Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture

Criticism

  1. tv review
    The Bear Never Stops MovingThe energy and stress of a busy kitchen fuels this instantly compelling, tense, beautiful new series.
    By Jen Chaney
  2. theater review
    Stroller-Size Theater: Josh Azouz’s Buggy BabyPlus, Beginning Days of True Jubilation at the New Ohio.
    By Helen Shaw
  3. album review
    Drake Is Still on VacationHonestly, Nevermind is frictionless — a geographical shift ushered in as comfortingly as possible.
    By Craig Jenkins
  4. movie review
    Cha Cha Real Smooth Grins and Goes NowhereYour tolerance for this movie will likely hinge on your tolerance for writer-director-producer-star Cooper Raiff as a cinematic presence.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  5. theater review
    In The Orchard, Baryshnikov Co-Stars With a Robotic ArmDoes that thing get scale?
    By Helen Shaw
  6. honestly yes
    21 Savage Once Again Steals the Show on Drake’s ‘Jimmy Cooks’So you wanted rap on Honestly, Nevermind? Few can do it better right now than 21 Savage.
    By Justin Curto
  7. movie review
    Good Luck to You, Leo Grande Makes a Joyous Case on Behalf of Sex WorkEmma Thompson stars as a middle-aged widow trying to figure out whether sexual pleasure has passed her by in this generous drama debuting on Hulu.
    By Alison Willmore
  8. tv review
    Damn It, Players, You Got MeBehold, an esports mockumentary that improbably works despite the viewer’s utter ignorance of esports.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  9. movie review
    Chris Hemsworth’s Career-Best Performance Elevates Netflix’s SpiderheadTop Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski’s futuristic prison thriller is bizarre, thoughtful, and surprisingly funny.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  10. movie review
    The Problem With Lightyear Is Not the “Origin Story” It TellsHow do you make a good version of a movie that, in the context of the animated universe Pixar has created, sounds pretty bad?
    By Alison Willmore
  11. book review
    Ottessa Moshfegh Is Praying for UsThe author has been hailed as a high priestess of filth. Really, she wants to purify her readers.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  12. endings
    Let’s Discuss Borgen’s Unsurprising Surprise EndingOn paper, Power & Glory’s final move is the least shocking twist the revival season could’ve offered. So why does it feel so unreal?
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  13. theater review
    Circle Jerk, Now in the FleshPlus a two-part art-world sitcom: Weekend at Barry’s/Lesbian Lighthouse.
    By Helen Shaw
  14. movie review
    The Savage and Catty Lost Illusions Only Looks Like a Stuffy Period PieceA remorselessly entertaining Balzac adaptation for our time.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  15. finales
    Barry Doesn’t Let Us Turn AwayA trio of carefully crafted scenes in the season finale compels us to confront the consequences of killing.
    By Jen Chaney
  16. theater review
    The Bedwetter Is a Real Story About Pain and PeeSarah Silverman’s memoir-musical is flush with jokes and tween anxiety, but that set really has to go.
    By Helen Shaw
  17. movie review
    Hustle Is Pure Adam Sandler Wish FulfillmentSandler’s sincere performance helps sell this Netflix sports drama, which sometimes feels like a party the actor gave so he could meet his heroes.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  18. tv review
    For All Mankind Season 3 Navigates Heady Highs and Cavernous LowsA race to colonize Mars brings out the alternate-history series’ best qualities amid some maddening missteps.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  19. movie review
    The Jurassic World Trilogy Has Painted Itself Into a CornerThe only wow factor in Jurassic World: Dominion is the awesome depth of its failure.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  20. album review
    Post Malone Is Going Through ChangesTwelve Carat Toothache dreams of a future where Post Malone can discuss what’s on his mind instead of what may be coursing through his bloodstream.
    By Craig Jenkins
  21. tv review
    Ms. Marvel’s Enthusiasm Is InfectiousIt has been too long since the MCU had a proper coming-of-age tale, and this confident, focused miniseries rises to the occasion.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  22. book review
    A Memoir of Prison Time, Delivered With a Note of ApologyIn Corrections in Ink, Keri Blakinger writes about the years of addiction and incarceration she lived through before becoming a reporter.
    By John J. Lennon
  23. art review
    Yu-Wen Wu’s Algorithmic Odyssey Around the WorldA brilliant work on the immigrant experience, courtesy of a glitch in the Matrix.
    By Jerry Saltz
  24. finales
    Under the Banner of Heaven Was No MysteryIt was the patriarchy all along.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  25. movie review
    David Cronenberg Makes an Indifferent Return to Body HorrorViggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux are game, but the director’s heart (and his other body parts) just isn’t in Crimes of the Future.
    By Alison Willmore
  26. movie review
    Neptune Frost Smirks at the Narrowness of Western ThinkingSaul Williams’s Afrofuturist, anti-colonialist film is a mission statement by way of a musical.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  27. close read
    Never Mind the Anarchy, Here’s PistolHow do you resolve music-biopic convention with a genre rooted in unpredictability? Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols series never quite figures it out.
    By Jen Chaney
  28. movie review
    Terence Davies’s Benediction Is an Anti-BiopicA formally daring, ultimately devastating look at the life of British poet Siegfried Sassoon.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  29. trial tribulations
    The Circus Was TelevisedThe American Depp v. Heard case played to an audience primed for out-of-context spectacle, and it worked.
    By Jen Chaney
  30. tv review
    P-Valley Season Two Spins OutKatori Hall’s Starz drama loses the consistency and cohesion that drove its first season.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  31. movie review
    Fire Island Is a Curiously Reluctant Romantic ComedyAll the best parts of Joel Kim Booster’s gay rom-com unfold outside its genre framing.
    By Alison Willmore
  32. tv review
    The Boys Needs a New Punch LineThere’s something to be said for consistency, but some variety or nuance would be nice too.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  33. theater review
    Dreaming Zenzile Makes Beautiful Music — If Not TheaterA Miriam Makeba bio-musical sounds better than it plays.
    By Helen Shaw
  34. close read
    The Phantom Nostalgia of HeartstopperThe YA Netflix series taps into an audience famished for cloyingly sweet high-school stories.
    By Manuel Betancourt
  35. album review
    Wilco Attempts to Let GoImmediacy is the point with Cruel Country, but a bit of polish might have smoothed the rougher edges.
    By Craig Jenkins
  36. theater review
    Drag Drag Revolution: Notes on Killing … Confuses Its Categories“While I like ontological mayhem as much as the next weird art freak, this is not that kind of generative confusion.”
    By Helen Shaw
  37. finales
    We Own This City Ends in an Echo ChamberAn unnerving revisitation of the miniseries’ opening speech drives home its guiding thesis with jarring clarity.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  38. movie review
    Vengeance Is Mine, a Blast from an Unknown Past, Arrives in TheatersOriginally made in 1984, Michael Roemer’s riveting family drama is finally getting a theatrical release.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  39. movie review
    The Comfortable Familiarity of The Bob’s Burgers MovieIf you accept the narrative’s rigidity and safety, The Bob’s Burgers Movie is a jubilant bit of distraction.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  40. theater review
    Fat Ham Aims to Put the Ha in HamletToo too solid.
    By Helen Shaw
  41. close read
    The Winds Have Shifted for Jimmy and Kim on Better Call SaulVisual cues and callbacks illuminate the dark implications of that shocking ending.
    By Jen Chaney
  42. album review
    Harry Styles, Work in ProgressStyles is still figuring out where his art needs to go — and how much to tell us about the life he leads outside it.
    By Craig Jenkins
  43. theater review
    Who Killed My Father: Elegy Saturated With ClichéÉdouard Louis’s memoir has been bizarrely and frustratingly staged.
    By Helen Shaw
  44. movie review
    I Regret to Inform You the Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers Movie Is Pretty GoodJohn Mulaney and Andy Samberg voice the animated chipmunks in a half-subversive riff on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
    By Alison Willmore
  45. book review
    Either/Or Is a Coming-of-Age Story That Moves at the Speed of ThoughtEither/Or is a sequel to Elif Batuman’s campus novel The Idiot — and it reveals what she’s been up to this whole time.
    By Sarah Chihaya
  46. movie review
    Downton Abbey: A New Era Is Really the Same Old Downton AbbeyFor better and worse, the Crawleys are at it again.
    By Jen Chaney
  47. art review
    A Universe in South CentralLauren Halsey’s new show is an overflowing tribute to her Los Angeles neighborhood.
    By Jerry Saltz
  48. book review
    In These Novels of Tech Dystopia, Memories Belong to the CloudJennifer Egan’s The Candy House and Vauhini Vara’s The Immortal King Rao are two very different books with a troubling shared prediction.
    By Mallika Rao
  49. theater review
    In Exception to the Rule, Detention Is a Whole Other Class of PunishmentDave Harris’s play goes into an after-school penalty that’s not really intended to teach lessons.
    By Helen Shaw
  50. close read
    Tom Cruise’s Last StandThirty-six years after the original, Top Gun: Maverick eulogizes the actor’s entire career, and an America that may not exist anymore.
    By Bilge Ebiri
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