film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
“Hunger Ward,” an unvarnished vérité look at starving Yemeni children and the medics trying to save them, best encapsulates the human experience of pain and resilience that all the nominees embody.
Mikki Daughtry cowrites teen romantic drama Five Feet Apart, starring Haley Lu Richardson; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
This uninvolving coming-of-age crime drama tries to dazzle with visual tricksiness, but it cannot make up for its teen protagonist who is mere metaphorical symbol, and a bystander in her own story.
Molly’s Game goes wide, and a few foreign films about women arrive (in limited release) on US shores.
Almost hilariously terrible: absurd plot machinations, dubious politics, not a single character to care about. And it doesn’t even give good disaster porn.
A gripping précis of what Edward Snowden learned at the CIA and NSA, why he went public, and why it matters. Entertaining yet also deeply unsettling.
Rearranger of space and time Michael Bay has reached a level of aggressive self-actualization that perhaps no other human being has reached before.
Pretty much the dullest alien invasion movie ever, featuring an uninteresting incursion by nondescript aliens doing boring things and not even blowing shit up in exciting new ways.
