Email Author J. Hoberman

Awards

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published October 13, 2009

  "Let the Mild Rumpus Start!"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published September 29, 2009

  "Robert Frank's Real America"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published February 4, 2009

  "Why Hard Times Won't Mean Good Times"

• 2009 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published June 12, 2008

  "Deep Freeze"

• 2009 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published September 18, 2008

  "What We Learned About the Election in this Summer's Movies"

• 2009 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published January 24, 2008

  "Kill One for the Gipper"

• 2007 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published December 5, 2006

  "Mel Gibson is Responsible for All the Wars in the World"

• 2007 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published May 16, 2006

  "The New Disaster Movie"

• 2007 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published March 14, 2006

  "Anarchy in the UK"

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2011 Stories by J. Hoberman

• The bombastic War Horse is classic Spielberg

  published December 29, 2011

  A doggedly overwrought production less felt than facile, Steven Spielberg's War Horse is an essentially uninvolving prestige... More >>

• A Dangerous Method is both an intriguing narrative and a splendid love story

  published December 29, 2011

  A Dangerous Method, the title of David Cronenberg's viscerally cerebral new film, is something of an understatement. As cataclysmic as... More >>

• The U.S. version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is leaner, meaner, more stylish

  published December 22, 2011

  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is hardly a personal... More >>

• In Shame, Carey Mulligan's blowsy desperation makes for the movie's best turn

  published December 15, 2011

  Steve McQueen's first two films both star Michael Fassbender, feature virtually interchangeable titles, and are nearly as grueling to watch as... More >>

• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a brooding, fluidly crafted adaptation of the novel

  published December 8, 2011

  John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the 1974 spy novel generally... More >>

• Le Havre takes a sentimental look at the port city's working class

  published December 1, 2011

  Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre is something of a comeback for the Finnish filmmaker. His warmhearted comedy of underdog... More >>

• Melancholia dares to imagine the one event that might bring us all together

  published November 24, 2011

  The first thing you see in Lars von Trier's Melancholia is a tight close-up of Kirsten Dunst's face. Behind her, slow as... More >>

• Family soap The Descendants revolves entirely around its star

  published November 17, 2011

  As life-or-death dramedy, The Descendants poses several important questions: Why has it taken Alexander Payne seven years to... More >>

• With J. Edgar, Eastwood goes deep into Oliver Stone territory

  published November 10, 2011

  Does anyone under the age of fifty even remember the man who more or less created the FBI and successfully ran the agency for nearly half a... More >>

• Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is too timidly conceived by half

  published November 10, 2011

  Sometimes it's easier for life to imitate art than vice versa. Witness French cartoonist Joann Sfar's first feature, an ambitious attempt to... More >>

• Martha Marcy May Marlene is an old-school psycho thriller

  published November 3, 2011

  As taut and economical as its title is unwieldy, Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene — a first feature that won the Best... More >>

• Swedish documentary The Black Power Mixtape tells it like it was

  published November 3, 2011

  The revolution will not be televised." So Gil Scott-Heron asserted in 1970, and so it was not — at least not on American TV. As... More >>

• The Rum Diary will leave you with just a slight hangover

  published October 27, 2011

  Written and directed by Bruce Robinson, The Rum Diary is what the Brits might call a rum movie — an oddly inoffensive piece... More >>

• Detective Dee is magnificently cheesy, a Chinese historical spectacular

  published September 22, 2011

  Tsui Hark's visually sumptuous Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is a strong comeback for the veteran Hong Kong... More >>

• Amigo aspires to educate more than entertain

  published September 22, 2011

  John Sayles's Amigo aspires to educate more than entertain, but it's no less engrossing for that. Torn from the pages of history,... More >>

• The sleek, tense Drive is a daredevil vehicle for Ryan Gosling

  published September 15, 2011

  As stripped down and propulsive as its robotic title, Drive is the most "American" movie yet by Danish genre director Nicolas... More >>

• Page One chronicles the lives of three NYT newshounds

  published June 30, 2011

  Nobody cries, "Stop the presses!" in Andrew Rossi's Page One: Inside the New York Times; no one would dare. There's a palpable... More >>

• The Rape of Nanking is explored in the monochromatic City of Life and Death

  published June 16, 2011

  Lu Chuan's City of Life and Death has the title and the feel of a monument. This widescreen, austerely monochromatic,... More >>

• Super 8, disaster-driven and bound for box-office glory

  published June 9, 2011

  A big-bang demolition derby, J.J. Abrams's much-anticipated, greatly enjoyable Super 8 seems bound for box-office glory. Opening... More >>

• Mel Gibson loses it in The Beaver

  published May 19, 2011

  An earnest, intermittently droll dramedy about a manic-depressive toy manufacturer and his bewildered family, The Beaver is a... More >>

• Meek's Cutoff is a trippy Western about being very lost

  published May 12, 2011

  Tenacious indie Kelly Reichardt has specialized in quirky, minimalist quasi-road movies in which loners come unmoored in some great American... More >>

• Mildred Pierce is a nightmare as American as Mom and apple pie

  published March 24, 2011

  This week's big movie can be found on TV. Arch-independent filmmaker Todd Haynes makes a characteristically sidelong move toward the mainstream... More >>

• Cold Weather is not exactly Twin Peaks

  published March 10, 2011

  Cheerfully diffident, garrulous yet uninflected, blithely self-absorbed, the mumblecore brand proliferates: Last year's star vehicles... More >>

• Cedar Rapids is an extension of the workplace ensemble comedy

  published February 10, 2011

  Fresh from Sundance, Miguel Arteta's amiable Cedar Rapids is a mild comedy of embarrassment, set in the dark heart of Middle... More >>

• The Eagle is a thunderous, old-school boys' adventure

  published February 10, 2011

  The Eagle, directed by Kevin Macdonald and adapted from Rosemary Sutcliff's 1954 historical novel, The Eagle of the Ninth,... More >>