film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
A quietly brutal film that shows the dark underbelly of an industry — of a world — dominated by often predatory straight white men. Could be an eye-opener on a larger scale… if only we listen.
An electrifying style lights up this geek adventure of the intersections between science, culture, and capitalism in the 19th-century battle to power our world. Cumberbatch and Shannon are brilliant.
Snarky humor and a wonderfully put-upon Matthew Macfadyen are the best reasons to see a satire that ultimately seems to forget where it was heading.
There is no pretense that we’re getting a realistic depiction of late-19th-century Russia. Director Joe Wright isn’t merely crafting a metaphor about the social structures under which we all live: he’s underscoring the artificiality of cinema itself.
It is leaden where it should be light. It is graceless and charmless. It reels from the painful banter. It is the epitome of empty soulless corporate filmmaking.
In 3D. Just like Alexandre Dumas intended.
By request of readers Nina and Lorenzo, Matthew Macfadyen…
In Life as We Know It, Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel can’t stand each other, but agree to raise the orphaned child of their friends anyway, because an environment of seething resentment and hatred is hardly different from what other kids grow up in. This flick sprang from (among other films)…
You will definitely be hearing more about this Luke Evans guy. When I saw him in Tamara Drewe, wherein he plays the hunky gardener, I just about swooned.
How can it be that my geeky little heart has been ripped from my chest and my geeky little soul crushed underfoot like so much spilled popcorn on the floor of the multiplex? That wasn’t supposed to happen. Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott’s *Robin Hood* was supposed to be *awesome.*
