Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s): L.A. Weekly Salon.com

Publications: L.A. Weekly, Salon.com

Movie Reviews Only

Movies
TV

T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
98%	Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)	As Oscar winner Morgan Neville's timely, tear-duct lubricating documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" makes clear, the easily parodied, often underestimated icon of children's television was a total badass. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 14, 2018
98%	Get Out (2017)	By focusing the storyline on a particular form of racism -- the kind that's often disguised as peculiar envy -- Get Out reveals something more insidious. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 27, 2017
30%	Austenland (2013)	It says weirdos deserve romance too, and that Austenland isn't so much a page in a book or a place on a map, but a corner of your heart. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 16, 2013
85%	You've Been Trumped (2012)	As Baxter demonstrates with agonizing, unflinching clarity, the result was a community and a land that were literally rolled over in the name corporate greed - and with the apparent blessing of the local authorities. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 3, 2012
4%	A Little Bit Of Heaven (2012)	A moment of silence, please, for Kate Hudson's career. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted May 3, 2012
93%	50/50 (2011)	What ensues is "Beaches" meets "Pineapple Express." Which, I've got to tell you, is pretty much what living with cancer is like. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 30, 2011
16%	I Don't Know How She Does It (2011)	What the hell happened to Sarah Jessica Parker? - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 15, 2011
89%	Bridesmaids (2011)	It's a movie that succeeds, often beautifully, not by forcing its characters to be as naughty and gross and pathetic as men are. It soars by letting them be as naughty and gross and pathetic as women are. Three cheers for equality. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted May 10, 2011
60%	Water for Elephants (2011)	The problem isn't just miscasting or the cheesiness of the material. It's Pattinson's increasingly predictable, dour persona. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 21, 2011
66%	The Karate Kid (2010)	It was resonant in the gung-ho '80s, and it's a notion every generation deserves to discover anew. Based on the young Smith's considerable wattage, this Kid may just surpass the original. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 11, 2010
58%	Shrek Forever After (2010)	Like last year's Up, this isn't merely a cute kid's movie with funny one-liners and adorable critters. It's a soulful meditation on the age-old question: Is that all there is? - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted May 21, 2010
41%	Letters to Juliet (2010)	Letters to Juliet is a by-the-numbers romantic comedy -- and I mean that in a good way. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted May 13, 2010
67%	Date Night (2010)	What comes as a welcome surprise is how Date Night manages to make sport of romantic movie conventions without being mean about them. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 9, 2010
49%	Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)	When the movie slows down to catch its breath, there's very little of the heart and soul -- and wry wit -- that make the Riordan books so beloved. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 11, 2010
12%	Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009)	While it fails on nearly every conceivable level, as a textbook case in everything contemptible in the studio system, Did You Hear About the Morgans? is as good as it gets. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 21, 2009
85%	The Princess and the Frog (2009)	The sweetest, most sincere romantic comedy to come along in ages, and a luminous love letter to a great American city. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 24, 2009
54%	Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)	Have we learned nothing from The Klumps? - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 5, 2009
34%	Pride and Glory (2008)	What makes the characters in Pride and Glory real -- and raises the movie above the standard corrupt-cop fare -- is their capacity to live and die in shades of gray. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 24, 2008
37%	How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)	Like the characters it portrays, How to Lose Friends eventually becomes the very thing it mocks, its delectable naughtiness sacrificed to sentiment and audience appeal. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 3, 2008
18%	Righteous Kill (2008)	Director Jon Avnet generously puts the actors together as often as possible, and the sheer satisfaction of watching Michael Corleone and Travis Bickle spark off each other almost mitigates the utter hokum that permeates every other element of the film. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 12, 2008
13%	The Women (2008)	You go, girls. Preferably as far away as possible. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 12, 2008
18%	The Happening (2008)	Shyamalan's such an eager recycler, grinding out the same ideas and images again and again. The man who showed such promise less than a decade ago has been leaving a diminishing creative footprint ever since. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 13, 2008
26%	What Happens in Vegas (2008)	You'd think the combination of Diaz, Kutcher and Vegas would be good for at least a little sexy, silly fun. But don't bet on it. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted May 9, 2008
79%	Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! (2008)	doesn't have the brisk economy of the original book, but the animated Horton feels nevertheless close to the sweet, quirky heart of Dr. Seuss. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 14, 2008
71%	Definitely, Maybe (2008)	Definitely, Maybe isn't a particularly good movie. It's hard to make either romance or comedy out of relationship wreckage, not to mention career ennui, and the pace is often meandering and sulky. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 14, 2008
40%	27 Dresses (2008)	The biggest disappointment of 27 Dresses is that it inhabits a Harlequin romance New York City, one remarkably short on homosexuals and divorce. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 18, 2008
19%	The Invasion (2007)	Gratuitously violent [and] soullessly brain dead. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 16, 2007
7%	License to Wed (2007)	Despite its fuzzy, getting-to-know-you message, the movie itself offers zero motivation for any of its protagonists. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 6, 2007
71%	Baby Boy (2001)	[Jody's] lessons on growing up and moving on never ring more than halfhearted and false. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 6, 2001
63%	Music of the Heart (1999)	Another utterly bland lump of Hollywood crapola. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
96%	The Iron Giant (1999)	The metal-machine sci-fi cartoon delivers robot action, retro nostalgia and stony metaphysics. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
75%	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1999)	We've heard it all before, and usually with a slightly more comprehensible accent. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
16%	Dudley Do-Right (1999)	In the end, it's neither Dudley Do-Right nor Do-Wrong, but merely Dudley Do-Just-So-So. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
48%	The Way of the Gun (2000)	McQuarrie has inserted some of the most groan-worthy dialogue outside of the porn world. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
45%	Holy Smoke (2000)	Campion, who co-wrote the script with her sister Anna, appears to have spent so much time and energy creating Ruth that she didn't have anything left over for rest of the characters. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
92%	Election (1999)	A tart study in teacher-student relations, adolescent pecking orders and the nasty vicissitudes of living in a world of haves and have-nots. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
10%	Woo (1998)	Woo may be as skimpy as a sequined halter top, but it's undeniably appealing nonetheless. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
80%	Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)	Dark, bitingly funny! - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
45%	Mickey Blue Eyes (1999)	Uninspired, recycled! - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
9%	The Bachelor (1999)	The Bachelor doesn't generate enough laughs or sighs to hold together. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
53%	Original Gangstas (1996)	Where Original Gangstas works is in its understanding that the stars are playing the characters they created 25 years ago as their older selves. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
3%	The Mod Squad (1999)	Is it possible to try too hard without making any effort whatsoever? Because that seems to be the one slim accomplishment of The Mod Squad. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
80%	Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)	The illusion that it's just a bunch of wiseguys making fun of a movie is what prevails. It's a pretty impressive special effect. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
72%	The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)	By sticking faithfully to the broader themes of Hugo's story -- those of desolation and desire, of trust and betrayals thereof -- the creators have fashioned the most poignant and deeply moral story to roll off the Disney storyboards in decades. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
61%	American Pie (1999)	Some of it does manage to be quite funny; some of it just lies there, all by itself, without even trying to wrap itself around a joke. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
64%	Anywhere but Here (2000)	Sarandon is good, but Portman is astonishing. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
85%	Billy Elliot (2000)	A surprisingly wise and funny meditation on the nature of what it truly means to be a man. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
9%	Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)	It's predictable, gratuitous and just self-referential enough to believe itself hip and knowing. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
32%	Superstar (1999)	Superstar may not be the most unnecessary movie of the year, but it's got to rank right up there. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000
38%	Psycho (1998)	Van Sant clearly knows that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and his own smooth touch is neatly sympathetic with his predecessor's. - Salon.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2000