film criticism by maryann johanson | celebrating 25 years: 1997–2022
Writer, director, and star Rupert Everett’s labor of cinematic love, about the last years of Oscar Wilde, is a small wonder of contradictions: nightmarish yet sanguine, a bit sordid yet full of grace.
Relentlessly dull. A tour of a strange world and “characters” little more than their “peculiar” abilities isn’t enough to whip up fantastical excitement.
A bit of House of Windsor fan fiction: cute but slight, though the re-creation of London’s citywide VE Day celebrations is kind of amazing.
Breezy, witty, gently naughty. Hello, steampunk orgasm!
Anonymous makes one long for Shakespeare in Love… and for Rupert Everett’s fantastic performance as Christopher Marlowe. And since we have not yet gazed at Everett, here he is…
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.
…on the unending career of Jennifer Aniston (and all the other movie stars who endure as stars despite their presence in terrible movies that continually bomb)…
If you didn’t get enough of Rupert Grint and Bill Nighy in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or just need a dose of goofy British-flavored comedy — offhand, self-deprecating, and coming in equal doses of light and black — don’t miss this.
U.S. AND CANADA/OPENING WIDE Jonah Hex: Josh Brolin is a disfigured half-zombie gunfighter in the weird Old West. And it’s kinda not a comedy. [trailer] review to come If you can’t make it to the multiplex, try: • The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: The Complete Series (1993): The sadly short-lived Fox TV series is … more…
I noted recently in connection with the Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor movie I Love You Phillip Morris, a gay love story starring two straight men, that the writers of the film pointed out that they couldn’t hire gay stars because no one is gay in Hollywood… or at least not out about their sexuality, anyway. It’s … more…
