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

• Looking Back on Laura

  published December 28, 2011

  Strange by even film noir standards, Otto Preminger's 1944 Laura, which is showing in a new 35mm print at Film Forum, starts out with a... More >>

• You Be the Judge in the High-Stakes Iranian Legal Drama A Separation

  published December 28, 2011

  A Separation—the fifth feature by Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi—is an urgently shot courtroom drama designed to put... More >>

• The Year in Film: J. Hoberman's Personal Best

  published December 21, 2011

  The past 12 months brought a number of powerful, introspective, big-theme cine-statements, many of them by old masters (see below). Some... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  The Year in Film: Handicapping the Poll

  published December 21, 2011

  "A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees," per William Blake. Ain't that the truth! Although listed by barely half of the 95... More >>

• Spielberg and Fincher: Taming Creatures

  published December 21, 2011

  Consummate technicians with bankable interests and personal trademarks, Steven Spielberg and David Fincher are something more than auteurs, but... More >>

• Because It's No Fun to Download a Gift

  published December 14, 2011

  Not yet entirely vaporized by The Cloud, DVDs are still things that can be wrapped, tied, and stuffed into a stocking. Herewith, and with a... More >>

• Back to the Cold War with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

  published December 7, 2011

  John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the 1974 spy novel generally regarded as the writer's finest, is predicated on a... More >>

• Former Prom Queen Tries to Go Home Again in Young Adult

  published December 7, 2011

  Described as a "psychotic prom-queen bitch," the anti-heroine of Young Adult is a prize part that affords Charlize Theron one of the... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Harvey Weinstein is Back -- NY Film Critics

  published Nov 30, 2011

  The big news to emerge from yesterday's New York Film Critics Circle voting--held early this year to scoop the other year end awards--is, of course, the second coming of homeboy Harvey Weinstein. Not... More >>

• Extreme Sex Addiction in Shame; Extreme Everything in Possession

  published November 30, 2011

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

• Birth of Psychoanalysis in A Dangerous Method; Last Days of the Brothel in House of Pleasures

  published November 23, 2011

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

• Satirizing War in Technicolor: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

  published November 16, 2011

  For those combatant nations able to produce movies, World War II inspired all manner of morale-boosting epics. The Nazis conjured up the period... More >>

• Fantasy Island: Alexander Payne's Feel-Good Hawaiian Excursion, The Descendants

  published November 16, 2011

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

• Robert Gardner's Visions

  published November 9, 2011

  A man of many worlds, Robert Gardner is a descendent of Boston aristocrat Isabella Stewart Gardner (as in the Museum), the founder (and funder)... More >>

• Great Man Theories: Clint Eastwood on J. Edgar

  published November 9, 2011

  A resounding “yes” to the question trembling on every lip: There is life after Hereafter! Clint Eastwood goes deep into... More >>

• Not With a Whimper But a Bang: The End Times of Melancholia

  published November 9, 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 >>

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  Deserved Second Act for Paul Newman's Sometimes a Great Notion

  published November 2, 2011

  One great thing about Paris: New prints of old movies from the ’70s, ’60s, and even the ’50s get extended runs in large... More >>

• Pop Art Movement: On Roy Lichtenstein's Three Landscapes

  published October 26, 2011

  However commonplace today, gallery video or film installations were once seen as blatantly vanguard—evidence of art’s forward march... More >>

• The Ghost of Hunter Thompson, A Tame Rum Diary

  published October 26, 2011

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

• Dream Act: Town Rallies to Help an Immigrant in Utopian Le Havre

  published October 19, 2011

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

• The Perils of Communal Living in Martha Marcy May Marlene

  published October 19, 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 >>

• To Save and Project Fest: Long Live Cinema!

  published October 12, 2011

  Digital might be the future of the motion-picture medium, but for film preservation, it’s a mixed blessing. Archivists polled in a recent... More >>

• NYFF: Daily Reviews

  published October 5, 2011

  The 49th annual New York Film Festival is in full swing at Lincoln Center and continues through October 16. Here's where you can find ongoing... More >>

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  Weekend: When Godard Burned the Movie House Down

  published October 5, 2011

  Jean-Luc Godard changed the course of film history with his debut Breathless (1960) and then again when he capped an unprecedented... More >>

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  NYFF: The Lineup, Plus 5 Must-Sees

  published September 28, 2011

  Golden anniversary approaching, the New York Film Festival maintains a singular position. Because it’s curated rather than competitive,... More >>