You Have to Watch Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Chadwick Boseman’s final performance in playwright August Wilson’s new Netflix adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a haunting but appropriate farewell.
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The Man Who Shot America in the Face
Vice reminds us of the hell Dick Cheney wrought, with help from a rogue’s gallery of perps, hacks, creeps, and fall guys.
Flaws and All, You Should Watch Judas and the Black Messiah
The story of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton’s assassination by Chicago Police and the FBI has finally been made into a movie. Judas and the Black Messiah is uneven as a film, but it’s a small step toward a serious reckoning with America’s past.
Severance Is the Perfect Thriller for the Great Resignation of Our Era
Ben Stiller’s excellent new limited series, Severance, turns the corporate workplace into the setting for a new and timely subgenre: “job horror.”
The Batman Is Both Too Dark and Not Noir Enough
Men will literally become Batman instead of going to therapy.
Steven Soderbergh’s Kimi Is a Slick, Unmemorable Thriller
Kimi, the new thriller from director Steven Soderbergh, is an ordinary genre piece — so ordinary that not even its insistent topicality can make it seem more compelling.
Eddie Murphy Is So Much Better Than Coming 2 America
Eddie Murphy is one of the most talented actors alive. Yet his brilliance is wasted in this sloppy sequel to the classic 1988 film Coming to America.
Jessica Walter Was Robbed of the Decades-Long Stardom She Deserved
Jessica Walter thankfully found fame through roles like Arrested Development’s Lucille Bluth late in her life. But she should’ve been a major star when she was a young woman. Hollywood’s misogyny in the 1960s and ’70s made that impossible.
Justice League’s Snyder Cut Is Here. And It’s Still Bad.
After a long internet campaign demanding its release, HBO Max has unleashed Zack Snyder’s Justice League on the world. But it’s four hours of tedious superhero melodrama you’ll never get back.
Ernest Hemingway Was a Leftist Who Was Hounded By the FBI
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s PBS docuseries Hemingway sheds new light on writer Ernest Hemingway's life. But it leaves out key details of his left-wing political convictions — including the FBI surveillance that haunted him until his suicide.
Minari Is Dedicated to Grandmas Everywhere — And Everyone Loves Grandmas
Minari is a gentle, universal story about a resilient South Korean family trying to make it in 1980s America. You should watch it.
Mare of Easttown Is a Welcome Addition to the Small-Town Murder Mystery Genre
HBO’s Mare of Easttown is constructed around a familiar, virtually surefire plot: a shocking crime in a small town leads to an investigation that ultimately reveals every major local scandal in an astoundingly errant community. And it works.
Exterminate All the Brutes Exposes the Murderous History of Colonialism
Raoul Peck’s HBO docuseries Exterminate All the Brutes isn’t easy to watch — but it’s important popular education on the 600-year development of the concept and system of white supremacy associated with colonialism, slavery, and genocide.
Sasquatch Tries, and Fails, to Make Bigfoot a Metaphor for American Violence
Hulu’s docuseries Sasquatch uses Bigfoot as a hook to zero in on an unsolved 1993 triple homicide in the weed empire of Northern California. The series has some compelling material to work with — which it proceeds to squander.
Helen Keller’s Socialism Has Been Whitewashed
You wouldn't know it from the whitewashed image of her as an angelic, unthreatening icon, but Helen Keller — yes, that Helen Keller — was a socialist.
A Quiet Place Part II Can’t Match the Thrills of the Original — But It’s Close Enough
The sequel to John Krasinski and Emily Blunt’s horror-thriller A Quiet Place can’t deliver the same surprises as the original. But it still works.
Halston Suffers From Ryan Murphy Syndrome
Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix limited series on the 1970s fashion icon Halston is yet another showcase not only for Murphy's trademark bright and glossy style but also his contempt for the unglamorous rabble.
Did They Just Turn Cruella de Vil Into a Girl Boss?
Disney has rebooted their legendary dalmatian-skinning villain, Cruella de Vil — and turned her into a scrappy, likable hero. The result is the complete mangling of one of the greatest Disney villains of all time.
In the Heights Is the Most Boring Movie of the Year
The controversy over casting in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical In the Heights obscures just how dull the film really is.
After Yang Is Another Boring Example of “Contemplative” Sci-Fi
The people in the somber new sci-fi film After Yang are god-awful. If this movie represents our near future, that Earth-destroying asteroid can’t obliterate us fast enough.