Beandrea July

Beandrea July
Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:
Beandrea July (@beandreadotcom) is a freelance film critic and entertainment writer based in Los Angeles, who has written for the Hollywood Reporter, Out Magazine, and Women and Hollywood, among other publications.
Publications: Hollywood Reporter, New York Times, Out Magazine, Vanity Fair, Hyperallergic, Women and Hollywood, Cherry Picks

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
90% Kajillionaire (2020) A gratifying watch, the oddball family dramedy is fundamentally about what it means to re-parent one's self as an adult. - Hyperallergic EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 17, 2020
No Score Yet Definition Please (2020) A funny, reflective good time of a debut. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 26, 2020
100% Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares) (2021) Signals an exciting arrival by a much-needed voice. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 9, 2020
94% John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020) The sheer volume of archival footage and black and white stills in John Lewis: Good Trouble, combined with interviews from some of Lewis' past and present colleagues, has a powerful visual effect. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 29, 2020
65% The Lovebirds (2020) Funny and fresh for all the right reasons. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted May 20, 2020
98% Time (2020) Transcendent yet down-to-earth. - Hyperallergic EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 2, 2020
73% Harriet (2019) Instead of that soul-crushing feeling I often experience after seeing a "Black struggle film," Harriet sent me out of the theater feeling empowered. - Hyperallergic EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 28, 2020
95% The Apollo (2019) Drawing on interviews with theater staff and famous musicians alike, the film's history of this one location is also a cultural history of America. - Hyperallergic EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 28, 2020
100% The Bronx, USA (2019) This isn't exactly the Bronx tale you might hear from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Showtime's Desus and Mero, but it is an earnest multigenerational perspective on New York's most diverse and distinctive borough. - Hyperallergic EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 28, 2020
64% All the Bright Places (2020) A refreshingly sober spin on YA romance. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 28, 2020
92% The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) In terms of more mainstream Hollywood bromance films, The Last Black Man in San Francisco signals a major departure. - Hyperallergic EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 25, 2020
74% The Photograph (2020) Despite the film's middle-of-the-road artistic impact, it represents the growth of something unseen for far too long: true-to-life black love that's not just played for laughs. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 13, 2020
82% Charm City Kings (2020) Unable to harness the story's potential, the filmmakers instead deliver a mostly canned movie that flatlines 20 minutes before it comes to an end. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2020
73% Run Sweetheart Run (2020) If malignant misogyny transformed into a person, it would be the villain in Run Sweetheart Run. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2020
91% Some Kind of Heaven (2021) There's a lot of dancing in this movie, and it turns out that watching old people dance in an authentic way is really enjoyable. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2020
98% Disclosure (2020) A thoughtfully crafted film that puts underheard voices first. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2020
100% Giving Voice (2020) A rousing ode to theater kids. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2020
97% Farewell Amor (2020) A moving exploration of the meaning of home. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 28, 2020
75% Beast Beast (2021) All three young actors who play the leads deliver solid performances that make them effortless tour guides through their intersecting stories. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 27, 2020
75% Aggie (2020) Aggie is an extraordinary figure, and the doc is interesting enough. But don't expect much invention or surprise here. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 27, 2020
98% The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020) With a carefully crafted visual language, an inventive Greek Chorus composed of characters who reflect New York's diversity and a funny yet thought-provoking script, the film creates a world that you want to soak up frame by frame. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2020
99% On the Record (2020) The overall result is an intimate look at what is at stake when rape victims decide whether or not to tell their stories. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2020
99% The Fight (2020) [F]rankly, it's nice to see David beating Goliath on the big screen. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2020
86% Angelfish (2019) Lee's film plays it disappointingly safe, never deviating from romantic comedy conventions; there are no real surprises that you can't already see coming. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 14, 2019
52% Charlie's Angels (2019) Banks brings Charlie's Angels into the modern age with flair, all while unapologetically raising a feminist flag, championing female friendships and subtly making a point about the urgency of the ongoing climate crisis. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 12, 2019
No Score Yet Liberty: Mother of Exiles (2019) What Liberty: Mother of Exiles makes clear is that even if you think you know the whole story, there's a lot more to it than Emma Lazarus' famous poem. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 12, 2019
65% Sister Aimee (2019) Buck and Schlingmann have ideas, but they just don't add up to something impactful here. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 27, 2019
94% Dads (2020) An optimistic yet affecting exploration of how fatherhood has evolved over the years and how far it still needs to go. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 16, 2019
60% Comets (2019) As the movie doesn't cohere at the end, you're left feeling cheated by the fact that it has required so much patience up until then. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2019
96% Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (2019) Orner succeeds at evoking a deep sense of empathy for the survivors of Choudhury's abuse, and although that's not the same thing as justice, perhaps it's a place to start. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 10, 2019
88% The Obituary of Tunde Johnson (2019) An agonizing tale about the weight society hoists upon too many black gay men's weary shoulders, it's the kind of film that lingers in your mind days after you've seen it, as much due to the relevant subject matter as to Tunde's penetrating gaze. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 8, 2019
87% Hustlers (2019) Scafaria validates her heroines from the start by focusing on them as women whose internal struggles and friendships with each other are far more interesting than their obvious physical allure. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 7, 2019
76% Tammy's Always Dying (2019) The main reason the film is worth a watch is the strong performances of its two leads. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 6, 2019
No Score Yet While I Breathe, I Hope (2019) There are few surprising moments in While I Hope, I Breathe, and many familiar platitudes. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 16, 2019
33% The Devil Has a Name (2020) Olmos balances a grim tale of corporate exploitation, environmental degradation and the plight of the American farmer with delightful buddy-comedy pairings. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 5, 2019
67% Almost Love (2020) At its core, this is a film about emotional intimacy: the mundane, ecstatic and difficult parts of loving someone over the long-term. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 23, 2019
100% Queering The Script (2019) The film makes a convincing case for why it is powerful when underrepresented audiences see fictional characters that both entertain and inspire. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 22, 2019
82% Holy Trinity (2019) It celebrates living a sex- and kink-positive life and explores how an affirmative spirituality fits into that. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 22, 2019
90% Always Be My Maybe (2019) Although the script is uneven, there is hardly a moment where we don't believe in these two. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted May 29, 2019
36% Poms (2019) It lands as voyeuristic condescension and flattens the presumably full lives of women elders into hollow inspiration fodder. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted May 9, 2019
97% Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019) Though clearly made for a wide audience, Greenfield-Sanders doesn't back away from Morrison's candid critiques of racism and misogyny. - Out Magazine EDIT
Read More | Posted May 1, 2019
83% Someone Great (2019) It's very funny and offers up plenty of heartwarming fodder for the sentimental among us. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 18, 2019
46% Little (2019) What really works about Little easily surpasses what doesn't. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 10, 2019
No Score Yet Why Can't I Be Me? Around You (2019) Though the film can feel like a ball bouncing in too many directions to keep track of, that's also precisely what's interesting about it: It feels like a direct entrance into Blank's brain... - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 14, 2019
70% Olympic Dreams (2020) A raw depiction of emotional intimacy between two people who are both slightly neurotic in different ways, but nevertheless want big things out of life. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 13, 2019
No Score Yet Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story (2019) The film is enormously funny (like her or not, anyone who says Griffin isn't talented is just disingenuous at this point), and the Los Angeles audience in front of whom she taped it eats every bit up. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 12, 2019
69% Adopt a Highway (2019) In an ensemble cast of small roles where his character is the only one with a film-length arc, Hawke's performance quite literally carries the movie. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2019
100% Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World (2018) A refreshing portrait of citizen journalism in the digital age. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2019
68% Darlin' (2019) A film that ultimately feels static and unresolved. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2019
100% Vision Portraits (2019) If only for the in-depth discussions of the creative process, the film is worth a watch. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2019