MaryAnn Johanson (she/her)
LightNews LightNews
banner
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her)
@maryannjohanson.bsky.social
720 followers 1.3K following 1.4K posts
do not obey in advance | born at 325ppm of CO2 | pioneering online film critic at FlickFilosopher.com since 1997 | London via NYC | find me elsewhere online: https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2023/09/where-else-to-find-me-online.html
www.flickfilosopher.com
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Sep 5
Up early and small fortune spent on transit to get to a press screening… but damn, it’s good to be out and part of the world again.

I’ve been so limited — isolated, even — because of my bad hip and my bad knee, for years. It’s weird getting used to that not being true anymore.
1 10
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 3h
Now seated for Del Toro’s #Frankenstein in @Imax at @bfi. So very lucky to be a short bus ride from the biggest screen in Britain.
1
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 4h
One year ago.

Suffice to say that it has not been a good year.
maryannjohanson.bsky.social MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Oct 31
Trump Halloween pumpkin on my street in London.

I hope he's as deflated and rotting as this gourd will be come next Tuesday.
A pumpkin carved to look like Donald Trump's angry orange face. Some of the innards have been placed atop like his weird combover.
1 1 1
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 4h
Absolutely love getting emails with links for a press screener that doesn't mention the actual title of the film anywhere: not in the subject line, not in the body of the email, not in the URL for the screener. Nowhere. Such fun! So easy to find in my in-box. #FilmCriticProblems
3
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 4d
It's absolutely disgusting that someone can bring home -- I hesitate to say "earn" -- this much money (£30-60K per MONTH) doing something -- currency trading -- that does ZILCH to improve the world or help people. Fuck everything. #SmashCapitalism metro.co.uk/2025/10/26/m...
I make £30,000 a month — when you earn more, you want more
'I wanted to make money because I like nice things.'
metro.co.uk
1 2
Reposted by MaryAnn Johanson (she/her)
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 7d
Grimly hilarious, this mashup of black comedy, social commentary, suspense, and horror is sharp and stinging, with a haunting gut punch of a finale... and #Bugonia is Yorgos Lanthimos’s most accessible film yet. My 🟢 review: www.flickfilosopher.com/2025/10/bugo... [US cinemas now; UK Oct 31] 📽️
Bugonia movie review: worst contact (London Film Festival 2025) - FlickFilosopher.com
Grimly hilarious, this mashup of black comedy, social commentary, suspense, and horror is sharp and stinging, with a haunting gut punch of a finale... and it’s Yorgos Lanthimos’s most accessible film ...
www.flickfilosopher.com
1 1 2
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 7d
Grimly hilarious, this mashup of black comedy, social commentary, suspense, and horror is sharp and stinging, with a haunting gut punch of a finale... and #Bugonia is Yorgos Lanthimos’s most accessible film yet. My 🟢 review: www.flickfilosopher.com/2025/10/bugo... [US cinemas now; UK Oct 31] 📽️
Bugonia movie review: worst contact (London Film Festival 2025) - FlickFilosopher.com
Grimly hilarious, this mashup of black comedy, social commentary, suspense, and horror is sharp and stinging, with a haunting gut punch of a finale... and it’s Yorgos Lanthimos’s most accessible film ...
www.flickfilosopher.com
1 1 2
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 8d
This. This is metaphorical in a way that nothing else Trump has done so far has been. It’s one picture speaking a thousand, a hundred thousand words.
mollyjongfast.bsky.social Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 8d
Trump has done many many many many many things that are worse than this, but I bet this is one of the things that turns people.
1 2 4
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 8d
"Is there a timeline, a regulatory environment, in which the internet does not turn into a highly efficient manufacturer of niche suicide cults?"

So many people have been so badly broken by our toxic culture. I don't know how we fix any of this.

harpers.org/archive/2025...
The Goon Squad, by Daniel Kolitz
Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation
harpers.org
4
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 20d
Is getting fucking pissed off by your reminder app an ADHD thing?
1
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 20d
Absolutely astonishing how many people are just, like, "*shrug* You have to get on board with the authoritarianism or you'll get left behind."

No, you fucking do not have to get on board with it. You can fight. You can resist. If nothing else, do it for your own self-worth.
1 1 7
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 24d
The way you prove your age in these instances is by uploading a selfie (if you’re observably old enough) or uploading a copy of a government ID. So now that’s online somewhere in a hackable database. It’s fucking walking into your own oppression.
1
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 24d
She left to go bother someone else so I guess I can work again.
1
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 24d
Sorry, can’t work, doggo is cuddling.
A very pretty, very cheeky German shorthaired pointer-Irish setter mix is snuggling up to human legs stretched out on a bed.
1 3
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 26d
So, @Vimeo just asked me for age verification. (I'm 56, BTW.) This is gonna fuck with a LOT of filmmakers, PRs, and studios sharing their films with critics for review. #EverythingIsBroken #FuckThisShit #FilmCriticProblems
1 2 4
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 28d
Madness.

How to avoid the worst of Covid (as well as colds and flu)? WEAR A FUCKING MASK.

Not one mention of that here.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cold, flu and Covid symptoms: Expert advice and how to avoid the worst
BBC Morning Live's Dr Oscar Duke shares his advice on how to identify whether you have cold, flu or Covid and how to look after yourself.
www.bbc.co.uk
1 3
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · 29d
It is ON. #LFF #LFF2025
3
Reposted by MaryAnn Johanson (she/her)
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Sep 30
A haunted house movie from the dog’s perspective. #GoodBoy is no cheap gimmick but an absolute marvel, strikingly original and deeply affecting. An interspecies love story without a lick of phony sentimentality. My 🟢 review: www.flickfilosopher.com/2025/09/good... [US cinemas Friday/UK Oct 10th]
Good Boy movie review: horrors beyond canine comprehension - FlickFilosopher.com
A haunted house movie from the dog’s perspective. No cheap gimmick but an absolute marvel, strikingly original and deeply affecting. An interspecies love story without a lick of phony sentimentality.
www.flickfilosopher.com
1 4
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Oct 1
"Experts say these do not appear to pose any bigger threat than previous types of Covid or make people feel more ill."

So, a fuckton of threat, then, of organ damage, immune damage, blood clots, brain seizures, and other debilitating impacts? #WearAMask

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Covid cases rising with new variants 'Nimbus' and 'Stratus'
Unwell with a bad throat and temperature? You may have one of the new Covid strains circulating this autumn.
www.bbc.co.uk
2
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Sep 30
A haunted house movie from the dog’s perspective. #GoodBoy is no cheap gimmick but an absolute marvel, strikingly original and deeply affecting. An interspecies love story without a lick of phony sentimentality. My 🟢 review: www.flickfilosopher.com/2025/09/good... [US cinemas Friday/UK Oct 10th]
Good Boy movie review: horrors beyond canine comprehension - FlickFilosopher.com
A haunted house movie from the dog’s perspective. No cheap gimmick but an absolute marvel, strikingly original and deeply affecting. An interspecies love story without a lick of phony sentimentality.
www.flickfilosopher.com
1 4
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Sep 29
3 yrs today since Mom died of Covid caught in a health-care facility.

And this bastard virus still runs rampant, still kills and disables, still locks in future untimely death and disability.

Our leaders allow this because it’s better for quarterly profits.

I’m still furious.
3 7
Reposted by MaryAnn Johanson (she/her)
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Sep 25
Brash, chaotic, full of bleak humor and bitter irony. With blockbuster vibes over an anarchic indie heart, #OneBattleAfterAnother is both earnest and winking. Outstanding in-flight entertainment for our societal freefall. My 🟢 review: www.flickfilosopher.com/2025/09/one-... 📽️
One Battle After Another movie review: où est la résistance? - FlickFilosopher.com
Brash, chaotic, full of bleak humor and bitter irony. With blockbuster vibes over an anarchic indie heart, it’s both earnest and winking. Outstanding in-flight entertainment for our societal freefall.
www.flickfilosopher.com
1 2 8
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Sep 26
A real aspect of boxing — dangerously fast weight loss — sports films have ignored becomes body horror we have not seen before in #TheCut. The genre’s motivational clichés get twisted, nastily and poignantly. My 🟢 review: www.flickfilosopher.com/2025/09/the-... [premium VOD US now, UK Oct 6th] 📽️
The Cut movie review: head not in the game - FlickFilosopher.com
A real aspect of boxing -- dangerously fast weight loss -- sports films have ignored becomes body horror we have not seen before. The genre’s motivational clichés get twisted, nastily and poignantly.
www.flickfilosopher.com
2
Reposted by MaryAnn Johanson (she/her)
visiblesoul.bsky.social
Zack Calhoon @visiblesoul.bsky.social · Sep 25
“In the new century, I think we will all be insane.”
-Tony Kushner, ANGELS IN AMERICA: MILLENIUM APPROACHES
1 17 63
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Sep 26
LOL but it wasn’t meant to be funny. It’s just the most recent previous film of his that I reviewed!
1
maryannjohanson.bsky.social
MaryAnn Johanson (she/her) @maryannjohanson.bsky.social · Sep 25
Brash, chaotic, full of bleak humor and bitter irony. With blockbuster vibes over an anarchic indie heart, #OneBattleAfterAnother is both earnest and winking. Outstanding in-flight entertainment for our societal freefall. My 🟢 review: www.flickfilosopher.com/2025/09/one-... 📽️
One Battle After Another movie review: où est la résistance? - FlickFilosopher.com
Brash, chaotic, full of bleak humor and bitter irony. With blockbuster vibes over an anarchic indie heart, it’s both earnest and winking. Outstanding in-flight entertainment for our societal freefall.
www.flickfilosopher.com
1 2 8