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

• 

  COVER STORY

  J. Hoberman Names His Top Movies of the Year

  published December 29, 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 >>

• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Rooney Mara Takes Control of the Juggernaut

  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 >>

• Young Adult: Charlize Theron Is at Her Best as a "Psychotic Prom-Queen Bitch"

  published December 8, 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 >>

• Melancholia: Lars von Trier Imagines the End Days

  published December 1, 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, birds... More >>

• The Descendants: Surprisingly, Alexander Payne May Have Made the Feel-Good Movie of the Year

  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: Clint Eastwood's Inspired Take on a Giant of the 20th Century

  published November 10, 2011

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

• Le Havre: A French Town Rallies to Protect an African Immigrant

  published November 10, 2011

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

• The Rum Diary: An Oddly Tame Adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Book

  published October 27, 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 >>

• Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life: Trying to Fit the French Idol Into a Biopic Box

  published September 22, 2011

  Sometimes it's easier for life to imitate art than vice versa — witness French cartoonist Joann Sfar's first feature, an ambitious... More >>

• Drive: Ryan Gosling Is at the Wheel in a Heist Gone Bad

  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 >>

• The Future: Navigating What Lies Ahead in Miranda July's Latest

  published August 18, 2011

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

• Tabloid: Cloned Dogs! Mormon Sex! Scandal and Subjective Reality in Errol Morris' Latest

  published August 11, 2011

  As a documentarian, Errol Morris is less a humanist than a connoisseur of "human interest," and Tabloid, his ecstatically received and... More >>

• Terri: In Which a High School Outcast Finds His Place

  published July 28, 2011

  A genially despised genre appealing to a constant and constantly expanding demographic, the high school movie has for years provided ambitious... More >>

• Page One: Inside the New York Times Takes the Story to the Newsroom

  published June 30, 2011

  Nobody cries, "Stop the presses!" in Andrew Rossi's Page One: Inside the New York Times; no one would dare. There's a palpable fear that... More >>

• Super 8: J.J. Abrams Deploys Humor and Destruction In His Catastrophe Flick

  published June 9, 2011

  A big-bang demolition derby, J.J. Abrams' much-anticipated, greatly enjoyable Super 8 seems bound for box-office glory. Opening three... More >>

• Everything Must Go: Will Ferrell Is Down and Out, and His Life Is for SaleLife for Sale

  published June 2, 2011

  Greatly expanded from a four-page, single-situation story by Raymond Carver, Dan Rush's first feature Everything Must Go is an ambitious... More >>

• Cannes Outdoes Itself: Our Picks from the Strongest Festival in Years

  published May 26, 2011

  CANNES, FRANCE — The last-day screening of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's ruminative, challenging Once Upon a Time in Anatolia strengthened... More >>

• Mel Gibson Goes Crazy for The Beaver

  published May 19, 2011

  An earnest, intermittently droll dramedy about a manic-depressive toy manufacturer and his bewildered family, The Beaver is a parable... More >>

• Cannes 2011 Has Issues

  published May 19, 2011

  CANNES, FRANCE — Midway through the Cannes Film Festival, the competition has been all about family — more specifically all about... More >>

• Mildred Pierce: A New Version of the Noir Classic Stays Close to the Source

  published March 24, 2011

  This week's big movie may be found on TV. Arch-independent filmmaker Todd Haynes makes a characteristically sidelong move toward the mainstream... More >>

• Cedar Rapids: A Middle-Aged Naif Goes Wild

  published February 17, 2011

  Fresh from Sundance, Miguel Arteta's amiable Cedar Rapids is a mild comedy of embarrassment, set in the dark heart of Middle America and... More >>

• A Neophyte Roman General Flies Like The Eagle

  published February 10, 2011

  The Eagle, directed by Kevin Macdonald and adapted from Rosemary Sutcliff's 1954 historical novel, The Eagle of the Ninth, a... More >>

• The Green Hornet: Seth Rogen Schlubs It Up

  published January 13, 2011

  Only inertia will bring people to Michel Gondry's 3-D spectacle, The Green Hornet. Opening amid persistent negative buzz in the... More >>