Criticism

theater review

‘Why Are Men Like This?,’ Ask Trophy Boys and Lowcountry

 Two plays ask what they get away with and whether to forgive them. By Jackson McHenry
tv review

When You’re The Bear, You’re Family

 Season four is basically an Olive Garden commercial, but who doesn’t love Olive Garden? By Kathryn VanArendonk
tv review

Nautilus Will Drive Jules Verne Purists Crazy

 Less so those who are just looking for some family-friendly adventure 20,000 leagues under the sea. By Roxana Hadadi
  1. movie review
    Materialists Is an Inert Misreading of Modern RomanceCeline Song’s latest romantic film seeks to be both a frothy fantasy and a treatise on the nature of modern love. It fails at both.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  2. album review
    Benson Boone Is Trying Too HardHis new album shows an endearing willingness to grow his craft but also a steely reverence to older, better pop forebearers.
    By Craig Jenkins
  3. endings
    28 Years Later’s Wild Cliffhanger Teases an Even Wilder SequelAfter prioritizing character drama over zombie mayhem, the film ends on the goofiest note imaginable.
    By Louis Peitzman
  4. movie review
    Familiar Touch Is an Infinitely Tender Movie About DementiaKathleen Chalfant is astonishing as a woman who moves to a care facility after she is no longer able to live alone.
    By Alison Willmore
  5. tv review
    Jump in, The Waterfront’s FineThere’s nothing quite like a just-this-side-of-campy organized-crime family drama to help pass the sticky, grimy days of summer.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  6. movie review
    28 Years Later Is Totally NutsAnd not necessarily in a bad way.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  7. theater review
    Prince Faggot Imagines If a Royal Were, You Know …A photo of Prince George becomes the jumping-off point for a gay romance that’s surprisingly conventional.
    By Jackson McHenry
  8. movie review
    Elio Has Trouble Getting Out of Its Own HeadPixar’s latest is a movie about learning we’re not alone in the universe that nevertheless has trouble opening up its main character.
    By Alison Willmore
  9. book review
    Cheating On Your PoliticsIn her new book, Spent, Alison Bechdel once again gives us people whose lofty ideas about society exceed their ability, or willingness, to change it.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  10. movie review
    Finally, a Live-Action Remake That Doesn’t Feel PointlessThe new version of How to Train Your Dragon sticks closely to the original. But human actors and real locations give it real weight and spectacle.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  11. movie review
    Meeting With Pol Pot Explores How Ideology Can Curdle Into EvilRithy Panh’s historical drama follows three French journalists attempting to interview the Khmer Rouge leader at the height of the Cambodian genocide.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  12. theater review
    Jean Smart Goes South and Solo in Call Me IzzyJamie Wax’s play attempts to insist it’s important simply because it contains misery.
    By Jackson McHenry
  13. theater review
    Three Off Broadway Productions Bite the Donors That Feed ThemTheater does class warfare in The Counterfeit Opera, Prosperous Fools, and Not Not Jane’s.
    By Jackson McHenry
  14. movie review
    Echo Valley Isn’t Good Enough to Be a Prestige ThrillerBut the Apple TV+ film, which stars Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney, is also too glossy and ambitious to just be streaming schlock.
    By Alison Willmore
  15. book review
    A Worthy Novel About These Times™Jess Walter’s So Far Gone is a madcap road novel that aptly captures the absurdity of the past ten years.
    By Chris Stanton
  16. movie review
    Questlove’s Sly Lives! Is a Revealing Portrait of the Hazards of GeniusYou finish watching Sly Lives! feeling like you’ve genuinely learned something, but you also feel exhilarated.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  17. album review
    The Emancipation of Addison RaeThe TikTok star’s debut album is a symbolic break with the past.
    By Craig Jenkins
  18. movie review
    Don’t Be Surprised If The Life of Chuck Breaks YouThis Stephen King adaptation is not like most other Stephen King adaptations.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  19. movie review
    Dogma Is Still the Best Movie Kevin Smith Ever MadeSure, it’s chatty, casual, inelegant, and doesn’t make much sense. But it’s also sincere, charming, and extremely funny.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  20. tv review
    Stick Is Stuck on the Trauma PlotThe Owen Wilson golf comedy is feel-good TV built on a feel-bad foundation.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  21. best of 2025
    The Best Anime Series of 2025 (So Far)A subgenre notorious for junk has, against the odds, given us two standouts.
    By Kambole Campbell
  22. best of 2025
    The Best Songs of 2025 (So Far)Despot and billy woods sound off on government corruption while nepo baby Romy Mars enters the scene.
  23. movie review
    Ballerina’s Second Half Does John Wick ProudUnfortunately, the first half of the Ana de Armas spinoff blows, but it’s worth sticking around for what comes later.
    By Alison Willmore
  24. close read
    Adults Needs More Room to GrowWhere its genre predecessors were given network-size seasons to calibrate their quirks, this streaming-era hangout sitcom has no such luxury.
    By Hershal Pandya
  25. best of 2025
    The Best Video Games of 2025 (So Far)Games often promise the world; our favorites are those that deliver a vision.
    By Lewis Gordon
  26. best of 2025
    Best Albums of 2025 (So Far)A candid posthumous release plus a soundtrack for bedrooms and basements.
    By Craig Jenkins
  27. album review
    Miley Cyrus Is on a Ceaseless Quest to Be TimelessHer ninth album, Something Beautiful, aims to pitch more hits into the pantheon of great American songs.
    By Craig Jenkins
  28. theater review
    Gods and Monsters: Eurydice and Bowl EPSarah Ruhl’s 2003 play is lush with language; Nazareth Hassan’s play plunks a skate park and a demon down among the theatergoers.
    By Jackson McHenry
  29. best of 2025
    The Best Books of 2025 (So Far)Including the millennial answer to bell hooks’s All About Love.
    By Vulture Editors
  30. best of 2025
    The Best Movies of 2025 (So Far)Yes, Tom Cruise’s stunts earned Final Reckoning a spot on this list.
    By Alison Willmore, Bilge Ebiri, and Angelica Jade Bastién
  31. best of 2025
    The Best Podcasts of 2025 (So Far)If you really want to absorb something, immerse yourself in the wonkiest podcasts imaginable.
    By Nicholas Quah
  32. best of 2025
    The Best TV Shows of 2025 (So Far)Great television will not be confined nor defined by genre.
  33. book review
    Susan Choi Is Still Outlandishly TalentedA father’s disappearance, and the black hole of uncertainty surrounding it, are the subject of her prickly new novel.
    By Sam Worley
  34. movie review
    In Mountainhead, the Rich Eat UsThere’s no catharsis to be found in the new satire from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong.
    By Alison Willmore
  35. tv review
    Hacks Stopped Being About ComedyAnd became a better but more familiar show.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  36. movie review
    Ben Wang in Columbia Pictures KARATE KID: LEGENDS
    Karate Kid: Legends Is Empty, Lazy Nostalgia-BaitEven the sight of Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan together isn’t enough to give this montage-happy legacyquel any personality.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  37. movie review
    It’s a Lot of Fun to Watch Sally Hawkins Go EvilThe actress both powers and unbalances Bring Her Back, the Philippou brothers’ messy, ambitious follow-up to Talk To Me.
    By Alison Willmore
  38. endings
    The Better Sister
    The Better Sister Goes a Step BeyondBy expanding a character to be worthy of a Kim Dickens performance, the miniseries improves upon both its source material and its subgenre.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  39. movie review
    Marvel Is Now a Giant Slop MachineThe messy and tiresome Captain America: Brave New World has a few ideas, but it handles them in the most shallow, simplistic ways.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  40. close read
    The Anatomy of an Alex Cooper InterviewThe Call Her Daddy host uses a consistent set of tactics to charm and disarm her guests.
    By Rebecca Jennings
  41. movie review
    See Pig and Tremble Before Your Own MortalityLet Nicolas Cage illuminate the way.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  42. endings
    The Last of Us Enters Perilous TerritorySeason two’s cliffhanger, lifted directly from the game, will be trickier for the TV adaptation to pull off.
    By Nicholas Quah
  43. cannes 2025
    Jennifer Lawrence Gets to Act Her Age in Die, My LoveLynne Ramsay’s postpartum phantasmagoria doesn’t go somewhere so much as it runs right off a cliff, and it’s Lawrence who holds its pieces together.
    By Alison Willmore
  44. cannes 2025
    Honey Don’t! Is Only Worth Watching For the Sexual SwaggerThe latest “lesbian B-movie” from Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke doesn’t have a lot else going on.
    By Alison Willmore
  45. way too close reads
    The Final Reckoning Is Closure for Tom Cruise’s Infamous Couch JumpThe new Mission: Impossible hits theaters 20 years to the day since Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch. And it dares to show him crazy in love again.
    By Louis Peitzman
  46. cannes 2025
    Josh O’Connor Is at His Hangdog Dirtbag Best in The MastermindKelly Reichardt’s wonderful new movie features O’Connor’s best performance to date.
    By Alison Willmore
  47. movie review
    Jane Austen Wrecked My Life Is From a Different CenturyWe mean that in the best possible way.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  48. cannes 2025
    The Sublime Sentimental Value Is the Toast of This Year’s Cannes Film FestivalJoachim Trier reunites with his The Worst Person In The World star Renate Reinsve for a filigree delicate drama about family, art, and trauma.
    By Alison Willmore
  49. cannes 2025
    Yes! Is Unflinchingly Critical of Israel — Which May Make It Hard to ReleaseAs Cannes takes on the war in Gaza, no other film is as incriminating as Nadav Lapid’s latest.
    By Alison Willmore
  50. tv review
    Sirens Will Reel You InCome for Julianne Moore in possible-cult-leader mode, stay for Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock’s sublime sister act.
    By Roxana Hadadi
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