Stephanie Zacharek

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Postcard from Venice: Is Madonna's W.E. a Portrait of Wallis Simpson or a Fantasy Shopfest?

Because of an early-morning badge snafu, I was unable to catch the press screening of Roman Polanski's Carnage, the movie I was most looking forward to seeing here in…

6 years ago

REVIEW: Hong Kong's Tsui Hark Makes a Grand, Loopy Spectacle with Detective Dee

When I saw Hong Kong producer-director Tsui Hark's Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame at the Venice Film Festival last year, I lamented that although…

6 years ago

Postcard from Venice: George Clooney, Plus Lightning. Which Is More Spectacular?

Greetings from Venice, and from the 68th Venice Film Festival! I arrived here too late to catch the press screening of the festival's opening film, George Clooney's The…

6 years ago

Stephanie Zacharek's 5 Most Anticipated Fall Movies of 2011

The fall movie season is something of a palate cleanser, a way of switching gears after the last summer blockbuster has come and gone, and also a chance to catch a…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Paul Rudd Saves Our Idiot Brother from Total Idiocy

Jesse Peretz's Our Idiot Brother is a feel-good movie for people who resist feel-good movies, a flawed vessel that nonetheless stays afloat by clinging to its buoyant…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Is Nothing to Be Afraid Of

There are two types of middle-aged people in the world: Those who didn't see John Newland's 1973 made-for-TV movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark when it aired, and those…

7 years ago

REVIEW: One Day? Feels More Like 20 Years

Great romances don't always happen overnight. But we need to wait nearly 20 years for the romance in Lone Scherfig's One Day to get cooking, and for long stretches it…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Even If You Like 'Em Big and Stupid, Conan the Barbarian Disappoints

Movies have become so technically sophisticated, so hyper-real, that there's almost no such thing as a cheap pulp entertainment anymore: So many movies set out to wow…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Jesse Eisenberg Keeps 30 Minutes or Less Ticking, But Barely

Jesse Eisenberg's performance in 30 Minutes or Less is like a mirror of something you've seen before in a movie you've seen before: As an unambiguously unambitious…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Brilliant Viola Davis Lifts The Help Over '60s Gloss

Everything about The Help, which details the everyday lives and struggles of black domestic workers in early-1960s Mississippi, is just a little too polished: The…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Rise of the Planet of the Apes Can't Sink Much Lower

I could describe Rise of the Planet of the Apes as Escape from Alcatraz, except with apes, but that would make it sound like a movie you might actually want to see. I…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Epic Mysteries of Lisbon the Movie Equivalent of Sinking Into Good Book

Plenty has been written about the novelistic pleasures of long-form television: Making your way, episode through episode, of a series like The Wire or Treme isn't so…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Rachel Weisz Keeps The Whistleblower from Straying into Self-Righteousness

Sometimes a movie's social conscience is better expressed through the faces of its actors than through its words. That's the case with The Whistleblower, in which Rachel…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Crazy, Stupid, Love. Isn't Nearly Crazy Enough, But At Least There's Gosling

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is, for the most part, an effective love story, but the two figures in thrall to one another aren't the ones you think: The magnetism between the…

7 years ago

REVIEW: Attack the Block Doesn't Cut Deeply, But At Least Offers Lo-Fi Thrills

Attack the Block stems from an intriguing, clever idea: What if the neighborhood thugs you hope not to encounter on your walk home from the subway turn out to be the…

7 years ago

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