Angelica Jade Bastién Author Archive
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Angelica Jade Bastién

Critic
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Angelica Jade Bastién is a critic for New York and Vulture focusing on pop culture. She was once described by a close friend as “deliciously vulgarâ€.

  1. movie review
    Mountains Is a Quietly Magnificent DebutMonica Sorelle’s first feature film is a vibrant story of gentrification and generational divides in Miami’s Little Haiti.
  2. public theater
    Rooting for ThemBen Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are keeping unapologetic, ostentatious celebrity romance alive.
  3. artifacts
    100 Pieces of Pop Culture That Defined ObamacoreYou know them when you see them — whether they were genius or, well, not.
  4. movie review
    When You’re Too Obsessed With Channing Tatum to Eat the RichBlink Twice director Zoë Kravitz is so enamored with her muse, she forgets he’s playing a tech-bro billionaire.
  5. in conversation
    Jennifer Tilly Outsmarts Them AllFour decades into her career, the Oscar nominee turned Chucky icon is bringing her cunning stardom to Real Housewives.
  6. hoochie daddies
    The Hot Boys of Anime Are BackA new crop of male characters is united by undaunted sex appeal, and diversely packaged in ways Hollywood can only dream of achieving.
  7. close read
    The White-Power Fantasy of ReacherThe streaming juggernaut fronts as wallpaper TV, but its uncanny fiction is anything but easygoing.
  8. how to be a star in 2024
    21 Ways to Hack StardomAfter a dry period, a new crop of A-listers is rising in Hollywood — and doing it differently this time.
  9. movie review
    Challengers Is Almost a Sexy MovieJust like it’s almost a good tennis film, and almost the mature starring role Zendaya needed.
  10. movies
    THE MATRIX, Keanu Reeves, 1999. ©Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection
    The Beatific Imperfection of Keanu Reeves in The MatrixHe invented a new kind of action star.
  11. movie review
    Is Poor Things the Best We Can Do for Female Sexuality Onscreen?Emma Stone fully commits to a banal rendition of faux-feminist sexual freedom.
  12. let’s go
    The 100 Fights That Shaped Action CinemaWhether the scenes featured fists, firearms, or blades, the result was always the same: The crowd was pleased.
  13. performance review
    The Thing About Ryan GoslingHe looks like a Ken, but he’s a rarity in Hollywood: an actor who is comfortable supporting a female movie star.
  14. who’s your daddy now
    Mr. and Mrs. Smith Is a Straight Shot of Movie Star CharismaWhen Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt met on the set of the 2005 film, it was a meeting of two very different emblems of Hollywood past.
  15. performance review
    White Empathy Only Gets You So Far in Killers of the Flower MoonLily Gladstone gives a staggering performance as Mollie, but Martin Scorsese’s script is too stuck at the pitch of awe to interrogate her humanity.
  16. movie review
    The Silence Is the Loudest Part of Renaissance: A FilmNo star is better at positioning themselves as apolitical than Beyoncé.
  17. performance review
    The Backs of a Story Say It AllPassages is the year’s strongest, sexiest acting showcase. Its best performances rely on one body part in particular.
  18. tv review
    One Piece Is the Joyful Exception That Proves the RuleNetflix adapts Eiichiro Oda’s epic, silly, radical anime in live action and manages the impossible: It works.
  19. movie review
    The Flash in a PanThe latest DC movie is the cinematic equivalent of a snake eating its own tail. This isn’t a film so much as brand management in flailing motion.
  20. hold my purse
    Blow Her, Don’t Shrink HerAnd Just Like That … season two owes Sarita Choudhury an apology.
  21. movie review
    What Happened to the Frothy Pleasures of The Little Mermaid?Halle Bailey is a delight in the Disney live-action remake, but everything around her is mercilessly dull and misguided.
  22. summer preview 2023
    Here Come Fast X, Tom Cruise, and a Summer of Big MoviesBut which will be the biggest? In a post-Maverick glow, anything is possible.
  23. performance review
    Who Can Top Rachel Weisz?She’s giving the greatest performance of her career in Dead Ringers, proving Rachel Weisz’s ideal scene partner is Rachel Weisz.
  24. close read
    Let’s Talk About the Black Madwoman in SwarmThe show is at once frustrating and fascinating in how it fails to disrupt the conventions of a potent pop-culture archetype.
  25. movie review
    The Limits and Wonders of John Wick’s Last FightIn John Wick: Chapter 4, bodies are cut, shot, broken, and strangely beautiful when meeting their ends. If only every end were earned.
  26. performance review
    The Self-possession of Angela BassettShe has an unmatched ability to portray the interior complications and cultural reverberations of Black women’s anger — onscreen and off.
  27. movie review
    With Return to Seoul, a Star Is BornPark Ji-min’s remarkable lead performance elevates this withholding yet moving meditation on identity and culture to a masterwork.
  28. best of 2022
    The Best Movie Performances of 2022From the deliciously jittery Jake Gyllenhaal to a perfectly arch Rebecca Hall to Taylor Russell as a cannibal, and so much more.
  29. movie review
    There’s History in Babylon, But Where’s the Thrill?Damien Chazelle is too worried about the extinction of film to make one capable of truly titillating.
  30. best of 2022
    Did We Want Too Much From Movies in 2022?Our film critics continue to chase that feeling of being utterly obliterated by what they see onscreen.
  31. movie review
    Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Doesn’t Have the AnswersHow can any one film manage the expectations put on Ryan Coogler’s sequel and make space for grief? It can’t.
  32. profile
    Nikyatu Jusu’s FablesThe director of Nanny, this year’s most acclaimed film at Sundance, blends West African folklore and horror.
  33. performance review
    What Was Brangelina?The couple were always known for their image-making savvy. Now, as their divorce reenters the press cycle, we’re reminded of who’s better at it.
  34. close read
    The Hollow Impersonation in BlondeIn life, Marilyn Monroe was a complex artist and human being. In the hands of Ana de Armas, she’s an eternal victim.
  35. close read
    Harley Quinn Grows UpThe animated series’s third season excavated some deep emotional terrain, at the expense of its gonzo humor.
  36. vulture lists
    Every Marilyn Monroe Movie, RankedShe was more than a dumb blonde.
  37. let’s do it again
    The 102 Best Movie Sequels of All TimeWho in the world wanted a Top Gun sequel? Not even Tom Cruise, but that didn’t stop Maverick from getting made and soaring in our ranks.
  38. behind the seams
    The Tantalizing Failures of Irma VepOlivier Assayas’s remix of his own film is playful and wild, but it lacks what it needs to succeed: a true star performance.
  39. urgent reconsideration
    Atlanta Season Three Was a Bad TripAfter a four-year break, Donald Glover’s FX series returned unsure of what it wanted to say. Four Vulture writers and critics try to make sense of it.
  40. emergency discussion
    Hooray, Star Trek Feels Like Star Trek AgainStrange New Worlds is the best the franchise has been in decades. Two lifelong fans break down why it works so well.
  41. summer preview
    What Will Be the Biggest Movie of the Summer?Vulture bets on five films that will break through the hottest months of 2022, in whatever ways they can.
  42. movie review
    The Horror of Men Doesn’t Go Far EnoughAlex Garland’s latest body-mangling film lacks the depth and bravado it needs to succeed.
  43. movie review
    There Is Hell, and Then There Is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessFaced with infinite plot possibilities, Marvel couldn’t come up with a less sexist Wanda story line?
  44. let’s do it again
    A Discussion of Blade Runner 2049 in 2022What a five-year-old movie can tell us about the future of franchises and whether movies are moving backward.
  45. endings
    Killing Eve Chose CrueltyLet’s talk about the galling ending of Eve and Villanelle.
  46. movie review
    Ambulance Is the Kind of Thrill Ride Theaters Were Made ForDoes the characterization work? Not all the time. But is the film fun? Hell, yeah.
  47. performance review
    Kathleen Turner Made the Modern Femme FataleShe rewrote the rules of the cinematic seductress in the 1981 erotic thriller Body Heat.
  48. movie review
    The Lost City Can’t Quite Capture That Old Movie-Star MagicHow can we expect audiences to respond to adult movies like this if they lack the charm of the genres they’re plundering for inspiration?
  49. sequential art
    The Nine Lives of Catwoman in Comic RecommendationsWant to know more about one of superhero comics’ greatest anti-heroes? Start here.
  50. tv review
    Bel-Air Is a Frustrating Reminder That Representation Isn’t EnoughThe Peacock revamp isn’t just a misfire. It’s a heartbreaking reminder of what Hollywood imagines its Black audiences desire.
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