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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. movie review
    Triangle of Sadness’s Class Satire Reaches Hazardous Levels of SmugThis year’s Palme d’Or winner is a total drag.
  2. movie review
    Tár Brilliantly Undoes an Ego Monster of an ArtistCate Blanchett is toweringly great as a famous conductor who meets a very public downfall.
  3. movie review
    Bros Is at Its Best When It Forgets About Making HistoryBilly Eichner’s romantic comedy is messy, funny, and ultimately charming — when it isn’t weighed down by all the firsts.
  4. movie review
    The Woman King Is a Brawny Historical Epic With a Conflicted View of the PastViola Davis presides over a rousing action movie with a touch of wistful alternative history.
  5. tiff 2022
    The Banshees of Inisherin’s Brilliantly Anti-Romantic Portrait of Rural IrelandIn Bruges stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson reunite with filmmaker Martin McDonagh for a wonderfully dark comedy about an ended friendship.
  6. tiff 2022
    Don’t Worry, The Fabelmans Doesn’t Overdo the ‘Magic of Movies’ ShtickSteven Spielberg’s self-portrait is as endearing as it is indulgent.
  7. season of excess
    I Already Miss the Maximalist MovieThe movies are about to settle down, straighten out, and prepare for the seriousness of fall. But do they have to?
  8. tiff 2022
    Is Harry Styles a Good Actor? A ConversationAfter the premieres of Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman, we must speak our truth.
  9. tiff 2022
    Catherine Called Birdy Is DelightfulLena Dunham takes on a beloved children’s novel, and the results are unexpectedly endearing.
  10. tiff 2022
    Is the Year’s Most Urgent Me Too Movie About Mennonites?Sarah Polley’s new movie may be set in an insular religious community, but its themes are universal.
  11. tiff 2022
    Jennifer Lawrence’s New Movie Calls Back to Her Indie RootsCauseway is probably too subdued for awards traction, but it’s a welcome reminder of the intimate, unfussy role that launched the star’s career.
  12. movie review
    Funny Pages Is a Wry Film About a Cartoonist’s Quest for AuthenticityThis dark teen comedy from writer-director Owen Kline and A24 is as filled with promise as it is with underdeveloped ideas.
  13. let’s do it again
    The 102 Best Movie Sequels of All TimeWho in the world wanted a Top Gun sequel? Not even Tom Cruise, but that didn’t stop Maverick from getting made and soaring in our ranks.
  14. action!
    Watch Out for Scott AdkinsWhen the stuntman shows up in Jamie Foxx’s Netflix vampire movie, it’s a nod to the action geeks and proof of Day Shift’s bona fides.
  15. movie review
    A Movie So Ideal for the End of Summer That It’s Actually Called FallHead empty, just tower.
  16. movie review
    Emily the Criminal Isn’t Interested in EmpathyAubrey Plaza is great as a woman caught between crushing loans and a felony record who embarks on a surprisingly gritty criminal side hustle.
  17. movie review
    Bodies Bodies Bodies Could Stand to Be MeanerAmandla Stenberg, Pete Davidson, and the rest of the cool-kid cast star in a satirical slasher that’s never as sharp as it should be.
  18. if it bleeds…
    The Best Part of Prey Is What It Doesn’t DoIn jumping backward in time, Prey frees itself from having to build out more of the mythology of its mandibled alien antagonists.
  19. movie review
    Vengeance Is a Clever But Hollow Satire of New York Podcast BrosThe Office star B.J. Novak’s directorial debut squirms away from any satirical or emotional territory that might genuinely hurt.
  20. chat room
    Even After Nope, Steven Yeun Hopes We Make Alien Contact“What happens when you get confirmation that there’s life outside, even if it’s an amoeba? What does that do to you?”
  21. movie review
    Nope Is Jordan Peele’s Darkest Horror Comedy to DateIn Jordan Peele’s thrilling new movie, Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer are willing to risk death to get something on camera.
  22. movie review
    The Gray Man Is the Most Expensive Movie Netflix Has Ever Made, and It’s … FineRyan Gosling and Chris Evans star in an action extravaganza that feels made to be watched in the background while you’re on your phone.
  23. persuasion
    Is Jane Austen Just a Vibe Now?The new Persuasion throws out almost everything essential about its source material but keeps the country walks and the costuming.
  24. movie review
    Claire Denis’s Brutal Both Sides of the Blade Cuts Through Grown-up DelusionsJuliette Binoche stars in Claire Denis’s movie about a couple given the perfect excuse to blow their lives up over a former friend and lover.
  25. movie review
    Thor: Love and Thunder Makes You Wonder If Marvel’s OkayThe gods, Asgardian and otherwise, must be crazy.
  26. movie review
    The Princess’s Vain Requiem for the GirlbossThis dumb elevator-pitch gag of a Hulu movie has the aura of an intrusive thought.
  27. movie review
    Savoring Flux Gourmet’s Satire of Celebrity Performance ArtPeter Strickland’s art-world satire is funny, opulent, and filled with infinite sympathy when it comes to gastrointestinal distress.
  28. movie review
    Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Might Be a Hazard to Your CorneasElvis is bloated, hectic, ridiculous, and utterly shameless in presenting Presley as a talent too beautiful for this earth. I liked it.
  29. movie review
    Good Luck to You, Leo Grande Makes a Joyous Case on Behalf of Sex WorkEmma Thompson stars as a middle-aged widow trying to figure out whether sexual pleasure has passed her by in this generous drama debuting on Hulu.
  30. movie review
    The Problem With Lightyear Is Not the “Origin Story” It TellsHow do you make a good version of a movie that, in the context of the animated universe Pixar has created, sounds pretty bad?
  31. movie review
    David Cronenberg Makes an Indifferent Return to Body HorrorViggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux are game, but the director’s heart (and his other body parts) just isn’t in Crimes of the Future.
  32. movie review
    Fire Island Is a Curiously Reluctant Romantic ComedyAll the best parts of Joel Kim Booster’s gay rom-com unfold outside its genre framing.
  33. hear me out
    Theory: Top Gun: Maverick Is Mostly a Death DreamLook, the only way to really make sense of Tom Cruise’s latest is as an Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge sitch.
  34. summer preview
    What Will Be the Biggest Movie of the Summer?Vulture bets on five films that will break through the hottest months of 2022, in whatever ways they can.
  35. 2022 summer preview
    A Guide to This Summer’s Indies (Based on Genres Familiar and Not)Is “ethically dubious podcaster” a genre? Maybe it should be!
  36. ‘and it’s all true…’
    Where Does the Abortion Thriller Go From Here?Movies like Happening turn the terrible consequences of restricted access into the stuff of dramatic tension. Are they trying to do the impossible?
  37. movie review
    I Regret to Inform You the Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers Movie Is Pretty GoodJohn Mulaney and Andy Samberg voice the animated chipmunks in a half-subversive riff on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
  38. movie review
    Jerrod Carmichael Has Already Outgrown On the Count of ThreeHis feature directorial debut is a dark comedy about suicide that works more than it doesn’t, but still feels like a blip in a career that’s moved on.
  39. movie review
    Pleasure Can’t Get Out of Its Own HeadNinja Thyberg’s feature debut offers a judgment-free journey through the adult-film industry but never really gets going as a character study.
  40. let’s do it again
    Hollywood Can’t Leave Romancing the Stone AloneThe deceptively effortless-seeming Kathleen Turner–Michael Douglas romantic adventure never spawned a franchise, but not for any lack of trying.
  41. let’s do it again
    A Discussion of Blade Runner 2049 in 2022What a five-year-old movie can tell us about the future of franchises and whether movies are moving backward.
  42. movie review
    The Perfection in Miniature of Céline Sciamma’s Petite MamanThe Portrait of a Lady on Fire director’s latest is about a simple but devastating child’s fantasy.
  43. movie review
    In Praise of The Northman’s Ruthless UnrelatabilityThe Alexander Skarsgård Viking saga makes no effort to bend its characters toward modern sensibilities, and you know what? It’s great.
  44. movie review
    The Dour Secrets of Dumbledore Doesn’t Know Why It’s Here EitherIt’s the product of a lucrative fictional universe that no one seems to know how to build on but keeps going anyway, a franchise in search of a story.
  45. on demand
    Erotic Thrillers Owe Everything to Home ViewersThey famously brought sex and death to the multiplex, but their survival depended on late-night cable, down-market sequels, and direct-to-video films.
  46. movie review
    The Kamikaze Wish Fulfillment of AlineIn playing a fictionalized version of the Quebecois singer, writer-director-actor Valérie Lemercier gets at the absurd heart of the biopic genre.
  47. movie review
    Richard Linklater Overdoses on Nostalgia in Apollo 10½The Netflix animated ode to a ’60s childhood, as voiced by Jack Black, is too cozy for its own good.
  48. the movies
    The Oscars Are Just a Work EventWith grudges, professional pretenses, and a lot of big talk about how important a flawed industry is.
  49. movie review
    Everything Everywhere All at Once Dizzies Itself Into TranscendenceMichelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan star in a maximalist almost-masterpiece that’s as much a family drama as it is about saving the multiverse.
  50. oscar villains
    Against Every 2022 Oscars MovieIf you’re still not sure what to root for this year, at least you can come up with something to root against.
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