film criticism by maryann johanson | celebrating 25 years: 1997–2022
Apocalyptically sorta-satirical, bone-deep terrifying slap in the face that humanity has properly earned. Formidable, intense… and funny, in a very dry way that is nevertheless difficult to laugh at.
Even when Walken, Pacino, and Arkin are phoning it in — on a rotary phone — they still earn their status as icons.
A refreshing breath of just-so-wrongness in today’s movie milieu.
The AWFJ is one of the critics’ groups I belong to; my input helped determine these nominees, and I will vote in the final balloting to narrow it down to the winners. I still have to watch a few of these nominees…
There’s a sneaky cheekiness to You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger that is inherent in the slyness of the title, which wraps up in one neat little package ideas about romantic fate, our yearning for something better than the pretty good thing we might already have, and an up-to-the-minute restlessness about our lives that hounds even the most comfortable of us.
