handcrafted film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but it’s raining spaghetti and meatballs out there. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you on Monday, “Hey, did you check out that new 3D animated movie … more…
Danged if the flick don’t feel like the Coen Brothers, if it ain’t redolent with the wonderfully odd tang of farce and feeling that they invariably bring to, at least, their lighter films.
2nd UPDATE: This week is turning insane. I’ve just added screenings of Jennifer’s Body (opens in the U.S. on September 18, and in the U.K. on November 6) — the Megan Fox-as-not-just-high-school-evil flick — and another upcoming movie that I’ve been asked not to say anything about yet (but I’ll let know more as soon … more…
Take a break from work: watch a trailer… Steven Soderbergh has a new movie, and it’s a comedy — a dark comedy — about corporate crime. I’m not sure that we can call this “holding criminals accountable,” but at least someone is holding them up for ridicule. Which is a start, anyway. And yet… if … more…
opening wide Terminator Salvation: “Hello, my name is John Connor. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: Know what my favorite bit of inexcusably implausible nonsense here is? I adore how the floorplan for the high-security “federal archives” that supposedly exist (they don’t) under the Smithsonian on … more…
We all know how it is. You’d like to get out to see a new movie this weekend, but you fear leaving your underground bunker will draw the attention of the machines. But you can have something close to that multiplex experience at home with the proper application of rental DVDs. In fact, you might … more…
You’ve seen the T-shirt — now see the movie. That seems to be attitude of the decriers of Steven Soderbergh’s portrait of the Argentinean freedom fighter/terrorist: that the filmmaker does not demonize his subject to the degree the decriers insist is necessary.
Are you up for a little larceny that may be dangerous but is too much fun to pass up? Are you up for a smart dumb movie, the kind of delicious popcorn flick you get when some of the most talented and most watchable people in the biz let their hair down? Cuz this ain’t a movie that’s been fortified with vitamins and minerals or morals or anything good for you — this is pure cinematic junk food of the highest, tastiest order.
I guess it’s officially tradition now: I can’t narrow the best films of the year down to only 10, so, like Nigel Tufnel’s amp, this one again goes to 11. Film critics and fans alike have been heard to complain that 2000 was an awful year for film, but I’m not sure that that is … more…
If last Saturday night’s sneak-preview audience is any guide, this could be Julia Roberts’s biggest movie yet. Everything she did onscreen, everything she said either elicited ardent routs of laughter or sent what could only be called worshipful undulations rippling through the crowd. The thrall in which Roberts held these people frightened me. I’m sure execs at Universal Pictures are already peeing in their collective pants with anticipation over this weekend’s box office. Biggest opening ever for a March weekend — you read it here first.
