Email Author Melissa Anderson

2012 Stories by Melissa Anderson

• Rust and Bone Dismembers Cinema's Beauty of the Moment

  published December 20, 2012

  To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, one must have a heart of stone to watch Jacques Audiard's outrageous melodrama Rust and Bone without... More >>

• Rebecca Hall Bets Big -- and Almost Saves Lay the Favorite

  published December 6, 2012

  A wan comedy about gambling that takes no risks, Stephen Frears' Lay the Favorite has none of the stinging sordidness of The... More >>

• The House I Live In: Powerful Voices Explain the Failed War on Drugs

  published November 8, 2012

  The winner of the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at Sundance, Eugene Jarecki's The House I Live In, an occasionally muddled... More >>

• Surveying Whitney Houston's Checkered Film Career

  published August 16, 2012

  In anticipation of the remake of the 1976 girl-group melodrama Sparkle — Whitney Houston's posthumous film appearance and her return... More >>

• Oslo, August 31st: An Addict Revisits the People He Has Hurt and His Demons

  published July 19, 2012

  In just two feature films, writer/director Joachim Trier has proved to be unparalleled in exposing the foibles and delusions of all the sad... More >>

• Beasts of the Southern Wild: A Child Thrives in Adverse Conditions

  published July 12, 2012

  A zealous gumbo of regionalism, magical realism, post-Katrina allegory, myth, and ecological parable, Beasts of the Southern Wild, the... More >>

• Ted: Seth McFarlane's Debut Stuffed With More of the Same

  published June 28, 2012

  Fans of Seth MacFarlane's Fox mainstay Family Guy who wish he would run afoul of FCC regulations every week might be pleased with... More >>

• With Your Sister's Sister, the Creator of Humpday Verges on the Conventional

  published June 28, 2012

  Beginning with a bilious toast and ending with a group hug, Lynn Shelton's Your Sister's Sister, her fourth film, expertly makes us... More >>

• The Invisible War: Doc Reveals a Military That Is "Target Rich" for Sexual Predators

  published June 28, 2012

  Like Amir Bar-Lev's The Tillman Story (2010), Kirby Dick's The Invisible War scathingly indicts U.S. military culture. Yet the... More >>

• Brave: A Family Film About Courage That Actually Has Some

  published June 21, 2012

  With her flame-colored ringlets, Merida, the barely adolescent heroine of Pixar's 13th feature, looks like a wee Rebekah Brooks, maybe a... More >>

• Peace, Love & Misunderstanding: Jane Fonda Deserves Better

  published June 14, 2012

  Three generations of fine actresses are squandered in Bruce Beresford's Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, an incompetently structured film... More >>

• Marley: Beyond the Mascot, New Documentary Stirs it Up

  published April 19, 2012

  I spotted a bottle of something called Marley's Mellow Mood, "a new line of 100 percent natural relaxation beverages," in my neighborhood deli... More >>

• The Hunger Games Rages Against Our Stupid Culture But Becomes Part of the Problem

  published March 22, 2012

  "If no one watches, then they don't have a game," a teenager says in this faithful if cautious adaptation of the first volume of Suzanne... More >>

• 21 Jump Street Is Now a Buddy Comedy

  published March 15, 2012

  Bro, how times have changed: 21 Jump Street is now a buddy comedy. The television show 21 Jump Street, about cops who go... More >>

• Crazy Horse: Life Is an Erotic Cabaret in Frederick Wiseman's Latest

  published March 8, 2012

  Recording "Les Filles du Crazy," an anthem that they'll later lip-synch onstage, half a dozen women — performers at the Crazy Horse,... More >>

• Friends With Kids: An Unconventional Parenting Setup in a Highly Standard Rom-Com

  published March 8, 2012

  In the opening scene of Friends With Kids, a conspicuously placed copy of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion on the bedside table... More >>

• Pina: Big Emotions and an Extra Dimension

  published February 9, 2012

  "You just have to get crazier" were the words of advice that mighty choreographer Pina Bausch once gave to one of her dancers, who fondly... More >>

• Pariah: To Be Young, Gifted, Black, and Lesbian

  published January 12, 2012

  The first 10 minutes of Dee Rees' funny, moving, nuanced, and impeccably acted first feature, in which coming of age and coming out are... More >>