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Criticism

theater review

Drama Afloat in Red Hook: The Wind and the Rain

 A play about Sunny’s Bar and the world it embodies. By Sara Holdren
theater review

Truth, Meet Power: Erika Sheffer’s Vladimir

 On 20 years of Putinism. By Sara Holdren
nyff 2024

Blitz Is the Worst Movie Steve McQueen Has Made

 By any wider standard, that means that the World War II drama is still not bad at all. By Alison Willmore
  1. tv review
    Disclaimer Is a Flaccid, Pretentious SlogAlfonso Cuarón’s first episodic outing takes all the wrong lessons from prestige TV.
    By Nicholas Quah
  2. movie review
    The Lego Pharrell Movie Has a Lego Black Lives Matter SegmentSome thoughts on Piece by Piece and the dangers of committing to the bit.
    By Alison Willmore
  3. movie review
    We Live in Time Failed to Move My Cold, Cold HeartI never really bought the onscreen relationship, in part because I could constantly feel the movie trying too hard.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  4. movie review
    The Apprentice Gets Dumber the Longer It Goes OnDirector Ali Abbasi’s portrait of a young Donald Trump never lives up to its strongest performance: Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  5. politics
    In Praise of Bad ReadersIn a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  6. art review
    A Black Surrealist Finally Gets His DueA solo exhibition of the poet and visual artist Ted Joans is a mostly fitting tribute to an artistic visionary.
    By Jack Denton
  7. theater review
    Stage, Managed: A TV-Star-Driven Our TownKenny Leon’s production is gentle where it could bite.
    By Sara Holdren
  8. theater review
    Climate Hopefulness Faces the Fire in Deep HistoryDavid Finnigan’s play starts as lecture, then takes a turn.
    By Jackson McHenry
  9. close read
    Politics Won’t Tear Love Is Blind ApartMarissa and Ramses’s conversation marks a watershed moment for the series — and reveals a truth about what makes or breaks the show’s relationships.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  10. theater review
    What’s In a Name? Surface and Substance In The Counter and Dirty LaundryMeghan Kennedy goes deep in a diner, and Mathilde Dratwa gets personal with grief.
    By Sara Holdren
  11. nyff 2024
    How to Make an Elevated Dog MovieLiterate, sober, and bathed in Mozart needle drops, The Friend is a pet film for book clubs and graduate writing seminars.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  12. tv review
    Slow Horses Got the Chance to Get ComfortableWhen a series perfects its formula, even the weakest seasons feel like a triumph.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  13. nyff 2024
    Grand Tour Is a Deliberately Ramshackle Yet Captivating Work of ArtMiguel Gomes’s globetrotting, language-spanning film gently refutes any conventional moviegoing expectations.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  14. art review
    A World Without WeatherThe flat and deep paintings of Hilary Pecis.
    By Jerry Saltz
  15. theater review
    Marla Mindelle Is Back, Ridiculously, in The Big Gay JamboreeQueen of the world!
    By Jackson McHenry
  16. theater review
    In a Pair of Musicals, Gabriel Kahane Seeks America and HimselfHe performs ‘Magnificent Bird’ and ‘Book of Travelers’ on alternating nights.
    By Jackson McHenry
  17. big spoon vs little spoon
    Culinary Class Wars Revolutionizes the Cooking ShowThe K-reality series smashes conventions of the genre and pokes holes in the distinction between fine dining and street food.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  18. theater review
    Hannah Gadsby Won’t Give You ClosureThe comedian’s new show, Woof!, offers a kaleidoscopic tour of their current state of mind but no pat takeaways.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  19. book review
    Alan Hollinghurst Tries to AtoneThe writer has tended to fetishize marginal POC characters in his novels. In Our Evenings, he puts a biracial man at the center for the first time.
    By Sam Worley
  20. tv review
    The Franchise Isn’t Super Satire, But It Is a Fun HangVeep’s Armando Iannucci sends up superhero fatigue with a workplace comedy that thrives when it’s not succumbing to cynicism.
    By Jackson McHenry
  21. movie review
    The Best Doc of the Year Is Like a 5.5 Hour-Long Panic AttackJulia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends drops you into a group of independent Russian journalists in the last months before the invasion of Ukraine.
    By Alison Willmore
  22. movie review
    Will the Year’s Most Powerful Documentary Ever Make It to Theaters?No Other Land, directed by a four-person Israeli-Palestinian collective, has won awards and acclaim. But no one in the U.S. wants to distribute it.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  23. movie review
    A Second Helping of The Platform Isn’t as Tasty as the FirstAt what point does a great premise start to feel a little picked over? There’s definitely a leftover quality to The Platform 2.
    By A.A. Dowd
  24. endings
    Joker: Folie à Deux’s Twist Ending Is a Lot Like Lightyear, in a WayTurns out we were watching the origin story of the human that the Joker is based on.
    By Rebecca Alter
  25. endings
    Penelope’s Cliffhanger Undermines Its Quiet AmbitionsThis rare piece of indie television says so much with so little — until its final moment.
    By Nicholas Quah
  26. movie review
    Without Gore or Violence, This Serial-Killer Thriller Creeps Into Your SoulThe unnerving Red Rooms focuses not on the killer or his victims, but on the people fascinated by his crimes.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  27. movie review
    Joker: Folie à Deux Commits the Mortal Sin of Wasting Lady GagaI mean, what are we even doing here?
    By Alison Willmore
  28. close read
    Ryan Murphy Doesn’t Understand How True Crime Has ChangedNetflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is the latest example of Ryan Murphy’s dated tropes.
    By Alessa Dominguez
  29. best of 2024
    The Best Anime Series of 2024 (So Far) Uzumaki’s spirals are coming for your nightmares.
    By Kambole Campbell
  30. movie review
    The Outrun Shows Us Saoirse Ronan at Her Most TranscendentDirector Nora Fingscheidt’s Sundance drama stars Ronan as a recovering alcoholic who’s back in her childhood home in the Orkney Islands.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  31. art review
    What Is a Brooklyn Artist?A sweeping survey at the Brooklyn Museum provides a lot of answers, none of which satisfy.
    By Jerry Saltz
  32. best of 2024
    The Best Songs of 2024 (So Far)A track that samples “Toxic,” a hook that will claw its way into your brain, and the sunniest song of the year.
    By Justin Curto and Alex Suskind
  33. theater review
    Is the Safety Not Guaranteed Musical What You Wish For?Guster’s singer-songwriter Ryan Miller tries his hand at musical theater.
    By Sara Holdren
  34. close read
    The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2
    Not My Tom BombadilThe Rings of Power’s version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most inscrutable character is a failure of imagination.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  35. best of 2024
    The Best Horror Books of 2024 (So Far)Fiction that feels like a primal scream.
    By Emily C. Hughes
  36. best of 2024
    The Best Albums of 2024 (So Far)This year’s most notable releases are investigating deep questions and framing art as a balm for multiplying worries.
    By Craig Jenkins
  37. best of 2024
    The Best Comedy Specials of 2024 (So Far)There have already been several instant stand-alone knockouts.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  38. best of 2024
    The Best Movies of 2024 (So Far)Will Ferrell and Harper Steele hit the road, a slow-burn action movie, and a near-perfect horror comedy.
    By Bilge Ebiri and Alison Willmore
  39. theater review
    The Best of All Possible Intentions: Yellow Face and Good BonesDavid Henry Hwang and James Ijames on places where idealism runs up against success.
    By Sara Holdren
  40. best of 2024
    The Best Video Games of 2024 (So Far)A folkloric hack-and-slash, puzzles that will infiltrate your dreams, and a thrilling game of hide-and-seek.
    By Lewis Gordon
  41. close read
    Is Nobody Wants This Mildly Antisemitic?Yes, but that’s only a symptom of the show’s biggest issue.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  42. best of 2024
    The Best Books of 2024 (So Far)A highly anticipated sequel, a brilliant debut, and nonfiction to linger on.
    By Vulture Editors
  43. theater review
    McNeal and Robert Downey Jr. Dance With ChatGPTThe playwright Ayad Akhtar considers the prospects (ominous and otherwise) of AI art-making.
    By Jackson McHenry
  44. best of 2024
    The Best Podcasts of 2024 (So Far)Including a look into the checkered history of the New York Police Department and a tech podcast with an alt-weekly bent.
    By Nicholas Quah
  45. best of 2024
    The Best TV Shows of 2024 (So Far)Romantic comedies that deliver the charm and a Gotham-set drama that doesn’t need the Batman.
    By Jen Chaney, Roxana Hadadi, and Kathryn VanArendonk
  46. theater review
    Doing Less With More: The Hills of CaliforniaJez Butterworth’s latest play, directed by Sam Mendes, is an array of overfamiliar archetypes and under-thought choices.
    By Sara Holdren
  47. movie review
    Mountains Is a Quietly Magnificent DebutMonica Sorelle’s first feature film is a vibrant story of gentrification and generational divides in Miami’s Little Haiti.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  48. synergy
    76th Primetime Emmy Awards - Show
    Audiences and Executives Agree: Jelly RollThe country-music superstar, whose 2024 Emmys appearance surprised many, is playing SNL’s season-50 premiere this weekend. How did he get here?
    By Hershal Pandya
  49. movie review
    Rez Ball Gives Navajo Teens Their Own Friday Night LightsCo-written by Reservation Dogs’s Sterlin Harjo, this Netflix drama could have strayed a little further from the inspirational sports-pap playbook.
    By A.A. Dowd
  50. movie review
    Nickel Boys Is a Cinematic Experience Unlike Any OtherIn refusing a conventional, objective (and objectified) approach to suffering, director RaMell Ross resists easy attempts at pathos.
    By Bilge Ebiri
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