Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture

Criticism

  1. tv review
    Welcome to Ziwe’s House. Make Yourself Uncomfortable.Ziwe Fumudoh’s interview show makes the jump from Instagram to cable in characteristically iconic fashion.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  2. tv review
    Girls5Eva Is 2 Funny 2 IgnoreThe Peacock series about a girl group reuniting in middle age cranks out joke after joke about the ridiculous exercise that is show business.
    By Jen Chaney
  3. album review
    DJ Khaled Will Never Change. Why Should He?The garrulous personality, the faithful positivity, and the seemingly bottomless thirst for self-promotion have been there all along.
    By Craig Jenkins
  4. movie review
    Ben Sharrock’s Limbo Is Halfway to HeavenA deportation gives the film a seam down the middle between handsome but coy and messy but fierce.
    By Helen Shaw
  5. movie review
    The Mitchells vs. the Machines Should Be Insufferable. Alas, It’s Delightful.It is both a takedown and a celebration of our dissonant, tech-obsessed world. Also, Danny McBride fights a toaster.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  6. tv review
    The Mosquito Coast Is Filled With Unpleasant WisdomAt its best, the Justin Theroux–starring series delivers the horror-adjacent excitement that comes from wondering how things could possibly get worse.
    By Matt Zoller Seitz
  7. movie review
    Mortal Kombat Is Hollywood’s Latest Disappointing Action FilmIt’s another reminder that filmmakers have forgotten what to do with the human body.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  8. movie review
    About Endlessness Gloriously Collages the Absurdity and Grandeur of the EverydayThe sixth feature from Swedish director Roy Andersson finds connections between armies marching in the snow and girls dancing to music from a café.
    By Alison Willmore
  9. song review
    Billie Eilish’s Real Power Might Be Her Ability to Still Surprise“Your Power” is another unexpected turn, one of the singer’s most direct and revealing bits of writing to date.
    By Craig Jenkins
  10. movie review
    Without Remorse Is Also Without a Single Moment of ExcitementHow is this Michael B. Jordan action movie, which is headed to Amazon, so dreary?
    By Alison Willmore
  11. book review
    In Rachel Cusk’s ‘Second Place,’ a Search for Connection Feels ClaustrophobicIn a new novel, a writer known for her cool remove drowns the reader in her protagonist’s obsessions.
    By Helen Shaw
  12. tv review
    The Handmaid’s Tale Gets Its Mojo BackAfter two seasons stuck in a hamster wheel of ugly conflict, the series finally delivers some much-needed forward movement and emotional payoff.
    By Jen Chaney
  13. oscars 2021
    Oscars 2021 Was Not a Movie. It Was Prestige TV.And like most celebrated prestige dramas, it was pretty good until the ending.
    By Jen Chaney
  14. movie review
    Netflix’s Space Thriller Stowaway Is Sometimes Confusing, Never BoringToni Collette, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, and Shamier Anderson keep this sci-fi suspenser admirably grounded.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  15. movie review
    Here’s a Movie About a Pig That Might Change Your LifeExecutive produced by Joaquin Phoenix, Viktor Kossakovsky’s powerful Gunda doesn’t try to make its animals human. It lets them be themselves.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  16. movie review
    Sesame Street Doc Street Gang Is About When TV Needed To Be Saved From ItselfThe documentary, which celebrates the formative years of the iconic kids’ show, is also a testament to the singular forces that allowed it to happen.
    By Alison Willmore
  17. tv review
    Shadow and Bone Almost Gets Lost in the DarkNetflix’s adaptation of the Grishaverse novels pulls it together in the end, but only after traversing a vast, foggy muddle of exposition.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  18. tv review
    Romeo and Juliet, Horny on MainThe TV film starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley is the lust-dazed, modern-dress version of the Shakespeare tragedy you didn’t know you needed.
    By Helen Shaw
  19. tv review
    Rutherford Falls Reckons Optimistically With America’s Flawed Past and PresentThe Peacock comedy tackles heavy topics like Indigenous erasure and revisionist history with the light touch expected of a Mike Schur co-production.
    By Jen Chaney
  20. tv review
    Philly D.A. Is the Second Coming of The Wire, in Docuseries FormThe sprawling series maps a citywide web of interlocking problems, attempted solutions, and the many individuals caught inside.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  21. tv review
    Mare of Easttown Is More Than It Appears to BeThe HBO limited series starring Kate Winslet is not not a familiar-looking crime drama, but its appeal goes much deeper than that.
    By Jen Chaney
  22. tv review
    Big Shot Shoots and Mostly ScoresJohn Stamos plays basically the anti–Ted Lasso in Disney+’s new family drama centered on a girls’ basketball team.
    By Jen Chaney
  23. movie review
    Sebastian Stan Makes Monday a Movie Worth Waking Up ForThe actor and costar Denise Gough give it their all.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  24. tv review
    Trust Me, You Want to Watch Couples TherapyOnce you make peace with its voyeuristic premise, Showtime’s fly-on-the-wall reality show is far and away one of the best docuseries on TV.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  25. movie review
    In the Earth Is a Slapdash Wilderness Horror Story for the Age of COVIDThe new horror film from Ben Wheatley, made quietly and quickly last year, evokes the pandemic but can’t figure out what to say about it.
    By Alison Willmore
  26. tv review
    Younger Goes Full Rom-Com in Its Farewell SeasonWith its central narrative tension resolved, the series shifts all the way into fun and frothy mode.
    By Jen Chaney
  27. tv review
    Them Is Pure Degradation PornHeavy on torture and low on meaning, the Little Marvin–created, Lena Waithe–produced series reveals the empty promise of representation in Hollywood.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  28. art review
    In Artist Cory Arcangel’s Latest Show, Kim Kardashian Provides the MaterialThe artist gives the smartphone game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood the white-cube treatment at Greene Naftali.
    By Katie Rothstein
  29. movie review
    Melissa McCarthy Can’t Save the Day, or the Studio Comedy, in Thunder ForceThe Netflix spoof, which co-stars Octavia Spencer and Jason Bateman, doesn’t make its superhero buddy antics work.
    By Alison Willmore
  30. movie review
    You Get One Guess As to What The Man Who Sold His Skin Is AboutTunisia’s Best International Feature Oscar nominee isn’t very subtle, but that’s not a bad thing.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  31. tv review
    The Nevers Is an Unimpressive Monument to Joss Whedon’s ObsessionsThe HBO Victoriana fantasy series is deliberately unrealistic, eye-catching, and even occasionally fun. It’s also shoddily produced, shallow nonsense.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  32. movie review
    Voyagers Is Just Lord of the Flies in SpaceDon’t be fooled by sexy marketing material — the new sci-fi film is really just a predictable, tedious drag.
    By Alison Willmore
  33. movie review
    Slalom Is a Portrait of Abuse That Denies Easy AnswersA lovely, disturbing film set in the world of competitive skiing, from French director Charlène Favier.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  34. movie review
    The First Cinematic Masterpiece of 2021 Is HereMade in the small African nation of Lesotho, This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is adventurous, essential viewing.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  35. theater review
    A Play Opens! In a Theater! And … It’s a Recording.Blindness is our one-eyed king.
    By Helen Shaw
  36. tv review
    Chad Tests the Limits of How Funny Awkward Can BeNasim Pedrad’s turn as a teen boy who always says the wrong thing lacks the comedic specificity to overcome the character’s boorishness.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  37. art review
    The Detonations of Alice NeelThe artist’s portrait show at the Met is packed with raw emotional power.
    By Jerry Saltz
  38. album review
    Demi Lovato’s Redemption Arc BeginsOn Dancing With the Devil… The Art of Starting Over, it feels like we’ve met a new person.
    By Craig Jenkins
  39. tv review
    Gangs of London: Come for the Fights, Stay for the FightsThere’s more to this crime-thriller series from action maestro Gareth Evans than just bloody mayhem, but none of it transcends the bloody mayhem.
    By Matt Zoller Seitz
  40. movie review
    If Only the Rest of French Exit Were As Good As Michelle Pfeiffer’s PerformancePfeiffer is delightful and overwhelming as a mordant Manhattan socialite searching for an ending in a depressive farce that never really gets going.
    By Alison Willmore
  41. movie review
    Shiva Baby Is a Symphony in StressStar Rachel Sennott delivers a masterclass in making an audience sweat.
    By Helen Shaw
  42. movie review
    Godzilla vs. Kong Is Heart-Stoppingly Stupid But Sporadically EntertainingWhatever. King Kong has a magic axe now. Enjoy!
    By Bilge Ebiri
  43. tv review
    Made for Love’s Tech Looks FamiliarCristin Milioti leads a great cast that brings some necessary distinction to a series full of recognizable future-paranoia components.
    By Jen Chaney
  44. movie review
    Netflix’s Bad Trip Might Help You Feel Better About Our Broken NationEither that, or it will annoy the sh*t out of you.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  45. tv review
    Did Genius: Aretha Really Need to Exist?It’s not awful, but it’s very messy.
    By Craig Jenkins
  46. movie review
    Nobody Is Just Good Enough Thanks to Bob OdenkirkThe movie may be an unapologetic John Wick knockoff, but the comedian and actor makes for a compelling newcomer to the middle-aged action hero club.
    By Alison Willmore
  47. tv review
    Invincible Offers Superheroes With a Side of More SuperheroesThe hour-long animated series has a palpable “more of an eight-hour movie” vibe, with all the possibility and potential pitfalls that model entails.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  48. album review
    Justin Bieber’s New Album Is Mostly Peace, No Justice (Phew)Cut the intro and interlude and, for better or worse, you’ve got as shrewd of a move to reposition himself at pop’s center as 2015’s Purpose.
    By Craig Jenkins
  49. movie review
    Six Minutes to Midnight Runs Out the ClockEddie Izzard’s new period thriller about a 1930s finishing school for the daughters of the German High Command comes up short on all fronts.
    By Helen Shaw
  50. album review
    The Curious Case of Lana Del ReyIt could be lighter for her if she adapted a bit and explained herself less. But keeping the same energy remains core to the LDR experience.
    By Craig Jenkins
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