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Alison Willmore

Movie Critic
See all their articles from across New York Magazine

Alison Willmore is a film critic for New York magazine and Vulture. Formerly, she was the only critic at BuzzFeed News, the first TV editor at IndieWire, and the host of Filmspotting: SVU.

  1. our streaming future
    Will a Comedy Ever Play at a Movie Theater Again?Three writers wonder if 2020 is the end of the end of laughing out loud at the cinema.
  2. friday night movie club
    The Movie of This Quarantine Summer Is Jurassic ParkRunning from dinosaurs, stress-eating ice cream, filing into a theme park even though it means putting lives at risk — who can’t relate?
  3. movie review
    An American Pickle Is a Two-Man Show, and Both Men Are Seth RogenSeth Rogen stars opposite himself in this HBO Max original movie about a Brooklyn man united with his pickled great-grandfather.
  4. acting
    The Brutal Pleasure of Watching Charlize Theron Turn to ActionWhat makes her truly great in Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, and The Old Guard is her focus on the human capacity for wear and tear.
  5. america’s anti-dad
    Steve Carell’s Bizarrely Unfunny Return to ComedyAfter years drifting toward drama, Steve Carell made a movie with Jon Stewart and a show with the Office creator. So why aren’t we talking about them?
  6. deep dives
    The Women of Relic Will Bring You to TearsPersonal pain is woven into the year’s most despairing and disturbing horror movie yet.
  7. endings
    The Epilogue of Palm Springs, ExplainedThe Andy Samberg–Cristin Milioti rom-com may be an homage to Groundhog Day, but J.K. Simmons’s character is the true successor to Phil Connors.
  8. movie review
    Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets Is the Next-Best Thing to Going Out to a BarRemember bars? The Ross brothers’ boozy hybrid of a movie is a sensational elegy to a local one that never really existed.
  9. movie review
    Palm Springs Is Thoroughly Charming and Unexpectedly TimelyThe time-loop rom-com skims past many of the genre’s obligatory beats in order to get to less explored territory.
  10. the view from home
    How Protesting Helped Tayarisha Poe Feel Normal AgainThe Selah and the Spades director isn’t expecting a “yes, the revolution has arrived” moment — but she is feeling a lot of hope.
  11. movie review
    Jon Stewart’s New Comedy Irresistible Feels Shockingly Out of StepThe former Daily Show host enlists Steve Carell and Rose Byrne for a political farce that suggests he’s not up for satirizing our moment.
  12. movie review
    Babyteeth Is Not Your Standard Cancer RomanceA terminally ill teenage girl falls in love with a junkie in Shannon Murphy’s sweet but unsentimental directorial debut, now available on VOD.
  13. the undersung
    What We Lost When Euzhan Palcy Left HollywoodA Dry White Season is evidence of what the industry missed out on because it wasn’t ready for her fiercely decolonized perspective.
  14. friday night movie club
    Why The Social Network Feels Sharper Now Than It Did When It First Came OutDavid Fincher’s masterpiece, now streaming on Netflix, isn’t really about the internet — it’s about power.
  15. movie review
    Artemis Fowl and the Death of the Fantasy YA FranchiseThe long-delayed adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s hit series, now streaming on Disney+, is more baffling relic of the past than movie.
  16. movie review
    The King of Staten Island Returns Pete Davidson to AnonymityJudd Apatow’s dramedy is loosely based on the SNL star — a kind of thought experiment about what his life would be like if he never found comedy.
  17. movie review
    Shirley Is a Woozy Portrait of an Underappreciated WriterElisabeth Moss is terrific, as usual, in this dizzying film about The Haunting of Hill House author Shirley Jackson — now available on Hulu and VOD.
  18. movie review
    The Vast of Night Makes Retro Sci-Fi Feel Startlingly FreshOne of the year’s great movie discoveries — a 1950s-set directorial debut about a possible alien encounter — is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
  19. chat room
    On the Record Directors Discuss Allegations, Oprah and What Me Too Didn’t ChangeKirby Dick and Amy Ziering talk Russell Simmons and their unexpected split with their powerful producer: “We had no idea how this would turn out.”
  20. movie review
    The Painter and the Thief Is a Sexy, Strange Not-Quite-Love StoryAn artist finds a muse in the man who stole her work in this arresting documentary, now on Hulu, VOD, and in theaters.
  21. summer 2020
    19 Horror Movies We’re Excited to See This SummerFrom Prime Video’s The Vast of Night to the Janelle Monáe–starring Antebellum to A Quiet Place sequel.
  22. summer 2020
    60 Movies We’re Excited to See This SummerIf movies still exist then.
  23. summer 2020
    What Is a Summer Movie Anyway?As a summer without movie theaters looks more and more likely, two critics discuss an outdated way of viewing films.
  24. movie review
    Scoob! Is the Kind of Kids Movie That Features Jokes About TinderThe Scooby-Doo reboot, bumped from theaters to on demand, attempts to update the mystery-solving franchise with superheroes and internet jokes.
  25. movie review
    Capone Features Tom Hardy at His Most MaximalistThe Al Capone biopic may not be the comeback story that director Josh Trank needed, but it has a truly batshit performance from Tom Hardy.
  26. movie review
    Michelle Obama Doc Becoming Is a Guarded Look at Life After the White HouseThe new film, part of the Obamas’ deal with Netflix, shows the former First Lady reveling in the freedom to not engage.
  27. profile
    Alice Wu Is (Finally) Ready to Break Your HeartThe Saving Face director left Hollywood after making her lesbian rom-com. 10 years later, she’s back with a queer Cyrano for Gen Z on Netflix.
  28. friday night movie club
    Let’s Torture Ourselves With The Talented Mr. RipleyThe Matt Damon thriller assures us that we don’t actually want a lavish, endless vacation after all.
  29. movie review
    Bad Education Gives Hugh Jackman One of His Greatest Dramatic RolesCory Finley’s sly dissection of a Long Island embezzlement scandal — premiering on HBO — plays to its leading man’s theatrical strengths.
  30. movie review
    You Could Watch Beastie Boys Story, But Really, Why Not Just Read Their Book?Spike Jonze’s Apple TV+ documentary, featuring Mike D and Ad-Rock, is a surprisingly staid act of fan service.
  31. movie review
    Selah and the Spades Is a Mesmerizing Portrait of a Prep School Queen BeeLovie Simone plays a high school senior reluctant to relinquish her position of power in Tayarisha Poe’s new movie, now streaming on Amazon.
  32. movie review
    The Lighthouse Is About the Horror of Roommates in IsolationMermaids, hallucinations, bodily fluids — in Robert Eggers’s movie, the most frightening thing of all is having to share your space with someone.
  33. backstories
    The Writer of Demolition Man on the Predictive Power of His 1993 MovieNo-contact high fives? No more toilet paper? Screenwriter Daniel Waters talks about the accidental COVID-era relevance of his action comedy.
  34. life after parasite
    A Guide to Director Bong Joon Ho’s Deeper CutsParasite is now streaming on Hulu, but so is Mother, The Host, and Barking Dogs Never Bite.
  35. remember that time
    All I Want to Think About Is Cher Kicking That Can Down the Street in MoonstruckCouldn’t we all go for some wandering along the waterfront in last night’s formalwear right now?
  36. vulture recommends
    Introducing Six Degrees of One Kevin Bacon Movie, a New Quarantine GameWe asked our film writers to start with Mystic River and work their way through five more titles … ending on another Kevin Bacon movie.
  37. coronavirus
    New Zealand’s Ant Timpson Is Watching the World End From the Ends of the EarthLife isn’t a beach for the maker of the Elijah Wood thriller Come to Daddy, who wonders what will be left of the indie film world, post-pandemic.
  38. movie review
    The Way Back Will Make You Believe Ben Affleck’s Best Roles Are Yet to ComeAffleck is uncomfortably great in a movie that’s more about emotional repression than basketball.
  39. coronavirus
    Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho Is Escaping From Dystopia Into Older FilmsThe Bacurau filmmaker understands why people see our current crisis in his latest movie, but personally, he’d prefer to be watching Lubitsch.
  40. movie review
    Birds of Prey Gives Us a Post-Joker Harley QuinnOne thing Margot Robbie’s comic-book anti-heroine is not is a natural member of the girl-power battalion.
  41. movie review
    Swallow Is About the Horrors of a Body in IsolationIn a time when we’re forced to experience new movies from the questionable comforts of our homes, Haley Bennett’s role as a woman undone hits hard.
  42. movie review
    The Hunt Is a Gleeful Exploitation Flick Ruined by Delusions of RelevanceBetty Gilpin is a delight, but this would-be satire is too incoherent to merit the controversy it drummed up.
  43. movie review
    Never Rarely Sometimes Always, an Everyday Thriller About Obtaining an AbortionIn Eliza Hittman’s new movie, state restrictions turn a teenager’s attempt to end an unwanted pregnancy into a perilous journey.
  44. returns
    David Cronenberg Isn’t Finished With Film YetThe legendary director on why he loves Netflix, the advantage of a Canadian perspective, and, yes, how he feels about superhero movies.
  45. movie review
    Elisabeth Moss Makes The Invisible Man Worth SeeingThis reboot is better with concepts than execution, but Moss is tremendous as a woman being stalked by her unseen abusive spouse.
  46. movie review
    Not Quite Revisionist, Not Quite Faithful, Emma. Is an Eventual DelightThis millennial-branded Jane Austen adaptation is a perplexing but satisfying take on a classic.
  47. movie review
    There’s No Need to Watch More Than the Trailer for Fantasy IslandThe horror adaptation of a cheeseball Aaron Spelling affair from the late ’70s is wretchedly unenjoyable.
  48. movie review
    To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You Almost Argues Itself Out of RomanceIn the sequel to Netflix’s hit 2018 teen rom-com, Lana Condor and Noah Centineo explore what comes after the happily ever after.
  49. oscars 2020
    The Academy Awards of Self-FlagellationParasite’s Best Picture win wasn’t just a daring choice for the Academy. It was an acknowledgment that English-language cinema is no longer the bar.
  50. sundance 2020
    12 Movies We Loved at SundanceHere are a dozen of our favorites from the 2020 film festival — just know that there are at least a dozen other movies we could have easily included.
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