film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997
Oh, stop your tittering. All you know is that Fanny Hill is that naughty bawdy 18th-century novel that got its author, John Cleland, into so much trouble so long ago, and has since become a byword for the evils of censorship and the necessity of freedom of expression. But if you’re looking for something pornographic in this BBC adaptation of the novel, forget it, mister.
I have to confess that I’m not entirely sure what the ‘miracle’ at St. Anna is meant to be.
Oh god, have I ever seen a more tedious ‘erotic’ movie than this one?
My eyes are still burning from this painfully misbegotten attempt to… I don’t know what. Bring back the horrible racial, cultural, and gender stereotypes of the 1960s? Creep out audiences with a depiction of weirdly, disturbingly human-ish flies the likes of which we haven’t seen since the tiny head of that mad scientist squeeked out … more…
Anglophile TV fans have been waiting for this one for a long while: the complete ‘Robin of Sherwood,’ 26 episodes of what some consider the definitive rendition of the Robin Hood story.
A damned intriguing thriller that asks more questions than it answers and leaves you dazed and upset and also a little inspired.
Even with bar set low and my unconditional love set high, I cannot freakin’ believe how cruelly ‘Tomb’ rips out my geeky little heart and stomps on it.
Boris Pasternak’s Nobel Prize-winning novel, the classic story of star-crossed lovers amidst a backdrop of the social upheaval of the Russian Revolution, gets a stunning new production via British television and PBS’s Masterpiece Theater. Adapted by Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice) and starring two appealing young rising stars, this is a grimly beautiful production electrifyingly … more…
