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

• A Separation Review

  published December 29, 2011

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

• War Horse Review

  published December 22, 2011

  It might be perverse to accuse a tearjerker as accomplished as Steven Spielberg of being unfeeling. But the overcalculation with which he... More >>

• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Review

  published December 22, 2011

  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is hardly a personal project. Still, David Fincher's sveltely malevolent remake of the 2009 Swedish... More >>

• L.A. Weekly Critic J. Hoberman's Top 10 Movies of 2011

  published December 22, 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 >>

• 2011 Village Voice/L.A. Weekly Film Critics' Poll

  published December 22, 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 >>

• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Review

  published December 8, 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 >>

• Young Adult Review

  published December 8, 2011

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

• Shame Review

  published December 1, 2011

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

• A Dangerous Method Review

  published November 24, 2011

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

• The Descendants Review

  published November 17, 2011

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

• J. Edgar Review

  published November 10, 2011

  Clint Eastwood goes deep into Oliver Stone territory and emerges victorious with J. Edgar. Although hardly flawless, this biopic is... More >>

• Lars Von Trier's Melancholia Review

  published November 10, 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 molasses,... More >>

• The Rum Diary Review

  published October 27, 2011

  Written and directed by Bruce Robinson, The Rum Diary adapts a novel Hunter S. Thompson began in the early '60s and published, under... More >>

• Le Havre Review

  published October 20, 2011

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

• Martha Marcy May Marlene Review

  published October 20, 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 >>

• Silent Souls (Ovsyanki) Review

  published September 29, 2011

  Russian director Aleksei Fedorchenko's third feature, Silent Souls, evokes Russia's pre-Slavic, pagan past in the form of a meditative... More >>

• Black Power Mixtape Documentary Review

  published September 22, 2011

  "The revolution will not be televised." So Gil Scott-Heron asserted in 1970, and so it was not — at least not on American TV. As... More >>

• Drive Review

  published September 15, 2011

  As stripped down and propulsive as its robotic title, Drive is the most "American" movie yet by Danish genre director Nicolas Winding... More >>

• Gainsbourg Biopic Review

  published September 1, 2011

  French cartoonist Joann Sfar's first feature is an ambitious attempt to cage the career of legendary French singer-songwriter-scamp Serge... More >>

• Amigo Review

  published August 18, 2011

  John Sayles's Amigo aspires more to educate than entertain but it's no less engrossing for that. Torn from the pages of... More >>

• Fassbinder's World on a Wire at LACMA

  published August 18, 2011

  There are movies that make news and movies that are news. World on a Wire is one of the latter. Suddenly: a virtually... More >>

• Magic Trip Review

  published August 11, 2011

  The subject of Magic Trip is the LSD-powered, cross-country road movie orchestrated by novelist Ken Kesey in the... More >>

• Mysteries of Lisbon Review

  published August 11, 2011

  Say what you will about 19th-century literature, they had stories in those days (and stories within stories). None of the 260... More >>

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  Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness Review

  published August 4, 2011

  Joseph Dorman's Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness is a film-essay-cum-biodoc on the author Solomon Rabinovich... More >>

• Miranda July's The Future Reviewed

  published August 4, 2011

  Is there such a thing as a sincerely calculated naïveté? Or, put another way, does Miranda July have any idea of... More >>