Daily coverage of Criticism by Vulture

Criticism

  1. theater review
    Hell’s Kitchen: A Familiar Diary of Alicia KeysConventional musical-theater turf, made fresh by killer performances.
    By Sara Holdren
  2. movie review
    Rustin Is a Solid History Lesson But Not a Particularly Good MovieColman Domingo is fantastic, however.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  3. theater review
    Who Thought Stoppard Needs More Sex?Bedlam’s Arcadia falls into an easy trap.
    By Sara Holdren
  4. movie review
    The Hunger Games Forgets Its Own Nightmarish MessageThe Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has star power and action, but the prequel film lacks its predecessor’s sense of moral lucidity.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  5. movie review
    Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving Isn’t Terrible, and for That We Can Be ThankfulWe don’t watch movies like this wondering what’s going to happen next. We watch because we know what’s going to happen next.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  6. art review
    A Painter’s New Civil WarThe perverse visions of Hilary Harkness.
    By Jerry Saltz
  7. movie review
    Let Fallen Leaves’ Finnish Gloom Give You LifeThe great Aki Kaurismäki delivers one of his most charming films with this tale of missed romantic connections.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  8. tv review
    Nothing Is As It Seems in Scott Pilgrim Takes OffThe word adaptation isn’t precise enough to describe what’s going on in Netflix’s new anime interpretation.
    By Nicholas Quah
  9. theater review
    Spamalot Returns, and It’s Not Dead YetSay no more!
    By Sara Holdren
  10. theater review
    Is Anything Real in Scene Partners? Is Everything?John J. Caswell Jr.’s script is like an Escher drawing, endlessly spiraling in on itself.
    By Sara Holdren
  11. tv review
    Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Lets Godzilla Be GodzillaApple TV+’s entry into the MonsterVerse is a best-case scenario for franchise expansion.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  12. theater review
    That’s the Idea, Let’s Amuse Each Other! Shannon and Sparks in Waiting for GodotMichael Shannon and Paul Sparks foreground the funny in Beckett.
    By Sara Holdren
  13. album review
    PinkPantheress Is Remastering the Y2K AestheticHeaven Knows sounds like lightning striking a 160 GB iPod.
    By Craig Jenkins
  14. tv review
    Something’s Missing From A Murder at the End of the WorldBrit Marling and Zal Batmanglij applying their signature extravagant weirdness to a murder mystery is both too much (complimentary) and not enough.
    By Nicholas Quah
  15. theater review
    Navigating the Expanses of Danny and the Deep Blue SeaChristopher Abbott and Aubrey Plaza star in the 1983 John Patrick Shanley play that’s beloved of young actors.
    By Sara Holdren
  16. theater review
    The Day the Clowns Cried: HarmonyThe rise of the Nazi regime, recounted in a Cabaret-adjacent musical with songs by Barry Manilow.
    By Jackson McHenry
  17. movie review
    Who Here Hasn’t Dreamed of Nicolas Cage?Dream Scenario starts off as a funny, thoughtful look at how we all live in public today.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  18. movie review
    When Did the MCU Start Feeling So Small?The Marvels brings together Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani for far-flung galactic adventures that feel disappointingly dinky.
    By Alison Willmore
  19. theater review
    Tragic Losses, of Life and Language, in Watch Night and TranslationsThe destruction wrought by colonialism and racism, rendered onstage in very different ways.
    By Sara Holdren
  20. tv review
    The Curse Damns ItselfNathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s Showtime series will plunge you into doom-filled unease. Then it gets stuck there.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  21. theater review
    What’ll It Be? At FOOD, the End of the World As We Know It.A farcical, funny, and haunting commentary on the industrialized, globalized diet.
    By Sara Holdren
  22. movie review
    Sly Is a Messy, Sincere Portrait of a Messy, Sincere ManThis documentary about Sylvester Stallone leaves a lot unsaid. But it does get at the heart of his career.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  23. movie review
    Meg Ryan Isn’t Saving the Rom-Com — She’s Arguing With ItRyan directs and stars alongside David Duchovny in What Happens Later, a curiously sour romantic comedy.
    By Alison Willmore
  24. movie review
    To Its Credit, Nyad Makes Its Subject Look Like a Real AssholeNyad may be a frustrating biopic, but at least it doesn’t soften the self-mythologizing long-distance swimmer’s rougher edges.
    By Alison Willmore
  25. theater review
    Sabbath’s Theater Can’t Get Out of Its HeadAn adaptation of Philip Roth ends up feeling uncharacteristically tame.
    By Jackson McHenry
  26. theater review
    I Need That Does Not Spark JoyDanny and Lucy DeVito, as an almost-hoarder and his daughter, are trapped in a play full of junk.
    By Sara Holdren
  27. theater review
    Bring a Bucket and a Mop for This Snatch & TaintyA juicy, joyful, bodily-function-obsessed trip below the belt.
    By Sara Holdren
  28. song review
    The Beatles’ Final Song Is Only a Snapshot of Their StrengthsThey are back for one last job … assuming it’s the last job.
    By Craig Jenkins
  29. theater review
    The ‘Yes, We Can’ Spirit of Poor Yella RednecksQui Nguyen’s optimistic, funny immigration tale.
    By Sara Holdren
  30. theater review
    The Box-Checking Work Begins: Merry MeA self-described lesbian sex comedy leans on its Angels in America references.
    By Sara Holdren
  31. theater
    Money, Love, and Music, All at Odds in I Can Get It for You WholesaleAn underseen musical revived, full of intriguing contradictions.
    By Jackson McHenry
  32. theater review
    Stereophonic Goes Its Own Way, and Finds Its GrooveA very Rumours rock saga immerses you in the act of creation.
    By Jackson McHenry
  33. remembrance
    Matthew Perry Couldn’t Be Boxed InAs the jokester who wears snarkiness as emotional armor, Chandler stole every Friends scene — even ones where he was theoretically absent.
    By Jen Chaney
  34. movie review
    Even Two Great Actors Can’t Make Fingernails’ Romance BelievableJessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed are hard to buy as thwarted lovers, though that’s mostly the fault of the film’s half-baked premise.
    By Alison Willmore
  35. movie review
    Paul Giamatti Is Never Better Than When He’s in an Alexander Payne MoviePrep school dramedy The Holdovers, the pair’s first collaboration since Sideways, showcases Giamatti’s capacity for the prickly and the heartbreaking.
    By Alison Willmore
  36. movie review
    Visions of the CollapseFive Nights at Freddy’s wants to be scary, but it’s mostly just sad.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  37. tv review
    Good Sex Can’t Save Fellow TravelersThe Showtime limited series spends too little time with its messy, fascinating characters and far too much time on Gay U.S. History 101.
    By Jackson McHenry
  38. movie review
    The Killer Could Be a Great Comedy If David Fincher Let ItThere’s a thin line between self-reflection and self-parody, and The Killer comes dangerously close to crossing it a few too many times.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  39. theater review
    Covenant Is Best When It’s At Its PulpiestWhy aren’t there more plays that lean into being genre horror?
    By Sara Holdren
  40. movie review
    The Persian Version and the Art of Doing Too MuchMaryam Keshavarz’s musical romantic dramedy tells an affecting story about what womanhood demands — at least, it does whenever it settles down.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  41. book review
    In Alex Pheby’s Novel Malarkoi, God Is Dead and Objects Are AliveThe second book in Alex Pheby’s trilogy Cities of the Weft spins fantasy tropes in strange and visceral new dimensions.
    By Emma Alpern
  42. close read
    Bad Bunny and Drake Are Making Offers Their Fans Can’t RefuseIn our current climate, it pays to be the villain.
    By Craig Jenkins
  43. art review
    The Beautiful OnesThe tender paintings of Njideka Akunyili Crosby.
    By Jerry Saltz
  44. theater review
    Make Like a Tree: Renae Simone Jarrett’s DaphneOvid’s telling of the myth, reimagined.
    By Sara Holdren
  45. album review
    The Rolling Stones Paint It BackwardA new Stones record in 2023 may feel as necessary as a milkman. But they’re doing more than just conjuring ghosts.
    By Leah Greenblatt
  46. theater review
    The Last Midnight: Sondheim and Ives’s ‘Here We Are’A strange, dark, fragmented, and compelling final message from the master.
    By Sara Holdren
  47. close read
    Bodies Feels Its Way Through a Perilous Time LoopThe multiple-timeline murder mystery often struggles to explain itself, but thanks to a single performance, it doesn’t really need to.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  48. theater review
    Language As Engine: Helen. and MahineratorA feminist Trojan War parable and a monologue that leaps right over the desk to grab you.
    By Sara Holdren
  49. movie review
    Errol Morris Duels the Greatest Spy Novelist in The Pigeon TunnelThe documentarian’s brisk, enjoyable new film contains the curiously contentious final interview with David Cornwell, a.k.a. John le Carré.
    By Alison Willmore
  50. close read
    Britney Spears File Photos
    Britney Spears Owns Her ‘Past, Present and Future’The biggest revelations from her memoir so far.
    By Zoe Guy
Load More