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Carmen Phillips

Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications:

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Rent (2005) 46% EDIT “Rent is best enjoyed singing it loudly at the top of your lungs, dancing until you break a sweat, and the collapsing exhausted against your couch with your best friends. ” – Autostraddle Mar 27, 2024 Full Review Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (2023) 97% EDIT “Here are two Black queer icons, both standing at the precipice of life’s intersections... They may spar with their intellect might, but they also take boundless care of each other. The resulting dance is breathtaking. ” – Autostraddle Jan 17, 2024 Full Review The Color Purple (2023) 81% EDIT “Henson shines by seeing depths of Shug’s hurt. She takes Shug’s bisexuality seriously, even within the in-between beats of what’s not on the page.” – Autostraddle Dec 20, 2023 Full Review The Marvels (2023) 63% EDIT “DaCosta made room for The Marvels to be bright and playful, filled with characters that are impossible not to love.” – Autostraddle Nov 13, 2023 Full Review My Name Is Mo'Nique (2023) EDIT “A master conductor, the audience’s laughter her orchestra to manipulate.” – Autostraddle Apr 6, 2023 Full Review Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) 65% EDIT “Hocus Pocus 2 really is cute (enough). If you’re in the right mood, it’s maybe even good.” – Autostraddle Oct 4, 2022 Full Review Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) 63% EDIT “There's a lot of fun in Thor: Love and Thunder. It's a worthy successor to Thor: Ragnarok (my favorite, and despite what Natalie Portman claimed, still the gayest Thor movie).” – Autostraddle Jul 8, 2022 Full Review Fire Island (2022) 94% EDIT “I’ve never seen a film take on a relatively common and flagrantly cruel catchphrase from gay men’s dating apps — “No fats, no fems, no Asians” — so squarely. ” – Autostraddle Jun 13, 2022 Full Review Bruised (2020) 51% EDIT “It's rare that trauma narratives show the mess and muck of healing, but Bruised valiantly lets Jackie falter, get back up, and try again.” – Autostraddle Nov 29, 2021 Full Review Gunpowder Milkshake (2021) 60% EDIT “After a clunky slow start filled with exposition, director/co-writer Navot Papushado seems to throw everything against the wall, covers it in blood, and hopes that something will stick.” – Autostraddle Jul 16, 2021 Full Review My Name Is Pauli Murray (2021) 94% EDIT “My Name Is Pauli Murray absolutely shines brightest when it lets Murray take the reigns.” – Autostraddle Feb 2, 2021 Full Review A New York Christmas Wedding (2020) EDIT “Unfortunately, Christmas love can do many things - but it can't always cover the cracks in storytelling, and A New York Christmas Wedding has some pretty egregious, if not outright offensive, ones.” – Autostraddle Nov 20, 2020 Full Review Set It Off (1996) 71% EDIT “F. Gary Gray does so nearly flawlessly because he understands that first and foremost the story belongs to the Black women upon whose shoulders this entangled mess has always fallen onto in the first place.” – Autostraddle Sep 4, 2020 Full Review Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) 79% EDIT “It's angry and incredibly violent and despite its bright color palette - perhaps expectedly dark; it's also cathartic and triumphant.” – Autostraddle Feb 11, 2020 Full Review Hustlers (2019) 88% EDIT “Hustlers is arguably the finest performance Jennifer Lopez has ever given, and there is no way for me to be unbiased about that fact. Her performance is as magnetic as it is layered, loving and warm as it is fearsome and dangerous.” – Autostraddle Sep 17, 2019 Full Review Men in Black: International (2019) 23% EDIT “Having Molly guide us back into the supernatural buddy-comedy universe really should've worked. To her credit, Tessa Thompson works very hard to make it work.” – Autostraddle Aug 10, 2019 Full Review Butter (2011) 35% EDIT “The entire plot for Butter is the kind of wackadoodle delight that one should really experience with fresh eyes and their feet up on a couch with a bowl junk food at their disposal.” – Autostraddle Apr 11, 2019 Full Review Widows (2018) 91% EDIT “It's knotty and tense to watch as all the pieces fall into place, but nonetheless electrifying.” – Autostraddle Nov 20, 2018 Full Review Boys on the Side (1995) 73% EDIT “Honestly one of the most beautiful tributes to adult friendships between women that I've seen.” – Autostraddle Oct 8, 2018 Full Review Hearts Beat Loud (2018) 92% EDIT “A merciful reprieve from the trend of films that, the few times they have lesbian protagonists at all, only serve to remind us of the hellscape that being queer in America can be.” – Autostraddle Jun 6, 2018 Full Review The Incredible Jessica James (2017) 88% EDIT “This movie is surprisingly sweet, bright, and optimistic in all the right places.” – Autostraddle Apr 20, 2018 Full Review Black Panther (2018) 96% EDIT “I want us to love on Black Panther, bravely and openly. But, we cannot forget the asterisk. We cannot forget that a significant achievement for black representation once again came on the back of forced black queer silence.” – Autostraddle Apr 20, 2018 Full Review
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