Do you live in the New York area? Are you interested in film criticism? If you answered "yes" to both, then clear your calendar on the evening of April 4, when Movieline's chief critic Stephanie Zacharek will join an esteemed panel of peers to discuss film criticism today. No, really! The event is even called "Film Criticism Today." And it's free! Read on for the details.
more »
The annual critical powwow that is Slate's Movie Club is currently underway, with that site's Dana Stevens leading a conversation between a redoubtable quartet also including Michael Phillips, Dan Kois and Movieline's own Stephanie Zacharek. What's on the agenda?
more »
And so my most-favorite, least-favorite task of the year rolls around again. I never call it a "10 best" list -- meaning the unequivocal 10 best films of the year -- because I'm fully aware of how subjective it is. Yet as frustrating as it usually is to pull together just the right 10, I found the job surprisingly pleasurable this year. So many movies to love! How could this have happened? Let's not even address the fact that two 3-D movies made it onto my list -- that surprises me as much as anyone. The remarkable thing is that year after year, no matter how much samey-sameness Hollywood (or even so-called indie cinema, for that matter) seems to give us, there are always pictures that resonate, movies that stand apart as if to do so were their God-given right.
more »
With a whimper (and some killer sharks and space madness), the summer movie season drew to a close this week. Which is why we were looking to the future here at Movieline with our Fall Preview guide, chock full of first looks and predictions for the coming months! As you head into your long holiday weekend, take a moment to look back on our week spent looking forward to an action-packed fall movie season!
more »
With Vin Diesel and The Rock currently muscling their way to global domination and Thor set to kick off the summer's action-packed slate with his comic book brawn, there's already a surplus of testosterone at the box office. But looking forward to the next few months, the field's only going to get more crowded with bromantic buddies, pirates, alien robots, superheroes, and cowboys mixing it up at the multiplex. Where have all the ladies gone?
more »
Our own Stephanie Zacharek warned you away from the waterlogged cave-bound 3D cheese that is James Cameron's (executive-produced Avatar technology-wasting favor-to-a-friend) Sanctum, and she's not alone: many more esteemed critics made it through the Aussie survival adventure with their spirits, eyeballs, and attention spans barely intact. Some saw Sanctum's terrible B-movie dialogue as amusing unintentional camp; will you be so lucky? Rappel down to the depths of Sanctum's most scathing critiques and survey the rocky terrain ahead.
more »