No, Digger Is Not a Misunderstood Masterpiece
The critics savaging Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger are right, and so is the public who stayed home — missing a Tom Cruise movie, no less. Watch Dr. Strangelove instead.
429 Article(s) by: Eileen Jones
Eileen Jones is a film critic at Jacobin, host of the Filmsuck podcast, and author of Filmsuck, USA.
Primetime Turns Chris Hansen Into a Horror Show
Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime casts Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen and bathes him in hellfire-red close-ups. The result is a grimy fever dream about the ugly thrills of televised punishment. It is very much a movie for our times.
How Brazilian Cinema Survived Fascism
Under Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s national cinema was gutted, censored, and left for dead. Then Lula returned — and so did the movies.
The Uprising We Got vs. the One We Need
Paul Greengrass’s The Uprising takes on the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 with his trademarked “gritty realist” style. The result is a glum plod through the 14th century. This is Robin Hood and His Morose Men when our times call for something much more.
Zach Cregger Made a Resident Evil Movie With Bite
Zach Cregger has never seen a Resident Evil movie, and that’s definitely for the better. His reboot is a fast, funny, scary blast of pure genre filmmaking and a darkly comic portrait of a society past collapse.
Southern Gothic Films Take On the Horrors of the Past
The Criterion Channel’s Southern Gothic collection gathers a century of films about a region that set out to make its slaveholding past look civilized. Instead, it produced a body of work steeped in rot, delusion, and violent religiosity.
The Dog Stars Is a Western in Postapocalyptic Drag
Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars is a postapocalyptic thriller without thrills, resting on the shoulders of a mopey Jacob Elordi, who’s far from up to the task. What the film does have is a frontier fantasy it can’t stop indulging.
Tony Is a Terrific Coming-of-Age Story
Matt Johnson’s Tony takes a few pages from Anthony Bourdain’s best-selling memoir and turns them into a warm, character-driven film about a spoiled kid learning how to work. It’s fantastic.
Tim Curry Was Never Not Having Fun
From Dr Frank-N-Furter to Pennywise the killer clown, Tim Curry played every role at full volume — and made a six-decade career out of refusing to be small.
Camp Miasma Is More Theory-Head Satire Than Horror
The new slasher film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma promises “a frenzy of psychosexual mania.” What director Jane Schoenbrun delivers is tamer but considerably funnier.
The End of Oak Street Is Nostalgia Eating Itself
The new sci-fi film The End of Oak Street is about a 1982 suburban cul-de-sac taken over by dinosaurs. It’s Steven Spielberg nostalgia recycled into something barely alive.
Jonathan Demme’s Wild, Humanist Cinema Deserves a Reappraisal
The Criterion Channel’s new Jonathan Demme retrospective is a chance to look beyond The Silence of the Lambs and rediscover one of America’s most adventurous, surprising, and charming filmmakers.
The New Spider-Man Is Pure Fun
The record-breaking Spider-Man: Brand New Day is gleeful, undemanding fun that doesn’t pretend to be anything more. In a superhero monoculture that keeps draining Hollywood of money, talent, and ambition, that’s about the best you can hope for.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey: A Dissenter’s View
I know I’m in the minority here. I really did try to like it. But Christopher Nolan has taken the wiliest, most delightful hero in Western literature and turned him into one more Nolan sad sack, trudging guilt-stricken through a gray and godless world.
Young Washington: A Simpleminded Take on Our First President
The Christian conservative Angel Studios’ Young Washington feels more like a MAGA political project than a movie. Sadly, it’s the exact kind of paint-by-numbers George Washington biopic you would’ve expected.
Great Cinematic Odysseys to Prepare You for The Odyssey
From Preston Sturges and the Coen brothers to Martin Scorsese and John Ford, the Criterion Channel’s “Odysseys” series traces the enduring appeal of Homer’s epic in American cinema.
Toy Story 5 Takes On the Existential Dread of Big Tech
A kids’ movie about tech addiction and the terror of being obsolete? Of course Toy Story 5 is a hit — we’re all living through it.
1976 Was Hollywood’s Swan Song
The mid-1970s were a good time for film buffs. But the industry was on the precipice of a long decline that has stripped productions of not only their political content but their seriousness.
Disclosure Day Is the Big Fat Spielberg Summer Movie We Need
Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day is corny and cluttered. But in these dark days, a classic Spielberg summer movie about aliens is just what the doctor ordered.
Backrooms and Obsession Are Glimpses of a Better Hollywood
Two indie horror movies with YouTube origins, Obsession and Backrooms, crushed big-budget Star Wars and He-Man movies at the box office. But claims that these films represent a revival of cinematic creativity à la the New Hollywood era are overblown.