About

Born and raised in Manhattan, Anne Thompson grew up going to the Thalia and The New Yorker and wound up at grad Cinema Studies at NYU. She worked at United Artists and Film Comment before heading west as that magazine’s west coast editor. She wrote for the LA Weekly, Sight and Sound, Empire, The New York Times and on staff at Entertainment Weekly before serving as West Coast Editor of Premiere. She wrote for The Washington Post, The London Observer, Wired, More, and Vanity Fair, and did staff stints at The Hollywood Reporter, where she founded their first blog, “Riskybiz,” and Variety. She eventually took her blog Thompson on Hollywood to Indiewire. She taught film criticism at USC Critical Studies, and continues to host the fall semester of “Sneak Previews” for UCLA Extension. In March 2014 HarperCollins published her first book, “The $11 Billion Year, From Sundance to the Oscars, an Inside Look at the Changing Hollywood System.” 

STAFFERS:

Tom Brueggemann covers box office for TOH! He intended to study journalism at Northwestern University before an obsession with film took him in a different direction. He began his career in exhibition running a weekday film program as he studied political science and graduate film studies. Until recently he worked as a film buyer in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, specializing in art house venues. He currently consults for multiple film festivals.

Beth Hanna is a film and TV critic and Senior Writer for TOH! A cinephile living in Los Angeles, she holds a master’s degree in cinema and media studies from UCLA. She previously worked in the film programming department at the American Cinematheque, where she programmed the Cinematheque’s first-ever Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Luis Buñuel retrospectives in 2012. She also has programmed at AFI FEST since 2009, where she oversaw the screen education program, screening a selection of festival titles for middle- and high-school students from across Los Angeles. Follow Beth on Twitter.

Ryan Lattanzio is a film and TV critic and staff writer for TOH! He was born and raised in Rochester, NY before moving to California, where he received a bachelor’s degree in English at UC Berkeley. During college, he covered film for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Guardian and for Berkeley’s student paper, The Daily Californian, where he served as lead film critic and wrote a semester-long movie column called “Reeling.” After graduating and completing an honors thesis on masculinity in 20th century horror films, he was sent to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival on scholarship as a jury member for Critics’ Week. Ryan now lives in Los Angeles. Follow Ryan on Twitter.

CONTRIBUTORS

John Anderson is a New York film critic and regular contributor to TOH! The former lead film critic for Newsday contributes regularly to Variety, The New York Times and other publications. He is a member and past president of the New York Film Critics Circle and co-authored with Laura Kim a guide for independent filmmakers on how to navigate film festivals, I Wake Up Screening.

Matt Brennan is a film and TV critic and regular contributor to TOH! He graduated from USC in 2009 with a B.A. in film studies and history. After teaching English for two years at a school for at-risk teens in rural Louisiana, he is pursuing a Ph.D in American history. His writing has also appeared in L.A. Weekly, Bright Lights Film Journal, and on his own blog, The Filmgoer. He lives in New Orleans. Follow Matt on Twitter. 

Meredith Brody is a film and food critic based in the Bay Area who covers film festivals for TOH! A graduate of USC film school and veteran of studio development hell on both sides of the desk, she has written for many publications including the New York Times, Village Voice, LA Weekly, SF Weekly, and a score of film magazines including Cahiers du Cinema, Film Comment, Premiere, and Empire. Her essays have appeared in book collections such as “Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style.” Follow her on Facebook. 

David Chute is a film and television critic based in Los Angeles. Born and raised in Maine, Chute was staff film critic for The Kennebec Journal, Maine Times, The Boston Phoenix and The Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He interviewed Stephen King for Take One, David Cronenberg, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Sayles, John Waters and Mira Nair for Film Comment, Lawrence Kasdan for American Film, Jackie Chan and Pedro Almodovar for the LA Weekly, and Francis Ford Coppola and Philip Kaufman for the L.A. Times. Most recently David was senior writer, marketing and communications at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Follow David on Facebook. 

Jacob Combs is a film writer for TOH! based in New York. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, where his mom—a former screenwriter—and his dad—a gaffer—gave him one piece of advice: don’t go into show business.  Following in his parents’ footsteps (but ignoring their wise suggestion), he has done just that. He works as a script supervisor at Blue Sky Studios.  His writing on politics and marriage equality can be read on the Huffington Post and the blog Equality on Trial, where he is a contributor and co-editor. Follow him on Twitter.

Amy Dawes is a screenwriter who writes regularly about film and television for TOH! and other publications including Directors Guild Quarterly, Emmy Magazine and The LA Times. She is a former senior features editor and film reviewer at Variety, where she covered the independent film and festival scene beginning in the early ‘90s. She lives in Los Angeles, where she graduated from USC with a master’s degree in professional writing. Follow her on Twitter. 

Bill Desowitz writes a weekly column TOH! specializing in VFX/tech/below-the-line movie coverage. He also covers animation for another Indiewire blog, Jerry Beck’s  Animation Scoop. Desowitz is a former senior editor of AWN and editor of sister site VFXWorld. He also contributes to and runs his blog, Immersed in Movies. He published his book, James Bond Unmasked, chronicling the evolution of 007 from Connery to Craig, published in honor of the franchise’s 50th anniversary. Follow him on Twitter.

Elaina Patton is a New York-based writer, contributing regularly to TOH! She also writes and photographs for a variety of publications in the city and remotely. After graduating from UC Berkeley, Elaina received formal culinary training before moving to New York. Though currently focusing on arts and cultural criticism, she still acts as a part-time culinary consultant and food writer. Publications and brands include ForknPlate, the Nola Defender, Couteaux Review, and the Berkeley Fiction Review. Follow her on Twitter.

Matt Mueller is a London-based film critic; he covers the UK beat and European film festivals for TOH!. He has previously edited two British movie magazines – “Total Film” and the UK edition of “Premiere” – and is now a Contributing Editor at “Total Film” and “Wonderland,” as well as freelancing for “The Guardian,” “The Sunday Times” and “Screen International”among others. Follow him on Twitter.