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MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

Alison Willmore

  1. best of 2021
    The Best Movies of 2021 (So Far)From an English-language Pedro Almodóvar movie to a new cut of a years-old superhero movie to an Arthurian tale starring Dev Patel.
  2. the scorpion king
    Why Doesn’t the Rock Get to Make Out More Onscreen?Jungle Cruise doesn’t exactly position Dwayne Johnson as a great romantic lead. But do A-list stars even need to play love interests anymore?
  3. movie review
    Matt Damon Makes For an Excellent Unlovable American in StillwaterThe new movie from Spotlight director Tom McCarthy is a character study in the guise of a crime thriller.
  4. movie review
    The Green Knight Is a Ravishing, Unsettling FantasyIn David Lowery’s new A24 movie, Dev Patel is a gadabout in search of a legend to call his own.
  5. ip freely
    The Future of Entertainment Is Just More and More and More of ThisTwo critics wonder if Space Jam 2–style IP mining is a brief trend or something that could alter the entertainment timeline for good.
  6. movie review
    M. Night Shyamalan’s Old Is Beautifully Made and Terribly WrittenThe Sixth Sense director still has a way with sinister shots, but is oddly invested in having the audience care about his cardboard characters.
  7. movie review
    The Anthony Bourdain Doc Roadrunner Can Be Invasive. Sometimes, It’s Worse.In deciding to treat his subject as a mystery to be solved, director Morgan Neville makes some ugly choices.
  8. movie review
    Maybe Netflix’s Fear Street Should Have Just Been a TV ShowThe delightfully nasty Fear Street exists in this strange space between movies and television, serving neither format well.
  9. movie review
    Black Widow Bids a Barbed Farewell to the MCU’s First Female SuperheroScarlett Johansson plays Natasha one last time (for now) in an espionage adventure that’s as much a criticism of the character as a good-bye.
  10. movie review
    Zola the Movie Is a Chillier Exploration of Trauma Than the Tweets We All ReadJanicza Bravo and co-writer Jeremy O. Harris’s retelling is not exactly the wild romp of the viral thread it’s based on.
  11. role call
    Chad Lindberg Answers Every Question We Have About The Fast and the FuriousOn the 20th anniversary of the unlikely start of the now-monster franchise, the actor thinks it’s time to #BringJesseBack.
  12. movie review
    F9 Brings an Improbably Good Gearhead Daddy-Issues Opera HomeCinéma, it lives.
  13. movie review
    Review: Pixar’s Luca Is a Literal Fish-Out-of-Water FantasyThough charming and vibrant, the new Disney film aspires for greater meaning that it doesn’t always reach.
  14. movie review
    Mark Wahlberg’s Reincarnation Movie Infinite Needs a Few More Lifetimes of WorkSuch a high-concept action movie, so little imagination.
  15. film festival
    17 Films You Should See at This Year’s Tribeca FestivalFrom an Ilana Glazer pregnancy-horror movie to a biographical doc about Anthony Bourdain.
  16. movie review
    Undine Is a Perplexing Take on the Mermaid MythThe new film from the Phoenix director Christian Petzold is hard to shake off, even if it also never really comes together.
  17. movie review
    The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It Should Have Stuck to the Haunted HousesThe Patrick Wilson–Vera Farmiga horror franchise tries to depart from its previous format, with some seriously mixed results.
  18. summer 2021
    96 Movies You May or May Not Want to See This SummerTheaters are opening, the big screen is back, and we’re doing a deep dive on the films worth your undivided attention this summer.
  19. movie review
    The Woman in the Window Is a Trashy Movie Trying to Be a Classy OneThe Amy Adams thriller would be better off embracing its true self.
  20. movie review
    Oxygen Feels Like Something the Netflix Algorithm Vomited UpIn that sense, it’s fine?
  21. movie review
    Fear Not, Here Today Is Not a Billy Crystal-Tiffany Haddish Romantic ComedyBut you get the feeling that Crystal kind of wanted it to be?
  22. movie review
    About Endlessness Gloriously Collages the Absurdity and Grandeur of the EverydayThe sixth feature from Swedish director Roy Andersson finds connections between armies marching in the snow and girls dancing to music from a café.
  23. movie review
    Without Remorse Is Also Without a Single Moment of ExcitementHow is this Michael B. Jordan action movie, which is headed to Amazon, so dreary?
  24. oscars 2021
    The 2021 Oscars Were a Film Production That Ran Out of MoneyCritics Bilge Ebiri and Alison Willmore autopsy this year’s Academy Awards.
  25. cheese
    Smile! A Complete History of the Oscar Nominee Class PhotoSince we couldn’t delight in a new group shot this year, we looked back at 36 years of classics.
  26. movie review
    Sesame Street Doc Street Gang Is About When TV Needed To Be Saved From ItselfThe documentary, which celebrates the formative years of the iconic kids’ show, is also a testament to the singular forces that allowed it to happen.
  27. movie review
    In the Earth Is a Slapdash Wilderness Horror Story for the Age of COVIDThe new horror film from Ben Wheatley, made quietly and quickly last year, evokes the pandemic but can’t figure out what to say about it.
  28. movie review
    Melissa McCarthy Can’t Save the Day, or the Studio Comedy, in Thunder ForceThe Netflix spoof, which co-stars Octavia Spencer and Jason Bateman, doesn’t make its superhero buddy antics work.
  29. movie review
    Voyagers Is Just Lord of the Flies in SpaceDon’t be fooled by sexy marketing material — the new sci-fi film is really just a predictable, tedious drag.
  30. movie review
    If Only the Rest of French Exit Were As Good As Michelle Pfeiffer’s PerformancePfeiffer is delightful and overwhelming as a mordant Manhattan socialite searching for an ending in a depressive farce that never really gets going.
  31. close reads
    What Was the Asian American Character Actor?For way too long, supporting roles were both the ceiling and a devil’s bargain.
  32. movie review
    Nobody Is Just Good Enough Thanks to Bob OdenkirkThe movie may be an unapologetic John Wick knockoff, but the comedian and actor makes for a compelling newcomer to the middle-aged action hero club.
  33. the unforgettable year
    A Year of Watching Movies About Being Stuck at Home (While Being Stuck at Home)COVID cinema arrived not long after the virus did — but what do we want from movies about a pandemic we’re all still experiencing?
  34. movie review
    Pedro Almodóvar’s English-Language Debut The Human Voice Is a Perfect Half-HourTilda Swinton wears gorgeous outfits and acts out in the Spanish director’s adaptation of the Jean Cocteau play.
  35. movie review
    Boogie Needs to Grow UpEddie Huang’s directorial debut is an Asian American coming-of-age story that could use more self-examination.
  36. movie review
    Raya and the Last Dragon Is Slick and Sometimes TranscendentThe new animated movie is a wonder of world-building, strategic IP generation, and accidental timeliness.
  37. movie review
    The Father Is a Devastating Close-up of a Mind That’s Beginning to FrayAnthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman are excellent as a father and daughter whose time together can only end in tragedy.
  38. the art of ending things
    Every Movie Should End in Song and DanceTo watch the finest of musical finales is to become convinced, however briefly, that every movie should resolve this way.
  39. the art of ending things
    The 101 Greatest Endings in Movies HistoryGood finales offer catharsis. The best deny us closure altogether.
  40. movies
    Chloé Zhao’s AmericaThe creator of quiet indie dramas is now the most-sought-after director in Hollywood.
  41. movie review
    In Minari, a Korean Family Tries to Make a Home in the HeartlandSteven Yeun heads up a deceptively gentle immigrant drama set in rural Arkansas in the 1980s.
  42. movie review
    Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci Are a Heartbreaking Couple in SupernovaThe longtime friends make this melancholy movie about early-onset dementia work.
  43. endings
    The Queasy Ending of Promising Young WomanIn Emerald Fennell’s incendiary revenge movie, rage can be a sanctuary, and it can also be a dead end.
  44. coming attractions
    65 Movies We Can’t Wait to See in 2021In fact, we couldn’t wait to see a lot of them last year. But here we still are.
  45. our streaming future
    Is It a Movie or Is It TV? And Does Anyone Really Care?After nearly a year of watching everything on the same damn screen, four critics attempt to talk through an unkillable debate.
  46. best of 2020
    The Best Horror Movies of 2020In a year defined by fear and anxiety, these ten films managed to provide haunts and delights.
  47. movie review
    Soul Is Pixar at Its Most Unpredictably WeirdAnd while the movie doesn’t always work, that part is kind of nice.
  48. movie review
    Promising Young Woman Is an Incendiary Revenge Movie With a Sugar-Sweet ShellCarey Mulligan is outrageously great as a Me Too vigilante in an unsettling first film from Emerald Fennell.
  49. movie review
    We Should Probably Talk About Wild Mountain ThymeBecause WTF.
  50. best of 2020
    The Best Movies of 2020The screens looked different, but the films kept coming. Here, our critics celebrate the greatest of our pandemic year.
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