John Anderson

Review: Clint Eastwood's Dutiful Sully Is Too Heavy for Liftoff

It's a too-simplistic approach to the "Miracle on the Hudson"

By John Anderson September 7, 2016

Have You Met Miss Jones? Let a New Film Break the Ice

Like a pair of funky planets, two R&B goddesses collided backstage at a 2011 taping of VH1 Divas Celebrates Soul. "I screamed, 'Mavis!'" recalls Sharon Jones. "She screamed, 'Sharon!' Someone came out of a room...

By John Anderson July 21, 2016

Interrogating an Auteur in De Palma

One needn't suffer recurring Carrie nightmares or keep Scarface looped on the flat screen to have a good time at De Palma--a title that storms across the screen in forbidding blood red letters before introducing...

By John Anderson June 16, 2016

The X-Men Cede to Special Effects As the Franchise Faces an Absurd Apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse may not be the best of the supermutant action series, but it's certainly the most ... well, apocalyptic. A wrathful god (Oscar Isaac) rises from a multimillennial coma, takes one look at the...

By John Anderson May 26, 2016

Here's Why Making The Young Messiah Was 'Fraught With Peril'

The Young Messiah introduces a new class in the world of Jesus narratives—and director Cyrus Nowrasteh says it wasn't easy material to tackle

By John Anderson March 11, 2016

Oscar's Best Directors Say You're Getting Ripped Off at the Movie Theater

This "has been a troubling issue for years," says Martin Scorsese

By John Anderson February 26, 2016

Leo, the Bear and the Confounding Oscar Race of 2016

Inside the competition for the Academy Awards

By John Anderson February 4, 2016

Review: Will Ferrell Brings Back His Dunce Persona in Daddy's Home

Daddy's Home is heavy on cringe-inducing antics, though it does raise some questions about modern manhood

By John Anderson December 23, 2015

The Hunger Games Were Rigged

That's why they always felt so real

By John Anderson November 19, 2015

Review: The 33 Makes a Big Impact Underground

The film marks one of Antonio Banderas’s best performances in years

By John Anderson November 12, 2015

Spotlight Gives a Chilling Peek Beneath Soiled White Collars

The new film goes inside the Boston Globe investigation of abuse in the Catholic Church

By John Anderson November 5, 2015

Review: Spotlight Is an Emotional Tour de Force

The facts, as they are uncovered, pretty much speak for themselves

By John Anderson November 4, 2015

Review: An Uneven Vote in Suffragette

The film is both earnest and costumey

By John Anderson October 22, 2015

The Truth About a Network Anchor Dropped Overboard

Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford star in the new film

By John Anderson October 15, 2015

Peter Pan’s Backstory Is a Mess of Moviesplaining

Reviewing Joe Wright’s Pan

By John Anderson October 8, 2015

Naomi Klein’s Chilling View of Warming in This Changes Everything

Another climate change movie

By John Anderson October 1, 2015

Review: Time Out of Mind Heads Below the Poverty Line

Richard Gere plays a homeless man in his latest movie

By John Anderson September 10, 2015

Review: Alex Gibney's Documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine Pulls Back the Curtain

Though the film doesn't break much news, it's still a satisfyingly deep dive into the life of the late Apple CEO

By John Anderson August 26, 2015

Review: Ant-Man Is a Good Thing in a Small Package

Paul Rudd makes for a winning superhero

By John Anderson July 16, 2015

Review: Ant-Man, small but great

Paul Rudd's charisma and a likably brisk pace give huge appeal to Marvel's micro blockbuster

By John Anderson July 14, 2015

Jurassic World Offers a Reptilian Reckoning to a Culture that's Bored to Death

Sound is an underappreciated element at the movies, even a special-effects-driven spectacle like Jurassic World. Yes, the franchise's latest model of genetically manipulated dinosaur has the necessary résumé--"Bigger. Louder. More teeth," as someone says--to seize...

By John Anderson June 11, 2015