Barbara HermanAbout Barbara HermanSan Francisco-based writer Barbara Herman has a Masters from UC Berkeley in the Department of Rhetoric and Film, and is now editor for a women’s humor blog. In addition to her love for cinema, she is a serious foodie and perfume aficionado and is working on her first book, Difficult Pleasures: In Praise of Acquired Tastes. Reviews
Funny FaceHeterosexual coupling wins the day, but the relationship that really counts in this film is between the two people who aren’t in love with each other, but rather with fashion. [25 March 2009]
The WacknessUltimately, this film is neither dope nor wack — it’s just kind of boring. [22 January 2009]
Mamma Mia!The kind of movie whose campiness you just have to give into if you want to enjoy it -- and then you'll have a blast. [12 January 2009]
American Slapstick, Vol. 2If you have a taste for the forgotten, the obscure, and the lost, American Slapstick, Vol. 2 is for you. [3 December 2008]
The Beverly Hillbillies: The Official Second SeasonIn addition to being occasionally hilarious this show also lays bare urban fantasies about rural life and people. [20 November 2008]
Lagerfeld ConfidentialA brilliant if prickly documentary subject who balances the yin of marketing pragmatism with the yang of fashion fantasy. [28 October 2008]
DeceptionLike the sex scenes, the film itself is cold and remote, and as viewers, we merely go through the motions, watching it. [15 October 2008]
Dali in New YorkIf anything, the film’s real subject is the cult of personality and the art world intelligentsia’s uneasy feeling about it. [15 September 2008]
Belle ToujoursPointless and puerile, malicious and misogynistic, Belle Toujours is the opposite of an homage. [9 September 2008]
I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Fifth SeasonAlthough Jeannie looks like an on-call stripper in a pink genie costume, she will never be subsumed into a conventional role as a subservient housewife. [7 August 2008]
Princess AuroraEqual parts thriller, clunky melodrama, and female slasher film, this has moments of stylistic beauty and wit, but not much depth. [9 July 2008]
Join UsWithout sensationalizing or caricaturing, this film attempts to explain why people join cults and how they get stuck there. [10 June 2008]
Over Her Dead BodyIts humor is, to put it kindly, unsophisticated, and forms the backdrop to a love story that feels like being stuck on an awkward first date. [22 May 2008] |
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