Alison Willmore Author Archive
Give A Gift
MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

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. sundance 2020
    What Happens When Me Too Hits Hollywood’s Biggest Screen?Two years after the Harvey Weinstein story broke, a conflicted portrait of the movement it birthed hit the Sundance Film Festival.
  2. sundance 2020
    The Assistant Is the First Great Movie About Me TooKitty Green’s film about a day in the life of a young woman at a Weinstein-like company is a spare, searing story of abuse and complicity.
  3. movie review
    The Gentlemen Is a Throwback Crime Caper With Some Throwback RacismGuy Ritchie’s latest has a host of stars — like Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Hugh Grant — and little else.
  4. sundance 2020
    The 17 Movies We’re Most Excited to See at Sundance Film FestivalIncluding a transatlantic thriller starring Jude Law, a family drama from Miranda July, and a portrait of up-and-coming performer Taylor Swift.
  5. movie review
    Weathering With You Is a Teen Romance for the Age of Climate ChangeMakoto Shinkai, the director of Your Name, is back with another magical realist anime love story.
  6. oscar endings
    The Inception Ending of Little Women, ExplainedDoes Jo March get married in Greta Gerwig’s movie, and does it matter?
  7. the gold rush
    The Oscars? Still So White.It’s difficult to see this year’s nominees as a result of anything other than the Academy’s continuing and glaring shortcomings.
  8. movie review
    Like a Boss Is a Fascinatingly Unfunny Movie with an Incredibly Funny CastWhat even is this thing?
  9. coming attractions
    68 Movies We Can’t Wait to See in 2020Daniel Craig bows out as Bond, Liu Yifei debuts as Mulan, Timothée Chalamet brings Dune back, and Spike Lee comes to Netflix.
  10. movie review
    1917 Is More Filmmaking Stunt Than MovieThe difficulty level of Sam Mendes’s World War I movie doesn’t really make up for its hollowness.
  11. star wars wars
    5 Ways The Rise of Skywalker Reverses Course From The Last JediWell, no one would accuse the Star Wars sequel trilogy of being overly mapped out from the start.
  12. movie review
    Cats Is Good. Cats Is Bad. Cats Is Cats.No idea where to begin with this one.
  13. movie review
    Bombshell Only Sometimes Understands That It’s About White FeminismCharlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie play Fox News employees in a movie that isn’t anywhere near as sharp-edged as it should be.
  14. what were the 2010s?
    Every Movie of the 2010s, RankedOur critics pored over 5,279 of the decade’s films. Here’s the best, worst, and mehst.
  15. movie review
    A Million Little Pieces Turns a Literary Scandal Into a Boring MovieHowever much of James Frey’s rehab saga was true or fudged, Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson can’t make the case for why it’s worth adapting.
  16. best of 2019
    The Best Movies of 2019Our critics celebrate the latest Tarantino, a South Korean black comedy, and the return of Eddie Murphy.
  17. movie review
    The Two Popes Is Not As Stuffy As It Might SoundAnthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce make a talky drama about the Catholic Church into something that’s actually pretty damn compelling.
  18. deep dives
    Class Warfare Is All the Rage at the MoviesInequality ire isn’t a theme unique to Knives Out — it’s an undercurrent running through a slew of this season’s movies, from Hustlers to Parasite.
  19. movie review
    There Is No Resisting Little WomenGreta Gerwig’s take on the Louisa May Alcott classic is a fresh, affectionate reimagining that’s impossible not to love.
  20. movie review
    Frozen 2 Exists Because the Market, Not the Story, Demanded ItIs it fair to call a sequel unnecessary when it’s going to make a jillion dollars?
  21. movie review
    Waves Is Gorgeous and Frustrating — Great Soundtrack, ThoughKelvin Harrison Jr. and Taylor Russell play siblings in a bifurcated movie with style to burn and shakier credibility.
  22. movie review
    The Empty Corporate Feminism of Charlie’s AngelsIn Elizabeth Banks’s reboot of the women detective franchise, girl power feels less like a guiding principle than something you’d stick on a T-shirt.
  23. acting
    Edward Norton’s Slow Fade From GreatnessThere was a time when Norton was labeled the finest actor of his generation. So why don’t we talk about more of the roles that made him famous?
  24. movie review
    Last Christmas Is a Mess, But It’s a Lovable OnePaul Feig and Emma Thompson’s holiday movie has way too much going on — but sometimes you just have to surrender to the excess.
  25. movie review
    Shia LaBeouf Uses Filmmaking As Radical Therapy in Honey BoyThe actor attempts to understand his troubled father by becoming him in an autobiographical movie that’s a lot more than celeb self-indulgence.
  26. movies
    The Movies We Loved in 2019Including Bong Joon Ho’s acid black comedy, Brad Pitt in space, and the gentle Pain and Glory.
  27. movie review
    Paradise Hills Isn’t As Fun As It Sounds, But It Sure Looks PrettyIf the movie, starring Emma Roberts, were as sharp as its visuals, it’d have a guaranteed future as a cult classic.
  28. movie review
    The Jesus Is King Movie Is for Kanye Completists OnlyWhich, like, obviously.
  29. movie review
    Isabelle Huppert Arranges a Morbid Family Vacation in FrankieThe French legend plays a terminally ill actress in Ira Sachs’s frustratingly understated ensemble drama.
  30. movie review
    Stop Trying to Make Zombieland: Double Tap HappenThis sequel to Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone’s 2009 Zombieland has been in the works forever — but, watching it, it’s hard to understand why.
  31. movie review
    Gemini Man Is Not a Great Action Movie, But It Is a Weirdly Tender OneWill Smith is less interesting in his action sequences than in his curiously melancholy scenes with his de-aged self.
  32. close reads
    The Impossible Politics of JokerHow Todd Phillips’s supervillain story deliberately mixes its messages.
  33. movie review
    Let’s Talk About the Other Creepy Clown MovieThere are Joker fans, and then there are the disciples of Wrinkles the Clown.
  34. close reads
    Hustler’s Greatest Trick Is Its Take on the Female GazeThe women in Hustlers are in the business of knowing what men want to look at, but the movie itself is gloriously free of a male perspective.
  35. movie review
    Judy Is More Interested In The Tragedy Of Judy Garland Than Her HumanityBut that’s not going to get in the way of Renée Zellweger’s award season.
  36. roundtables
    How Do We Talk About Race and Pop Culture Without Going Insane?A panel of critics discuss Wesley Morris’s New York Times essay and some of the biggest anxieties plaguing criticism today.