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OUT OF THE FURNACE – Review by MaryAnn Johanson

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First scene: Woody Harrelson rape-ily shoves a hot dog down a woman’s throat. Woody is the villain, so this is “okay,” but that’s the sort of movie you’re in for here. The pungent reek of testosterone off screen is deafening. Oh, is that a mixed metaphor? Kinda like the title of the film: out of the furnace… and, what? into the frying pan? Scott Cooper follows up his first film, Crazy Heart, with a similarly familiar tale of manly dysfunction, one he is desperate to inject with a sense of Significance. Upshot: this ends up little more than a high-toned apologetic for vigilantism and revenge. Read more>>

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MaryAnn Johanson

MaryAnn Johanson is a freelance writer on film, TV, DVD, and pop culture from New York City and now based in London. She is the webmaster and sole critic at FlickFilosopher.com, which debuted in 1997 and is now one of the most popular, most respected, and longest-running movie-related sites on the Internet. Her film reviews also appear in a variety of alternative-weekly newspapers across the U.S. Johanson is one of only a few film critics who is a member of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (the Webby organization), an invitation-only, 500-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities. She is also a member of the Online Film Critics Society. She has appeared as a cultural commentator on BBC Radio, LBC-London, and on local radio programs across North America, and she served as a judge at the first Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film Festival at the 2003 I-Con, the largest SF convention on the East Coast. She is the author of The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride, and is an award-winning screenwriter. Read Johanson's recent articles below. For her AWFJ.org archive, type "MaryAnn Johanson" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).