Maitland McDonagh
Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:
Maitland McDonagh is TV Guide Online's Senior Movie Editor, and has been writing about movies for more than 15 years. She is the author of three books on film: </i>Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento, Filmmaking on the Fringe: The Good, the Bad and the Deviant Directors and </i>The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time, and has written for publications ranging from </i>The New York Times to </i>Paper and </i>Time Out New York.
Publications:
Boxoffice Magazine,
Film Comment Magazine,
Film Journal International,
Hollywood Reporter,
Miss FlickChick,
AMCtv.com,
Horror Hacker,
AWFJ Women on Film,
TV Guide
Critics' Group:
New York Film Critics Online,
Online Film Critics Society
Location:
New York, USA
Official Websites:
tvguide.com/movies
Movie Reviews Only
| T-Meter | Title | Year | Review | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 94% | Before Stonewall (2019) |
Before Stonewall captures an impressive array of voices and is especially noteworthy for the number of men and women of color with whom Schiller spoke. - AWFJ Women on Film
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| Posted May 28, 2020
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| 3/5 | 100% | Forbidden City, USA (1989) |
Dong's juxtaposition of vintage clips and photographs and contemporary interviews with Forbidden City dancers, singers, patrons and employees create a rich portrait of both the club itself and the larger cultural forces that shaped it. - TV Guide
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| Posted May 1, 2020
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| 87% | Luz (2019) |
Luz is a tight, sharp little shocker that works well on its own terms and suggests that Singer is a filmmaker to watch. - AWFJ Women on Film
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| Posted Aug 8, 2019
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| 92% | The Cat Rescuers (2019) |
But the work of the women and men chronicled in this film is heartening... It's Faulknerian: They endure. - AWFJ Women on Film
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| Posted Jul 8, 2019
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| 3/5 | 38% | She Creature (2001) |
A surprisingly imaginative made-for-cable horror picture. - TV Guide
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| Posted Jul 3, 2019
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| 2/5 | 41% | Equilibrium (2002) |
It's hard not to feel you've just watched a feature-length video game with some really heavy back story. - TV Guide
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| Posted Apr 17, 2019
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| 3/5 | No Score Yet | The Nest (2002) |
Though THE NEST eventually bogs down in ever-escalating firefights, for most of its running time it's a lean, intense, white-knuckle thriller distinguished by above average performances. - TV Guide
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| Posted Apr 11, 2019
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| 1.5/5 | 22% | Practical Magic (1998) |
Mind-boggling miscalculations strangle this adaptation of Alice Hoffman's popular novel before it can find its feet. - TV Guide
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| Posted Mar 30, 2019
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| 11% | Welcome Home (The Getaway) (2018) |
Features surprisingly strong performances from Ratajkowski, Scamarcio and Paul. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Nov 15, 2018
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| 40% | The Super (2018) |
How surprising the story's twist ending turns out to be depends on how thoroughly steeped in horror moves the viewer is, but it's well executed down to small details. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Nov 9, 2018
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| 81% | Overlord (2018) |
American soldiers take on zombie Nazis in this gory horror picture that also features a solid story and characters you can actually care about. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Nov 8, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Speed Kills (2018) |
Speed Kills feels startlingly like a 1990s direct-to-video action movie with an inexplicably inflated budget. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Nov 7, 2018
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| 83% | Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (2018) |
A truly engrossing film, one that balances the big picture and the small one. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Nov 2, 2018
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| 39% | Don't Go (2018) |
In this handsomely made psychological thriller, a troubled couple tries to move on after the loss of their young daughter, but find themselves mired in the past. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Oct 26, 2018
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| No Score Yet | London Fields (2018) |
London Fields simply does not work on any level. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Oct 26, 2018
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| 65% | Suspiria (2018) |
A smart reimagining, but not a particularly compelling one, which is the problem overall. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Oct 23, 2018
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| 2.5/5 | No Score Yet |
New Jersey-born, Taiwan-raised director/cowriter Bay-Sa Pan gives the conflict a culturally particular spin and elicits strong performances from her appealing cast. - TV Guide
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| Posted Oct 19, 2018
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| 2/4 | 61% | Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007) |
[A] cheerfully gross, deliberately retro horror picture. - TV Guide
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| Posted Oct 17, 2018
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| 17% | Look Away (2018) |
Not especially distinctive. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Oct 12, 2018
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| 80% | A Crooked Somebody (2018) |
Features excellent performances and a plot firmly rooted in relationships rather than stunts. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Oct 4, 2018
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| 82% | Chasing the Blues (2018) |
The film's pleasures are small ones, but they're perfectly pitched. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Oct 4, 2018
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| 9% | Maximum Impact (2018) |
Neither particularly funny nor conspicuously thrilling. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Sep 27, 2018
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| 12% | Peppermint (2018) |
Fundamentally forgettable, the kind of movie whose details begin to disappear the moment the credits roll. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Sep 6, 2018
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| 50% | Blood Fest (2018) |
Though never particularly scary, 'Blood Fest' is entertaining and gives genre fans the opportunity to feel clever as they spot the references to a wide range of horror films. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Aug 30, 2018
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| 82% | What Keeps You Alive (2018) |
Features excellent performances by leads Brittany Allen and Hannah Emily Anderson and some tidy plot twists. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Aug 23, 2018
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| 70% | Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018) |
Funny little Nazis require rather more finesse than The Littlest Reich possesses. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Aug 16, 2018
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| 4% | 211 (2018) |
Adhering to a formula is one thing, but this cliché overload pushes 211 over the line that divides undistinguished movies from bad ones. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Aug 14, 2018
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| 52% | Elizabeth Harvest (2018) |
Both great genre fun and genuinely horrifying. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Aug 9, 2018
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| 22% | 14 Cameras (2018) |
The sequel to the 2015 high-tech peeping Tom thriller '13 Cameras' takes the premise up a notch with genuinely creepy results. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Jul 27, 2018
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| 100% | King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen (2018) |
This briskly entertaining documentary about low-budget filmmaker Larry Cohen gives the writer plenty of time to tell his own story of making smart movies on the cheap. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Jul 24, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Black Water (2018) |
A thoroughly forgettable formulaic action movie. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Jun 29, 2018
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| 2/5 | 45% | Deep Impact (1998) |
A three-hankie weeper in disaster-movie drag, and its tear-jerking bull's-eyes are separated by long stretches of tedium. - TV Guide
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| Posted Jun 25, 2018
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| 13% | China Salesman (2018) |
If it were half an hour shorter, China Salesman might be a candidate for "so bad it's good (or at least kind of fun)" status. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Jun 15, 2018
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| 51% | Superfly (2018) |
Slick but not cool and has nothing much to say. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Jun 13, 2018
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| 78% | Discreet (2018) |
A disturbed loner begins to unravel in this contemplative thriller that's less interested in conventional thrills than in drawing viewers into the protagonist's off-kilter world view. - Film Journal International
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| Posted May 31, 2018
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| 47% | In Darkness (2018) |
Fans of the genre will appreciate the clever script and strong performances. - Film Journal International
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| Posted May 24, 2018
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| 48% | How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2018) |
[A] sweetly daffy picture about coming of age in punk-era England. - Film Journal International
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| Posted May 24, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Dark Crimes (2018) |
[S]tumbles at every turn. - Film Journal International
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| Posted May 17, 2018
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| 27% | Breaking In (2018) |
Breaking In keeps the pace up, the pressure on and the action fairly plausible. - Film Journal International
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| Posted May 10, 2018
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| 53% | Bad Samaritan (2018) |
In this tightly constructed thriller, a stone-cold sociopath is pitted against a small-time grifter who rediscovers his long-neglected moral compass. - Film Journal International
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| Posted May 2, 2018
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| 84% | Ghost Stories (2018) |
This modern-day portmanteau horror film cleverly ties together three stories of the supernatural through one character's search to debunk the apparently undebunkable. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Apr 20, 2018
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| 27% | Traffik (2018) |
1970s exploitation lives in this lean, mean tale of vacationing city folk who accidentally run afoul of rural human traffickers. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Apr 20, 2018
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| 2/4 | 69% | The Leading Man (1998) |
While buff, blandly handsome and a pleasant enough screen presence, Jon Bon Jovi can't suggest the bottomless reserves of guile, intelligence and resolve his role demands. - TV Guide
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| Posted Apr 17, 2018
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| 67% | Mercury (2018) |
Contains several genuinely suspenseful sequences reminiscent of Fede Alvarez's acclaimed 2016 Don't Breathe and of '70s gialli in general. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Apr 12, 2018
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| 47% | Allure (2018) |
Bad love comes in several varieties in this thriller about a woman whose relationship with a teenager has dire consequences. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Mar 15, 2018
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| 100% | Keep the Change (2018) |
Surprisingly sweet rom-com featuring two people with autism benefits from affecting performances by leads Samantha Elisofon and Brandon Polansky. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Mar 15, 2018
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| 18% | Death Wish (2018) |
[I]n the end it's just another macho fantasy about "good guys" with guns. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Mar 2, 2018
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| 80% | Pickings (2018) |
Pickings may not be a genre-changer, but it's handsomely stylish and a cut above the average neo-noir pastiche. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Mar 1, 2018
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| 47% | Curvature (2018) |
Once it sets up its "What if?" premise [...] it doesn't do a whole lot with it...at least, not a whole lot that's especially interesting. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Feb 23, 2018
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| 7% | 7 Guardians of the Tomb (2018) |
Incredibly dumb and tedious. - Film Journal International
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| Posted Feb 22, 2018
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