Alissa Wilkinson
Tomatometer-approved critic
| Biography: |
Alissa Wilkinson is Vox.com's film critic. Formerly, she was chief film critic at Christianity Today. Her writing has appeared at Rolling Stone, Vulture, RogerEbert.com, Pacific Standard, Books & Culture, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Paste, and others. She lives and works in New York City, and you can find her @alissamarie.
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| Publications: | Christianity Today, RogerEbert.com, Paste Magazine, Movie Mezzanine, Vox, Flavorwire |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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| 3.5/5 | 85% | Alpha (2018) |
Worth seeing just to witness how audacious it is.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Aug 15, 2018
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| 2/5 | 47% | The Meg (2018) |
To call the film "derivative" isn't pejorative; it's kind of the point.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Aug 10, 2018
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| 3/5 | 51% | Equalizer 2 (2018) |
He's never referred to as "the Equalizer" by those around him, but he might as well be, given that he's just a cape away from being a full-fledged superhero.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jul 19, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 94% | Blindspotting (2018) |
Collin and Miles's relationship also allows the movie to carefully but confidently address some of the thornier realities that abstracted political and social arguments often sidestep for convenience's sake.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jul 19, 2018
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| 3/5 | 80% | Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) |
Exactly what Abba would want.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jul 18, 2018
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| 4/5 | 97% | Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) |
Fallout features a badass, brilliant action hero who also never kills anyone without looking them straight in the eye first and visibly weighing the moral choice before him.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jul 17, 2018
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| 4.5/5 | 98% | Eighth Grade (2018) |
Startlingly empathetic, wincingly honest, and always completely charming.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jul 13, 2018
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| 2.5/5 | 48% | Skyscraper (2018) |
The result is a competent action film that serves up some properly nail-biting moments.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jul 12, 2018
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| 52% | The First Purge (2018) |
I can't quite shake the feeling that something is just off about the Purge series' attempt at political literalism combined with dying citizens, recontextualized as a social experiment.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jul 3, 2018
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| 90% | Set It Up (2018) |
Set It Up works because it knows the long line of romcoms it comes from.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jun 29, 2018
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| 4.5/5 | 100% | Leave No Trace (2018) |
Every year a handful of small, independent American films show up that leave you breathless. Leave No Trace is one of them.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jun 29, 2018
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| 1.5/5 | 64% | Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) |
Sicario: Day of the Soldado is weirdly weak, more of a knock-off than a sequel - and most definitely a wasted opportunity.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jun 28, 2018
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| 3/5 | 51% | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) |
Eventually it spirals into "gothic horror, except with dinosaurs," a concept I personally can get behind.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jun 20, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 93% | Incredibles 2 (2018) |
It seems so weird to say: While writer-director Brad Bird's Incredibles 2 is undeniably a good time at the movies for the whole family, it's the rare superhero movie that may have too many ideas knocking around in its noggin.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jun 11, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 99% | Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) |
It's a gentle film that doesn't take a lot of risks but doesn't really need to.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jun 8, 2018
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| 4.5/5 | 89% | Hereditary (2018) |
Mostly I just felt really weirded out, which is what the movie wants... In that way, Hereditary is a true horror film.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jun 1, 2018
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| 86% | American Animals (2018) |
There's a kernel of something interesting in the film, and it's the movement between performance and "reality" that makes it work.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 31, 2018
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| 5/5 | 94% | First Reformed (2018) |
It lingers uneasily in the subconscious. Furious and darkly funny, it's a tight, explosive encapsulation of our very specific moment in history.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 25, 2018
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| 75% | Capernaum (Capharnaüm) (2018) |
The film contains some outstanding performances by children (including a toddler!) and it's undeniably going straight for the heartstrings.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 23, 2018
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| 95% | Burning (Beoning) (2018) |
It's gripping and unnerving, a noir-style mystery with no answers that goes in entirely unexpected directions (and harbors a hint of William Faulkner too).‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 23, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 61% | Under the Silver Lake (2018) |
It's no Mulholland Drive, but the point of Under the Silver Lake rhymes with themes from David Lynch's masterpiece: that lifetimes of watching others has instructed us in how to be watched ourselves.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 18, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 89% | Pope Francis - A Man of His Word (2018) |
Isn't likely to convert any of Francis's critics, but it might just convince the indifferent that he has something to say to our world.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 17, 2018
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| 2.5/5 | 71% | Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) |
A bland heist movie in space that does nothing unexpected and never justifies its existence.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 16, 2018
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| 4.5/5 | 100% | Cold War (Zimna wojna) (2018) |
Cold War rivals most films I can think of in how much longing it packs into every scene... It's a work of unspeakable beauty.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 15, 2018
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| 1.5/5 | 96% | BlacKkKlansman (2018) |
If the movie aims to make complacent white people feel uncomfortable about their role in the current American turmoil, it fails spectacularly.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 15, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 59% | Summer (Leto) (2018) |
Its first hour is charged with energy, but as time goes on... elements that felt playful drop away for a more straightforward drama. ‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 11, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 100% | Arctic (2018) |
Arctic is stark and visceral, stripped of any distracting elements, and for the survival movie purist, it's an artful entry into the genre.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 11, 2018
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| 96% | In Jackson Heights (2015) |
Like all Wiseman films, In Jackson Heights is a stealth statement with some political implications.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 3, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Central Park (1991) |
Considered one of Wiseman's most accessible films, and it's also among the best examples of one of his favorite themes: the ways that public institutions are a microcosm for the life of a whole city.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 3, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Welfare (1975) |
Welfare at times feels like the real-life, ensemble-cast version of a Kafka novel.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 3, 2018
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| 100% | Titicut Follies (1967) |
A sort of harrowing tragicomedy, with images of force-feeding, bullying, strip-searching, and the staff's indifference to inmates, all culminating in an institution-wide talent show called the Titicut Follies.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 3, 2018
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| 4/5 | 86% | Tully (2018) |
Tully is still a strong depiction of parenthood that also makes for a startling and entertaining movie.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted May 2, 2018
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| 2/5 | 34% | I Feel Pretty (2018) |
I Feel Pretty could have used more work to be ready for its moment in the spotlight.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Apr 18, 2018
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| 2.5/5 | 83% | Borg Vs. McEnroe (2018) |
Ably shot by Niels Thastum, the movie looks less frenetic than many others in its genre. But the story drags without much narrative tension, and by the end you just want the match to happen so there's some movement onscreen.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2018
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| 2.5/5 | 52% | Rampage (2018) |
It's both a blindingly predictable pastiche of an action movie... and weirdly charming. ‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 83% | Blockers (2018) |
As comedies go, it's pretty standard fare. But its characters and performances keep it light on its feet, even when the writing gets clunky.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Apr 5, 2018
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| 4/5 | 95% | A Quiet Place (2018) |
The result is frightening, and it feels wholly original.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Apr 4, 2018
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| 3/5 | 73% | Ready Player One (2018) |
It's a little hard not to feel like the emperor isn't wearing any clothes.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Mar 30, 2018
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| 2.5/5 | 89% | Isle of Dogs (2018) |
Isle of Dogs chases its tail and says nothing. ‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Mar 21, 2018
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| 3/5 | 49% | Tomb Raider (2018) |
The old Tomb Raider movies are terrible, patently silly... But the 2018 reboot of Tomb Raider, starring Alicia Vikander as Croft, actually wants to be a movie. It's got a story, and characters, and an emotional center...‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Mar 15, 2018
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| 2.5/5 | 40% | A Wrinkle in Time (2018) |
It makes me wonder how much Disney trusts its young audiences to be smart and able to understand the world.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Mar 7, 2018
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| 4.5/5 | 88% | Annihilation (2018) |
Annihilation feels wholly unexpected and raw. It is a disturbing film for reasons that are almost metaphysical.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Feb 23, 2018
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| 4/5 | 82% | Early Man (2018) |
It's the sheer silliness of the proposition... that makes Early Man hum along.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2018
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| 4/5 | 94% | Private Life (2018) |
Private Life refuses to stick to just one mode of storytelling - it has slapstick and melodrama, heartbreak and hope. ‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2018
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| 4.5/5 | 100% | Bisbee '17 (2017) |
Bisbee '17 is a fierce, lyrical probe into the soul of a town haunted by a history it would rather forget. It's also an unsettling cipher for America, in a year when the ghosts of our past revealed themselves in frightening ways.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 94% | Sorry to Bother You (2018) |
[Boots] Riley is swinging for the fences here, with a clear vision of what he's after, and on the whole, he succeeds tremendously. It's a fantastical, weird, funny, devastating movie, and it proves Riley is a director worth watching.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2018
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| 3.5/5 | 79% | I Think We're Alone Now (2018) |
It's more of a relationship drama, one that works as a showcase for two great performances against a post-apocalyptic backdrop that ups the stakes...‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2018
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| 4/5 | 98% | The Tale (2018) |
A sensitive, innovative, even beautiful feature that cuts right at the heart of the most difficult conversations we're having as a country.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jan 23, 2018
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| 29% | Proud Mary (2018) |
Proud Mary is still worth watching for two reasons. One: Winston is a talented actor, one worth keeping your eye on, and the chemistry between him and Henson as a mother figure is genuinely affecting. And two: Henson is just the greatest.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Jan 16, 2018
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| 3/5 | 50% | Downsizing (2017) |
... its unwieldy, occasionally baffling progression has a charm all its own.‐ Vox
Read More | Posted Dec 21, 2017
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