Benjamin Mercer

5/14/20

The 25 best horror movies since 2000

As Halloween approaches, let’s revisit The Babadook, The Ring, and more movies that made the new millennium a…

By

A.A. Dowd,

Josh Modell,

Katie Rife,

Nick Schager,

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky,

Alex McLevy,

Danny King,

and Kiva Reardon

PublishedMay 14, 2020

12/20/16

Patriots Day turns the Boston Marathon bombing into a mostly gripping procedural

A sprawling civic procedural about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the manhunt it touched off, Patriots Day by…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedDecember 20, 2016

12/1/16

The best movies of 2016 that we didn’t review

Hundreds of movies come to American theaters every year. Sometimes they arrive at a rate of 20 per week, at least in…

By

Benjamin Mercer,

A.A. Dowd,

Mike D'Angelo,

Vadim Rizov,

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky,

Charles Bramesco,

Noel Murray,

and Alex McLevy

PublishedDecember 1, 2016

11/2/16

The monumental Up series captures half a century of ordinary life

With Run The Series, The A.V. Club examines film franchises, studying how they change and evolve with each new…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedNovember 2, 2016

8/25/16

Across five wistful films, an alter ego grows older without growing up

With Run The Series, The A.V. Club examines film franchises, studying how they change and evolve with each new…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedAugust 25, 2016

8/6/16

Brady Corbet on Lars Von Trier, TV gigs, and being the American guy in European films

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedAugust 6, 2016

7/15/16

What movie is missing from our list of the best comedies since 2000?

This week’s question: What movie is missing from our recent list of the best big-screen comedies since 2000?

PublishedJuly 15, 2016

7/11/16

The 50 best comedies since 2000

Sixteen years in, our new millennium looks like a banner age for big-screen comedy, as eclectic as any that came…

6/1/16

Horror, comedy, and mystery energetically mingle in The Wailing

Pure evil proves an elusive matter for a provincial policeman to investigate in the Korean film The Wailing, a…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedJune 1, 2016

4/13/16

There’s nothing celebratory about the punishing Israeli drama Wedding Doll

An artfully made drama with a suffocatingly negative view of humanity, the Israeli feature Wedding Doll describes a…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedApril 13, 2016

3/22/16

Argentinian smash The Clan makes an interesting true story look generic

Nothing says respectable like a good, solid family business. The Clan, a middling drama that set an opening-weekend…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedMarch 22, 2016

3/8/16

No talent is no problem for the rich wannabe opera singer of Marguerite

There is perhaps no artistic milieu that’s been more heavily romanticized than Paris between the wars, a period when…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedMarch 8, 2016

3/3/16

They Will Have To Kill Us First is a doc with almost too many good subjects

A stirring yet overstuffed documentary on musicians in exile, They Will Have To Kill Us First opens with a rundown…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedMarch 3, 2016

2/25/16

Monsieur Hulot bumbles through work, play, and four inspired comedies

With Run The Series, The A.V. Club examines film franchises, studying how they change and evolve with each new…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedFebruary 25, 2016

12/16/15

Crashing cars and causing trouble with an anti-social misfit

Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a new movie coming out that week. This month: The…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedDecember 16, 2015

12/8/15

Almost There is richer, more troubling than the average outsider-artist doc

An involving documentary about complicated filmmaker-subject relations, Almost There chronicles a few years in the…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedDecember 8, 2015

11/12/15

The 33 is kind of like The Martian, only terrestrial and dull

Five years ago, 33 men were pulled, one by one, out of a gold and copper mine in Chile after a mountain literally…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedNovember 12, 2015

10/1/15

Julianne Moore lends dignity to award-season material with Freeheld

Based on a rousing true story, Freeheld focuses on a dying woman crusading for gay rights, and features an imposing…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedOctober 1, 2015

9/29/15

A lawyer chases Nazis in this so-so German drama

The German film Labyrinth Of Lies, a conservatively mounted period piece that opens in Frankfurt in 1958, portrays a…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedSeptember 29, 2015

9/18/15

The inspirational thriller Captive could have used more inspiration

There’s no doubt that the inspirational thriller Captive is based on a true story, because, as they say, you can’t…

By

Benjamin Mercer

PublishedSeptember 18, 2015