Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Light, Bright, and Kinda Boring
Will we ever get past the dominance of superhero movies in mainstream American cinema? Will they ever become any good?
379 Article(s) by: Eileen Jones
Eileen Jones is a film critic at Jacobin, host of the Filmsuck podcast, and author of Filmsuck, USA.
The Undeniable Greatness of Jaws
Jaws is rightly celebrated as a landmark, generation-defining hit. But it’s not sufficiently recognized as a great 1970s film, exemplifying that rocky decade’s political ire, acerbic social critique, and the lingering practices of realist cinema movements.
Eddington: Western Noir Chaos Made Boring
For all of Eddington’s loud chaos, writer and director Ari Aster is expressing a fundamentally flat and stale vision of the world.
Conservatives Are Losing It Over Superman’s Basic Morality
Reactionary hysterics over James Gunn’s Superman reboot bring some delight to America’s otherwise plainest superhero.
If You Go See Jurassic World Rebirth, That’s on You
Jurassic World Rebirth is another entry in the dinos-eating-humans megafranchise. It is exactly what you would expect. For me, that works.
F1 Is a Big, Stupid Hit
Brad Pitt’s F1 is the big, dumb racing movie America’s been waiting for. If you can stomach the sports movie clichés, you’ll probably have a good time.
28 Years Later and the Social Life of Catastrophe
The latest installment of the 28 Days Later franchise returns with more than zombies — it explores the strange new norms that follow collapse. It’s a vision of survival horror that focuses not just on the infected but on the ways humanity adapts.
Materialists Tries to Update the Rom-Com for the Tinder Generation
Writer-director Celine Song’s Materialists follows a professional NYC matchmaker split between two charming suitors. It’s yet another attempt to update the Jane Austen formula, but without the poignancy and beauty of Song’s acclaimed Past Lives.
Minecraft Scorsese
A Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg satire of mainstream film’s IP problem — in which everything is an adaptation of something else — fails to excuse or address their own extensive IP crimes.
Ana de Armas Is a Battle-Weary Ballerina
Ballerina is the female John Wick spin-off you didn’t know you needed. Ignore the critics — it’s fantastic.
The IP Machine Laughs at Itself
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg mock Hollywood’s creative collapse in The Studio — while continuing to churn out sequels, reboots, and branded spin-offs.
Defending Academic Freedom in The Male Animal
At a time when academic and political repression is sweeping the United States, the 1942 screwball comedy The Male Animal offers a reminder of what courage in the face of crackdowns on a college campus can look like.
Friendship Is a Cringe Comedy About Ghastly Human Need
The excruciatingly funny Friendship finds comedian Tim Robinson pursuing a creepy bromance with Paul Rudd. It’s surprisingly well-done, using cringe humor to explore the growing phenomenon of male loneliness.
Will the Mission: Impossible Franchise Ever Die?
In the eighth but likely not final entry in the Mission: Impossible series, The Final Reckoning finds Tom Cruise squaring off against an AI “Entity.” As always, the stunts are impressive. But no force on Earth can make Ethan Hunt a compelling character.
The Grim Timeliness of “Noir and the Blacklist”
A new Criterion series of McCarthy-era noir films is a timely collection for an era of rising government repression — though you wouldn’t know it from Criterion’s oddly subdued promotion.
Florence Pugh’s Thunderbolts* Shocks Marvel Back to Life
Thunderbolts* is Marvel’s first piece of lively entertainment in years. Maybe there’s another decade of life left in the Marvel Cinematic Universe beast after all.
The Legend of Ochi Is a Handcrafted Kids’ Manifesto
The Legend of Ochi, a new A24 family film, combines live action, CGI, and old-fashioned puppetry to charming effect.
Sinners Is the Non-IP Hit Hollywood Needed
Ryan Coogler’s vampires ’n’ blues thriller Sinners is everything Hollywood tells us the masses don’t want: Set a hundred years in the past, it’s not a sequel, reboot, or adaptation of anything. And yet it’s a smash hit with moviegoers.
Warfare Is Hell at the Movies
Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare is another combat movie that promises to make war look like hell but instead makes it look like a thrilling trial by fire for young men to prove themselves.
A Minecraft Movie Is as Bad as It Is Popular
Based on the best-selling video game of all time, A Minecraft Movie is officially a megahit. If this is Hollywood’s savior, we’re all doomed.