 2017
46 comments

Odious propagandistic attempt to enshrine Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide of World War I into cinematic history via a tepid and unconvincing romance.

| 46 Comments

The Jungle Book movie review: welcome to the jungle

Thu, Apr 14, 2016
4 comments

Goes right up to the bleeding edge of cinema to tell a story that is strapping yet simple, and hugely appealing. Disney found a good reason to redo an old film.

| 4 Comments

Life movie review: how not to be famous

Wed, Sep 30, 2015
6 comments

A smart, wistful exploration of art, ambition, and celebrity, with appealingly melancholic performances by Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan.

| 6 Comments

Self/less movie review: mind/less, brain/less, point/less

Thu, Jul 16, 2015
10 comments

Glances at fundamental questions of identity and humanity and decides that they are best resolved via fistfights, gun battles, and car chases.

| 10 Comments

Robot Overlords movie review: keep calm and kill robots

Fri, Mar 27, 2015
12 comments

So much to love in this Brit kiddie sci-fi adventure, with its brilliant concept that really works on a small budget and a real sense of place.

| 12 Comments

Exodus: Gods and Kings movie review: whites only

Wed, Jan 21, 2015
74 comments

Simultaneously the dullest and the most insulting version of itself it could possibly be. If only it had managed to be campy, that’d be something…

| 74 Comments

The Boxtrolls movie review: avert your eyes

Thu, Sep 11, 2014
13 comments

There’s a fine line between baroque and grotesque… and The Boxtrolls crosses it. Here is a film that actively makes you want to look away.

| 13 Comments

Ender’s Game trailer: children’s crusade

Wed, May 22, 2013
29 comments

They’ve really front-loaded the film with actors the Academy loves. Are they thinking this is a contender?

| 29 Comments
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