Thinking Serious Thoughts
We’re not saying we're on North Korea’s side this time around. But we’re definitely not on Seth Rogen's.
Search Result(s) for: “eileen jones”
Reactionaries in Space
Interstellar celebrates American-style frontier expansion and retrograde masculinity. It’s an ideological monstrosity.
Selma and the Struggle
Selma isn’t just a great movie. Its sense of history and justice is deeply politicizing.
We Rarely See Films as Fresh as I Love Boosters
Boots Riley’s remarkably easy confidence and visual flair in I Love Boosters is a tonic in an era of boring CGI slop. He’s one of the most compelling filmmakers working today.
The Specter of Capital
How the housing crash got us believing in ghosts again.
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.
Klass and Kids’ Films
Disney-Pixar vs. Laika
“We’re New — We Don’t Have Any Customs”
Two films about the Tennessee Valley Authority stress its utopian promise and the lives that had to be destroyed to fulfill it.
Hollywood Welcomes Its Silicon Valley Overlords
Hollywood AI boosters claim that “democratized” movies based on personal choice await us, if only we can get rid of those pesky human beings.
Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen
There are innumerable cinematic Jesuses, most of them bland, pious, and blue-eyed — until an Italian communist decided to preach the old gospel in a new way.
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.
Orson Welles, South of the Border
After his post–Citizen Kane slump, Orson Welles teamed up with Universal for a big Hollywood comeback about corrupt police on the US-Mexico border. The executives balked at his vision — but today Touch of Evil is regarded as Welles’s final masterpiece.
The German Take on Gotham
Fritz Lang’s masterful visual depiction of class stratification in Metropolis remains unrivaled by its would-be inheritors.
Where the Crawdads Sing Is Pure Book Club Sentimentalism
Reese Witherspoon’s book club made the 2018 novel Where the Crawdads Sing a hit. The new film adaptation, just like the book it's based on, is pure bathos of the mushiest kind.
Jordan Peele’s Nope Is a Triumph
Writer-director Jordan Peele’s mysterious third film, Nope, draws on genre tropes from both alien invasion films and Westerns, but it ends up with something altogether original: a Hollywood spectacle about spectacle.
B. J. Novak’s Vengeance Is a Dark Satire of America’s Cultural Divide
Actor B. J. Novak’s impressive directorial debut, Vengeance, sends a Brooklyn writer out to West Texas in order to turn a family’s grief into a podcast. It's a satire that nails our era like no other.
Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train Is a Train Wreck
Don’t let the glossy trailers fool you — Brad Pitt's new action comedy, Bullet Train, is a strenuous and leaden film that never takes off.
Prey Brilliantly Revives the Predator Franchise
Hollywood loves to crank out boring action movies. But Hulu’s Prey is anything but. It plays off of and reverses long-standing Hollywood tropes about Native Americans to craft an alien thriller that actually delivers.
Bodies Bodies Bodies Is a Bad Class Satire and a Boring Film
Like so many horror films attempting to be subversive, Bodies Bodies Bodies tries to satirize the upper class. But all it delivers are tired, lazy tropes about Gen Z.
The Bear’s Kitchen Nightmares Make for Great TV
In FX’s The Bear, a struggling Chicago family restaurant is the site of hope and ambition — and it’s thrilling to watch.