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David Ansen

David Ansen

Articles by David Ansen

Entertainment

‘Beetlejuice’ at 30: Tim Burton’s Classic Film, Reviewed by Newsweek

“Tim Burton’s demented ‘Beetlejuice’ certainly demands respect, even if it’s more enjoyable in concept than in execution.”

2 min read

Entertainment

‘The Silence of the Lambs’: The Newsweek Review of Jonathan Demme’s Terrifying Thriller

This is not a movie for the faint of heart.

4 min read

Entertainment

‘Newsweek’ Gave ‘The Breakfast Club’ a Lukewarm Review in 1985

Celebrate the 30th anniversary of John Hughes’s classic film by reading the 1985 ‘Newsweek’ review.

2 min read

Entertainment

King of Comedy: Newsweek’s 1986 Profile of Robin Williams

“You feel you are in the presence of a benign but not easily known soul,” David Ansen observed in Newsweek’s 1986 profile of Robin Williams

18 min read

Entertainment

David Ansen Recalls When AIDS Silenced the Arts

AIDS silenced the arts. Newsweek’s film critic recalls the toughest story of his career.

7 min read

Entertainment

‘Cloud Atlas’ Attempts to Soar With a Megawatt Cast

A megawatt cast attempts to bring the grand scheme of David Mitchell’s complex novel to life. Reviewed by film critic David Ansen.

5 min read

Entertainment

Inside ‘The Master,’ Paul Thomas Anderson’s Supposed “Scientology” Movie

Inside director P.T. Anderson’s ‘Scientology movie.’

10 min read

Entertainment

Newsweek’s Oscar Roundtable Reveals Actors’ Private Parts

Michael Fassbender’s penis makes everyone laugh. Viola Davis is terrified of Meryl Streep. Read all the hilarious moments from Newsweek’s Oscar roundtable.

15 min read

Entertainment

Spielberg’s Boyish Wonder Illuminates ‘Tintin,’ ‘War Horse’

Steven Spielberg gives us a crowd pleaser in ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ and a tear-jerker with ‘War Horse.’ Is it too much for one man?

11 min read

Entertainment

Ultimate Movie Guide: ‘Carnage,’ ‘Shame,’ ‘Young Adult’

‘Tis the season for spy thrillers, hidden gems, and a Jodie Foster meltdown. Sift through the theater with a critic’s eye.

5 min read

Entertainment

Joel and Ethan Coen on ‘True Grit’

“Raising Arizona,” “Fargo,” and “No Country for Old Men” defy categorization—except as Coen brothers movies. So what happens when the quirky duo from Minnesota decide to remake a John Wayne Western?

4 min read

Entertainment

Newsweek’s David Ansen Names Top 10 Movies of 2010

This year will not be remembered as a vintage one for movies, but it was better than most people will ever know. Unless you were in the privileged position to see movies at film festivals around the world, you’d have no idea how many good movies never see the light of day in U.S. theaters. Here are 10 superior 2010 films.

8 min read

Entertainment

Movies: Mark Wahlberg in ‘The Fighter’

It’s easy to say, when it’s over, that ‘The Fighter’ falls into a familiar rousing-sports-movie formula. But if you are blissfully ignorant of the true story, you likely won’t know which way this psychologically complex family saga is heading.

3 min read

Entertainment

Movies: ‘Blue Valentine’ and the Death of Love

The death of love is a painful thing to watch, and Derek Cianfrance, the director and co-writer of ‘Blue Valentine,’ wants it to hurt.

3 min read

Entertainment

Movies: Nicole Kidman in ‘Rabbit Hole’

‘Rabbit Hole’ asks fundamental questions: how do you go on living in the face of irreparable loss? How do you patch together a relationship that has been sundered by grief?

3 min read

Entertainment

Movies: Sofia Coppola’s ‘Somewhere’

Coppola, a sharp observer of the small absurdities of show business, has earned the right to make movies exactly the way she wants. ‘Somewhere’ is her most minimal and Europeanized film yet.

3 min read

Entertainment

Will ‘The King’s Speech’ Sweep the Oscars?

In a business notoriously obsessed with youth, where it’s not uncommon for screenwriters to lie about their age to win a job, David Seidler is a stunning anomaly. At 73, he finds himself, for the first time in his career, a hot property. “I’m very happy now, in retrospect, that this kind of success didn’t happen to me early on. It can really bend your head. I would have become very pompous.”

6 min read

Entertainment

‘Hereafter’: Clint Eastwood’s Look at the Afterlife

Clint Eastwood flirted with the supernatural in his allegorical Western “Pale Rider,” but nothing in his career prepares us for his haunting and haunted “Hereafter,” a bold, strange, problematic investigation into the nature of the afterlife.

3 min read

Entertainment

Movie Review: ‘The Lovely Bones’

If anybody could bring The Lovely Bones to the screen, Peter Jackson would seem a perfect fit. The director of the worldly Heavenly Creatures (teenage girls, murder) and the otherworldly Lord of the Rings certainly has a vision broad enough to encompass both heaven and earth, which is where Alice Sebold’s hugely popular novel takes place.

3 min read

Entertainment

Jason Reitman: The Grown-Up’s Director

Film opens Dec. 25: According to the usual Hollywood script, Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air should not be coming to a theater near you—or anywhere else. It’s exactly the kind of film the big studios don’t want to make anymore: a mid-budget ($25 million), hard-to-classify (serious comedy?

7 min read

Entertainment

Movie Review: ‘Crazy Heart’

Film opens Dec. 16: Once a headlining Country and Western star, Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is now lucky to get a gig at a bowling alley in Pueblo, Colo., which is where we first meet him in Crazy Heart.

2 min read