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: Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento, Filmmaking on the Fringe: The Good, the Bad and the Deviant Directors and The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time, and has written for publications ranging from The New York Times to Paper and Time Out New York.
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| Publications: | Boxoffice Magazine, Film Comment Magazine, Film Journal International, Hollywood Reporter, Time Out, Miss FlickChick, AMCtv.com, Horror Hacker, 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
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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| No Score Yet | Look Away (2018) |
Not especially distinctive.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 12, 2018
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| 89% | A Crooked Somebody (2018) |
Features excellent performances and a plot firmly rooted in relationships rather than stunts.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 4, 2018
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| 75% | Chasing the Blues (2018) |
The film's pleasures are small ones, but they're perfectly pitched.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 4, 2018
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| 0% | Maximum Impact (2018) |
Neither particularly funny nor conspicuously thrilling.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Sep 27, 2018
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| 10% | Peppermint (2018) |
Fundamentally forgettable, the kind of movie whose details begin to disappear the moment the credits roll.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Sep 6, 2018
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| 62% | 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
Read More | Posted Aug 30, 2018
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| 80% | What Keeps You Alive (2018) |
Features excellent performances by leads Brittany Allen and Hannah Emily Anderson and some tidy plot twists. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Aug 23, 2018
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| 65% | Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018) |
Funny little Nazis require rather more finesse than The Littlest Reich possesses. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Aug 16, 2018
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| 5% | 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
Read More | Posted Aug 14, 2018
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| 46% | Elizabeth Harvest (2018) |
Both great genre fun and genuinely horrifying. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Aug 9, 2018
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| 13% | 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
Read More | 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
Read More | Posted Jul 24, 2018
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| 0% | Black Water (2018) |
A thoroughly forgettable formulaic action movie.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | 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
Read More | Posted Jun 25, 2018
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| 7% | 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
Read More | Posted Jun 15, 2018
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| 49% | Superfly (2018) |
Slick but not cool and has nothing much to say.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | 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
Read More | Posted May 31, 2018
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| 42% | In Darkness (2018) |
Fans of the genre will appreciate the clever script and strong performances.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted May 24, 2018
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| 47% | How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2018) |
[A] sweetly daffy picture about coming of age in punk-era England.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted May 24, 2018
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| 0% | Dark Crimes (2018) |
[S]tumbles at every turn.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | 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
Read More | 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
Read More | Posted May 2, 2018
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| 82% | 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
Read More | Posted Apr 20, 2018
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| 28% | 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
Read More | 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
Read More | 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
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2018
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| 44% | 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
Read More | 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
Read More | Posted Mar 15, 2018
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| 17% | Death Wish (2018) |
[I]n the end it's just another macho fantasy about "good guys" with guns.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Mar 2, 2018
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| No Score Yet | 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
Read More | Posted Mar 1, 2018
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| 43% | 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
Read More | Posted Feb 23, 2018
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| 8% | 7 Guardians of the Tomb (2018) |
Incredibly dumb and tedious.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 22, 2018
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| 17% | Looking Glass (2018) |
Cage tones down the theatrics that sometime derail films in which he appears.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 16, 2018
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| 89% | Bomb City (2018) |
Teenage rivalries escalate into searing violence in this powerful, fact-based drama about class, money and identity run amok in 1990s Amarillo, Texas.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 8, 2018
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| 75% | Braven (2018) |
This sharply directed, back-against-the-wall thriller features strong performances and stunning winter location photography.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 71% | Like Me (2018) |
The film's pulse comes from its rapid-fire montages of familiar images.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2018
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| 75% | Mom and Dad (2018) |
Billed as a horror comedy, Mom & Dad is neither funny nor scary.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 18, 2018
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| 40% | Den of Thieves (2018) |
An efficient, well-plotted heist movie.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 18, 2018
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| 0% | Delirium (2018) |
Delirium is thoroughly predictable and it takes a long time to get going.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 18, 2018
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| 43% | Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) |
Simplistic and filled with characters who, however well they may have been developed on the page, have little depth onscreen.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 18, 2018
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| 0% | Stratton (2018) |
While it's not a disaster, it's also not the little movie that could blow past its limitations and knock the skeptics out of their socks. ‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Jan 4, 2018
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| 5% | Hangman (2017) |
A slog of a movie, an instantly forgettable rehash of genre rehashes that isn't even engaging on a "Who done it?" level.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Dec 20, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Dark Meridian (2017) |
Suspenseful and briskly paced, Dark Meridian is a small movie that makes the most of its assets and doesn't overstay its welcome.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Nov 30, 2017
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| 33% | Inoperable (2017) |
It's not a game-changer, but it plays by the rules and doesn't strangle on its own complications.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Nov 30, 2017
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| 89% | A Bad Idea Gone Wrong (2017) |
It's the kind of movie that shines brightest when discovered by accident: The less information you have going in, the more likely you are to be seduced by its quirky charms.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Nov 28, 2017
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| 83% | Mayhem (2017) |
The whole messy affair comes to a conclusion that delivers knee-jerk satisfaction in an impressively stylish way.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Nov 10, 2017
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| 85% | My Friend Dahmer (2017) |
A subtly discomfiting movie.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Nov 2, 2017
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| 44% | Acts of Vengeance (2017) |
Hits its clichéd notes efficiently.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 27, 2017
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| 28% | Leatherface (2017) |
Ultimately, Leatherface can't really stand on its own, but it hardly needs to.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 20, 2017
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| 59% | Jungle (2017) |
Strong performances all around keep the story from feeling like an exploitation shocker.‐ Film Journal International
Read More | Posted Oct 19, 2017
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