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Critics list

Emily St. James

Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications:

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Happiest Season (2020) 82% 3.5/5 EDIT “Is the movie full of every cliché in the book? Yes. But because it takes place during my beloved Christmas season, and because it's got Davis at its center, I went with it.” – Vox Feb 21, 2021 Full Review The Special Relationship (2010) 83% EDIT “The core of the movie is very strong. The piece is built around three performances that somehow grow from being mere impersonations and become something real and moving.” – AV Club Sep 9, 2020 Full Review The Sunset Limited (2011) 68% EDIT “At first, The Sunset Limited purports to be a clash between belief (in God) and skepticism. But as it goes on, it becomes something much more cunning.” – AV Club Aug 7, 2020 Full Review The Half of It (2020) 97% 2.5/5 EDIT “There's a great movie inside of The Half of It, and Wu is a tremendous talent who shouldn't have to wait 15 years to make another feature film. Like too many Netflix movies, this one feels like the script needed a few more drafts.” – Vox Apr 30, 2020 Full Review Trolls World Tour (2020) 72% EDIT “I appreciated the way Trolls World Tour genuinely took an interest in drawing lines between personal and political systems of oppression.” – Vox Apr 18, 2020 Full Review Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) 97% 5/5 EDIT “Sciamma has a keen eye for the ways that women have always cared for each other under the radar of society, dealing with unwanted pregnancies and building little communities in plain sight.” – Vox Feb 19, 2020 Full Review Noelle (2019) 56% 2.5/5 EDIT “Noelle frequently feels like it's running in place, frantically throwing shiny objects in your face in the hope you don't lose interest. But for fans of movie depictions of Christmas, there are worse options.” – Vox Nov 12, 2019 Full Review Hustlers (2019) 88% 4.5/5 EDIT “Hustlers asks what a movie like Goodfellas looks like with women at the center of the story.” – Vox Sep 13, 2019 Full Review Deadwood: The Movie (2019) 98% 4.5/5 EDIT “I'm about to say is a compliment, even if it might not sound like one: Deadwood: The Movie feels like the best TV episode of 1997.” – Vox Jun 1, 2019 Full Review Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's 'All in the Family' and 'The Jeffersons' (2019) 88% EDIT “This special might have grown out of nostalgia, or Jimmy Kimmel's ego, or a genuine desire to fete [Norman] Lear while he's still alive. But there's a comfort in ritual, in recreating the same basic ceremony over and over again.” – Vox May 29, 2019 Full Review Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019) 68% 3.5/5 EDIT “I don't know a dang thing about Pokémon, and I really had a great time with Detective Pikachu... I found plenty to enjoy here, and I was never once confounded by what was happening onscreen.” – Vox May 9, 2019 Full Review Mirai no Mirai (2018) 91% EDIT “This is a movie for patient viewers, but trust that you will be richly rewarded.” – Vox Feb 20, 2019 Full Review The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019) 84% 3/5 EDIT “I had a good time watching it, but I could always see the filmmakers just offscreen, holding up the big table the Legos were scattered across, sweating and straining to keep the whole thing from toppling over.” – Vox Jan 26, 2019 Full Review The Village (2004) 43% EDIT “It all comes to a head... in perhaps the greatest sequence Shyamalan has ever filmed.” – Vox Jan 24, 2019 Full Review You Were Never Really Here (2017) 89% 4/5 EDIT “It's the kind of movie I'm glad [Ramsay] made because her interrogation of Joe's masculinity is the sort of thing endemic to the material that many male directors might have missed in an attempt to make the movie more "exciting."” – Vox Dec 26, 2018 Full Review Vice (2018) 64% 4/5 EDIT “It was the supporting players who really grabbed me, especially Amy Adams (effectively blending her Drop Dead Gorgeous and The Master characters into one person)...” – Vox Dec 21, 2018 Full Review Welcome to Marwen (2018) 33% 1.5/5 EDIT “Welcome to Marwen can never overcome the question of why it exists.” – Vox Dec 20, 2018 Full Review Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) 52% 2/5 EDIT “You have to wade through a whole bunch of effects that feel ... abandoned before they were fully baked.” – Vox Dec 8, 2018 Full Review The Stingiest Man in Town (1978) B+ EDIT “The Stingiest Man In Town remains a brisk retelling of one of the most famous stories ever told, a retelling that boasts fun songs, a good deal of TV history being made, and a great central performance.” – AV Club Dec 6, 2018 Full Review The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus (1985) 63% EDIT “This is something like Rankin/Bass's fifth attempt to tell the back-story of the jolly old elf. But there's something so pleasingly goofy about Santa wandering into scenes that might as well be ripped from the pages of Marvel Comics.” – Vox Dec 6, 2018 Full Review Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977) 56% EDIT “Muller's script is willing to go for the jugular in terms of pathos. Plus, watching this one lets you realize how much terror of being made fun of as a child animates Rankin/Bass.” – Vox Dec 5, 2018 Full Review Cricket on the Hearth (1967) EDIT “There's blindness caused by grief, melodramatic plot twists by the bushel, and a cricket narrator. But it's all a little bland, with songs that last way too long.” – Vox Dec 4, 2018 Full Review The Little Drummer Boy (1968) 75% EDIT “The drummer boy is a misanthrope who hates all of humanity, which makes for a surprisingly entertaining character to follow around. Rankin/Bass was terrified of playing up the darker sides of its characters. It shouldn't have been.” – Vox Dec 4, 2018 Full Review Pinocchio's Christmas (1980) 20% EDIT “It's confused and more than a little boring. And the Christmas connection is very nebulous.” – Vox Dec 4, 2018 Full Review Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979) 14% EDIT “The attempts to turn these corny stories into some sort of epic strain with flopsweat, and the hoped-for Avengers-style team-up of the company's big two mostly results in scenes where you wonder why Frosty's not melting in the middle of July.” – Vox Dec 3, 2018 Full Review
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