Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture

Criticism

  1. theater review
    A Death of a Salesman Where Disillusionment Has a New EdgeWendell Pierce’s Willy Loman reshapes our experience of a familiar character.
    By Rob Weinert-Kendt
  2. movie review
    Amsterdam Should Feel Intoxicating, But It’s ExhaustingWhenever David O. Russell’s film is operating on an edge of uncertainty, it works. But the freewheeling freewheeling-ness grates.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  3. movie review
    You Need This Pinhead Like You Need, Um, Pins in Your HeadHulu’s Hellraiser, the remake of Clive Barker’s 1987 horror classic, plays it way too safe.
    By Jen Chaney
  4. movie review
    Triangle of Sadness’s Class Satire Reaches Hazardous Levels of SmugThis year’s Palme d’Or winner is a total drag.
    By Alison Willmore
  5. theater review
    The Revived and Reinvented 1776 Is a Delight, If You Can Stand to Watch ItIf you’re going to stage this show despite all its problems, this is how to do it.
    By James Frankie Thomas
  6. movie review
    Tár Brilliantly Undoes an Ego Monster of an ArtistCate Blanchett is toweringly great as a famous conductor who meets a very public downfall.
    By Alison Willmore
  7. book review
    Radiation Takes Center Stage, for Better or Worse, in Trinity, Trinity, TrinityJapanese history and “unseen forces” propel Erika Kobayashi’s science fiction thriller, sometimes at the expense of its own characters.
    By Paula Aceves
  8. theater review
    Economics Makes Strange Bedfellows in Cost of LivingAt Manhattan Theatre Club, two couples navigate their financial straits.
    By Juan A. Ramírez
  9. review
    Kid Cudi’s Entergalactic Is Pretty, Affecting, and a Little Too SmoothThe new album and Netflix project hit their marks but will make you pine for something stranger.
    By Craig Jenkins
  10. theater review
    Tom Stoppard Imagines His Family’s Mostly Forgotten PastLeopoldstadt recounts 50 years—including the darkest ones—in the lives of a Viennese family.
    By Naveen Kumar
  11. theater review
    In Funny Girl, Lea Michele Does Exactly What You Thought She CouldThe shiny apple of our eye.
    By Jackson McHenry
  12. movie review
    Smile Should Smile MoreThe new horror film starts out in a wonderfully creepy and inventive fashion but eventually devolves into generic horror tedium.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  13. movie review
    The Greatest Beer Run Ever Wastes a Very Good Zac EfronPeter Farrelly’s film can’t seem to decide if it wants to be a comedy or a drama and somehow winds up being neither.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  14. movie review
    The Great Walter Hill Returns to the West, for Better and for WorseThe movie’s not perfect, but it’s well worth watching to see what a master filmmaker can do with limited resources.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  15. 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.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  16. movie review
    Bros Is at Its Best When It Forgets About Making HistoryBilly Eichner’s romantic comedy is messy, funny, and ultimately charming — when it isn’t weighed down by all the firsts.
    By Alison Willmore
  17. close read
    The Sax Man’s Tribute to Reservation Dogs’ Lost BoyThe season-two finale’s closing Tim Cappello performance is both a sly wink and a poignant eulogy.
    By Jen Chaney
  18. finales
    Reservation Dogs Grew Up With the Help of Its Grown-upsIn learning from their elders this season, the Rez Dogs found themselves and refound each other.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  19. movie review
    Blonde Wants to Hurt YouAt times, Andrew Dominik’s movie, starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, feels like a slaughterhouse seen from the animal’s point of view.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  20. close read
    House of the Dragon’s Brutal Birth Obsession Isn’t Realism. It’s Cruelty.In three separate instances, the Game of Thrones prequel reduces a birthing woman to the limits of her body.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  21. book review
    When Grief Returns Again, and Again, and Again …In her time-looping novel The Furrows, Namwali Serpell’s deft use of repetition makes the plot feel dynamic even as she retells the same story.
    By Mary Retta
  22. tv review
    The Problem With DahmerThe series states its aim to humanize those affected by the serial killer’s crimes, but it can’t resist a base attraction to its central monster.
    By Jen Chaney
  23. close read
    Harley Quinn Grows UpThe animated series’s third season excavated some deep emotional terrain, at the expense of its gonzo humor.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  24. album review
    It’s Cam’ron’s HarlemU Wasn’t There, his new album with A-Trak, feels like an uptown therapy session.
    By Craig Jenkins
  25. biennale cinema 2022
    Don’t Worry Darling Is Smooth, Competent, and TediousOlivia Wilde’s film is neither as good nor as bad as you were hoping.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  26. movie review
    Sorry, But Avatar Still RulesJames Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster is back in theaters to remind us how special and spectacular it is.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  27. tv review
    Andor Is the Cure for Star Wars EnnuiThe franchise hasn’t felt this challenging, invigorating, or dangerous in quite some time.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  28. endings
    C’mon, Industry, Whisper Sweet Nothings to MeThe HBO series wields financial jargon like a magic spell. In its second-season finale, Harper’s sorcery runs out.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  29. movie review
    The Woman King Is a Brawny Historical Epic With a Conflicted View of the PastViola Davis presides over a rousing action movie with a touch of wistful alternative history.
    By Alison Willmore
  30. tiff 2022
    The Banshees of Inisherin’s Brilliantly Anti-Romantic Portrait of Rural IrelandIn Bruges stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson reunite with filmmaker Martin McDonagh for a wonderfully dark comedy about an ended friendship.
    By Alison Willmore
  31. close read
    Atlanta’s Van-ishing ActAs the series’ narrative ambitions have grown, every character has benefited, save Zazie Beetz’s Van.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  32. theater review
    The Persistence of Memory, Via David StrathairnHe embodies the anti-Nazi resistance fighter Jan Karski in Remember This.
    By Jackson McHenry
  33. tiff 2022
    Don’t Worry, The Fabelmans Doesn’t Overdo the ‘Magic of Movies’ ShtickSteven Spielberg’s self-portrait is as endearing as it is indulgent.
    By Alison Willmore
  34. album review
    Ari Lennox Knows Exactly What She WantsOn a/s/l, you can try your luck with the singer, but you might get your feelings hurt.
    By Craig Jenkins
  35. tiff 2022
    Catherine Called Birdy Is DelightfulLena Dunham takes on a beloved children’s novel, and the results are unexpectedly endearing.
    By Alison Willmore
  36. movie review
    What Hides in the Heart of SaloumSaloum burrows its way into your raw nerve endings, your clenched teeth, your jostled bones.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  37. close read
    In Praise of Bane, Harley Quinn’s Softboi VillainBesides being a welcome twist on a decades-old character, this irascible Bane is evolving in a way that perfectly captures the show’s strengths.
    By Manuel Betancourt
  38. podcast review
    Books Gone BadThe new podcast Missing Pages gives the publishing industry the true-crime treatment.
    By Nicholas Quah
  39. close read
    The Rings of Power Looks on the Bright SideThe unfailingly well-lit fantasy series’ radiant beauty is illuminating both figuratively and literally.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  40. biennale cinema 2022
    The Whale Is a Perfect Comeback Role for Brendan FraserProsthetic or no, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the part, frankly.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  41. biennale cinema 2022
    Ath-e-na, Ath-e-na, Ath-e-naRomain Gavras’s electrifying new film turns an uprising in a French housing project into a brutal, riveting Greek tragedy.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  42. movie review
    Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Could Use Your PrayersThe best thing about this limp satire is Regina Hall’s performance.
    By Jen Chaney
  43. close reads
    Baz Luhrmann’s Tortured ArtistsElvis makes a point about exploited artists that Luhrmann first approached in Moulin Rouge!
    By Roxana Hadadi
  44. biennale cinema 2022
    Noah Baumbach Turned White Noise Into a 1980s Spielbergian Spectacle (Sort of)Yet this black comedy may be too bizarre to be appreciated by those waiting for a big, star-studded festival oomph.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  45. tv review
    The Rings of Power Is Too Big to FailPrime Video’s much-anticipated Lord of the Rings series is a best-case scenario for storytelling by monetary brute force.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  46. close read
    Only Murders in the Building Is Caught Between Its Big Heart and Bigger IdeasWhen faced with a genuine critique of true-crime culture in season two, the Hulu series took the easy way out.
    By Nicholas Quah
  47. tv review
    The Patient Is All Killer, No FillerSteve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson deliver strong performances in a thought-provoking thriller that succeeds by keeping its focus narrow.
    By Jen Chaney
  48. movie review
    … And a Bullet to Balance the ScalesIn The Good Boss, Javier Bardem plays an affable company owner whose desire for calm and control drags him toward corruption and cruelty.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  49. movie review
    Funny Pages Is a Wry Film About a Cartoonist’s Quest for AuthenticityThis dark teen comedy from writer-director Owen Kline and A24 is as filled with promise as it is with underdeveloped ideas.
    By Alison Willmore
  50. movie review
    One of Our Greatest Fabulists Is Back With Three Thousand Years of LongingGeorge Miller’s modern-day fable, starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, is about the power of stories to seduce and entrap.
    By Bilge Ebiri
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