Alissa Wilkinson

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 <a href="https://twitter.com/alissamarie" target="blank">@alissamarie</a>.
Publications: Christianity Today, RogerEbert.com, Paste Magazine, Movie Mezzanine, Vox, Flavorwire

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
52% Coming 2 America (2021) Coming 2 America is really just a movie about how fun and great Coming to America was. It gives us another way to dance to the prior movie's beat. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 5, 2021
94% Nomadland (2021) Nomadland is achingly beautiful and sad, a profound work of empathy from Zhao. It's a true elegy, a lament for the dead, a yearning for the lost. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 19, 2021
98% Minari (2020) Both gently funny and moving, the movie is the story of bitterness coming along with growth and nourishment. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 18, 2021
79% Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021) Watching Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar was the closest I've come in a long time to feeling like I was on vacation. I chuckled, mostly, and giggled a little, and got to check out of life for a while without the feeling of leaving my brain at the door - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 18, 2021
100% Writing with Fire (2021) It's a stirring and inspiring documentary about some very courageous women, who deftly articulate and defend the need for accurate, fearless journalism in the pursuit of justice. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
43% Users (2021) Quite a few films at Sundance considered the effects of technology on our lives, but none were quite so lyrical or elegant - or, perhaps, chilling - as Users. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
100% Try Harder! (2021) It's a very funny movie about a bunch of students trying to find their way through a system that is designed to keep them out rather than let them in. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
100% Taming the Garden (2021) Taming the Garden unspools what's happening very slowly, and by the time we reach the end, it's overwhelming. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
100% Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021) The events were filmed, but the footage sat in a basement for 50 years. Now it's been compiled into a documentary about a pivotal moment in Black cultural history - and an absolutely infectious film to watch. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
93% Rebel Hearts (2021) Rebel Hearts tells the group's story, focusing on why the nuns changed and what they risked in refusing to bend to church leadership. It's a fast-paced and fascinating story that has implications far beyond Catholicism. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
88% President (2021) It is a thrilling, enraging film, and its intimate access to Chamisa and his advisers is extraordinary. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
97% In the Same Breath (2021) The result is a chilling, truly absorbing film with big implications for the future. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
87% Homeroom (2021) It's a compassionate, powerful, and often very funny look at a generation that will never be the same. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
100% Flee (2020) Flee won the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and no wonder: It's heartbreaking and moving, and hard to forget. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
95% Cusp (2021) Cusp is a little staggering and incredibly beautiful... It's to Cusp's credit that there's still a sense of magic and possibility throughout the film, as if the girls have some hope for their futures. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
92% Captains of Za'atari (2021) Mahmoud proclaims that refugees don't need pity; they need opportunities. And that message resonates throughout the film. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
94% At the Ready (2021) The film wisely probes the complex intersection of race, politics, law enforcement, and adolescence, showing how the school-to-cop pipeline in America is constructed early in the lives of not only these teenagers but also thousands of others. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
100% All Light, Everywhere (2021) Watching All Light, Everywhere is informative, but more importantly, it's an experience - and a sobering one. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
90% Together Together (2021) Together Together is a remarkably restrained spin on a "quirky comedy," celebrating platonic love and the many strange ways that we find family for ourselves - and it's never quite what you'd expect. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
100% The Pink Cloud (2021) This sounds like a nightmare to watch during a pandemic, but The Pink Cloud is haunting and riveting in the best way. It acutely diagnoses a mental state that will feel startlingly familiar. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
85% Passing (2021) The film feels almost dreamlike, evoking a world in which the lines that separate friendship from desire, love from hate, and white from Black are more permeable than you might expect - a world a lot like today's. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
93% Mass (2021) Mass leaves plenty of breathing room for characters to have authentic moments of emotion and puts a gentle, grace-filled frame around an almost unspeakable tragedy. It's a showcase for its performers, but it's also a valuable experience for its audience. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
89% Marvelous and the Black Hole (2020) Marvelous and the Black Hole is quirky and a little punky and a lot of fun, a movie that treats teen girls - even the angry ones - as deserving of respect. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
96% Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Judas and the Black Messiah is a stunning feature debut from director Shaka King, and it would be worth watching for the performances alone. But it also takes an innovative approach to the story. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
56% John and the Hole (2020) Directed by visual artist Pascual Sisto and featuring great performances from all of its leads, John and the Hole is a strange and darkly fun little thriller. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
67% Human Factors (2021) Part mystery, part drama, it's both engaging and sobering. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
100% Hive (2021) The film is stirring, infuriating, and ultimately hopeful. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
94% El Planeta (2021) The film is a little bleak, but also very funny, and a stellar debut for Ulman. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
100% The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet (2021) The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet doesn't stop with the moment of apocalypse; it imagines a life afterward, which is oddly heartening. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
95% CODA (2021) Sweet, thoughtful, and unusual in its extensive use of sign language and its casting of deaf actors (including Oscar winner Marlee Matlin), it's the kind of film you can't help but love. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2021
2/5 58% Malcolm & Marie (2020) In the hands of a stronger writer, Malcolm & Marie could have taken its cues from great theater two-handers, duets designed to showcase their actors. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2021
3.5/5 100% Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020) At times it feels like Crip Camp bites off slightly too much for a movie that's less than two hours long. But I can't really blame the directors for cramming in as much information as they can. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2021
3.5/5 92% The White Tiger (2020) The White Tiger feels like a fable, one that illustrates how trapping people in poverty so there will always be someone to do wealthier folks' bidding is as much a function of psychology and culture as of economic opportunity. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 27, 2021
4.5/5 95% Soul (2020) It's funny, and it's imaginative, but it's also just very, very real. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 22, 2021
4/5 98% One Night in Miami (2020) The film has the feel of theater, focusing on conversation and subtle power dynamics rather than a lot of movement and action. But some nimble staging and stunning performances from all four of its lead actors make One Night in Miami pulse with energy. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 15, 2021
98% The Reason I Jump (2021) While it's tricky for a neurotypical person (such as myself) to know how well it succeeds - as Mitchell says, "neurotypicals are rubbish at understanding anything that is not neurotypical" - I do feel like it reaches its aims. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 12, 2021
No Score Yet Her Socialist Smile (2020) The film is fascinating - a portrait of a woman who has little to lose and is willing to give her all for what she believes in - and an important addition to Keller's legacy. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 5, 2021
4/5 98% Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) Boseman plays Levee with an electricity that feels urgent. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 18, 2020
4.5/5 92% Another Round (Druk) (2020) Another Round is a truly wonderful movie about trying to come to grips with life, anchored by terrific performances, infectious music, and a real understanding of the humming discontentment that all adults must learn to navigate in their own ways. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 18, 2020
4.5/5 99% Wolfwalkers (2020) To watch Wolfwalkers is to dive into visual splendor. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 11, 2020
89% Sing Me A Song (2021) Each frame is pristine, peaceful, and stunning, which only underlines the sharp changes in the young monks' lives. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 3, 2020
4.5/5 89% The Nest (2020) It's pure pleasure to watch a film like The Nest, which is scary for all the right reasons and leaves you feeling unsettled at the end. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 20, 2020
4/5 78% I Am Greta (2020) Grossman's fly-on-the-wall approach is a perfect match for his subject. Thunberg is not unselfconscious, but she has very little to prove, and so her single-minded passion for her activism comes through in every word she says. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 13, 2020
1/5 25% Hillbilly Elegy (2020) An elegy is a mournful poem of reflection. Often, it's a lament, a song sung for the dead. But Hillbilly Elegy is no elegy. It's not reflective enough to even understand the living. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 10, 2020
87% White Noise (2020) White Noise is a great and illuminating film, far more engaging and smart than most journalistic profiles of each of these people. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 29, 2020
85% Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020) Bakalova plunges into it with aplomb and steals the show from Baron Cohen, who mostly reprises his old shtick, tricking people into saying things they probably wouldn't want to be seen onscreen saying. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 23, 2020
98% David Byrne's American Utopia (2020) I dare you not to dance while watching it. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 21, 2020
3.5/5 90% The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) The movie is effective in spite of its foibles. It's an ensemble piece that tells a complex story cleanly. And even its missteps hint as to why Sorkin chose to return to this historical moment now. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 21, 2020
97% What the Constitution Means to Me (2020) The filmed version of What the Constitution Means to Me (with direction from Won't You Be My Neighbor's Marielle Heller) captures that moving, angry, heartbreaking, and strangely inspiring Broadway show. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 20, 2020
98% Time (2020) Heartbreaking and passionate, Time is the chronicle of a love deferred and the life that hope can provide. - Vox EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 14, 2020