joey king – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

PRACTICAL MAGIC 2 – Review by Susan Granger

September 21, 2026September 20, 2026 Susan Granger Akiva Goldsman, dianne wiest, joey king, Maisie Williams, nicole kidman, Practical Magic 2, sandra bullock, Stockard Channing, susanne bier, Xolo Mariduefia

Practical Magic 2 begins with “I’m sure you’ve heard tell of the Owens sisters,” reminding viewers of the spellbinding 1998 campy fantasy about a Massachusetts family of witches. Nearly three decades later, widowed Sally Owens has two grown daughters – Kylie and Antonia – who are totally unaware of their mystical. matrilineal curse: Any Owens woman who falls in love condemns that person to an early death. When heartsick Kylie discovers the mysterious ‘Book of the Raven’ and learns the truth about the tortured legacy that permeates her bloodline, she takes off for the Owens’ ancestral home in England, determined to break the ancient curse once and for all.

Reviews

UGLIES – Review by Susan Granger

September 17, 2024September 21, 2024 Susan Granger Chase Stokes, joey king, Keith Powers, Laverne Cox, McG, netflix, Scott Westerfield

Unfortunately, Uglies is an abysmal disappointment. Set in a dystopian world where beautifying cosmetic surgery is a requirement for every resident at the age of 16, it’s all about turning “uglies” into “pretties.” Despite McG’s fast-paced direction, Joey King is 25 years old and no longer believable as a teenager. And the familiar sci-fi plotline in which ‘free thought is eliminated’ has become hackneyed and outdated.

That’s a ritual that 15 year-old Tally Youngblood (Joey King) eagerly anticipates: “All my life I wanted to be pretty. I thought it would change everything,” she says.

Reviews

A FAMILY AFFAIR – Review by Susan Granger

July 5, 2024 Susan Granger A Family Affair, Carrie Solomon, joey king, kathy bates, Lisa Koshy, netflix, nicole kidman, Richard La Gravensese, zac efron

A Family Affair is a Hallmark movie – only it’s on Netflix. Shallowly concocted by debuting screenwriter Carrie Solomon, it’s clumsily directed by Richard La Gravensese, who desperately tries to breathe life into a mundane romantic fantasy that’s filled with beautiful, privileged people wearing stunning ‘designer’ clothes, cavorting on lavish sets.

Reviews

A FAMILY AFFAIR – Review by Nadine Whitney

July 1, 2024July 1, 2024 Nadine Whitney A Family Affair, Carrie Solomon, joey king, netflix, nicole kidman, Richard LaGravenese, zac efron

Director Richard LaGravenese and screenwriter Carrie Solomon set up an unwinnable challenge, at least for the audience, in their new film A Family Affair. A competition between who is the least compelling character in a film littered with characters who are not in the least compelling. Zac Efron plays a ridiculous man child actor who is utterly disconnected from everyone and the real world. He treats his assistant Zara as you’d imagine him to, that is not well, but mostly it’s kiddy tantrums.

Reviews

BULLET TRAIN – Review by T. J. Callahan

August 4, 2022August 4, 2022 T. J. Callahan Aaron Taylor-Johnson, antoine fuqua, Bad Bunny, brad pitt, Brian Tyree Henry, Bullet Train, David Leitch, joey king

Bullet Train is all about the action. There’s a storyline in there somewhere, but this rapid transit is long and has so many cars you may need Google Maps. Every single character has their own separate and overlapping narrative, including a bottle of Fiji water. No one and no thing is left out, except for us. It’s our job to bob and weave and stay upright. Directed by David Leitch and prpduced by Antoine Fuqua, , Bullet Train can’t help but be pedigreed for pandemonium.

Reviews

RADIUM GIRLS – Review by Martha K Baker

November 5, 2020November 6, 2020 Martha K. Baker (Archived Contributor) 0 Comments ginny mohler, joey king, lydia dean pilcher, motw, Movie of the Week, raidum girls, truth-based

Radium Girls, the story of young women who painted watch faces with glowing radium-infused paint, fits with Marjane Satrapi’s Radioactive, a sterling effort about Marie Curie. These stories must be told even today because a Geiger counter, waved over the grave of a radium girl, clicks for 1,000 years.

Reviews

RADIUM GIRLS – Review by Susan Granger

October 22, 2020October 25, 2020 Susan Granger 0 Comments ginny mohler, joey king, lydia dean pilcher, motw, Movie of the Week, raidum girls, truth-based

Based on true events during the late 1920s, this docudrama focuses on two teenage Cavallo sisters employed at the American Radium Factory in Orange, New Jersey, painting numbers on the popular, glow-in-the-dark watch faces, earning one-penny each. The superb production design reflects prodigious research, reflecting the period through archival newsreel footage and period costumes.

Movie of the Week Reviews

MOVIE OF THE WEEK April 3, 2020: RADIUM GIRLS

March 29, 2020April 2, 2020 Jennifer Merin 0 Comments betsy bozdech, cate marques, ginny mohler, jennifer merin, joey king, leslie combemale, loren king, lydia dean pilcher, maryann johanson, nell minow, radium girls, sandie angulo chen

Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler’s fact-based drama Radium Girls may be set a century in the past, but certain aspects of the story feel as timely as today’s headlines — for instance, when Joey King’s character Bessie bemoans: “Why is there so much wrong in the world that no one knows about?” That feeling of helplessness in the face of events that feel completely out of your control is bound to strike a chord with today’s audiences.

Reviews

RADIUM GIRLS – Review by Loren King

March 23, 2020March 30, 2020 Loren King 0 Comments ginny mohler, joey king, lydia dean pilcher, motw, Movie of the Week, radium girls, truth baased

Radium Girls is a revelation; a rich dramatization of the historical events that took place in Orange, NJ in 1927-28. Directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler, who co-wrote the original screenplay with Brittany Shaw, Radium Girls blends period social drama, courtroom intrigue, labor history and a women’s empowerment message.

Reviews

RADIUM GIRLS – Review by Leslie Combemale

March 23, 2020March 30, 2020 Leslie Combemale 0 Comments ginny mohler, joey king, lydia dean pilcher, motw, Movie of the Week, raidum girls, truth-based

“If you place a Geiger Counter over the grave of a Radium girl, it will click for a thousand years.” This written quote is part of the film Radium Girls, the shocking, fascinating, and well-executed new feature, co-directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler, based on a true story no doubt very few people had heard of, just as I hadn’t.