Chimpanzee: Yet Another Disney Orphan to Melt Hearts
Too cute? Maybe. Disneynature’s latest documentary is visually astonishing but can’t transcend the trappings of relatable wildlife story.
Accidentally on Purpose: The True Tale of a Happy Single Mother is available for nearly nothing at various online bookstores and from boxes in Pols' barn.
Mary Pols
Mary Pols has been reviewing film and occasionally books for TIME since 2009. She has degrees from Duke University, where she studied art history, and the University of California Berkeley’s School of Journalism. Before joining TIME, she worked as a reporter and a movie critic for several California newspapers. She wrote a memoir about parenthood that was turned into a television comedy (not Weeds).
Articles from Contributor
The Cabin in the Woods: Burning Down the House of Horror
Five college kids go into the woods in Drew Goddard’s directorial debut. What comes out? Pain-loving zombies, a wicked sense of Buffy-style humor and a film that finally shakes up the slasher-movie genre.
Damsels in Distress: Heathers, Without Cruel Intentions
Whit Stillman’s first project in 14 years shows he’s still a prep-obsessed filmmaker with razor sharp wit
Why I’m NOT Taking My 8-Year Old To The Hunger Games
Tony Kaye’s Detachment: A Miserable Education
Get ready to wallow; the director of American History X turns his sights on a high school where nobody is having any fun at all.
Jeff, Who Lives at Home: A Slacker Comedy with Heart
In this surprisingly touching comedy from the Duplass brothers, Jason Segel plays Jeff, who lives at home and by the end, also in your heart.
Casa de mi Padre No Es Bueno
In this subtitled comedy that mocks telenovas, Will Ferrell proves he could order dinner in Spanish, but that’s about it.
There’s Nothing Blue About Rachel Weisz
In this week’s issue of TIME, I wrote a piece about actress Rachel Weisz, framed around her role in the new Terence Davies’ film The Deep Blue Sea. The film is the second adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play about …
A Pair of Fish Tales: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The snappy dialogue tops the drama in Lasse Hallström’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Meanwhile a documentary about perhaps the world’s greatest sushi chef is hunger-inducing.
Silent House, Shrieking Heroine
Elizabeth Olsen plays a young woman trapped in a house full of strange noises and dark secrets. She gets so scared she throws up; we almost joined in.
Friends with Kids: A Potty-Mouthed Mom Rom Com
In writer-director Jennifer Westfeldt’s new film, two friends imagine they can have a child together yet remain completely platonic. Good luck with that.
Being Flynn: Robert De Niro Has Not Given Up After All
This adaptation of Nick Flynn’s acclaimed memoir Another Bull__ Night in Suck City holds on to its poetry, although the profanity-laced title had to go.
Wanderlust: Nudists and Jennifer Aniston, Though Not in That Order
There are good movies, and then there are good-for-February movies. Wanderlust is one of them.
