
The Turning movie review: it’s screwed
Strips away the ambiguity of the source story to leave us with lazy jump scares, visual gloom, and a cheap cheat of an ending. Gaslights its protagonist and, incredibly enragingly, the viewer, too.
film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997
Strips away the ambiguity of the source story to leave us with lazy jump scares, visual gloom, and a cheap cheat of an ending. Gaslights its protagonist and, incredibly enragingly, the viewer, too.
Very much looking forward to this one. I loved Walter Salles’ Motorcycle Diaries, and this has a similar look and feel, so that’s promising. Also: Jack Kerouac.
Would really really like for you to feel the grand, sweeping, larger-than-life mythos, and borrows willy-nilly from Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro to try to do so.
Oh yeah, I’m late with this. I carefully gather them all year long and then I never get around to posting them. So here they are at long last. And for 2011, I’m just gonna post ’em as they come in. So there.
In response to something I posted recently about “the female gaze,” I got an email from a male reader who appeared to believe that “the female gaze” refers to “movies women like to watch.” It doesn’t. Not even close. But his email got my thinking that perhaps I need to explain what “the female gaze” … more…
Every week my browser gets cluttered up with tabs for stuff that I stumble across and figure I might be able to use as a Question of the Day or a WTF Thought for the Day or grist for some other post. And inevitably, I end the week with most of that material unused. But … more…
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but it’s your significant other’s turn to pick the doings of your date night, and you went to the movies last week. But you can have a multiplex-like experience from the comfort of your own sofa with a collection of the … more…
There hasn’t been a movie like The Runaways, one about women rockers that’s just as raw and earthy and tough and pitiless as the ones about the men are.
As of this writing, 12 movies will open wide in North America in the month of April. Which means that even if you’re an active moviegoer and see a movie each week, you’ve still gotta pick and choose (and it’s even worse if you’re in a city on the arthouse circuit, but let’s not make … more…
Fun for Wednesdays! We look at an image from an upcoming movie or TV show and write snarky, witty, or otherwise entertaining captions for it. No prizes, it’s just for fun. “No, Miss Jett, I expect you to play”: Apparition tells us about the movie: Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning star in this music-fueled story … more…