 | Nebraska  December 11, 2013 Nebraska is The Last Picture Show (1971) without the picture show. Photographed in black and white, it's mostly set in fictional Hawthorne, Nebraska, which lacks even tumbleweeds. I suppose the bleak town has seen better ... more |
 | Philomena December 9, 2013 Philomena is cinematic titanium. Like the character Phenomena's hip replacement, the movie is serviceable. As she says titanium is "anti-rust," which means the past won't mar the present. Since Philomena ... more |
 | Her  December 4, 2013 Her is a romantic computer comedy. It's a rom-com.com. Love is never having to say you're offline. At least in 2013. In the 1980s, "Greed is good." In the 2010s, gibberish is good. Her ... more |
 | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire  December 1, 2013 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire probably shouldn't work. It's a sequel - the second of four films adapted from Suzanne Collins' literary trilogy. The film is padded to a length of two hours and 26 minutes. It adds a ... more |
 | Blood Brother November 26, 2013 Blood Brother is an uneasy marriage between idealism and vanity. Blood Brother follows Rocky Baart to India where he tries to serve orphans who have HIV. The indie documentary is at its best when it focuses on the chi ... more |
 | Kill Your Darlings  November 24, 2013 Kill Your Darlings is more about the makers of the Bleat Generation than the Beat Generation. Set in 1944, the movie focuses on three young, burgeoning writers - Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and ... more |
 | Inside Llewyn Davis  November 16, 2013 Inside Llewyn Davis is a brilliant work of art. The Coen Brothers' latest film is brimming with meaning, but since it's episodic and elliptical, the levels of meaning may go untapped. Let's hope viewers invest in the fil ... more |
 | Blue is the Warmest Color November 11, 2013 Hitchcock would like what director Abdellatif Kechiche did in Blue Is the Warmest Color. He made all his audience into voyeurs. Kechiche's two main actresses say they "simulated" the most intimate moments. Hitch ... more |
 | Last Vegas November 6, 2013 Last Vegas is more old coots than hoots. Fortunately, it has a saving grace. With a quartet of aging male acting pros - Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline - is a female that saves the day and th ... more |
 | 12 Years a Slave November 3, 2013 12 Years a Slave is not a game. A television ad promoting it declares, "Critics are calling 12 Years a Slave a 'Game-Changing Movie Event.'" Critics never said that. One guy -who the studio has pro ... more |
For more reviews, scroll to the top of the page and use the links on the left to either search or browse by date, title, or rating.
Home (Recent work)
Film
- Reviews by date:
--- 2013
--- 2012
--- 2011
--- 2010
--- 2009
--- 2008
--- 2007
--- 2006
--- 2005
--- pre-2005
- Browse films by title
--- 1 - E
--- F - J
--- K - O
--- P - T
--- U - Z
- Browse films by rating
--- 5 stars
--- 4.5 - 4 stars
--- 3.5 - 3 stars
--- 2.5 - 2 stars
--- 1.5 - 1 stars
- Criticism and Essays
- Interviews
- Lists
- Oscars
- Remembrances
Books
- Non-fiction
- Fiction
Links
- Movie Geeks United
- LasVegasFreeMovies.com
- Center Stage
Tony Macklin is a freelance film critic. A current member of the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, he is a former film and literature professor at the University of Dayton, and the former editor of the filmcrit magazine Film Heritage. His articles and reviews have been most recently featured at Rotten Tomatoes and The Internet Movie Database, as well as in the Bright Lights Film Journal and The Fayetteville Free Weekly.
Tony's well-received book, Voices from the Set: The Film Heritage Interviews (2000), includes his 1970s interviews with Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Martin Scorsese, Alan Rudolph, Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah, John Wayne, Edith Head, Stockard Channing, Richard Baskin, and others. It's an excellent read for anyone who loves film.
Since 1972, and in every decade since, Tony's picks for best films of all time have been included in the British Film Institute's Critics' Top 10 Poll. Published in BFI's international film magazine, Sight and Sound, the most recent Critics' Top 10 Poll was published in 2002.
Tony's votes are also included in the American Film Institute's lists of bests, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Comedies, 100 Greatest Movies, and more.