Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture

Criticism

  1. tv review
    Suspicion Is a Lecture Masquerading As a ThrillerThis new Apple TV+ series’s greatest fantasy is its belief that all it takes is one good billionaire to change the status quo.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  2. movie review
    The Tender Gut Punch of The Worst Person in the WorldWith heart, splendor, and yearning, co-writer and director Joachim Trier ends his Oslo Trilogy.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  3. tv review
    Murderville Is So Silly, and Doesn’t That Sound Nice Right Now?Turns out Sharon Stone and Marshawn Lynch are very good at wacky improv crime-solving.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  4. theater review
    MJ Exists in a Hyperbaric Chamber of DenialThe King of Pop’s posthumous handlers, like the man himself, keep their distance from reality.
    By Helen Shaw
  5. theater review
    Intimate Apparel and Shhhh Peek Into the UnmentionablesLynn Nottage’s 2003 play becomes an opera; Clare Barron’s new one operates in murmurs and ASMR.
    By Helen Shaw
  6. tv review
    Janet Jackson. Can Reveal Only So Much About Janet JacksonThe Lifetime docuseries is a testament to both Jackson’s tenacity and the limits of showing us who she really is.
    By Jen Chaney
  7. tv review
    Pam & Tommy Reveals the Story You Don’t Know — But Also Kind of DoHulu’s miniseries about the internet’s first viral sensation is a satisfying but familiar entry in the expanding genre of ’90s-set redemption tales.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  8. tv review
    We Need to Talk About Cosby Wrestles With a Fractured LegacyW. Kamau Bell has made a thought-provoking docuseries that reckons with the two Bill Cosbys — up to a point.
    By Jen Chaney
  9. wine and crime
    A Run-on Review of The Woman in the House Across the Street …TL;DR: Maybe just rewatch Dead to Me.
    By Jen Chaney
  10. movie review
    Compartment No. 6 Is Already One of the Best Films of This YearIn this Cannes winner, a Finnish student and a Russian miner must share a cramped train compartment on their way to Murmansk. Hilarity does not ensue.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  11. theater review
    Skeleton Crew, Transferred Uptown, Loses Some MusclePhylicia Rashad and company try to make a small show fill up a big stage.
    By Helen Shaw
  12. theater review
    A Speed Date With Long Day’s Journey Into NightCut from three and a half hours to two, and TB traded for COVID.
    By Helen Shaw
  13. theater review
    Taylor Mac’s The Hang Is Incomprehensible in the Best WayBaroque and soulful and sonically delicious.
    By Helen Shaw
  14. movie review
    Sharp Stick Is a Strange, Sometimes Sexy Return to Filmmaking for Lena DunhamThe Girls creator’s first film in over a decade follows a 26-year-old virgin’s affair with a stay-at-home dad played by Jon Bernthal.
    By Alison Willmore
  15. tv review
    As We See It Confirms Jason Katims’s Elite Tearjerker StatusTV’s impresario of earnestness once again taps into the desire to love and be loved with a thoughtful ensemble of actors on the autism spectrum.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  16. tv review
    The Gilded Age Rings HollowJulian Fellowes’s newest historical confection has ample surface appeal, but when it comes to reasons to care, it comes up short.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  17. movie review
    Can a Movie Be Too Prescient?Though it was shot in 2019, The Pink Cloud turns out to be unnervingly accurate in portraying how life has changed.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  18. tv review
    Single Drunk Female Is a Jarringly Light Portrait of Alcoholism and AddictionThe Freeform series’ zealous devotion to buoying the inherent darkness of its subject matter means it fails to take any real risks.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  19. theater review
    Whisper House Is an Atmospheric Musical Without an AtmosphereChill-less and thrill-less, despite a killer creative team.
    By Helen Shaw
  20. tv review
    On the High Seas or in Court, La Fortuna Excels in David-vs.-Goliath ModeIf the Lincoln Lawyer author Michael Connelly were to secretly write fanfiction for the National Treasure universe, it might look like this.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  21. sitcoms
    It’s the Perfect Time for Abbott ElementaryTeachers need to feel seen right now, and this very funny workplace comedy has its eyes wide open.
    By Jen Chaney
  22. theater review
    The Little Shows Must Go On: This Beautiful Future and EctoplasmSmall, imperfect, lovely — tales of love in last century’s wreckage.
    By Helen Shaw
  23. movie review
    Do You Need a Review of Hotel Transylvania: Transformania? Here’s One Anyway.As a wise man once said, “Bleh, bleh, bleh.”
    By Bilge Ebiri
  24. movie review
    Belle Is a Spectacular Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Way of the MetaverseMamoru Hosoda’s new film deftly blends teen angst, fairy-tale fantasy, and a virtual online world.
    By Alison Willmore
  25. movie review
    The New Scream Is No ScreamSequel, remake, reboot, requel, legacyquel … Who cares? Why can’t these movies be scary anymore?
    By Bilge Ebiri
  26. endings
    The Final Job Ray Donovan DeservesTwo years after Showtime’s abrupt cancellation of the series, Ray Donovan: The Movie is a satisfying glimpse of what an eighth season could have been.
    By Brian Tallerico
  27. podcast review
    This Is Dating Mixes Therapy With Blind DatesThe podcast takes listeners on an Esther Perel–style journey into first encounters.
    By Nicholas Quah
  28. tv review
    Somebody Somewhere Is a Confident Tale of an Unconfident WomanThe new HBO series from comedian and cabaret singer Bridget Everett asks whether you can find yourself without leaving home.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  29. tv review
    Beneath the Clichés, Archive 81 Is a Slow-Burning Horror ScorcherRebecca Sonnenshine’s podcast-inspired Netflix series effectively chips away at the conviction of our senses.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  30. close reads
    Hanya’s BoysThe novelist tends to torture her gay male characters — but only so she can swoop in to save them.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  31. theater review
    The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe No Longer Finds ItTomlin and Wagner’s innovations have been replicated to exhaustion, and the material defeats Cecily Strong.
    By Helen Shaw
  32. tv review
    Cheer Season Two Puts the ‘Real’ in Sports RealityIn confronting its own success, the breakout Netflix docuseries goes to some darker, heavier places in its extended sophomore season.
    By Jen Chaney
  33. tv review
    Euphoria Season Two Is a Whole VibeThe HBO series about teens, drugs, sex, and interpersonal drama returns, ready to do the most.
    By Jen Chaney
  34. movie review
    The 355 Is Proof That Women Can Make Middling Action Movies, TooJessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, and Fan Bingbing star in a spy movie felled by the Strong Female Character.
    By Alison Willmore
  35. movie review
    A Hero Is Both Moral Fable and MousetrapThe great Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s latest is a gripping drama, but something feels missing.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  36. album review
    The Weeknd Knows No BoundsDawn FM luxuriates in the joy Abel Tesfaye gets in throwing his loyal listeners for a loop.
    By Craig Jenkins
  37. tv review
    The Righteous Gemstones Pushes Past the High Jinks in Season TwoTons of full-frontal male nudity? Yes. A genuinely thoughtful exploration of the gap between generational inheritance and independence? Also yes!
    By Roxana Hadadi
  38. movie review
    The Pitiless Excellence of The Lost DaughterMaggie Gyllenhaal’s Elena Ferrante adaptation for Netflix is the best movie of the year.
    By Alison Willmore
  39. movie review
    Don’t Look Up Hates Its Own AudienceAdam Mckay believes that people need laughs and famous faces to be lured into thinking about pressing matters, and he loathes them for it.
    By Alison Willmore
  40. movie review
    Memoria Is Curious, Complex, and Almost Undone by Its Third ActApichatpong Weerasethakul and Tilda Swinton’s experimental Memoria is curious, complex, and almost undone by its patience-testing third act.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  41. podcast review
    Operator Gives the Phone Sex Industry the Wolf of Wall Street TreatmentThe podcast chronicles the rise of and fall of ATN, a key player in the phone sex world.
    By Nicholas Quah
  42. movie review
    The King’s Man Is Here to Tell an Origin Story No One Asked ForRalph Fiennes stars in a prequel to the Kingsman movies that guesses what fans really want is less humor and more brooding.
    By Alison Willmore
  43. movie review
    The Tender Bar Is Too Modest to Make an ImpressionThe best part of George Clooney’s overly familiar coming-of-age story is Ben Affleck’s performance.
    By Jen Chaney
  44. movie review
    The Matrix Resurrections Is a Messy, Imperfect TriumphDirecting solo for the first time, Lana Wachowski creates a thrillingly romantic blockbuster that expands the possibilities of the form.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  45. movie review
    Being the Ricardos Isn’t a Biopic, It’s a Filmed Wikipedia PageIt’s not just that Sorkin is a better scripter than director — it’s that he’s kind of a lousy director.
    By Jason Bailey
  46. obits
    The Courage of bell hooksShe viewed her radical work as one of the purest expressions of love for Black people there is.
    By Shamira Ibrahim
  47. movie review
    Spider-Man: No Way Home Is Aggressively MediocreA spoiler-filled review of what works, what doesn’t, and what works until it doesn’t in Tom Holland’s latest outing as Peter Parker.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  48. movie review
    Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley Is the Noir Equivalent of a Fake Dive BarOn the plus side, the Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett thriller looks incredible.
    By Alison Willmore
  49. best of 2021
    The Best New York Art Shows of 2021The art world has changed forever. But New York galleries still rule.
    By Jerry Saltz
  50. tv review
    The Witcher Spreads Itself Thin in Season TwoAn ambitious but uneven sophomore season piles on new villains, new prophecies, and new allegiances — and becomes unwieldy in the process.
    By Roxana Hadadi
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