Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture

Criticism

  1. movie review
    In Praise of The Northman’s Ruthless UnrelatabilityThe Alexander Skarsgård Viking saga makes no effort to bend its characters toward modern sensibilities, and you know what? It’s great.
    By Alison Willmore
  2. theater review
    In Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen, Cruelty Provides the MuseIn this tale of an executioner in 1960s England, a master of the mean joke turns laughs against the viewer.
    By Helen Shaw
  3. tv review
    The Flight Attendant Returns, Dizzy and Fizzy As EverSeason two turns melodramatic-thriller fodder into background noise. That’s because it’s foregrounding a much more compelling set of tensions.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  4. tv review
    Gaslit Has No Use for HeroesWhen it avoids the sway of its own hyperbole, Starz’s compellingly grimy Watergate miniseries illuminates the coldness and crassness of complicity.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  5. theater review
    for colored girls Returns to Broadway in a Triumphant RevivalThe dance-theater gem still glows.
    By Helen Shaw
  6. theater review
    The Predatory Dance of How I Learned to DrivePaula Vogel’s play still manages to make the unbearable watchable — thanks in part to Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse.
    By Helen Shaw
  7. spoilers
    Anatomy of a Scandal’s Final Line Achieves GreatnessGreatness in the category of ‘Most Absurd Ending.’
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  8. tv review
    Okay, I’d Like to Escape Russian Doll’s Time Loop NowWhen everything everywhere all at once backfires.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  9. theater review
    The Minutes on Broadway Feels a Few Years Too LateThere was a time when Tracy Letts’s play, about a city council with a secret, felt prescient. But real life has outstripped its satire.
    By Helen Shaw
  10. movie review
    The Dour Secrets of Dumbledore Doesn’t Know Why It’s Here EitherIt’s the product of a lucrative fictional universe that no one seems to know how to build on but keeps going anyway, a franchise in search of a story.
    By Alison Willmore
  11. theater review
    American Buffalo: Gorgeous Performances, Small Author IssueIt’s a beautifully served slice of classic Mamet … if you still have the appetite.
    By Helen Shaw
  12. theater review
    No Nose, Yes Delts: James McAvoy Is Our Generation’s Great CyranoYou will not (and I cannot) get over this performance.
    By Helen Shaw
  13. tv review
    Killing It Sneaks Sharp Insight Into Its Snake-Hunt ShenanigansThe new Peacock comedy’s focus on the insurmountable gap between predator and prey is both consistent and darkly amusing.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  14. delayed gratification
    Severance Earned Its Cliffhanger EndingIt’s understandable to feel resentful of the abrupt denial of closure. It’s also the point.
    By Jen Chaney
  15. album review
    Vince Staples Is Showing America What It Refuses to SeeDeath is the only certainty on Ramona Park Broke My Heart.
    By Craig Jenkins
  16. album review
    Syd’s New Love StoryThe singer-producer’s latest album, Broken Hearts Club, sheds the hedonistic visions of her earlier work.
    By Tirhakah Love
  17. 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.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  18. book review
    In the Novel Post-Traumatic, a Trauma Plot Refuses the ObviousIn Chantal V. Johnson’s novel Post-Traumatic, the story of one woman’s breakdown feels visceral and specific.
    By Jamie Hood
  19. theater review
    The Little Prince Crash-lands on This PlanetNon.
    By Helen Shaw
  20. theater review
    Birthday Candles, With Debra Messing, Is Not Much of a PartyThere’s too much sugar in that cake she bakes.
    By Helen Shaw
  21. close read
    This Week’s Atlanta Insists That Attention Must Be Paid“The Big Payback” makes a case for reparations and a case for how much small details can matter.
    By Jen Chaney
  22. movie review
    Sequelitis Claims Its Latest Victim With Sonic the Hedgehog 2Jim Carrey does what he can, but this time it’s not enough. Unlike the first movie, this one feels like pure product.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  23. movie review
    The Kamikaze Wish Fulfillment of AlineIn playing a fictionalized version of the Quebecois singer, writer-director-actor Valérie Lemercier gets at the absurd heart of the biopic genre.
    By Alison Willmore
  24. close read
    The Dropout Revealed Its Truths via Needle DropMusical moments are used so effectively throughout the miniseries that even their absence in the finale is illuminating.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  25. theater review
    Suffs Casts a Complicated Vote for a Complicated HistoryVotes for women, soberly musicalized.
    By Helen Shaw
  26. tv review
    Ken Watanabe Kicks the Slow-Moving Tokyo Vice Into High GearDespite its Ansel Elgort–centric marketing, the HBO Max crime series is at its most captivating when focused on its Japanese characters.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  27. theater review
    Does Take Me Out Still Hit the Strike Zone?Richard Greenberg’s 2002 play about a gay baseball superstar returns.
    By Helen Shaw
  28. theater review
    The Multiple Original Sins of Paradise SquareOver-workshopped and yet still under-theatricalized.
    By Helen Shaw
  29. movie review
    Nitram Dares You Not to Look AwayViolence is its own form of language in filmmaker Justin Kurzel’s portrait of an Australian mass shooter.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  30. movie review
    Richard Linklater Overdoses on Nostalgia in Apollo 10½The Netflix animated ode to a ’60s childhood, as voiced by Jack Black, is too cozy for its own good.
    By Alison Willmore
  31. movie review
    Somehow, Morbius Is FunIt’s a brisk, over-the-top thriller, with plenty of atmosphere and a couple of genuinely moving performances at its heart.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  32. art review
    The Whitney Biennial Falters OnThe 2022 show has just enough high points to get you through it — including three stunning Charles Ray sculptures.
    By Jerry Saltz
  33. tv review
    Cozy Up With Julia, a Warm and Welcoming TreatThe new HBO Max series is much like the version of Julia Child it wants to portray: imperfect yet charming — and in love with feeling good.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  34. theater review
    Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things Sings the Universe ElectricA hymn to the elemental life cycle.
    By Helen Shaw
  35. tv review
    Moon Knight’s Compelling Weirdness Feels Incompatible With the MCUA pulpy atmosphere and two Oscar Isaacs serving rakish Tomb Raider cosplay make this miniseries a distinctively odd, unpredictable experience.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  36. tv review
    The Girl From Plainville Can Only Say So MuchDespite a strong Elle Fanning performance, this dramatization of the teen texting-suicide case can’t uncover the why of Michelle Carter.
    By Jen Chaney
  37. theater review
    Plaza Suite Contains the Bleakest Comedy I’ve Seen in YearsParker and Broderick drown the pangs of middle age in room-service Champagne.
    By Helen Shaw
  38. oscars 2022
    The Oscars Telecast Was a Disaster Without the SlapBy trying to be everything to everybody, the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony turned into a disjointed mess.
    By Jen Chaney
  39. theater review
    Confederates Does Battle With Two Peculiar InstitutionsToggling between the antebellum south and the academy today.
    By Helen Shaw
  40. theater review
    Help Is an Essay Dressed Up As a PlayProfessor Claudia Rankine looks for America’s soul in its airports.
    By Helen Shaw
  41. movie review
    Everything Everywhere All at Once Dizzies Itself Into TranscendenceMichelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan star in a maximalist almost-masterpiece that’s as much a family drama as it is about saving the multiverse.
    By Alison Willmore
  42. close read
    Atlanta Returns, Singular As EverThe long-awaited third season kicks off with yet another stand-alone episode that suggests Donald Glover’s comedy is, at heart, an anthology series.
    By Alison Willmore
  43. good one podcast
    Covering Comedy Is a Window Into the FutureNew York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman discusses his job on this week’s Good One.
    By Jesse David Fox
  44. tv review
    Halo Hasn’t Unlocked Its Full PotentialInitially bogged down by world-building and its own source material, this adaptation of the video-game phenomenon is still figuring itself out.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  45. 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?
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  46. tv review
    Starstruck Conjures the Magic of Everyday RomanceThe second season of Rose Matafeo’s delightfully off-kilter rom-com carries a distinctive thrill of emotional realism.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  47. tv review
    Bridgerton Takes It Slow in Season TwoHeavy with sexual tension but light on actual sex, the new season isn’t quite a Whistledowner, but it’s not a ton of fun, either.
    By Jen Chaney
  48. tv review
    Pachinko Builds Epic Family Drama on an Exquisitely Intimate ScaleApple TV+’s adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s generational saga finds satisfying poignance in the space between the remarkable and the ordinary.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  49. movie review
    Ahed’s Knee Delivers a Blistering Message About Our Broken WorldIsraeli director Nadav Lapid’s abrasive Cannes-winning drama might be some sort of masterpiece.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  50. movie review
    The Outfit May Not Be Perfect, But It Works PerfectlyMark Rylance is riveting in this tight little gangster thriller set in a custom-suit shop.
    By Bilge Ebiri
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