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.
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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.
Fly Me to the Moon Crashes Back Down to Earth
Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson try to win the 1969 space race in Fly Me to the Moon. But its heavy-handed history lessons ruin the fun.
Kinds of Kindness Is Teenage Nihilism for the Art House Crowd
Yorgos Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness is a nearly three-hour anthology film about the human capacity for cruelty. It’s exactly as fun as that sounds.
Deadpool & Wolverine Gleefully Skewers the Marvel Universe
Deadpool & Wolverine’s cynical mocking of all things Marvel is its secret weapon. No wonder it’s making a killing at the box office.
Glen Powell Chases Down Twisters
In Twisters, Glen Powell, Hollywood’s newest MVP, spins a formulaic script into good old-fashioned summer box office gold.
M. Night Shyamalan Falls Into His Own Trap Once Again
Trap is a deeply silly thriller — and further proof that writer-director M. Night Shyamalan is among the most uneven filmmakers in the history of the medium.
Borderlands Bombs Out
Borderlands is officially a box office disaster. Even Cate Blanchett can’t save it.
The Crow Is a Predictable Dud
From the depths of August’s cinematic dumping ground comes The Crow, a dreary reboot of the classic 1994 Brandon Lee film, reviled by critics and loaded with lurid CGI and occult hooey. Save yourself the ticket price — better films are on their way.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Is a Sweetly Satirical Delight
After a dreary sojourn through several terrible films, director Tim Burton’s delightful new Beetlejuice joint proves that you can go home again.
The Damned Settlers Have Got to Pay
With a modest budget but plenty of thrills involving spooky 19th-century ships, frozen wastelands, and ghouls from Nordic folktales, The Damned proudly carries on our Gothic horror revival.
Demi Moore’s The Substance Is Bright Pop Body Horror
The Substance, starring Demi Moore, is a bright and showy body horror film about aging and the hypersexualization of the female body. But it doesn’t go much further than illustrating at great length that there are nasty cultural attitudes toward older women.
Megalopolis Is Francis Ford Coppola’s Sad Nadir
Francis Ford Coppola was once a real cinematic titan creating indelible experiences at the movies. But Megalopolis, his overstuffed saga of the failing American empire, marks the drastic decline of his powers as a filmmaker.
An Appreciation of Maggie Smith
Beloved actor Maggie Smith died yesterday at 89. To understand her brilliance, look no further than her complex performance in the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
Wolfs Is Lax, Low-Key Entertainment
In Wolfs, George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s new Apple TV+ buddy action-comedy about a rivalry between two lone-wolf fixers cleaning up a crime scene, you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for: lax, unambitious entertainment for dark times.
Joker: Folie à Deux Torpedoes Joker’s Melodramatic Power
Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to the huge 2019 hit Joker, is a vague and incoherent bummer of a film that even the dedication and charisma of Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix can’t redeem. But with musical numbers!
Go See The Apprentice Before It’s Too Late
Trump supporters will never go see The Apprentice, and anti-Trumpers won’t be able to bear two hours watching the bane of their existence rise to wealth and power. This lack of a clear audience spells an unfortunate box-office bomb.
It’s a Dismal Time for Political Films
Film industry executives are scared of them. Audiences are bored by them. It’s a dismal time for political films.
Errol Morris’s Reminder of Trump’s Sadistic Border Policy
Donald Trump’s separation of children from their families at the border was a centerpiece of his migration policy. Errol Morris’s new documentary, Separated, chronicles the cruel policy during Trump’s first term that would likely return in a second.
Conclave: A Shallow but Posh Papal Potboiler
There’s always an unlimited supply of narrative and visual drama to be mined from the machinations of the Catholic church. Conclave successfully taps into it.