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FlickFilosopher.com

film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997

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Ralph Fiennes

Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb documentary review: slow journalism

Sat, Jan 07, 2023
3 comments

The crisp, congenial charms of this intimate exploration of a decades-long working partnership overlay an unsentimental elegy for an era in journalism and publishing that has all but disappeared.

| 3 Comments

Official Secrets movie review: blow all the whistles

Mon, Sep 23, 2019
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Not a spy thriller but a story of emotional and intellectual suspense wrangling with matters of patriotism and of conscience, and of just how far journalism’s watchdog role can and should take it.

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I’m on BBC World Service’s “The Arts Hour” again this Sunday Saturday, March 30th

Fri, Mar 29, 2019
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Unlike previous episodes of “The Arts Hour,” I’m the only in-studio guest. So you might hear a bit more from me this time.

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The White Crow movie review: nothing to crow about

Fri, Mar 29, 2019
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Elegant but dull, and so subtle it’s downright diffuse. If you don’t know much about Rudolf Nureyev going in, you won’t know much coming out, either. Weirdly, it doesn’t even feature much dancing.

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movies for the resistance: Schindler’s List

Mon, Dec 03, 2018
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The devastating cultural experience Spielberg’s masterpiece presented to us 25 years ago felt then like a piece of history. Today, from the bowels of 2018, it feels like a warning, a premonition, a harbinger.

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Kubo and the Two Strings movie review: quest for family

Mon, Sep 12, 2016
11 comments

Magic, music, and monsters come together to create a marvelous fairy tale that’s scary, sweet, and full of tough emotions that kids’ movies often avoid.

| 11 Comments

Spectre movie review: Bond goes backward

Wed, Oct 28, 2015
14 comments

After a truly spectacular and fresh opening sequence, everyone might as well be enacting a Bond puppet show, which is sometimes unpleasantly retro-icky.

| 14 Comments

The Grand Budapest Hotel movie review: best exotic nonsense

Wed, Mar 11, 2015
4 comments

A grownup storybook of a movie spun out of candy-colored nonsense that challenges you to embrace its falseness and deny its romance.

| 4 Comments

The Invisible Woman review: sometimes it’s hard to be a woman

Fri, Feb 07, 2014
2 comments

The story of Charles Dickens and his secret mistress is no romance, and no modest costume drama, either.

| 2 Comments

2014 preview: only movies left underived

Wed, Jan 15, 2014
1 comment

Here are the few films coming in 2014 that are not sequels, remakes, reboots, or based on a stage show, the Bible, young-adult novels, comic books, cartoons, or — someone make it stop — toy lines.

| 1 Comment
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