Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture
  1. album review
    Mac Miller Leaves Us His Most Compelling Artistic Statement on CirclesHis posthumous album is a stab at the caliber of songwriting achieved by titans of the form.
  2. tv review
    We’re Lucky to Have Little AmericaThe new Apple TV+ anthology series about the immigrant experience in America is a small, modest show that packs a big emotional punch.
  3. movie review
    The Story of Clemency Plays Out on Alfre Woodard’s FaceHere is an actor in full command of her skills. That she won’t be considered for an Oscar is a travesty.
  4. tv review
    Avenue 5 Isn’t Great Yet, But It Could BeArmando Iannucci’s new future-set space comedy, starring Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad, isn’t without its flaws, but at least they’re intriguing flaws.
  5. movie review
    Weathering With You Is a Teen Romance for the Age of Climate ChangeMakoto Shinkai, the director of Your Name, is back with another magical realist anime love story.
  6. theater review
    My Name Is Lucy Barton Comes to Broadway As a Glum, Gray DudThis adaptation of Elizabeth Strout’s novel is a dull lesson in the difference between what’s needed on the page and on the stage.
  7. movie review
    Dolittle Is Anti-CinemaYou go into this thing expecting silly insouciance and walk away from it questioning reality.
  8. movie review
    The World Didn’t Need Another Bad Boys MovieThe new Bad Boys is probably a wash, but it ends so well that I now find myself not entirely opposed to the idea of a fourth one.
  9. podcasts
    Is the Wellness Industry a Scam? The Dream Thinks It Knows the Answer.The podcast’s second season investigates a booming subculture.
  10. movie review
    I Lost My Body Is Both Genuinely Sweet and Thoroughly TwistedAt least one good thing came out of the 2020 Oscar nominations: recognition for a left-field animated gem.
  11. theater review
    What’s Over the Top at the Under the Radar Festival?Plus Richard Maxwell’s Queens Row, at the Kitchen.
  12. movie review
    Like a Boss Is a Fascinatingly Unfunny Movie with an Incredibly Funny CastWhat even is this thing?
  13. song review
    Drake and Future Are Way Too Good at Memeing ThemselvesThe video seems destined to live as a constellation of GIFs.
  14. tv review
    The New Pope Lives in The Young Pope’s ShadowJohn Malkovich is great as the Vatican’s newest tenant, but Pius XIII’s presence looms over the season despite his being unconscious for much of it.
  15. tv review
    HBO’s The Outsider Keeps You Guessing, and Guessing, and GuessingRichard Price’s adaptation of Stephen King’s 2018 crime thriller weaves a tangled, unruly web of questions it doesn’t seem inclined to answer.
  16. album review
    Selena Gomez Returns Unbothered and at Her Best on RareIt’s a whole album’s worth of “I still got it.”
  17. tv review
    Does AJ and the Queen Know It’s Terrible?The new Netflix series starring RuPaul might be aiming for high camp. Or maybe it’s just really bad.
  18. tv review
    Sanditon Delivers Everything You Expect of an Austen Adaptation—Until it Doesn’tPBS Masterpiece’s miniseries version of Austen’s unfinished novel is exquisite, thoughtfully adapted, and, in its final moments, extremely perplexing.
  19. movie review
    Underwater Is a Relentlessly Entertaining Deep-sea CatastropheIt’s all your fears — of the deep, of tight spaces, of the dark, of giant-creepy-crawly-squishy things — rolled into one.
  20. tv review
    Welcome to TV’s Cheer-ocracyThe one-two punch of USA’s Dare Me and Netflix’s Cheer proves that cheerleading can inspire multiple great — and wildly different — series.
  21. tv review
    Party of Five Is Both Sweetly Nostalgic and Bracingly CurrentThe ’90s drama about a family of orphans has inspired a modern-day retelling for the age of ICE that’s more poignant and thoughtful than most reboots.
  22. song review
    R&Bieber’s Back, for Better or WorseThe pivot back to R&B is a fascinating one for Justin Bieber, if you remember what happened the last time he tried it.
  23. movie review
    Just Mercy Is a Precise and Patient Recounting of a Very Real Human StoryDestin Daniel Cretton’s film is based on the non-fiction book of the same name.
  24. movie review
    Greta Gerwig’s Little Women Reaches for Something MoreThe director demonstrates her love for Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel in every scene.
  25. movie review
    1917 Is More Filmmaking Stunt Than MovieThe difficulty level of Sam Mendes’s World War I movie doesn’t really make up for its hollowness.
  26. spoilers
    The Morning Show Finally Got Its Network MomentFor all its flaws, The Morning Show does a nuanced, cogent, and absorbing job of exploring a MeToo story.
  27. tv review
    10 Things You Won’t See in The WitcherNetflix doesn’t want us talking about what happens in The Witcher, so here’s some stuff that definitely doesn’t happen in The Witcher.
  28. movie review
    Cats Is Good. Cats Is Bad. Cats Is Cats.No idea where to begin with this one.
  29. tv review
    Soundtrack Is the Opposite of an EarwormA bold but very wobbly Netflix family drama is hampered by a melancholy tone that’s at odds with its flights of musical fancy.
  30. tv review
    You Season Two Is a Dark DelightThe gloriously deranged series returns on Netflix to explore the effects of violent masculinity and deconstruct the “Cool Girl.”
  31. movie review
    Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Is a Formulaic, Crowd-Pleasing CartoonEpisode IX is a dream movie for Disney as much as I’m guessing it’s a nightmare for George Lucas.
  32. podcasts
    Richard’s Famous Food Podcast Is a Weird and Funny DelightThe sort-of food podcast is a refreshing ball of intense energy and eccentric ideas.
  33. album review
    Harry Styles’s Sound Could Still Use a Bit of Fine-tuningFine Line goes where it pleases, for better or worse.
  34. theater review
    A New Order for Sing Street, Now Adapted for the StageI just can’t get enough.
  35. what were the 2010s?
    The Book of Mormon and Hamilton Already Feel Like They’re From Another TimeA fresh look at the decade’s biggest Broadway smashes.
  36. theater review
    I Took Kids to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. They Saw Things I Missed.I borrowed two children for the afternoon and watched the show through their eyes as well as my own.
  37. movie review
    Black Christmas Is Bloody Holiday FunDirector Sophia Takal and co-writer April Wolfe are behind this reboot of a cult classic.
  38. theater review
    At the Armory, Judgment Day Shows Its Cast No MercyAnd in Brooklyn, JACK lands in a congenial new space.
  39. movie review
    Uncut Gems Gives Adam Sandler the Awesome, Freaky Movie He DeservesIt’s the summation of the Safdie brothers’ culture, in which the drive for life collides head-on with the drive for death, and the upshot is cinema.
  40. movie review
    With A Hidden Life, Terrence Malick Takes on the Evils of HistoryIt’s based on the real story of Franz Jägerstätter, a devout Austrian farmer who refused to pledge loyalty to Hitler.
  41. movie review
    Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell Is Full of Rage and SpinIt can’t be an accident that the film shows the enemies of truth and justice to be the FBI and the press.
  42. theater review
    The Thin Place Is a Horror Drama That You Think You’ll Forget, Then Won’tAt the edge between reality and something else.
  43. theater review
    Harry Connick Jr. Brings the Tick-Tick-Tick of Cole Porter Back to BroadwayAlso some awkward theatrics—but the core of the evening is the de-lovely band and that voice.
  44. movie review
    Bombshell Only Sometimes Understands That It’s About White FeminismCharlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie play Fox News employees in a movie that isn’t anywhere near as sharp-edged as it should be.
  45. movie review
    Jumanji: The Next Level Is a Tired, Modestly Funny Sequel2manji feels kind of lifeless, but there are a few twists this time around.
  46. theater review
    Theater Review: Greater Clements, a Small-Town Drama Without the TownDown into the midwestern darkness, at a little spot that’s about to disappear from the map.
  47. theater review
    Theater Review: Daniel Kitson Keeps Only Things That Spark No Joy WhatsoeverA monologuist who can’t stop interrogating himself and us.
  48. album review
    Camila Cabello’s in Love … and Not Much ElseLike the performances of “Señorita” we’ve seen all fall, Romance generates heat and not enough fire.
  49. tv review
    The L Word Returns As the More Inclusive, Less Radical Generation QShowtime’s revival of the early-2000s series feels less daring and more familiar than its predecessor, and that’s its own form of achievement.
  50. movie review
    A Million Little Pieces Turns a Literary Scandal Into a Boring MovieHowever much of James Frey’s rehab saga was true or fudged, Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson can’t make the case for why it’s worth adapting.
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