DIE MY LOVE Review and 2 More Films on Frustrated Femmes
In her Die My Love review, Sentimental Value review and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You review, Lisa Johnson Mandell says there’s no doubt the performances are sublime, but the stories? Not so much. I’m a great advocate of superlative female performances and female forward films. But I’m not a fan of films that…
HAMNET Review, BUGONIA Review — 2 Top 5 Favorites
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Hamnet review and Bugonia review reveal two of the films in her Top 5 List of 2025. Their mastery and originality are staggering. Hamnet review There’s one word that I hear most often in descriptions, reviews or conversations about the film Hamnet, and that would be ‘tears,’ followed by ‘cry.’ That’s saying…
NOW YOU SEE ME 3 Review — aka Now You See Me: Now You Don’t
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Now You See Me 3 review says this third chapter in the franchise has run out of magic thanks to magic-free CGI. By the time a franchise reaches its third outing, you’d hope a decade of experience might refine its craft. Unfortunately, Now You See Me 3 is an all-too common threequel…
WICKED FOR GOOD Review—2nd Time is Even More of a Charm
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Wicked for Good review and reveals that the second half is even more splendified than the first, with epicaliferous cinematic artistry defying traditional sequel gravity. It’s never easy for a director to make lightening strike twice—especially with a sequel. Jon M Chu’s Wicked hadn’t really lost its cinematic zeitgeist status yet—the streets…
TAPAWINGO REVIEW: Jon Heder’s Back, and He’s Still Laidback
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Tapawingo review says Jon Heder hasn’t lost a comedic step since Napoleon Dynamite. Okay, so remember when we all collectively lost our minds over Napoleon Dynamite back in 2004? Well, Jon Heder just rolled up in a tricked-out dune buggy to remind us why we fell for his particular brand of weird in…
The Girlfriend Review — 2 Critics Share 1 Strong Opinion
Critics Tandy Culpepper and Lisa Johnson Mandell actually agree in their The Girlfriend review—see what they think on Tandy’s podcast, The Hollywood Beat. In The Girlfriend, Robin Wright steps in front of and behind the camera, shaping a drama that begins as polished domestic perfection and unravels into psychological warfare. She plays Laura Sanderson, a…
HOSTAGE Review — Lisa and Tandy On The Hollywood Beat
In their Hostage review, Lisa Johnson Mandell and Tandy Culpepper talk about a scintillating limited series starring Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy, on The Hollywood Beat podcast. Hostage Review, by Tandy Culpepper The five-episode miniseries Hostage, starring Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy on Netflix, manages to be both tautly entertaining and politically astute, even while…
FRANKENSTEIN Review — A Powerful and Poignant Masterpiece
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Frankenstein reviews says that director Guillermo del Toro’s latest work is monstrously brilliant. Of all the countless renditions of Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic tale of the manmade monster, this may be the most lavish, poignant and profoundly beautiful work yet, said she who normally eschews reboots, remakes, re-imaginings and retellings. Director Guillermo…
GOOD FORTUNE Review — Keanu Reeves Saves the Day, and the Film
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Good Fortune review says Aziz Ansari’s cosmic comedy starring Keanu Reeves semi-successfully blends the absurd with the heartfelt. Set in modern-day Los Angeles, Good Fortune follows Arj (Aziz Ansari, making his feature film debut as writher/director/star), a down-on-his-luck gig worker juggling an endless string of low-paying side hustles. Whether he’s waiting in…
ROOFMAN Review, AFTER THE HUNT Review — 1 Authentic, 1 Fake
Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Roofman Review and After the Hunt Review says that one film is charmingly real, and the other is alarmingly phony. Roofman Review — Authentic yet charmingly unbelievable What a delightful, understated surprise we have in Roofman. It’s based on an almost unbelievable true story of an extremely charming Army veteran who finds…
