Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture

Criticism

  1. endings
    Penelope’s Cliffhanger Undermines Its Quiet AmbitionsThis rare piece of indie television says so much with so little — until its final moment.
    By Nicholas Quah
  2. movie review
    Without Gore or Violence, This Serial-Killer Thriller Creeps Into Your SoulThe unnerving Red Rooms focuses not on the killer or his victims, but on the people fascinated by his crimes.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  3. movie review
    Joker: Folie à Deux Commits the Mortal Sin of Wasting Lady GagaI mean, what are we even doing here?
    By Alison Willmore
  4. close read
    Ryan Murphy Doesn’t Understand How True Crime Has ChangedNetflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is the latest example of Ryan Murphy’s dated tropes.
    By Alessa Dominguez
  5. movie review
    The Outrun Shows Us Saoirse Ronan at Her Most TranscendentDirector Nora Fingscheidt’s Sundance drama stars Ronan as a recovering alcoholic who’s back in her childhood home in the Orkney Islands.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  6. art review
    What Is a Brooklyn Artist?A sweeping survey at the Brooklyn Museum provides a lot of answers, none of which satisfy.
    By Jerry Saltz
  7. theater review
    Is the Safety Not Guaranteed Musical What You Wish For?Guster’s singer-songwriter Ryan Miller tries his hand at musical theater.
    By Sara Holdren
  8. close read
    The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2
    Not My Tom BombadilThe Rings of Power’s version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most inscrutable character is a failure of imagination.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  9. best of 2024
    The Best Horror Books of 2024 (So Far)Fiction that feels like a primal scream.
    By Emily C. Hughes
  10. best of 2024
    The Best Comedy Specials of 2024 (So Far)There have already been several instant stand-alone knockouts.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  11. theater review
    The Best of All Possible Intentions: Yellow Face and Good BonesDavid Henry Hwang and James Ijames on places where idealism runs up against success.
    By Sara Holdren
  12. close read
    Is Nobody Wants This Mildly Antisemitic?Yes, but that’s only a symptom of the show’s biggest issue.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  13. theater review
    McNeal and Robert Downey Jr. Dance With ChatGPTThe playwright Ayad Akhtar considers the prospects (ominous and otherwise) of AI art-making.
    By Jackson McHenry
  14. theater review
    Doing Less With More: The Hills of CaliforniaJez Butterworth’s latest play, directed by Sam Mendes, is an array of overfamiliar archetypes and under-thought choices.
    By Sara Holdren
  15. 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.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  16. synergy
    76th Primetime Emmy Awards - Show
    Audiences and Executives Agree: Jelly RollThe country-music superstar, whose 2024 Emmys appearance surprised many, is playing SNL’s season-50 premiere this weekend. How did he get here?
    By Hershal Pandya
  17. movie review
    Rez Ball Gives Navajo Teens Their Own Friday Night LightsCo-written by Reservation Dogs’s Sterlin Harjo, this Netflix drama could have strayed a little further from the inspirational sports-pap playbook.
    By A.A. Dowd
  18. movie review
    Nickel Boys Is a Cinematic Experience Unlike Any OtherIn refusing a conventional, objective (and objectified) approach to suffering, director RaMell Ross resists easy attempts at pathos.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  19. movie review
    Sleep Is A Near-Perfect Horror ComedyThe South Korean film, from Bong Joon-ho protege Jason Yu, is a rollicking ride about sleepwalking and marriage.
    By Alison Willmore
  20. sundance 2024
    Two Friends Talk, Gently and Openly, in Will & HarperThe most powerful parts of Will Ferrell and Harper Steele’s road trip documentary are also its most basic.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  21. venice 2024
    Controversial Point: George Clooney and Brad Pitt Are Good TogetherWolfs is fine as a comedy but great as a star vehicle that makes you wonder why it took so long for its leads to reunite.
    By Alison Willmore
  22. a great debate
    Megalopolis Has Already WonFrancis Ford Coppola has created a movie we can all fight over. In that sense, maybe he has in fact achieved his dream.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  23. movie review
    Megalopolis Is a Work of Absolute MadnessThere is nothing in Francis Ford Coppola’s perhaps-final testament that feels like something out of a “normal” movie.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  24. movie review
    Saturday Night Isn’t Factually Accurate, But It Feels Spiritually TrueThe SNL movie plays like an anxiety dream, and the dreamer in this case is Lorne Michaels.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  25. movie review
    The Wild Robot Will Ruin YouChris Sanders’s The Wild Robot has a somewhat familiar set-up. But then you look at the movie — really look at it — and a whole new world opens up.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  26. tv review
    The Impeccable Smoothness of Nobody Wants ThisThe compulsively watchable Netflix series is TV’s first great podcast rom-com, and an even greater Adam Brody vehicle.
    By Nicholas Quah
  27. close read
    The Pop Stars Who Flamed OutKaty Perry’s 143 joins the cursed ranks of musical missteps this year.
    By Craig Jenkins
  28. movie review
    Inside Out 2 Is Another Product of the Pixar SlumpThe animation giant goes back to the well of its 2015 coming-of-age hit, with less-than-joyful results.
    By Alison Willmore
  29. theater review
    The Ghost of John McCain Is Inside Out for MSNBC AddictsStuck in Donald Trump’s head, literally but also artistically.
    By Jackson McHenry
  30. book review
    Has Olga Tokarczuk Been Struck by the Nobel Curse?Her latest novel, The Empusium, is more focused on dictating a salient political message than pushing the bounds of art.
    By Robert Rubsam
  31. theater review
    In Praise of Difficult Women: Medea Re-Versed and Blood of the LambAn ancient play reimagined in rap rhymes and a cautionary tale about post-Dobbs America.
    By Sara Holdren
  32. album review
    Future Slouches Toward LegacyMixtape Pluto is a rote retread of his last two albums.
    By Gary Suarez
  33. theater review
    Sean Bell and Kate Mulgrew in 'The Beacon.'
    The Beacon Needs Its Heat Turned Slightly Lower“One can’t be moved, or even really engaged, when a writer keeps saying, ‘See what I did there?’”
    By Sara Holdren
  34. close read
    Did Ryan Murphy’s Monsters Need to Be So Sexy?The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story implies there was an incestuous relationship between the brothers. Why?
    By Jen Chaney
  35. respect the classics
    A Brief Pink Floyd DétenteA new cover of ‘Comfortably Numb’ finally forced David Gilmour and Roger Waters to agree on something.
    By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
  36. there is still time
    I Saw the TV Glow’s Ending Is Full of Hope, If You Want It to BeThere’s a way to read the end of Jane Schoenbrun’s masterful new movie as grim, even nihilistic. But you must actively choose to see it that way.
    By Emily St. James
  37. close read
    Are We Getting The Substance All Wrong?The Demi Moore horror film is being hailed for its feminism, but its real strength is in its portrayal of addictive behavior.
    By Alison Willmore
  38. movie review
    Three of Our Best Actresses Elevate Netflix’s His Three DaughtersCarrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne play three sisters watching over their dying father in Azazel Jacobs’s drama.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  39. song review
    ‘Woman’s World’ Is the Stalest Sort of RetreadKaty Perry’s old formula just doesn’t work anymore.
    By Justin Curto
  40. movie review
    In Search of a More Welcoming RealityJane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow is an enveloping, confounding film about isolation, gender transition, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
    By Alison Willmore
  41. art review
    Yvonne Well’s Patchwork HistoriesA new show spotlights how the artist’s abstract quilts tell the story of the African diaspora.
    By Jerry Saltz
  42. close read
    Hot CommodityIn Sally Rooney’s novels, love is always being bought, sold, or reduced to tropes. But this is also what makes it real.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  43. tv review
    Who Needs the Batman?As The Penguin’s representatives of Gotham’s underworld, Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti can do bad all by themselves.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  44. theater review
    Mama Grizzlies Tear Into Lunch in oh, HoneyIn Jeana Scotti’s play, everyone’s got a son facing sexual-misconduct accusations, and the waitperson is taking notes.
    By Sara Holdren
  45. movie review
    A Different Man Might Be Overthinking ThingsSebastian Stan is very good in this droll, distant drama about being unable to escape yourself, but it’s Adam Pearson who brings the film to life.
    By Alison Willmore
  46. powers ranking
    AGATHA ALL ALONG
    Which Witches Are Bringing the Most to Agatha All Along’s Coven?Acting-wise, not magic-wise.
    By Jackson McHenry
  47. identity crisis
    Hacks Isn’t a Good ComedyBut it could be a great drama.
    By Nicholas Quah
  48. tiff 2024
    You’d Think Watching Tilda Swinton in an Apocalypse Movie Musical Would Be FunBut at two and a half very staid hours, Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End is a punishing picture.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  49. movie review
    The Speak No Evil Remake Is Sillier (and Better) Than the OriginalThe American remake loses something in ditching the unrelenting darkness, but it also avoids the original’s borderline reactionary message.
    By Alison Willmore
  50. movie review
    Girls Will Be Girls Sneaks Up on YouShuchi Talati’s debut feature, one of the best films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is now in theaters.
    By Bilge Ebiri
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