Projects

Film Criticism and Other Writing

Find me on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. (Yup, I'm a "Tomatometer-approved" critic.)

I participated in these BBC Culture film critic polls:
The 100 Greatest Films Directed By Women

Here's a grab bag of past reviews:

Hit Man. The Fall Guy. Sasquatch Sunset. La Chimera. Wonka. Maestro. Barbie. Asteroid City. The Super Mario Bros. Movie. 63 Up. Little Women. Little Woods. Vice. The Death of Stalin. Annihilation. Phantom Thread. Call Me By Your Name. 20th Century Women. The Nice Guys. La La Land. Hitchcock/Truffaut. Magic Mike XXL. Force Majeure. Wild. Inside Llewyn Davis. About Time. The Master. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Drive. The Bourne Legacy. The Social Network.

And here are some of my favorite pieces about film history:

The agony and ecstasy of Powell and Pressburger's WWII propaganda pictures

Frank Capra’s pre-World War II films

Pre-Production Code Barbara Stanwyck films...

... and Barbara Stanwyck in her prime

A bit about "misfit prince" Orson Welles

Remembering Nora Ephron

RIP Paul Mazursky
Hong Kong New Wave Cinema

The case for retiring White Christmas

I write about other stuff, too, including politics, food, and general culture. Here's a link to my author archive – 2,800 bylines and counting ...

Film Programming

I was honored when my friend Chale Nafus asked me to guest curate two film series for the renowned Austin Film Society. Click the film titles below to read program notes.

After 8 1/2: The Creative in Crisis (2014)

Five-week series examining Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and its influence on multiple generations of filmmakers, many of whom were similarly confounded by a starburst of early success and the crippling stress of high expectations that followed. (Read program overview.)

8 1/2 (Directed by Federico Fellini, 1963)

Alex in Wonderland (Directed by Paul Mazursky, 1970)

Stardust Memories (Directed by Woody Allen, 1980)

All That Jazz (Directed by Bob Fosse, 1979)

Synecdoche, New York (Directed by Charlie Kaufman, 2008)

And It Feels So Good: Comedies of Remarriage (2011)

The philosopher Stanley Cavell coined the term for a subgenre of screwball comedy that revolved around bringing warring (usually divorced) partners back together. While the heyday of the comedy of remarriage was in the late Thirties, the idea of ex-lovers who drive each other crazy, and crazy in love, is eternal. (Read program overview.)

The Awful Truth (Directed by Leo McCarey, 1937)

The Palm Beach Story (Directed by Preston Sturges, 1942)

Phffft! (Directed by Mark Robson, 1954)

Two for the Road (Directed by Stanley Donen, 1967)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Directed by Charlie Kaufman, 2004)