movies by or about women opening UK/Ire May 10
Aretha Franklin headlines concert documentary Amazing Grace; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
Winona Ryder
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri Aug 31
Laura Nix directs a documentary about teenaged inventors; Lucinda Coxon writes a gothic horror tale; more…
Destination Wedding movie review: reality bites
A dark, bitter bonbon of an anti-romcom: so marvelously unromantic, so beautifully catty and witty. Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder were born to play these roles.
Experimenter movie review: the subject is you
A creepy-cool vibe of constructed cinematic artificiality echoes the illusory nature of Stanley Milgram’s notorious experiment into human behavior.
Homefront review: ridiculous yet predictable yet kinda fun
Jason Statham teams up with another badass little girl… which makes him almost warm and charming as he kicks the crap out of villains.
The Dilemma (review)
The real dilemma here is not: Should Vince Vaughn tell Kevin James that his — James’s — wife is cheating on him? It’s: How did Ron Howard get attached to this train wreck of a movie?
Alliance of Women Film Journalists 2010 EDA Awards nominees
The AWFJ is one of the critics’ groups I belong to; my input helped determine these nominees, and I will vote in the final balloting to narrow it down to the winners. I still have to watch a few of these nominees…
Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, Young Frankenstein, Little Shop of Horrors, and Beetlejuice (review)
Why do slasher movies make us laugh in the instant after we jump and scream? When comedy works, it’s for the same reason that horror does: It surprises us, and laughter and screams emanate from that same primitive lizard part of our brains, one that reacts before we can think.
The Exorcist, Lost Souls, and Possessed movies review: sympathy for the devil
Do screenwriters bother with characterization or motive for Old Scratch? Rarely — the Prince of Darkness is supposed to just coast on his rep as the Ultimate Bad Dude, and yet those selfsame screenwriters must, by storytelling necessity, declaw him, prevent him from taking full advantage of the hellish forces at his command.
Alien Resurrection (review)
The body count is huge, and vats of blood and entrails are spilled — all the gore is not scary in the least.
