ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

anya taylor joy

Reviews 

THE MENU – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger , , , ,

One of the most bizarrely absurd thrillers of the year, The Menu skewers pretentious ‘foodies’ and the ‘fine dining’ they crave. A group of privileged epicureans pay $1,250 per person to travel to a windswept coastal island in the Pacific Northwest for what they believe will be a unique gastronomic experience at an exclusive restaurant called Hawthorne, run by a world-renowned chef. As the evening unfolds, there are many unexpected, unduly malevolent surprises for the stunned guests as multi-layered secrets are revealed and tension mounts.

Read more
Reviews 

THE MENU – Review by T.J. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , ,

The Menu is a multi course meal full of meaty madness served up rare…as in bloody. It’s Get Out meets Hell’s Kitchen. No one will be allowed to pack their knives and go when a sadistic chef, played by Ralph Fiennes, invites a group of foodies to his exclusive restaurant on a secluded island to stir their pots and make their blood boil. There are no substitutions. All the guests are there for a reason…they upset the chef at one time or another and he’s ready for revenge.

Read more
Reviews 

AMSTERDAM – Review by T.J. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , , , , ,

The cast of Amsterdam reads like an Irwin Allen disaster picture lineup…Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert DeNiro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Chris Rock, Zoe Saldana, Ed Begley, Jr, Timothy Olyfant and Taylor Swift…and like the Poseidon Adventure, this film is a sinking ship that barely manages to stay afloat.

Read more
Reviews 

THE NORTHMAN – Review by T.J. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , , , , ,

This film is barbaric, black and white and bloody. It’s vicious Viking vengeance that very well could make you vomit. The Northman is brutal on many levels with one being it’s 2 hour and 16 minute run time. There’s pillaging, conjuring, screaming, grunting and howling like wolves. The Northman is a turn of the 10th century soap opera that was expertly and artfully filmed for the big screen and will have fans of the medieval genre on the edge of their seats cheering. As for me, when the heads rolled, so did my eyes.

Read more
Reviews 

THE NORTHMAN – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger , , , , , , ,

If you like brawling, bloody brutality, head for The Northman, Robert Eggers’ intense Nordic nightmare. Eggers’ previous films – The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019) – blurred the boundary between fantasy and reality, so it’s not surprising that this Viking revenge saga follows suit. The dialogue is banal – apparently, Vikings weren’t very articulate – so Eggers and his DP Jarin Blaschke concentrate on violent, medieval mayhem.

Read more
Reviews 

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO – Review by Pam Grady

Pam Grady , , , , ,

Joyously dancing around her Cornwall home to Peter and Gordon’s 1964 chart-topper, A World Without Love, clad in a dress fashioned out of newspapers, Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) is the picture of a happy, effervescent teenager. And this opening scene in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho suggests a lively coming-of-age story is about to unfold. That Edgar, such a tease! No happy-go-lucky tale this as what gradually unfolds, instead, evolves into a chilling, time-traveling blend of Repulsion, The Shining, and Blow-Up.

Read more
Reviews 

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger 0 Comments , , , , ,

Who would have thought that this seven-episode Netflix series – built around an intellectual game like chess – could be so compelling? Based Walter Trevis’ novel, it’s written and directed by Scott Frank, who turns this fictional character-study into a fascinating coming-of-age drama about an obsessive, self-destructive young woman taking control of her life and succeeding in what is traditionally considered a man’s domain.

Read more
Reviews 

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT – Review by Martha K Baker

Martha K. Baker 0 Comments , , , ,

It’s a sports film played not on field or court but on a board. The sport is chess. But The Queen’s Gambit is not all about chess although knowing nothing about the ancient game does not deter from its thrills. Walter Tevis’ story, as written for the screen by director Scott Frank and Alan Scott, is also a bildungsroman about a young woman coming of age, stabilized by a male-dominated game.

Read more