film criticism by maryann johanson | 25 years: 1997–2022
Spanks the 2016 film and sends it off to the corner to think about what it did. This one is the definite article: Gory, grim, bleakly funny. Full of feverish, anarchic energy and exhausting cynicism.
Should be grim, bitter, and as horrifyingly alluring as Hannibal Lecter. But it’s nothing but a teen-friendly ad for toys, Ts, and other disposable merch.
I adore this show, but it’s hugely depressing. I would love to call it cynical, but I suspect it’s all too realistic. [This post is not behind the paywall.]
Overly complicated yet somehow anticlimactic, and constructed more with pat Hollywood pomp rather than the authentic grit it demands.
Too long and too same-old, and even Liam Neeson’s effortless tough-guy charm can only carry this familiar-feeling film so far.
Easy Money is a smart, affecting, slow burn of a movie, a spectacular example of Nordic noir. The sequel suffers by comparison, though.
No black humor. No satire. No point. But hey, check out the 1987 catchphrases dropped in at random!
So awesome, universe! The world hasn’t been full enough yet of movies about women who are almost totally obsessed almost exclusively with romance that we cannot use one more of them. Hoorah!
Have you see the American The Killing? Then you’ve seen Joel Kinnaman. Yeah, he cleans up real nice…
A simple yet stupid riff on the disaster monster movie…
