Criticism

movie review

No One Knows What They’re Doing in Holland

 This small-town thriller has an underwhelming twist, a shaky grasp of tone, and a cast that flounders to figure out what they’re supposed to be up to. By Alison Willmore
movie review

Death of a Unicorn Is 5 Pounds of Purple Poop In a 10-Pound Bag

 Fantasy-creature gore may be a funny spectacle, but it’s not enough to hang a whole movie on. By Alison Willmore
movie review

Grand Tour Is a Deliberately Ramshackle Yet Captivating Work of Art

 Miguel Gomes’s globetrotting, language-spanning film gently refutes any conventional moviegoing expectations. By Bilge Ebiri
  1. art review
    Behold the FrickThe newly renovated museum is bigger and better than ever.
    By Jerry Saltz
  2. movie review
    How to Make an Elevated Dog MovieLiterate, sober, and bathed in Mozart needle drops, The Friend is a pet film for book clubs and graduate writing seminars.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  3. movie review
    Jason Statham Can Fix UsHis latest killfest, A Working Man, is ridiculous, gorgeous, and enormously satisfying.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  4. song review
    2024 BET Awards - Show
    Nobody Wants This From Will SmithHow do we stop his post-Slap charm campaign from smothering us?
    By Craig Jenkins
  5. tv review
    Paul American Won’t Go ThereWrapping itself in a comforting blanket of “controversy,” the Paul family reality show flinches from anything resembling self-reflection.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  6. album review
    Ariana Grande Is Telling This Story HerselfEternal Sunshine stares directly into the past — and recontextualizes it.
    By Craig Jenkins
  7. theater review
    This Picture of Dorian Gray Leaps Off the WallBrimming with color and directorial innovation, fabulously embodied by Sarah Snook.
    By Sara Holdren
  8. close read
    Common Side Effects’s Tiny Blue Mushroom Contains a World of HurtThe animated series may revolve around a fantastical fungus, but its frustrated rage toward America’s health-care system is as real as it gets.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  9. tv review
    The Studio Laughs to Keep From CryingBeneath the broad farce of this Hollywood satire lies wistful nostalgia for an industry in decline.
    By Nicholas Quah
  10. album review
    Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco Made a Loveless Love AlbumI Said I Love You First is more interested in throwing you off the couple’s trail than letting you in.
    By Craig Jenkins
  11. stand-up
    The Hypocrisy-Joke TrapComics don’t have to square the contradictions they obsess over onstage, but they often miss the point — and better jokes — for easy laughs.
    By Hershal Pandya
  12. theater review
    Money in Its Purse, No Heart on Its Sleeve: Denzel Washington in OthelloKenny Leon’s production, co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is low on ideas and lower on energy.
    By Sara Holdren
  13. movie review
    Baffling and Beautiful, Misericordia Is the Strangest of French ThrillersBeloved in France, Alain Guiraudie’s fascinating new film is a confounding genre hybrid about sublimated (and not so sublimated) desires.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  14. movie review
    Magazine Dreams Is a Punishing ExperienceAnd that’s without even getting into the Jonathan Majors of it all.
    By Alison Willmore
  15. close read
    Severance Talks to ItselfOne sublime finale scene cuts through all the season’s noise.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  16. movie review
    What Are We Doing Here, Alto Knights?On paper, a mob drama starring Robert De Niro as two of history’s biggest gangsters might have worked. But the results are borderline disastrous.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  17. movie review
    How to Live Inside a Mall for 4 YearsThe enormously entertaining Secret Mall Apartment reveals how a group of artists built a secret condo inside a Providence shopping mall.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  18. theater review
    Dead Men Do Tell (Funny) Tales: Operation MincemeatA genuinely funny musical about one of World War II’s oddest espionage gambits.
    By Sara Holdren
  19. close read
    What About Katie?Adolescence ignores her story to its detriment.
    By Shannon Keating
  20. theater review
    The Buena Vista Social Club Gets Bigger and Smaller on BroadwayRevising Cuba’s past with a trimmed book, but more thrilling dance.
    By Jackson McHenry
  21. movie review
    I Don’t Know Why, But Snow White Is Totally About Lefty InfightingIn a tale as old as time, a sheltered princess meets a rakish dirtbag leftist who radicalizes her by negging her about her privilege.
    By Alison Willmore
  22. endings
    Adolescence Doesn’t Have the AnswerLess a mystery than a simmering social portrait, the Netflix series chases the question of why and finds little more than despair.
    By Nicholas Quah
  23. theater review
    We See You, Andrew ScottThe actor creates a full, heartbreaking world inside his solo performance of Vanya.
    By Sara Holdren
  24. album review
    Playboi Carti Gets Lost in the MusicThe new album feels closer to an apology than a return to form.
    By Craig Jenkins
  25. book review
    The Gay Dirtbag Lives OnKristen Arnett’s specialty is queer women in Florida who are Going Through Some Stuff.
    By Sam Worley
  26. theater review
    A Storied Black Family Faces Itself in PurposeA household very much like Jesse Jackson’s has a brutal, if overdetermined, birthday celebration.
    By Jackson McHenry
  27. endings
    Anora’s Ending Is No Fairy TaleAre we seeing a rapturous consummation of two people’s growing feelings for each other, or a bittersweet commiseration?
    By A.A. Dowd
  28. tv review
    Dope Thief Pulls It OffA by-the-book crime tale transcends its genre with a central friendship that is as gooey and soft as the show surrounding it is bleak and bloody.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  29. song review
    Chappell Roan’s Silliness Is Sincere on ‘The Giver’Her country song sounds like a lesbian Shania Twain hit.
    By Justin Curto
  30. movie review
    Movies Aren’t Real Life, But Who by Fire Comes Pretty CloseIn Philippe Lesage’s mesmerizing new film, a rural getaway becomes the setting for old resentments and new calamities.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  31. movie review
    Jack Quaid Is Perfect for the Comic Slaughterfest of NovocaineThis nihilistic action comedy finds a charmingly convenient way to justify its unchecked violence and gore.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  32. movie review
    Netflix’s The Electric State Is a $320 Million Piece of JunkThe Russo brothers used to be pretty good with comedy. What the hell happened?
    By Bilge Ebiri
  33. movie review
    Black Bag Has Renewed My Faith in Modern CinemaThe slick thriller starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett makes monogamy look hot. That’s how good this Steven Soderbergh film is.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  34. movie review
    A Slithery, Singing John Malkovich Is All Opus Has Going for ItIt’s frankly shocking that nobody has asked him to play a pop star until now.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  35. movie review
    A New Looney Tunes Movie Has Escaped ContainmentAliens are invading, and our only hopes are Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. Basically, we’re all screwed.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  36. sxsw 2025
    Matthew McConaughey’s First Movie in 6 Years Is Bananas in the Best WayThe Rivals of Amziah King is a rural comedy, a musical, and an agricultural crime drama, and it’s pretty damn wonderful.
    By Alison Willmore
  37. close read
    The Pitt Was Testing UsThis is a teaching hospital, after all.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  38. theater review
    Mescal and Ferran in Streetcar: Yes, Yes, Magic!Rebecca Frecknall’s production at BAM has it all.
    By Sara Holdren
  39. album review
    Lady Gaga Throws Everything in the PotMayhem isn’t quite the return to form it’s being sold as.
    By Craig Jenkins
  40. book review
    Transness Gets Metaphorical in Torrey Peters’s Stag DanceShe examines the messy underbelly of DIY trans culture, diving into the cringier aspects of queer growing pains.
    By Grace Byron
  41. theater review
    How Do You Measure a Career? The Jonathan Larson Project.A revue of the Rent creator’s trunk songs and offcuts isn’t profound, but it’s moving all the same.
    By Jackson McHenry
  42. theater review
    A Ghosts That Doesn’t Go MadJack O’Brien’s new Ibsen adaptation could use a couple more brainworms.
    By Sara Holdren
  43. tv review
    Give Zahn McClarnon an Emmy AlreadyDark Winds’s strongest season to date is defined by his outstanding performance.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  44. sxsw 2025
    The Thriller Drop Is a Perfect Addition to the Bad-First-Date CanonMeghann Fahy, you will always be famous.
    By Alison Willmore
  45. the righteous gemstones
    Bradley Cooper Is So Good at This“This” being “acting like an asshole.”
    By Roxana Hadadi
  46. theater review
    Launching Into Adulthood, With Frenemies and Hummus: All NighterSenior year is almost over, guys.
    By Jackson McHenry
  47. sxsw 2025
    The Accountant 2 Cannot Be Taken SeriouslyDo not approach this sequel, starring Ben Affleck as an underworld accountant again, with any sort of sobriety.
    By Alison Willmore
  48. sxsw 2025
    Another Simple Favor Is So Fun, Until It Gets So DumbBy the end, the film doesn’t feel subversively strange, just self-consciously campy and irritatingly smug.
    By Alison Willmore
  49. movie review
    Errol Morris Has Been Sucked Into the Gaping Maw of True CrimeThe documentarian may have been pivotal to creating the language of true crime, but he’s not immune to streaming bloat.
    By Alison Willmore
  50. movie review
    In Eephus, Baseball Is a Metaphor for Life, But It’s Also Just LifeCarson Lund’s charming indie film about a bunch of guys playing their last ball game has a power that sneaks up on you.
    By Bilge Ebiri
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