Alison Willmore

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social

Film critic at Vulture, co-host of the Critical Darlings podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-darlings/id1885681327

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 5:27 PM

It was SO GREAT having Dana on for this episode, even though she had to tolerate my making the case for DIGGER

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 3:02 PM

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.”

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Sep 16, 2026, 4:22 PM

Sexy hockey, wholesome hockey, all the genres

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Sep 16, 2026, 3:26 PM

Wow HUGE NEWS

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Sep 16, 2026, 2:50 PM

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...

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Sep 11, 2026, 1:13 AM

The first time I ever had one was in a restaurant in Oxford, IA, the pork was basically the size of the entire plate and I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud when I saw the proportions. An incredible sandwich!

@joshgondelman.bsky.social Aug 13, 2026, 2:21 PMReposted by @alisonwillmore.bsky.social

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!!!

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Aug 10, 2026, 8:43 PM

🙏🙏🙏

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Aug 5, 2026, 9:28 PM

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.

Alison Willmore@alisonwillmore.bsky.socialAug 5, 2026, 9:22 PM

I went to a demolition derby with Jane Schoenbrun www.vulture.com/article/jane...

vulture.comThe Dawn of Jane SchoenbrunTheir first two horror films amazed Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, and Emma Stone. The third won over Cannes. What’s next?

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Aug 5, 2026, 9:22 PM

I went to a demolition derby with Jane Schoenbrun www.vulture.com/article/jane...

vulture.comThe Dawn of Jane SchoenbrunTheir first two horror films amazed Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, and Emma Stone. The third won over Cannes. What’s next?

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Jul 10, 2026, 4:49 PM

Wow I need to order one of these for @rilaws.bsky.social and make him wear it and escort me to a Halloween party as proof of our friendship

@mattsinger.bsky.social Apr 14, 2026, 1:15 PMReposted by @alisonwillmore.bsky.social

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.comApple TV’s Outcome: Testing the Limits of Keanu’s LikabilityPodcast Episode · Filmspotting · April 14 · 1h 37m

@mattsinger.bsky.social Apr 10, 2026, 2:31 PMReposted by @alisonwillmore.bsky.social

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!

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Apr 9, 2026, 9:40 PM

First I've heard of them, def going to look them up!

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Mar 27, 2026, 6:42 PM

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

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Mar 27, 2026, 4:51 PM

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.comCritical DarlingsFilm 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...

@mattzollerseitz.bsky.social Mar 8, 2026, 12:29 AMReposted by @alisonwillmore.bsky.social

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!

Matt Zoller Seitz@mattzollerseitz.bsky.socialMar 7, 2026, 4:16 AM

Greetings, new friends! You may know me as an author, a prolific Bluesky poster and 4th place finisher on So You Call That Dancing? But you might not know that my partner Judith (@mzpress) and I have an online arts bookstore that's growing every day. Full inventory here: mzs.press/EVERYTHING-W...

The covers of three books. Left to right: Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the life of a legend, about the late Sopranos actor. The cover shows Gandolfini looking shy, peering offscreen with one unobstructed eye and another that peeks out between the fingers of his right hand.
CENTER: The cover of Cinema Her Way, a coffee table book by Marya E. Gates about female directors. On the cover is actress Michelle Rodriguez as the boxer heroine of Karyn Kusama's sports drama Girlfight, about a woman boxer.
RIGHT David Hockney's painting collection The Arrival of Spring in Normandy, showing a painting of a verdant field. In the background of the field is green grass. in the upper foreground are the branches of a tree sprouting white, cottony buds.

A screenshot of the pre-orders section at mzs.press. Three screenshots of books that have not yet been released. I Am The Night, Daniel Dockery's book about Batman the Brave and the Bold, has a silhouette of Batman stretching from the top to the bottom of the cover, with the title of the book and a nighttime Gotham skyline circumscribed by the borders of the Batman silhouette.

CENTER The cover of The Ring Cycle, Matt Zoller Seitz and Odie Henderson's book on the Rocky and Creed films. The cover is white except for a pair of black boxing gloves floating there

RIGHT The cover of Documentary Now!, the 600-page, 7-pound coffee table book celebrating the aforementioned IFC Channel series parodying classic documentaries.

Screenshot of three books carried at mzs.press arts bookstore:
LEFT: Cover of Lead Sister, a biography of Karen Carpenter, featuring a closeup of Carpenter playing and singing with The Carpenters.
CENTER: The cover of Anthony Hopkins' We Did OK, Kid, a memoir of his life and career. On the cover is Hopkins in closeup as he looks presently, narrowed blue eyes looking directly at the spectator.
RIGHT: Cover of Louis Armstrong In His Own Words, a collection of the bandleader's correspondence. The cover image is a photograph of a probably fortysomething Armstrong seated at the wooden desk in his office where he often wrote letters.

Screenshot of the covers of 3 books carried at mzs.press Arts Bookstore.
LEFT: The cover of Gotham City Cocktails, a book of mixed drink recipes inspired by Batman. Art deco-style flowing border lines flow around and around the interior of the dust jacket. At the center are drawings of two tall cocktail glasses and between them, a shot glass and a tumbler with a sword-pierced cherry in it.
CENTER: The cover of Downton Abbey Afternoon Tea Cookbook. Green cover, white writing and graphics. The central image is a teapot with stem lines coming out of it, and at the pot's base, a teacup and saucer and a separate plate of biscuits.
RIGHT: Bob's Burgers "The Re-Recipe Box," a set of recipe cards inspired by the joke hamburger names featured on the small board at the front of Bob's joint. Red sides with small graphics, cover image of the restaurant.

@jacoboller.bsky.social Feb 9, 2026, 9:01 PMReposted by @alisonwillmore.bsky.social

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.comThe A.V. Club hiring Film Critic in Greater Chicago Area | LinkedInPosted 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.

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Jan 6, 2026, 10:13 PM

Yeah, it did not exist when I was a teen — and it’s enormous! Still hard for me to wrap my head around

@alisonwillmore.bsky.social Jan 6, 2026, 10:00 PM

Okay but the important issue here: Cal High or Dougherty Valley?

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