loaded question: what’s a perfect cosy movie for long dark winter evenings?
I love the hygge of this time of year: candles, warm drinks, snuggling under a blanket watching films. But which films to watch?
Jane Austen
weekend watchlist: men who gaslight for fun and profit
Plus an angry Jane Austen–esque romance, childhood witchcraft, and more. (First published August 19th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
movies by or about women opening US/Can Feb 21
Autumn de Wilde directs and Eleanor Catton writes Emma., starring Anya Taylor-Joy; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire Feb 14
Autumn de Wilde directs and Eleanor Catton writes Emma., starring Anya Taylor-Joy; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
Emma. movie review: this queen bee has a bitter sting
A sly, penetrating zing and a frisson of Insta-influencer horror — of the oppression of performative perfection against a marzipan backdrop — renders Austen’s fluff and nonsense deadly serious.
Little Women (2018) movie review: sisters weird
This modern update of the beloved classic novel is embarrassingly misjudged, so earnest and on-the-nose a transfer to today that the March sisters feel not like modern girls but odd, out-of-step transplants from another time.
Friend Request movie review: Facebook, a horror story (again)
We’ve literally just seen this, in 2015’s Unfriended. Tedious wannabe scarefest misses the true horrors of Facebook and cultivates a personality-free blandness.
The Beguiled movie review: horror of manners
If Jane Austen wrote a horror movie. An almost serene sinisterness infuses female-gazey carnal intrigue… but it could be even more feminist than it is.
Lady Macbeth movie review: the serpent under the innocent flower
An astonishing tale of privilege and power: stark, searing, and brutal, almost a Victorian companion to Get Out. Florence Pugh is a force of nature.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie review: ironically, it has no brains
A Mr. Collins of a movie: fatuous, self-important, and nowhere near as smart or as elegant as it thinks it is. There isn’t a lick of wit to be found here.
