J Paul Johnson
J Paul Johnson is Executive Editor and a writer-reviewer at Film Obsessive. A retired professor emeritus of film studies and an avid cinephile, collector, and curator, his interests range from classical Hollywood melodrama and genre films to world and independent cinemas and documentary.
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in EpisodesIrma Vep Episode 8: “The Terrible Wedding”
The following contains spoilers for Irma Vep Episode 8, “The Terrible Wedding” (written and directed by Olivier Assayas) With this final episode, Olivier Assayas resolves most, though not all, of his dizzying series’ conflicts, in the process leaving room for his own personal theorizing about the meaning of cinema—and for a surprising big-name cameo. Like Assayas’s […] More
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in Episodes
Irma Vep Episode 7: “The Spectre”
The following contains spoilers for Irma Vep Episode 7, “The Spectre” (written and directed by Olivier Assayas) So far, practically every episode of Irma Vep since its first has heightened the stakes and conflicts among the cast and crew of the film—or is that series?—René Vidal (Vincent Macaigne) has been directing. In Episode 7, “The Spectre,” events […] More
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in Episodes
Irma Vep Episode 6: “The Thunder Master”
The following contains spoilers for Irma Vep Episode 6, “The Thunder Master” (written and directed by Olivier Assayas) This deliciously funny, occasionally frightening, and often thoughtful series is reaching a boiling point, and I’m going to miss it when it concludes. With this week’s and just two more episodes to go, Olivier Assayas has set in […] More
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in Episodes
Irma Vep Episode 5: “Hypnotic Eyes”
The following contains spoilers for Irma Vep Episode 5, “Hypnotic Eyes” (written and directed by Olivier Assayas) “Hypnotic Eyes” opens with a gaze. The gaze belongs to Vampires arch-rival Moreno, he of those infamous hypnotic eyes. It’s one that reminds of the centrality of the gaze to so much film theory writer-director Olivier Assayas’s characters will […] More
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in Episodes
Irma Vep Episode 4: “The Poisoner”
The following contains spoilers for Irma Vep Episode 4, “The Poisoner” (written and directed by Olivier Assayas) What happened to Edmond? At the end of last week’s Episode 3 of Olivier Assayas’s eight-part HBO series adapting his 1996 film Irma Vep, the actor (played by Vincent Lacoste) passed out, apparently from injury suffered in an on-set […] More
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in Episodes
Irma Vep Episode 3: “Dead Man’s Escape”
The following contains spoilers for Irma Vep Episode 3, “Dead Man’s Escape” (written and directed by Olivier Assayas) The title of Episode 3 of Olivier Assayas’s eight-part limited series for HBO, Irma Vep—“Dead Man’s Escape”—feels a little more on point than those of the first two episodes. In this meta-meta commentary on the filmmaking industry and […] More
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in Episodes
Irma Vep Episode 2: “The Ring that Kills”
The following contains spoilers for Irma Vep Episode 2, “The Ring that Kills” (written and directed by Olivier Assayas) If last week’s premiere episode of HBO’s new miniseries Irma Vep, written and directed by Olivier Assayas as an eight-part adaptation of his own 1996 feature film, gave viewers all the necessary exposition they needed to […] More
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in Episodes
Irma Vep Episode 1: “The Severed Head”
The following contains spoilers for Irma Vep Episode 1, “The Severed Head” (written and directed by Olivier Assayas) Having recently rewatched Olivier Assayas’s brilliant, confounding 1996 cult classic Irma Vep for an “Off the Shelf” review of the Criterion Collection’s two-disc Blu-ray edition laden with deep-dive special features, I could not have been more excited […] More
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George’s Winter of Discontent in The Beatles: Get Back
As Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back opens, a bit of nondiegetic text reminds viewers of the scope of his project before addressing that of the Beatles’. “The ‘Get Back’ project in January 1969,” the text declares, “produced over 60 hours of film footage and 150 hours of audio recordings.” A second line follows: “Numerous […] More
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in Docuseries
From Let It Be to The Beatles: Get Back
More than fifty years after their breakup, The Beatles can still entice and enthrall. Peter Jackson’s new documentary project, a minor miracle of restorative editing, proves just that, presenting the foursome in a new, full light, with a richness of detail literally never seen before. His three-part series The Beatles: Get Back resuscitates the vexed […] More
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in Series
Maid Review: A Familiar, Troubling, Suspenseful Tale of Empowerment
The following includes spoilers for the full season of the Netflix limited series Maid. By the conclusion of the ten-episode run of Netflix’s Maid, Alex, the limited series’ put-upon protagonist, has achieved her long-held dream of entering college. Given the abuse, gaslighting, and trauma she’s experienced, her accomplishment is well deserved, making for a fitting […] More
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in Episodes
Scenes from a Marriage Episode 5 Brings Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain Together “In the Middle of the Night in a Dark House Somewhere in the World”
The following contains spoilers for Scenes from a Marriage Episode 5, “In the Middle of the Night in a Dark House Somewhere in the World” When last we saw marrieds Jonathan (Oscar Isaac) and Mira (Jessica Chastain) at the end of writer-director Hagai Levi’s Scenes from a Marriage remake Episode 4, “The Illiterates,” the two had […] More
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