film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997
An intriguing story with engaging performances about a compelling real-life character, but oddly inert, and can’t quite make all its many aspects gel into a wholly satisfying or wholly coherent story.
“Hunger Ward,” an unvarnished vérité look at starving Yemeni children and the medics trying to save them, best encapsulates the human experience of pain and resilience that all the nominees embody.
A free first peek at zeitgeisty film roundups to come…
How very kind of Tom Hanks to lend his gravitas and inescapable likability to a bunch of WWII naval reenactors on their weekend-getaway “crossing the north Atlantic in 1942 dodging U-boats” campaign.
Melina Matsoukas directs and Jodie Turner-Smith costars in Queen & Slim; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
Floria Sigismondi directs The Turning, starring Mackenzie Davis; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
An untold Holocaust story, of Philippine president Manuel Quezon’s fight to take in Jewish refugees, feels like it remains untold: this sluggish, overlong film cannot overcome its low-budget roots.
Jessica Hausner directs and writes, with Géraldine Bajard, Little Joe, starring Emily Beecham; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
We are in big trouble.
A lazy treadmill of a sci-fi morality play that wastes a terrific cast. A numbingly dull game of mutant checkers that has no idea how to tell a woman’s story except filtered through the eyes of men.
