Michael Is Not Rooted in Reality
The average successful Hollywood biopic is cynically dishonest and rote in its formulaic box-checking. Michael, the new film on the life of Michael Jackson, is all that and worse.
424 Article(s) by: Eileen Jones
Eileen Jones is a film critic at Jacobin, host of the Filmsuck podcast, and author of Filmsuck, USA.
The Corporate Thriller Lied to Us
Criterion Channel is hosting a retrospective on Hollywood’s “corporate thrillers” from the 1980s through the early 2000s. If anything, their message about the capitalist rot in America’s institutions looks far too tame for how the last couple of decades turned out.
Outcome Is Jonah Hill’s Inept Hollywood Satire
Jonah Hill’s new Apple TV Hollywood satire, Outcome, wants to skewer celebrity culture. But even with the likable Keanu Reeves, its muddled script and self‑pitying subtext reveal more about the industry’s narcissism than the film ever intended.
A Tribute to Iran’s Soulful and Revolutionary Cinema
With President Donald Trump recently threatening to destroy Iranian civilization itself, the country’s filmmakers carry on their long tradition of defiant, deeply human cinema forged under censorship, imprisonment, and war.
The Peaky Blinders Film Ratchets Up the Gloom and Black Humor
Cillian Murphy’s final turn as Tommy Shelby in Netflix’s Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is a brooding, gorgeous farewell to one of TV’s great antiheroes.
Fictional Teen Dystopias Reflect Real Capitalist Nightmares
Dystopian teen films will remain popular as long as they keep reflecting truths about young people’s prospects under capitalism.
Project Hail Mary Is the Feel-Good Dystopian Sci-fi We Need
Ryan Gosling’s new space film, Project Hail Mary, blends doomsday stakes with a surprisingly tender cross‑species friendship, offering a rare blockbuster that admits the planet is worth saving — and that solidarity might still matter.
Colleen Hoover’s Awful Hollywood Reign Has Only Just Begun
Reminders of Him is exactly the movie novelist Colleen Hoover set out to make — which is the problem.
Javier Bardem Was a Bright Spot at the Oscars Last Night
At a time of profound unrest and the launch of an insane new war, Hollywood mostly stuck to its “keep politics out” mandate at this year’s Academy Awards. Javier Bardem, however, stood firm: no to war, and freedom for Palestine.
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! Is a Monstrous Mess
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! swings for a radical, genre-bending reinvention of Bride of Frankenstein. But the result is a messy, overstuffed film that makes an awkward attempt at feminist relevance.
Scream 7 Is More Tedious Meta-Horror Fan Service
The three-decade-old Scream franchise is back and more profitable than ever. But the series’s trademarked meta-commentary about slasher movie conventions has long since worn thin.
Glen Powell’s How to Make a Killing Is Too Squeamish to Land
How to Make a Killing, starring Glen Powell, is a modern-day remake of a 1949 British black comedy classic. But whereas the original found comedy in the ruthless murder of a nasty aristocracy, this remake is far too timid for our times.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Is the Burned-Out End of Something
Gore Verbinski’s new film, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, is so strangely ineffectual that the main fascination while watching it is trying to figure out why nothing the film does is working.
Just Think of Wuthering Heights as a Barbie Offshoot
Emily Brontë’s novel deserves a more sophisticated approach than Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights.
Send Help and Sam Raimi’s Genre Movie Joy
Are you desperate for genre movie escapist fun amid all this hell lately? Who isn’t? Sam Raimi’s Send Help is just what the doctor ordered.
The Testament of Ann Lee Is the Wild Shaker Musical You Crave
When it comes to The Testament of Ann Lee, you’re either someone who wants to see a long, sometimes harrowing musical about the woman who founded the Shaker religion, or you’re most definitely not. Hopefully you are.
No Other Choice Is Another Masterpiece by Park Chan-wook
Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice is a shocking, innovative, and darkly comic film about the pressures of life under capitalism. It’s more proof that the Oldboy director is nothing less than a cinematic master.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Is Weird, Wild, and Fun
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the latest entry in the British zombie franchise, ups the ante with a Jimmy Savile–inspired satanic cult and mesmerizing performances from Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell.
The Unlovable Ping-Pong Wizard of Marty Supreme
Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme stars Timothée Chalamet as an obnoxious, nerdy young 1950s ping-pong hustler who somehow cons everyone around him. It’s flashy, fast, and made with so much talent it’s a shame they forgot to make much of a case for Marty’s appeal.
Avatar: Fire and Ash Cannot Be Stopped — Don’t Even Try
Avatar: Fire and Ash is not a good movie. But with its massive box office success, Big Jim Cameron is undeniably giving the people what they want. And what they want is skimpily dressed giant blue aliens.