Criticism

album review

Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco Made a Loveless Love Album

 I Said I Love You First is more interested in throwing you off the couple’s trail than letting you in. By Craig Jenkins
tv review

The Studio Laughs to Keep From Crying

 Beneath the broad farce of this Hollywood satire lies wistful nostalgia for an industry in decline. By Nicholas Quah
theater review

Money in Its Purse, No Heart on Its Sleeve: Denzel Washington in Othello

 Kenny Leon’s production, co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is low on ideas and lower on energy. By Sara Holdren
  1. theater review
    Money in Its Purse, No Heart on Its Sleeve: Denzel Washington in OthelloKenny Leon’s production, co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is low on ideas and lower on energy.
    By Sara Holdren
  2. movie review
    Baffling and Beautiful, Misericordia Is the Strangest of French ThrillersBeloved in France, Alain Guiraudie’s fascinating new film is a confounding genre hybrid about sublimated (and not so sublimated) desires.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  3. movie review
    Magazine Dreams Is a Punishing ExperienceAnd that’s without even getting into the Jonathan Majors of it all.
    By Alison Willmore
  4. close read
    Severance Talks to ItselfOne sublime finale scene cuts through all the season’s noise.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  5. movie review
    What Are We Doing Here, Alto Knights?On paper, a mob drama starring Robert De Niro as two of history’s biggest gangsters might have worked. But the results are borderline disastrous.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  6. movie review
    How to Live Inside a Mall for 4 YearsThe enormously entertaining Secret Mall Apartment reveals how a group of artists built a secret condo inside a Providence shopping mall.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  7. theater review
    Dead Men Do Tell (Funny) Tales: Operation MincemeatA genuinely funny musical about one of World War II’s oddest espionage gambits.
    By Sara Holdren
  8. close read
    What About Katie?Adolescence ignores her story to its detriment.
    By Shannon Keating
  9. theater review
    The Buena Vista Social Club Gets Bigger and Smaller on BroadwayRevising Cuba’s past with a trimmed book, but more thrilling dance.
    By Jackson McHenry
  10. movie review
    I Don’t Know Why, But Snow White Is Totally About Lefty InfightingIn a tale as old as time, a sheltered princess meets a rakish dirtbag leftist who radicalizes her by negging her about her privilege.
    By Alison Willmore
  11. endings
    Adolescence Doesn’t Have the AnswerLess a mystery than a simmering social portrait, the Netflix series chases the question of why and finds little more than despair.
    By Nicholas Quah
  12. theater review
    We See You, Andrew ScottThe actor creates a full, heartbreaking world inside his solo performance of Vanya.
    By Sara Holdren
  13. album review
    Playboi Carti Gets Lost in the MusicThe new album feels closer to an apology than a return to form.
    By Craig Jenkins
  14. book review
    The Gay Dirtbag Lives OnKristen Arnett’s specialty is queer women in Florida who are Going Through Some Stuff.
    By Sam Worley
  15. theater review
    A Storied Black Family Faces Itself in PurposeA household very much like Jesse Jackson’s has a brutal, if overdetermined, birthday celebration.
    By Jackson McHenry
  16. endings
    Anora’s Ending Is No Fairy TaleAre we seeing a rapturous consummation of two people’s growing feelings for each other, or a bittersweet commiseration?
    By A.A. Dowd
  17. tv review
    Dope Thief Pulls It OffA by-the-book crime tale transcends its genre with a central friendship that is as gooey and soft as the show surrounding it is bleak and bloody.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  18. song review
    Chappell Roan’s Silliness Is Sincere on ‘The Giver’Her country song sounds like a lesbian Shania Twain hit.
    By Justin Curto
  19. movie review
    Movies Aren’t Real Life, But Who by Fire Comes Pretty CloseIn Philippe Lesage’s mesmerizing new film, a rural getaway becomes the setting for old resentments and new calamities.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  20. movie review
    Jack Quaid Is Perfect for the Comic Slaughterfest of NovocaineThis nihilistic action comedy finds a charmingly convenient way to justify its unchecked violence and gore.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  21. movie review
    Netflix’s The Electric State Is a $320 Million Piece of JunkThe Russo brothers used to be pretty good with comedy. What the hell happened?
    By Bilge Ebiri
  22. movie review
    Black Bag Has Renewed My Faith in Modern CinemaThe slick thriller starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett makes monogamy look hot. That’s how good this Steven Soderbergh film is.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  23. movie review
    A Slithery, Singing John Malkovich Is All Opus Has Going for ItIt’s frankly shocking that nobody has asked him to play a pop star until now.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  24. movie review
    A New Looney Tunes Movie Has Escaped ContainmentAliens are invading, and our only hopes are Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. Basically, we’re all screwed.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  25. sxsw 2025
    Matthew McConaughey’s First Movie in 6 Years Is Bananas in the Best WayThe Rivals of Amziah King is a rural comedy, a musical, and an agricultural crime drama, and it’s pretty damn wonderful.
    By Alison Willmore
  26. close read
    The Pitt Was Testing UsThis is a teaching hospital, after all.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  27. theater review
    Mescal and Ferran in Streetcar: Yes, Yes, Magic!Rebecca Frecknall’s production at BAM has it all.
    By Sara Holdren
  28. album review
    Lady Gaga Throws Everything in the PotMayhem isn’t quite the return to form it’s being sold as.
    By Craig Jenkins
  29. sxsw 2025
    Death of a Unicorn Is 5 Pounds of Purple Poop In a 10-Pound BagFantasy-creature gore may be a funny spectacle, but it’s not enough to hang a whole movie on.
    By Alison Willmore
  30. book review
    Transness Gets Metaphorical in Torrey Peters’s Stag DanceShe examines the messy underbelly of DIY trans culture, diving into the cringier aspects of queer growing pains.
    By Grace Byron
  31. theater review
    How Do You Measure a Career? The Jonathan Larson Project.A revue of the Rent creator’s trunk songs and offcuts isn’t profound, but it’s moving all the same.
    By Jackson McHenry
  32. theater review
    A Ghosts That Doesn’t Go MadJack O’Brien’s new Ibsen adaptation could use a couple more brainworms.
    By Sara Holdren
  33. tv review
    Give Zahn McClarnon an Emmy AlreadyDark Winds’s strongest season to date is defined by his outstanding performance.
    By Roxana Hadadi
  34. sxsw 2025
    The Thriller Drop Is a Perfect Addition to the Bad-First-Date CanonMeghann Fahy, you will always be famous.
    By Alison Willmore
  35. the righteous gemstones
    Bradley Cooper Is So Good at This“This” being “acting like an asshole.”
    By Roxana Hadadi
  36. theater review
    Launching Into Adulthood, With Frenemies and Hummus: All NighterSenior year is almost over, guys.
    By Jackson McHenry
  37. sxsw 2025
    The Accountant 2 Cannot Be Taken SeriouslyDo not approach this sequel, starring Ben Affleck as an underworld accountant again, with any sort of sobriety.
    By Alison Willmore
  38. sxsw 2025
    Another Simple Favor Is So Fun, Until It Gets So DumbBy the end, the film doesn’t feel subversively strange, just self-consciously campy and irritatingly smug.
    By Alison Willmore
  39. movie review
    Errol Morris Has Been Sucked Into the Gaping Maw of True CrimeThe documentarian may have been pivotal to creating the language of true crime, but he’s not immune to streaming bloat.
    By Alison Willmore
  40. movie review
    In Eephus, Baseball Is a Metaphor for Life, But It’s Also Just LifeCarson Lund’s charming indie film about a bunch of guys playing their last ball game has a power that sneaks up on you.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  41. movie review
    Years Later, Play It As It Lays Is Back on the ScreenFrank Perry’s film of Joan Didion’s novel is a bleak and beautifully stylized look at Hollywood despair.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  42. best of 2025
    The Best Anime Series of 2025 (So Far)A subgenre notorious for junk has against these odds given us two standouts.
    By Kambole Campbell
  43. movie review
    There’s Horror Lurking Under Becoming a Guinea Fowl’s Absurdist HumorThe Cannes prizewinner is now in theaters in the U.S.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  44. theater review
    Where’s Willy? Abe Koogler’s Deep Blue SoundThe orcas have vanished, and a Pacific Northwest community is puzzled.
    By Sara Holdren
  45. album review
    Jason Isbell Reimagines the Divorce AlbumHis split from Amanda Shires marked the end of a potent redemption arc. Foxes in the Snow imagines a new path.
    By Ryan Leas
  46. movie review
    In the Lost Lands Is So Metal It HurtsPaul W.S. Anderson returns, this time with a postapocalyptic medieval fantasy sci-fi western fable adapted from a George R.R. Martin short story.
    By Bilge Ebiri
  47. best of 2025
    The Best Video Games of 2025 (So Far)Games keep getting bigger, but it’s those with a clarity of vision that are leaving the greatest impression.
    By Lewis Gordon
  48. best of 2025
    The Best Movies of 2025 (So Far)Featuring at least one you could feasibly call a meathead remake of Michael Mann’s Miami Vice.
    By Alison Willmore and Bilge Ebiri
  49. theater review
    Sumo Is a Subculture Story That Goes BigThe backstage dynamics of an ancient, extremely ritualized sport.
    By Sara Holdren
  50. tv review
    Meghan Markle Pioneers New Frontiers in UnrelatabilityWith Love, Meghan desperately wants your approval and playacts normalcy to try to get it.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
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