Alise Chaffins 
Stories about colonization seldom humanize the colonizers, and for good reason. Focusing on the victims of abuse should always be the priority. However, there is value in examining a colonizer’s motivations. In his film The New Boy, writer and director Warwick Thornton examines some of those motivations through the lens of …
Paul Feig gave us an entertaining, sexy mystery with the 2018 movie A Simple Favor. He’s back, along with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, with the sequel Another Simple Favor, currently streaming on Prime Video, but where the first was a clever look at motherhood and being a girl’s girl, Another …
My optimism about the direction of season 4 of Hacks was up with episode 4, but it immediately dropped again while watching episode 5, Clickable Face. I have a little bit of sunk cost going on here, but goodness, this season is feeling like a slog, and that’s a serious disappointment for a …
The opening episodes of season 4 of Hacks left this critic feeling a bit cold, but episode 4, I Love LA, is the first time that I’ve felt a bit of hope for the remainder of the season. Hacks has been one of my favorite comedies since it premiered four …
Hacks season 4 continues to underwhelm as it comes on with episode 3, What Happens in Vegas. Despite two absolutely electric leads and a primary story that has the ability to highlight some of the inequities in late-night television, specifically, and women in entertainment more broadly, it continues to pit Ava …
The Max Original comedy series Hacks is back for season 4, and this critic couldn’t be happier. Jean Smart’s renaissance has been an absolute delight, and of her many roles, Deborah Vance is a favorite. While the second season ended in a way that allowed the show a satisfying end …
Throughout season 2, Severance has consistently been the most streamed show on Apple TV+, even outpacing Ted Lasso. No doubt the finale, Cold Harbor, will be one of the most streamed episodes of the season as Ben Stiller brings this season to its compelling conclusion. Throughout Season 2, there has been a push …
One of the films that generated a lot of buzz at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023 was Magazine Dreams, from writer and director Elijah Bynum. Star Jonathan Majors was definitely on the come up, starring in critically acclaimed pieces like The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Lovecraft Country and playing Kang in the MCU. …
Death to Smoochy came out in 2002 when I had three kids under three and was expecting my fourth. I was in the thick of parenting little kids, which meant I was at my most familiar with children’s television programming. Danny DeVito’s dark look at the seedy underbelly of that industry seemed …
In 2014, I lost my mother to ALS. It was difficult because the disease caused us to lose her bit by bit and then all at once. In his documentary Time Passages, Kyle Henry charts the story of his mother’s decline into dementia during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But more …
I was a freshman in high school when Baywatch debuted, so I have always had a very particular view of who Pamela Anderson is as an actor. She was the Playgirl with the most covers on Playboy, the object of Borat’s lust, and the unfortunate victim of a leaked sex tape. Gia Coppola clearly knows Anderson’s background and used that …
The line between a successful career and homelessness grows thinner every year. This, along with themes of familial strife, motherhood, and finding your sense of self, is present in Vivian Kerr’s directorial debut, Scrap. When Beth (Vivian Kerr) loses her job, she finds herself and her daughter Birdie (Julianna Layne) living …
Director Alice Maio Mackay sits down to chat over zoom with Alise Chaffins about the comedy-horror film Satranic Panic. The Interview with Satranic Panic’s Alice Maio Mackay [Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.] Alise Chaffins: I was super excited to watch this, mostly just because of the …
Musical horror comedies have long been a place to explore gender-expansive themes. Obviously, one of the most famous is the 1975 cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but there have also been cases made for Little Shop of Horrors to be a trans allegory. Genre films are meant to push boundaries, so seeing …
The need to feel a sense of belonging is something that everyone experiences to some degree most of their life. But there is no time in which that need is higher than during adolescence. The dual need to carve out your own path while not becoming too much of an outsider is …
Sometimes, you see marketing for a film, and then when you actually watch the movie, something feels off about that marketing. That was the case when I watched Good One, the debut feature film from writer and director India Donaldson. While this film does feature a young person who learns a …
Fairy tales have always dealt with heavy topics. Children still need to know about complex issues, and sometimes, couching those issues in a fantastical world can make them easier to understand. That remains true for adults. High fantasy stories can cause us to engage with topics that we might otherwise …
I have been a fan of The Boys since the jump. I love the way that it skewers Hollywood. I love the way that it skewers performative wokeness. I love the way that it skewers right-wing fanaticism. And, yeah, the voyeur in me loves the over-the-top violence and sexual content. …
A little over one year ago, Ted Lasso aired its finale. Despite being off the air for an entire year, it has never dipped out of the top five of Apple TV+’s most-watched shows. While plenty of shows gain a new life when they are released in a new format (think Suits …
Have you ever been sitting in your home, watching a nature documentary, and thought, “What this majestic vista needs is a little more murder?” Then you are A) weird and B) in luck. Writer and director Chris Nash apparently also feels that way, and he has given us In A Violent Nature, a new horror film …