Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture

Criticism

  1. movie review
    Alien: Romulus Gets the Job Done, But at What Cost?It’s a movie engineered mostly to provide basic genre thrills and keep the IP alive so the now-Disney-owned Fox can generate more Alien movies.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  2. big alien stompers to fill
    I’m Sorry, But It’s Not an Alien Movie Without RipleySigourney Weaver has moved on from Alien, but if the new legacy sequel, Alien: Romulus, is any indication, the franchise hasn’t moved on from her.
    By A.A. Dowd
  3. endings
    The Ending of Alien: Romulus Is an Abomination By DesignFede Álvarez’s legacy sequel pulls off a satisfying trick, splicing the old and new to create something genuinely freakish.
    By Louis Peitzman
  4. movie review
    Jackpot! Hates Its Audience Almost As Much As It Hates Its CharactersPaul Feig’s latest indulges in a kind of misanthropy that would require a lot more thought and ballsiness to pull off.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  5. endings
    Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Ends With a Frustrating AppeasementThe Caesar trilogy preached solidarity among apes. The new film, on the other hand, champions alliances with humans.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  6. close read
    The Chappell Roan Formula for Dizzying SuccessBreaking down four — of the seven(!) — songs the singer has on the “Hot 100” to appreciate what’s fueling her surge in popularity.
    By Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding
  7. tv review
    Call It Tom Petty NoirWant a murder mystery set in a Corona commercial? Welcome to Bad Monkey.
    By Jen Chaney
  8. theater review
    Sutton Foster Brings Some Bounce to Once Upon a MattressWorking off a book freshened up by Amy Sherman-Palladino, the actress gives it her all in this transfer of an Encores! production.
    By Christopher Bonanos
  9. cruise control
    Closing Ceremony - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 16
    The Peculiar Joy of Watching Tom Cruise Jump From the SkyIt wasn’t so long ago that the actor’s career seemed to be in free fall. In Paris, he got a hero’s welcome.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  10. movie review
    Borderlands Is a Total CatastropheOne of the strangest things about so many of these studio salvage-job disasters is that we’re often left wondering: What happened to the salvaging?
    By Bilge Ebiri
  11. movie review
    You’ve Seen This One BeforeThe Colleen Hoover adaptation It Ends With Us plays like an overfamiliar Lifetime movie with a lot more gloss and only slightly more grit.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  12. confession
    I’m In the Tank for M. Night ShyamalanTrap is unrealistic, lacking in thrills, and a stunning example of just how masterful the writer-director’s twistless storytelling can be.
    By Matt Zoller Seitz
  13. it’s a trap!
    Game of Thrones Is Approaching Tricky Star Wars TerritoryThat could be a good or a bad thing, depending how A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms plays it.
    By Nicholas Quah
  14. close read
    House of the Dragon Deployed Its Strongest WeaponSorry, Vhagar, the queens are talking.
    By Jen Chaney
  15. crime stories
    Batman: Caped Crusader Feels Like the Lost Third Season of Perry MasonThere’s even a subplot about a disputed land-use deal! What could be more neo-noir than that?
    By Roxana Hadadi
  16. endings
    House of the Dragon Has a Prophecy ProblemRaising questions that really should be answered by now, like: What is this show even about?
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  17. movie review
    Josh Hartnett Gives Grade-A Murder Daddy in TrapM. Night Shyamalan’s latest works better than should be possible because of Hartnett, who plays a monster wearing the skin of a devoted family man.
    By Alison Willmore
  18. movie review
    Purple Pain, Purple PainThis adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon might be worse than you imagined.
    By Jen Chaney
  19. movie review
    Seeing Matt Damon Paired With Casey Affleck Is So DisorientingThe Instigators, starring Damon and Ben Affleck’s younger brother, Casey, plays like an indirect comment on the ‘Matt and Ben Show.’
    By Alison Willmore
  20. theater review
    A Poodle Room on Wall Street: Life and TrustThe immersive follow-up to Sleep No More imagines sex and horror in early-20th-century Fidi.
    By Jackson McHenry
  21. album review
    Ice Spice, Bite-Size‘Y2K!’ is funny and playful. But when an album is the same length as an episode of Abbott Elementary, the filler is frustrating.
    By Craig Jenkins
  22. theater review
    Plot Twists, Slick and Surreal: Job and Six CharactersA tech-thriller unknots itself on Broadway, and a metatheatrical revolution keeps probing.
    By Jackson McHenry
  23. movie review
    What If Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway Had a Mother-Off, and We All Lost?The strange case of Mothers’ Instinct.
    By Alison Willmore
  24. movie review
    Dìdi Remembers All Too Well What It’s Like to Be 13Sean Wang’s directorial debut so vividly recreates the netherworld between middle and high school that it’s kind of hard to watch.
    By Alison Willmore
  25. podcast review
    Hysterical Stares Into the AbyssDan Taberski’s latest audio docuseries probes an unsolved mystery of mass contagion.
    By Nicholas Quah
  26. album review
    Adultish GambinoOn Bando Stone, Donald Glover spends one last night in a scene he believes he’s outgrown.
    By Craig Jenkins
  27. tv review
    Lady in the Lake Treads Shallow WatersReplacing a mystery with a sermon, the TV adaptation smooths over the thematic depths of the novel that inspired it.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  28. movie review
    There’s a Good Story This Netflix Documentary Isn’t TellingYou can sense the more thoughtful film lurking beneath Skywalkers: A Love Story, about the illegal and exhilarating influencer-sport of “rooftopping.”
    By Bilge Ebiri
  29. tv review
    Lessons in Chemistry Is Maddeningly InertApple TV+’s handsome adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’s best-selling novel is carefully considered and completely uninterested in challenging its audience.
    By Jen Chaney
  30. tv review
    The Remorseless Mr. RipleyAndrew Scott’s phenomenal take on Patricia Highsmith’s con man anchors a deliciously mean adaptation.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  31. tv review
    Pictured: Jon Hamm as Roy Tillman.
    Fargo Sees What the World Is Coming ToBy setting its fifth season in the waning days of 2019, the crime-thriller anthology series jars itself, and us, out of complacency.
    By Jen Chaney
  32. tv review
    True Detective Crawls Back From the VoidAlmost ten years after a tracking-shot episode set an impossible standard, the HBO show is reinventing itself for the better.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  33. tv review
    On Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry Is Forever Going to LarryHBO’s longest-running scripted series is going out exactly as it started: with more examples of petty behavior than you ever dreamed possible.
    By Jen Chaney
  34. tv review
    One With Nature, Stranded in Outer SpaceScavengers Reign, now on Netflix, beautifully animates a horrific sci-fi habitat.
    By Kambole Campbell
  35. tv review
    3 Body Problem Is Not Afraid to Be TVAn unadaptable novel invites a perfect attempt at adaptation — if not a perfect TV show.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  36. tv review
    The Morning Show
    The Morning Show’s Third Season Is Crazy Enough to WorkApple TV+’s premiere prestige drama has embraced its true identity as a high-gloss soap.
    By Jackson McHenry
  37. tv review
    The Crown Keeps Its DistanceWith the tragedy of Diana, Peter Morgan plays it safe to the very end.
    By Jackson McHenry
  38. tv review
    Shōgun Teaches You How to WatchThe Emmy-winning Japanese saga of court intrigue luxuriates in the language of taking and holding power.
    By Matt Zoller Seitz
  39. tv review
    The Bear Is a Different AnimalGood-bye to the restaurant known as the Beef. Hello to a looser, lighter season two.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  40. movie review
    Twisters Needs to Be Either Smarter or DumberWhy so cirrus-us?
    By Alison Willmore
  41. close read
    Daemon the DisappointingHouse of the Dragon doesn’t know what to do with the Prince Who Pouts.
    By Nicholas Quah
  42. number one boy
    House of the Dragon Just Made Incest Taboo AgainWhen it comes to Oedipal ick, Daemon told Robin Arryn, “Hey kid, hold my breast milk.”
    By Roxana Hadadi
  43. movie review
    Fly Me to the Moon Is Just Good Enough to Make You Wish It Were BetterScarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum are terrific, and the cast is clearly having fun, but the movie is mostly just a pleasant trifle.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  44. movie review
    Longlegs Is Mostly TerrifyingThis tense, odd thriller mines the horror of ordinary people compelled to do terrible things — an unnerving reflection of modern anxieties.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  45. movie review
    Sing Sing Doesn’t Need a Movie Star’s TouchThe prison theater drama can’t square its naturalistic urges with its need to be an awardsy acting vehicle.
    By Alison Willmore
  46. theater review
    Empire: The Musical Stacks Up 102 Stories, Every One a ClichéA cringey new musical about the rise of the Empire State Building.
    By Sara Holdren
  47. theater review
    Oh, Mary! Is Excellently UncivilCole Escola’s Mary Todd Lincoln farce transfers uptown, preserving the union between absurdity and hilarity.
    By Sara Holdren
  48. album review
    Zach Bryan Hits His LimitOn The Great American Bar Scene, the accidental superstar’s formula remains potent but predictable.
    By Craig Jenkins
  49. album review
    A Hip-Hop ‘What If …’James Blake and Lil Yachty’s new album is as astounding as it is annoying.
    By Craig Jenkins
  50. movie review
    The New Beverly Hills Cop Is a Predictable Retread, and I Don’t CareYou can (justifiably) complain about its flaws, or you can relax and groove on its recycled rhythms.
    By Jen Chaney
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