film criticism by maryann johanson | 25 years: 1997–2022
2nd UPDATE: This week is turning insane. I’ve just added screenings of Jennifer’s Body (opens in the U.S. on September 18, and in the U.K. on November 6) — the Megan Fox-as-not-just-high-school-evil flick — and another upcoming movie that I’ve been asked not to say anything about yet (but I’ll let know more as soon … more…
It’s Law and Order meets The Exorcist, a sorta rational, down-to-earth jest-the-facts-ma’am attitude mixed with screaming howling insect-eating demonic possession kinda thing.
BEST ACTOR Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda It’s a role that, in the hands of even another very competent actor, could have descended into pathos and sentimentality, but Cheadle’s performance goes way beyond mere competence: As an Oskar Schindler-type figure in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, he approaches incomprehensible horrors in a way that makes us intimate partners … more…
You know me. You know I hate romantic comedies, mostly. You know I think they tend to be phony, they tend to show off the worst sides of both men and women, and they tend to be neither romantic nor comedic. So you gotta be suspecting that a film billed as ‘the ultimate romantic comedy’ would have me running screaming in opposite direction as if my life depending upon escape.
