Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture

Criticism

  1. movie review
    The Courier Is an Old-Fashioned Spy Thriller Elevated by Two Great PerformancesBenedict Cumberbatch and Merab Ninidze are terrific in this based-on-fact tale of the Cold War.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  2. tv review
    The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Is More Sturdy Product From the Marvel MachineThe latest Disney+ foray into the MCU should keep fans engaged for exactly the amount of time it takes for the next tentpole to arrive.
    By Jen Chaney
  3. art
    The Frick on Madison Finally Lets You See Fragonard Up CloseEmpowered by its new setting, work once considered frivolous becomes visual thunder.
    By Jerry Saltz
  4. tv review
    Waffles + Mochi Is Educational, Trippy, and a Bit OverstuffedThe first TV series from the Obamas’ production company feels like a kid-friendly version of shows like Ugly Delicious and Salt Fat Acid Heat.
    By Jen Chaney
  5. movie review
    The Snyder Cut Contains the Best and Worst of Zack SnyderThis is an undeniably passionate and moving work. But you may not want to endure it in one sitting.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  6. movie review
    Think of Netflix’s Sentinelle As John Wick on the RivieraDon’t let this hidden Netflix action gem slip through the cracks this weekend.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  7. movie review
    Pedro Almodóvar’s English-Language Debut The Human Voice Is a Perfect Half-HourTilda Swinton wears gorgeous outfits and acts out in the Spanish director’s adaptation of the Jean Cocteau play.
    By Alison Willmore
  8. movie review
    Come True Will Haunt Your Dreams and Ruin Your NightsFun with nightmares and sleep paralysis.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  9. tv review
    Last Chance U: Basketball Is a Riveting, Heartbreaking Sports DocThe end of the eight-episode season, now on Netflix, has a twist you’ve probably never seen in a sports documentary.
    By Jen Chaney
  10. tv review
    Genera+ion Wants to Be a Voice of a GenerationEnamored with the superficial specifics of right now, the new HBO Max series mistakes universal teen experiences for defining generational ones.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  11. book review
    In Klara and the Sun, Artificial Intelligence Meets Real SacrificeKazuo Ishiguro’s novel proposes a world where the machines never revolt.
    By Helen Shaw
  12. movie review
    Boogie Needs to Grow UpEddie Huang’s directorial debut is an Asian American coming-of-age story that could use more self-examination.
    By Alison Willmore
  13. movie review
    The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run Will Make You a Better PersonIt’s Thelma and Louise meets The Quick and the Dead meets Inception meets Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar meets Inherit the Wind.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  14. finales
    WandaVision’s Big Farewell Feels Hopeful Yet Rings HollowWhat feels beautifully poignant in the context of a sitcom universe becomes painfully boring in the context of a Marvel one.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  15. movie review
    Chaos Walking Needs More Chaos, Less WalkingTom Holland and Daisy Ridley on the run from Mads Mikkelsen and his son Nick Jonas. Why isn’t this a masterpiece?
    By Bilge Ebiri
  16. tv review
    The Real World Homecoming Is a Welcome Revisit of a Reality-TV Time CapsuleWhat happens when seven strangers stop being polite and start getting real 30 years later.
    By Jen Chaney
  17. movie review
    Coming 2 America Is Both Figuratively and Literally a Nostalgia TourYou should probably bone up on the first movie before you watch it.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  18. movie review
    Raya and the Last Dragon Is Slick and Sometimes TranscendentThe new animated movie is a wonder of world-building, strategic IP generation, and accidental timeliness.
    By Alison Willmore
  19. rent! rent! rent!
    The Highs and Lows of NYTW’s 25 Years of Rent BenefitA reunion special with extra new stars, as the 1996 musical reaches a milestone birthday.
    By Jackson McHenry, Chris Murphy, and Helen Shaw
  20. movie review
    The Truffle Hunters Heads for the Hills and Returns With a Feast for the SensesEscape into a modern-day past with this documentary about Italian truffle foragers.
    By Helen Shaw
  21. moxie
    In Moxie, They Are Young Women, Hear Them (Nicely) RoarThe movie about a feminist uprising at a high school is well-intentioned but lacks the edgy spirit it supposedly celebrates.
    By Jen Chaney
  22. golden globes 2021
    This Year’s Golden Globes Were the Wrong Kind of MessTina Fey and Amy Poehler were fine hosts, but the ceremony overall was an exhausting reminder that this whole pandemic is really getting old.
    By Jen Chaney
  23. movie review
    The United States vs. Billie Holiday Is an Inert History LessonAndra Day is great in the title role, however.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  24. movie review
    How Not to Make a Tom and Jerry MovieA cluttered, awkward, pandering mess.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  25. movie review
    The Father Is a Devastating Close-up of a Mind That’s Beginning to FrayAnthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman are excellent as a father and daughter whose time together can only end in tragedy.
    By Alison Willmore
  26. art review
    Heartbreak and Resurrection in ‘Grief and Grievance’ at the New MuseumA brutal, essential show that pulls from the canon of Black contemporary art.
    By Jerry Saltz
  27. tv review
    Ginny & Georgia Is So, So Much. Truly, So Much.The new Netflix series is such an unpredictable mixture of genre and tone that watching it feels like being shuttled from one TV show to another.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  28. streaming theater review
    Performing for Ghosts: Riz Ahmed’s The Long Goodbye“The songs are like stars, supermassive, dense with rhyme and anger.”
    By Helen Shaw
  29. movie review
    Great Performances and a Stunning Ending Can’t Quite Save The MauritanianJodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, and Benedict Cumberbatch all do good work in this real-life legal drama, but the movie falls flat.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  30. movie review
    The Main Reason to Watch I Care a Lot Is Rosamund PikeThe Netflix movie wants to race along like a caper and sting like a satire. But it just winds up fighting itself.
    By Helen Shaw
  31. tv review
    Allen v. Farrow Places Dylan Farrow at the Center of Her Own StoryThe new HBO docuseries reexamines the familiar allegations against Woody Allen from a different perspective with context we have not seen before.
    By Jen Chaney
  32. tv review
    It’s a Sin’s Clear-Eyed Look at the AIDS Crisis Has One Big Blind SpotRussell T Davies’s often beautifully moving limited series, now on HBO Max, falls into a familiar pattern that complicates its central tragedy.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  33. tv review
    Behind Her Eyes Is Trolling YouNetflix’s new psychological thriller operates entirely in service of an ending so twisty and strange that it obliterates everything that came before.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  34. tv review
    Portrait of the Rock As a Young ManYoung Rock is a sweet sitcom about the life of Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson that implies he may be president someday.
    By Jen Chaney
  35. movie review
    Oof, What Are We to Do with Sia’s New Movie, Music?It’s not just controversial, it’s also quite terrible.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  36. movie review
    Louise Linton’s Sex-Cannibal Comedy Is Here, and It Is Not GoodMe You Madness is a nonstop deluge of overwritten rants and underbaked humor.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  37. tv review
    The Great North Finds Warmth in a Chilly PlaceThe new animated sitcom from the team at Bob’s Burgers is as quirky and good-hearted as … well, Bob’s Burgers.
    By Jen Chaney
  38. movie review
    In Minari, a Korean Family Tries to Make a Home in the HeartlandSteven Yeun heads up a deceptively gentle immigrant drama set in rural Arkansas in the 1980s.
    By Alison Willmore
  39. movie review
    To All The Boys: Always and Forever Burns Low and SlowThe Netflix movie’s attention to the way romantic comedies operate teaches us to watch it with our guard up.
    By Helen Shaw
  40. reality tv
    Is Now the Worst Time for Buried by the Bernards? Or Is it the Best Time?A lighthearted reality show about a bickering family that runs a funeral home? In this climate? Well, as it turns out …
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  41. movie review
    Barb & Star Go to Vista del Mar Arrives Preordained for Cult StatusIt features Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo, Jamie Dornan, Damon Wayans Jr., and a sage old crab named Morgan Freemand.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  42. movie review
    Judas and the Black Messiah: When Hollywood Co-opts Radical HistoryThe movie gets neither the beauty and complications of Blackness, nor the outright depravity of white supremacy.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  43. tv review
    Hello, Clarice. Good-bye, Clarice.The CBS series’s attempt to put Clarice Starling at the center of a narrative doesn’t rise to the intelligence and complexity of the woman herself.
    By Jen Chaney
  44. movie review
    A Glitch in the Matrix Is a Riveting Look at Whether Our World Is a SimulationBut it’s really about just how utterly weird life is.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  45. movie review
    The Utter Emotional Inauthenticity of Netflix’s Malcolm & MarieNo one comes out of this film unscathed — including Zendaya.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  46. tv review
    The Beagle Remains a BlessingApple TV+’s new The Snoopy Show is a welcome reminder that happiness still is a warm puppy.
    By Jen Chaney
  47. tv review
    We Are the Brooklyn Saints’ Concerns Go Well Beyond Winning and LosingRudy Valdez’s Netflix docuseries reclaims dignity for its characters by seeking beauty, even poetry, in outwardly unremarkable scenarios.
    By Matt Zoller Seitz
  48. comfort tv
    I Just Want to Go Live Inside All Creatures Great and SmallIn these wild and disorienting first weeks of 2021, the PBS Masterpiece series has been a cozy haven of competence and compassion.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  49. book review
    100 Boyfriends Is a Taxonomy of DesireBrontez Purnell’s new book roams the edges of queer romance.
    By E. Alex Jung
  50. movie review
    Netflix’s The Dig Goes Deep on Human ExistenceRalph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan star in this surprisingly moving period drama.
    By Bilge Ebiri
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