David Strathairn – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

ZOOTOPIA 2 – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

December 5, 2025 Valerie Kalfrin animation, David Strathairn, disney, Ginnifer Goodwin, Idris Elba, Jared Bush, jason bateman, Zootopia 2

Almost ten years after the original Zootopia tackled prejudice and racial profiling in an animated Disney package, Zootopia 2 loses none of its guts or its bite. Again tackling heady themes within a shady land-grab conspiracy right at home in Chinatown, Zootopia 2 still brings all the fun, fur, and feels. As with the 2016 film, the marvel of Zootopia 2 is how it holds together so well, serving up lessons about tolerance and inclusivity without being clumsy or heavy-handed.

Reviews

NIGHTMARE ALLEY – Reviewed by T. J. Callahan

December 16, 2021December 17, 2021 T. J. Callahan Bradley Cooper, cate blanchett, David Strathairn, guillermo del toro, Kim Morgan, mara, Nightmare Alley, richard jenkins, Ron Perlman, Roony, willem dafoe

Nightmare Alley is the remake of a 1947 noir thriller that starred that swashbuckling heartthrob, Tyrone Power. Bradley Cooper steps into the role trying his best to be wickedly suave as a carny with a murderous past who learns the tricks of the traveling sideshow trade to swindle the rich as a manipulating mind reader. He’s a high plains drifter grifter.

Reviews

NIGHTMARE ALLEY – Review by Diane Carson

December 9, 2021December 12, 2021 Diane Carson Bradley Cooper, cate blanchett, David Strathairn, guillermo del toro, Kim Morgan, mara, Nightmare Alley, richard jenkins, Ron Perlman, Roony, willem dafoe

A remake of director Edmund Goulding’s shattering and, at the time, shockingly macabre 1947 noir Nightmare Alley may not seem the least bit necessary. But the imaginative Guillermo del Toro, with a screenplay by him and Kim Morgan, proves that this grim story still delivers a powerful experience and a weighty warning in his compelling, superbly cinematic reinterpretation.

Reviews

NOMADLAND – Review by Martha K Baker

February 16, 2021February 21, 2021 Martha K. Baker (Archived Contributor) Charlene Swankie, chloe zhao, David Strathairn, frances mcdormand, Jessica Bruder, Linda May, nomadland

Anyone who saw director Chloé Zhao’s impressive film, The Rider, expects her imprint to embellish, her choices to be signatory. Zhao’s screenplay, although based on Jessica Bruder’s eye-opening exposé about the lives of older, rootless workers, skews Bruder’s emphasis to Zhao’s. Like The Rider, Nomadland amalgamates documentary with narrative forms of film.