
weekend watchlist: coming to terms with grief personal and societal
Plus badass women and damned dirty apes… (First published April 30th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
Plus badass women and damned dirty apes… (First published April 30th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
It’s the dick-washing of The Sapphires all over again.
Maxine Peake is stupendous in this deliciously audacious period horror, ambitious in emotional scope and with monsters who feel unexpectedly modern: men who wield religion as a tool of oppression.
Holly Gent cowrites mystery dramedy Where’d You Go, Bernadette, starring Cate Blanchett; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
Atmospheric mood — this is a dour nightmare in the stark gloom of 19th-century Wales — and a striking performance by Eleanor Worthington-Cox aren’t quite enough to sustain this near-horror film.
Annabel Jankel directs Tell It to the Bees, starring Holliday Grainger and Anna Paquin; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
The saddest ever Regency cosplay. Behold, a tableaux of thespians who shall teach us about the Corn Laws! Well-intentioned this would-be epic may be, but it’s dull and dry as dirt.
Helen Mirren, Angourie Rice, Lily James, Juliette Binoche, Shirley Henderson, Maxine Peake, and Bel Powley headline in an unusually rich week for movies about women…
This is scorched-earth cinema that challenges us to find moments of grace and triumph among misery, cruelty, and emotional frugality. Maxine Peake is absolutely incendiary.