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Roxana Hadadi

Roxana Hadadi

Roxana Hadadi writes about film, television, and culture with sides of judgment and thirst. She is a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes and a member of the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and the Online Film Critics Society. She holds an MA in literature and lives outside Baltimore, Maryland.

News archive
<i>Pump Up the Volume</i> at 30: A Middle Finger to America’s Suburban Monotony
Roxana Hadadi

Pump Up the Volume at 30: A Middle Finger to America’s Suburban Monotony

Aug 21st, 2020
Pump Up the Volume never capitulates. In its opening scene, a law-breaking teenage radio DJ who goes by the moniker Hard Harry ( known for excessive...
How <i>Babe</i> Snuck Radicalism into a Family Favorite
Roxana Hadadi

How Babe Snuck Radicalism into a Family Favorite

Aug 4th, 2020
Few films aimed at children have made the case for the value of every life as clearly as Babe did in 1995. Yes, that Babe—the film about the pig...
How 'Clueless' Flipped the Script on the Teen Coming-of-Age Movie
Roxana Hadadi

How 'Clueless' Flipped the Script on the Teen Coming-of-Age Movie

Jul 17th, 2020
It is strange to consider how often teen movies are about young women, and how frequently those stories are told by men. Look at the genre output...
<i>But I’m a Cheerleader</i> at 20: There’s More Than One Way to Tell a Coming-Out Story
Roxana Hadadi

But I’m a Cheerleader at 20: There’s More Than One Way to Tell a Coming-Out Story

Jul 6th, 2020
It is fascinating now, in 2020, when Jamie Babbit’s But I’m a Cheerleader is a celebrated cult classic of queer cinema—recognized by the...
Sixty Years Later, <i>The Apartment</i> is Still the Romantic Comedy Blueprint
Roxana Hadadi

Sixty Years Later, The Apartment is Still the Romantic Comedy Blueprint

Jun 30th, 2020
Genre filmmaking is a precise art, and yes, that includes the much-maligned romantic comedy. A number of intangibles all have to click together to...
The Nightmare Visions (and Surprising Emotional Center) of 'Return to Oz'
Roxana Hadadi

The Nightmare Visions (and Surprising Emotional Center) of 'Return to Oz'

Jun 22nd, 2020
It is slightly cynical (but not necessarily inaccurate) to describe Disney’s business strategy for the last decade or so as built, almost...
Classic Corner: <i>Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles</i>
Roxana Hadadi

Classic Corner: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Jun 10th, 2020
Chantal Akerman was 25 years old when her technically groundbreaking, emotionally devastating, and alternately revered and reviled Jeanne Dielman,...
Review: <i>Shirley</i>
Roxana Hadadi

Review: Shirley

Jun 4th, 2020
Decades after her death in 1965, Shirley Jackson’s shadow looms over American horror, continuing to make a space in the genre for a female point...
The Proto-‘Matrix’ ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ Never Tries To Be Anything But Itself
Roxana Hadadi

The Proto-‘Matrix’ ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ Never Tries To Be Anything But Itself

May 26th, 2020
The 1990s were a strange time for filmmakers attempting to understand the Internet. As the technology went mainstream, with more families securing...
Twenty Years Later, the Modernizations of Michael Almereyda’s <i>Hamlet</i> Provide a Peculiar Nostalgia
Roxana Hadadi

Twenty Years Later, the Modernizations of Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet Provide a Peculiar Nostalgia

May 12th, 2020
The Shakespeare adaptations of the 1990s and early 2000s are unified by an excess of style, and by a series of big risks. The nightmarish bleakness...
“The Imprisonment of Being a Girl”: On the Emotive Legacy of Sofia Coppola’s <i>The Virgin Suicides</i>
Roxana Hadadi

“The Imprisonment of Being a Girl”: On the Emotive Legacy of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides

Apr 21st, 2020
Sofia Coppola’s career is nearly universally concerned with the unspoken loneliness of womanhood, and her directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides,...
Review: <i>Tape</i>
Roxana Hadadi

Review: Tape

Apr 9th, 2020
Of all Shakespeare’s plays, Titus Andronicus is undoubtedly the most brutal, and possibly the most overlooked. Its bloodshed is constant:...
Looking Back at the ‘90s Erotic Thriller Feminism of Kathryn Bigelow’s <i>Blue Steel</i>
Roxana Hadadi

Looking Back at the ‘90s Erotic Thriller Feminism of Kathryn Bigelow’s Blue Steel

Mar 19th, 2020
Blue Steel feels like an overlooked entry in Kathryn Bigelow’s filmography. It doesn’t have the online appeal of Point Break, from which Keanu...
Review: <i>Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn</i>
Roxana Hadadi

Review: Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

Feb 6th, 2020
DC Comics’ Gotham City has not traditionally been a kind place for women. Bruce Wayne’s mother Martha was assassinated in the street for her...
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