Tag Archives: fantasy movies

Review: The King’s Daughter (2022)

I reviewed for Ebert.

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A Perfect Double Bill: Sucker Punch (2011) and The Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

I have been wanting to write this essay for 7 years (ever since I saw Sucker Punch, basically). Why didn’t I? Because I was busy writing reviews and getting writing jobs and taking assignments. I do have a little folder … Continue reading

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Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014); directed by Peter Jackson

Mixed feelings. Thought “Unexpected Journey” was an unnecessarily elongated prologue, loved “Desolation of Smaug” (review here), and the final installment feels like a long-drawn-out closing paragraph. Should have been done in one film. Could have been done in one film. … Continue reading

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Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

I thought the first installment was embarrassing and bad. Good news, though: the second one is pretty great! Still too goddamn long, Jackson, Jesus Mary and Joseph, but the real work that needs to be done is done here and … Continue reading

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“Give Me Back My Beast!”

Greta Garbo reportedly called out those words at the ending of Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946), when she first saw the film. When the trapped Prince appears, after shedding his monstrous exterior, there is a strange sense of … Continue reading

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