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Alison Willmore

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social
32K followers 931 following 193 posts

Film critic at Vulture, co-host of the Critical Darlings podcast podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/criti…

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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Blood boys OVER we’re out here Renfieldmaxxing now
He’s on a quest to live forever.
Mr. Emanuel’s morning routine involves waking up at 4 a.m., stretching for 40 minutes and then doing breath work, sauna, meditation, an ice plunge and infrared light therapy before ingesting a protein shake and a cup of live worms to fight off “the bad bacteria in my gut.” He describes a recent lunch with his old CAA boss, Michael Ovitz. Mr. Emanuel writes: “He goes to the gym; he thinks that means he’s taking care of himself. But it doesn’t. I scold him. He hasn’t gotten his blood work done in years, he isn’t doing ice plunges, he isn’t doing daily breath work, he isn’t fasting. And he needs to be eating worms.”
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Sorry to cinema but the highlight of my Toronto trip has been discovering that there's a Canadian TV show in which Jason Priestley plays a former hockey player who solves crimes www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Kl...
youtube.com
"Private Eyes" TV Intro
YouTube video by The Rap Sheet
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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I got to talk about One Night Only aka Sex Purge on today’s Critical Darlings podcast with the great @rilaws.bsky.social and @alisonwillmore.bsky.social!!!
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Of all the little things that inevitably don't end up fitting in the final draft of a profile, this is the bit I loved the most
Not so long ago, that now-friend who they'd met watching a Michael Haneke movie on a sofa had a Whose Line Is It Anyway-themed birthday party. There with all these queer, trans adults, playing improv games from a dead-then-resurrected-then-dead-again network comedy show together, Schoenbrun had the thought: Wow, we're kind of close to God right now.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I went to a demolition derby with Jane Schoenbrun www.vulture.com/article/jane...
vulture.com
The Dawn of Jane Schoenbrun
Their first two horror films amazed Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, and Emma Stone. The third won over Cannes. What’s next?
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Matt Singer @mattsinger.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Here is the first new Filmspotting: SVU in eight years, with a review of Outcome, streaming recommendations on numerous platforms, a game I invented involving Letterboxd stats, and a surprisingly lengthy discussion of astronaut bathroom etiquette.
podcasts.apple.com
Apple TV’s Outcome: Testing the Limits of Keanu’s Likability
Podcast Episode · Filmspotting · April 14 · 1h 37m
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Matt Singer @mattsinger.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
After 8 years, Filmspotting SVU, the podcast about streaming movies, is back. Alison Willmore’s already doing Critical Darlings (which is great!) so I needed a new co-host. My wife told me the only person who could replace Alison was @jhoffman.bsky.social, so that’s who I got to do it. Tuesday!
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Also there are still a few tickets left for the opening night screening of the funny, bittersweet indie FANTASY LIFE at the Angelika — I'll be doing a Q&A after with Amanda Peet and Matthew Shear angelikafilmcenter.com/nyc/sessions...
Amanda Peet, playing an actor and mother of three named Dianne, sits cozily on a sofa next to writer/director/star Matthew Shear, a younger man who plays the nanny her character hires, in a still from FANTASY LIFE
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Critical Darlings, the podcast that @rilaws.bsky.social and I launched during award season, is going year-round and has its own feed and everything. Take a gander at our new episode, on PROJECT HAIL MARY, Ryan Gosling as movie star, and, FINE, award prospects podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
podcasts.apple.com
Critical Darlings
Film Reviews Podcast · Updated Weekly · Welcome to Critical Darlings: a podcast about the movies everyone is talking about, one new release after another. Every week, critics Richard Lawson and Aliso...
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Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!
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Jacob Oller @jacoboller.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Extremely exciting news: We're hiring a full-time film critic to come work with me at The A.V. Club! You probably have an idea if you're qualified for this, but if there's something that's not in the job listing, I'm sure I can answer Qs www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
linkedin.com
The A.V. Club hiring Film Critic in Greater Chicago Area | LinkedIn
Posted 8:42:22 PM. The A.V. Club is seeking an experienced Film Critic to join our team of trenchant writers and…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
And one more Movie Club dispatch, on Rob Reiner and on the theme that I think is at the core of WEAPONS slate.com/culture/2025...
slate.com
The Scariest Part of Weapons Is What It Refused to Explain
It’s easy to argue that Weapons is about school shootings. I think it’s about something else.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
I had lunch with Mr. Wonderful www.vulture.com/article/how-...
vulture.com
Kevin O’Leary Wants to Be an Immortal Villain
The Marty Supreme star and reality-TV heel sees Mr. Wonderful as a means to a greater end.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
He’s been issued stern spoiler warnings
An ewok-looking dog is watching THE PITT screeners on a laptop
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
My second Slate Movie Club dispatch, in which I blather about my love of abrasive on-screen experiences and about Mary and Ronnie Bronstein
slate.com
Why We Love a Loathsome Protagonist
Sometimes, you just need to wallow in the discomfort.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
The first episode of Critical Darlings, the podcast @rilaws.bsky.social and I are hosting as part of the Blank Check Cinematic Universe, is live! JOIN US overcast.fm/+ABLIFo_rhLw
Awards envelope-inspired artwork for the Critical Darlings podcast, with drawings of Richard Lawson and of me
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Been wrestling with JAY KELLY, and why I think George Clooney's actual relationship with his own celebrity is more interesting than the emptiness-of-the-A-lister angst he performs on screen www.vulture.com/article/is-g...
vulture.com
George Clooney’s Unconvincing Movie-Star Angst
He plays a famous actor in Jay Kelly — but Clooney’s own relationship with celebrity is far more interesting.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Man, I'm never going back to Twitter, but getting replies that are either "PAYWALL" or "I can't take you seriously because you used hyperbolic language, I have never 'lost my mind' over anything" is a great reminder of why I have so much trouble getting motivated to post on here
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Am joining @thehighsign.bsky.social, @justincchang.bsky.social, and @bilgeebiri.bsky.social to go deep on the year in movies as part of Slate Movie Club this year. Here's my first dispatch, on some of the smaller movies I loved alongside the much-discussed bigger ones
slate.com
The Underrated 2025 Movie That’s Going to Make People Lose Their Minds When It Hits Netflix
The Warner Bros. deal comes after it had an absolutely incredible year at the movies.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Feels great to be coming out of podcast semi-retirement and to be getting an excuse to blather about movies on the regular with Richard, who will soon be filled with regret when I try to make "wrong kid died!" into some kind of regular bit about HAMNET
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tnyfrontrow.bsky.social @tnyfrontrow.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
The Times's reassignment of four critics is one thing, but its downgrading of the so-called traditional review is altogether another: www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
newyorker.com
In Defense of the Traditional Review
Far from being a journalistic relic, as suggested by recent developments at the New York Times, arts criticism is inherently progressive, keeping art honest and pointing toward its future.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Wrote about the German film SOUND OF FALLING, which just premiered at Cannes and kind of blew the top of my head off www.vulture.com/article/revi...
vulture.com
We May Have Already Seen the Best Film at Cannes This Year
The ambitious Sound of Falling kicks off the competition by setting a high water mark that will be hard for another film to reach.
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becca laurie @imbeccable.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
bill de blasio in park slope, ordering his breakfast sandwich as “mi sandwich especial” and quoting the onion headline omg www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Screenshot from The New Yorker: One morning a few weeks ago, I met de Blasio at his regular coffee shop in Park Slope. He had just come from the gym—the same one that he’d insisted on commuting to every morning from Gracie Mansion, no matter how much grief the press gave him for it—and was wearing sweats. He held forth among his fellow-patrons with a spirit of magnanimous, possibly unreciprocated camaraderie, greeting a startled man by the door with a familiar “How you doing, brother?” and ordering his breakfast (scrambled egg whites, cheddar, ham, and tomato on multigrain toast) as “mi sandwich especial.” These days, de Blasio most often makes the news for his love life or for such momentous moves as dyeing his salt-and-pepper crewcut. But he’s sensed a bit of de Blasio nostalgia creeping into town. “Since I left office, the No. 1 thing that people come up to me on the street and talk about is pre-K,” he told me, lacing his iced espresso with a heavy pour of simple syrup. “The No. 2 thing that people talk about is that Onion headline.” He quoted it for me, savoring every word: “Well, well, well, not so easy to find a mayor that doesn’t suck shit, huh?”
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Man, at a time when we've gotten so resigned to commercial interests trampling art and community, reading this is just the coolest fucking thing www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/m...
nytimes.com
At Milestone Films, Passing the Torch, but Keeping the Flame Alive
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Look at this massive lad, fresh from having rounded the talk show circuit, taking a break on the Angelika green room rug between Q&As
Bing the black and white Great Dane, star of THE FRIEND, sprawled out on a rug like the big shot he is
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
CINCINATTI ROBBED
Screengrab of a Matt Belloni tweet that reads "It's official: The Sundance Film Festival has chosen to move from Park City, Utah, to Boulder, Colorado. Announcement is coming soon. End of an era for America's most influential film fest."
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
deadline.com
Miami Beach Mayor Caves, Drops Plan To Shutter Indie Theater For Showing Oscar Winner ‘No Other Land’
The mayor of Miami Beach has scuttled his proposal to shut down an indie cinema for showing the Oscar-winning Israeli-Palestinian documentary 'No Other Land.'
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
This is such a prime weekend to go see BLACK BAG and take 94 minutes off from thinking about the state of the world to instead spend them thinking about how great it is that Steven Soderbergh has made a movie about how hot movie stars are again
Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender looking hot in BLACK BAG
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Screen Drafts @screendrafts.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
🌴New in the Main Feed🌴 VACATION HORROR Drafted by @louispeitzman.bsky.social & @alisonwillmore.bsky.social Listen everywhere! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Screen shot from the film Turistas
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Spoke with Bong Joon Ho about the ending of MICKEY 17, autocrats, internalized blame, and why he thinks that, to be an optimist, you need to be willing to get bleak about our current reality www.vulture.com/article/mick...
vulture.com
How Bong Joon Ho Crafted His First (Mostly) Happy Ending
The Parasite director talks about the Trump parallels and optimism of his new movie, Mickey 17.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Spoke with Bong Joon Ho about the ending of MICKEY 17, autocrats, internalized blame, and why he thinks that, to be an optimist, you need to be willing to get bleak about our current reality www.vulture.com/article/mick...
vulture.com
How Bong Joon Ho Crafted His First (Mostly) Happy Ending
The Parasite director talks about the Trump parallels and optimism of his new movie, Mickey 17.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Possible I've wildly overinvested in the opening of this supermarket in hopes of continuing to feel anything at all, but look! A pelmeni bar! ny.eater.com/2025/3/6/243...
A glorious selection of varenyky and pelmeni at a hot food bar
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Filmspotting Fest begins
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Screen Drafts @screendrafts.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
We are recording the VACATION HORROR draft with @louispeitzman.bsky.social & @alisonwillmore.bsky.social NEXT WEEK! Which films about horrors befalling people while on holiday NEED to make the list?!
media.tenor.com
a woman wearing a hat stands on a beach
ALT: a woman wearing a hat stands on a beach
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
What if we kissed in the weird condos above B&H Photo Video
Photo shows the weird looking, stylistically inconsistent apartments added on top of the brick building housing B&H Photo Video on 9th Ave and W 34th St
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Heyo Chicago, there are still a few tickets left for this Saturday's Filmspotting Fest screening of TANGERINE, followed by a post-screening discussion with ME (I am terrified, but you should still come!) purchase.siskelfilmcenter.org/websales/pag...
Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez walk and talk in a still from TANGERINE
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by the need to prove they can make a watchable movie out of the most random IP
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Incidental now that the franchise is likely to be dissolved into a larger sea of synergized streaming content, but watching the Agatha Christie adaptation he was in last year got me convinced that David Jonsson would be a great Bond
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
BREAKING!
Text graphic with the New York union logo and the words "WE HAVE A DEAL"
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
5,000 @NYMag readers & counting have told @VoxMedia they plan to stand with @NYMagUnion if we walk out. Tomorrow we're back in bargaining. The time for a fair deal is now. If you haven’t signed, tell Vox you support New York’s 150 union members: nymagunion.org/reader-pledge
Text reading "I have loved New York Magazine since I was 13. I read it every single day, and I want to support the staff to make sure they get a fair contract in exchange for the work they do."
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Kathryn VanArendonk @kvanaren.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
my colleagues and I are tired of hearing in all-hands meetings that our business is doing well, and then in contract negotiations hearing that they can't afford to pay us salaries that keep pace with inflation. we've pledged to walk out if we need to. join us. nymagunion.org/reader-pledge
nymagunion.org
READER PLEDGE — New York Mag Union
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Jack Denton @jackwdenton.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
97% of @nymagunion.bsky.social members just signed a pledge to walk out of work if we don’t get a fair contract from @voxmedia.bsky.social. If you love @nymag.com and the work we do, sign our solidarity pledge to support us in the event of a walkout: nymagunion.org/reader-pledge
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Josephine beckbook.com Riesman @josie.zone · 16/01/2025
Sleep well, king 👑
Twin Peaks:

And when you became Denise, I told all your colleagues, those clown comics, to fix their hearts or die.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
A small thing in light of this shitty news, but it would be lovely if today were the day this GoFundMe for TWIN PEAKS actor Carel Struycken and his wife, who lost their home in the Eaton Fire, reached its target www.gofundme.com/f/support-ca...
gofundme.com
Donate to Support Carel and Tracey After Eaton Fire, organized by Michael Anspach
On the evening of Tuesday, January 7, 2025, my in-laws looked outside to see… Michael Anspach needs your support for Support Carel and Tracey After Eaton Fire
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Fuck variety.com/2025/film/ne...
variety.com
David Lynch, Visionary Director of ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Blue Velvet,’ Dies at 78
Director David Lynch, who radicalized American film with with a dark, surrealistic artistic vision in films like 'Blue Velvet,' has died. He was 78.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Wrote about my favorite performance of the past year, and why what Marianne Jean-Baptiste does in HARD TRUTHS really feels like it's in a league of its own www.vulture.com/article/give...
vulture.com
For the Love of God, Give This Woman an Oscar Nomination
No one last year gave a performance that comes close to what Marianne Jean-Baptiste does in Hard Truths.
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Seconding this, and want to add that the legal pressure frequently put on outlets and writers in efforts to defang or outfight kill stories like this is another reason they're so difficult to publish. Our subscriber base allows us to have the support of our own legal team!
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Alison Willmore @alisonwillmore.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Watch this and then donate if you're able! www.gofundme.com/f/help-suppo...
gofundme.com
Donate to Help Support the Palestine Red Crescent Society!, organized by David Ehrlich
Hi, my name is David, I'm a film critic, and every year I cut together … David Ehrlich needs your support for Help Support the Palestine Red Crescent Society!
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lila pearl @lilashapiro.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
I wrote about Neil Gaiman, and the women accusing him of sexual coercion, assault and abuse. www.vulture.com/article/neil...
vulture.com
There Is No Safe Word
How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades.
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david ehrlich @davidehrlich.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
hi! my annual video countdown of the year's best movies will be up on monday, january 13. on the advice of "No Other Land" director Basel Adra, the annual fundraiser i launch along with it is in support of The Palestine Red Crescent Society, and the fundraiser is now live: gofund.me/ae3c2b9f
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