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Even Meryl Streep Can’t Save 'The French Lieutenant’s Woman' From Postmodern Pretense
This film has not aged well, and this has to do with the failure of postmodernism and poststructuralism to contribute anything useful to popular culture.
13 Aug 2015
Film
In 'The Bridges of Madison County', Meryl Streep Proves She Is the Author of Her Films
It takes a superior actress to convey a character’s entire history in one scene, and in this film, at least, Meryl Streep does it masterfully.
31 May 2015
Film
Meryl Streep, Sex Goddess
Meryl Streep is portraying a string of desirous mammas, these days. In Mamma Mia, It's Complicated and Hope Springs, each of the leading ladies are mothers with grown children and a sexual appetite. A healthy one.
21 Mar 2013
Culture
Bless This Mess: Sweeping the Kitchen With Julia Child
Julia Child is an influential cooking icon who didn't actually pick up the ladle until after her 32nd birthday. As her 100th birthday approaches, we look back at Julia the icon, her influence, impact, legacy rumors and urban legends... the good and bad in her recipe for success and immortality.
13 Aug 2012
Film
The Not-So-Global Globes: International Tensions in the Film Industry
Now that The Artist gave the Golden Globes a distinctly French flavor, and Meryl Streep fueled the controversy in the British camp, a simultaneous rapprochement and tension defines the relationship between the European and American film industry.
23 Jan 2012
Television
Got a Bad Case of the Second Season Itch? The Cure: Kill All TV Shows Before they Make Season Three
TV is better than film. The best scripts, the best acting, and the best directing are deserting the multi-plexes for the freedom of the small screen. But all TV series should die by the end of their second season.
14 Mar 2011
Reviews
Relationships are Hard and Things get Mixed Up -- It's Complicated
Battling bias can be hard, but It's Complicated lacks the basic quality material to make the proper case.
05 May 2010
Film
Everything in its Right Place: The Best Female Acting Performances of 2009
Mazur checks out the year's best female acting and offers up a mostly alternative opinion to the boring Oscar-begging consensus picks including some you might not have heard about, yet.
07 Jan 2010
Film
Summer of Same: August 2009
With names like Tarantino, Lee, and Zombie, the final month of the season pulls out all the film geek stops. Still, the only guarantee is familiarity, not freshness.
29 Apr 2009
Film
Woolf at the Door
Both Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and Michael Cunningham's The Hours offer an illuminating look at the choices we make, the roles we play, and the hours that hinge our lives together.
01 Mar 2009
Film
OMG - The 20 Worst Films of 2008
There's bad, and then there's 2008 level bad. You know this list is looking down into a deep dark bottomless pit of cinematic despair when Mike Myers' shameful Love Guru didn't even make the Top 20!
14 Jan 2009
Film
Iconic - The Top 20 Male Performances of 2008
Like the gladiators of old, 2008 resembles a battle of formidable acting gods, especially when looking over the 20 choices presented below. Indeed, if anything, choosing a winner requires more of a leap of faith than any amount of critical skill - they all were that good.
13 Jan 2009
Film
Tough and Tender - The Top 20 Female Performances of 2008
Twenty talented ladies, 20 performances worthy of multiple little gold men. Unfortunately, as in all years, someone has to come out on top. But after looking over this impressive list, picking the preeminent turn of 2008 seems almost impossible.
13 Jan 2009
Reviews
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 Jan 2009
Film
Shameful Exposure
A fiery Kate Winslet saves morality tale in 'The Reader' while a similarly powerful Meryl Streep can't do the same for the overly certain 'Doubt'.
11 Dec 2008
Film
Talk, Talk, Talk: December 2008
Just like the end of an inspiring speech that may or may not succeed in making its point, these final four weeks before 2009 tend to define or defeat the entire awards season purpose.
11 Sep 2008
Reviews
Mamma Mia!
Meryl Streep scampers and writhes with something like abandon in her tomboyish overalls, her glowing tan and perfectly arranged "wild" blond hair indicating Donna's stanch independence.
17 Jul 2008
Featured: Top of Home Page
The Return of the Popcorn Circus: July 2008
And it just doesn't stop. If part two in this three-ring play was packed with well hyped product, July just keeps the receipt treats coming.
29 Apr 2008
Featured: Top of Home Page
Gone and Not Forgotten: The PopMatters DVD Wish List
A lot of good movies are still missing from DVD. Here is a list of 25 that PopMatters feels have been unceremoniously left to simply fade away.
23 Jan 2008
Reviews
Lions for Lambs
Though Lions barely considers the soldiers' choices, it's clear they've been egregiously misinformed, turned into terms in someone else's argument.
08 Nov 2007
Reviews
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
According to this film women in power are cruel, lonely, and constantly paranoid; not to mention supremely non-sexual.
Matt Mazur
05 Feb 2007
Reviews
A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
That a down home jamboree could be interesting to heavy-metal loving middle school students speaks to its wide.
Michael Buening
15 Oct 2006
Film
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
'You sold your soul the first time you put on that pair of Jimmy Choos.' So ascertains Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), editor-in-chief at Runway magazine, disdainful of her self-doubting assistant. And so she summarizes yet another tale of a little girl who finds corruption in the big city.
29 Jun 2006
Film
A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
A Prairie Home Companion combines typical Altman strategies, like overlapping dialogue and converging multiple storylines, as well as his fanatical appreciation for the process of creating art.
Matt Mazur
08 Jun 2006
Reviews
A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
You might call A Prairie Home Companion an unlikely Lindsay Lohan movie. You could also call it the best work she's done, the best work she's likely to do, or the best chance she's had to do good work.
08 Jun 2006
Film
Prime (2005)
Wise and soothing, Lisa occasionally sounds more like a girlfriend than the usual movie shrink, and this is, you think, a good thing.
Cynthia Fuchs
27 Oct 2005
Reviews
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events: Special Collector's Edition (2004)
Based on three Snicket books, the film mostly takes the kids' perspective, and so delights in the gooey and the ooky.
Cynthia Fuchs
13 Apr 2005
Reviews
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Demme's movie reasserts that the fabled U.S. political landscape isn't transparent or democratic, but instead, corrupted by the individuals who manage it.
Cynthia Fuchs
21 Dec 2004
Film
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
Elastic and not a little ewwwy, Jim Carrey's Olaf is fond of his own unclever pronouncements and unsubtle when it comes to plotting.
Cynthia Fuchs
16 Dec 2004
Film
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
The Manchurian Candidate draws a line between the corporation and the government, sustaining a hope that the U.S. system might be salvaged by an honestly free election.
Cynthia Fuchs
29 Jul 2004
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