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. …
No filmmaker is more unconcerned about the audience than Quentin Dupieux. His previous movie, Yannick, was an hour-long dark comedy that tiptoed around in circles as its titular character (played with pitch-perfect timing by Raphaël Quenard) turns a grating complaint about the play he’s watching into a total nightmare for …
Inside Out 2 is another home run from Pixar. It’s full of heart, honesty, and the stress-induced Anxiety of becoming a teenager. Almost nine years to the date, Pixar is releasing the follow-up to the 2015 smash hit Inside Out. Have you ever felt like your life is together as you prepare …
Comedy is one of the great cultural forces. It is, in many ways, the great equalizer. In the hands of a talented performer, comedy speaks truth to power, whether that means mocking our leaders or finding commonality in the human experience. It’s the latter of these that filmmaker Neil Berkeley’s …
The coming-of-age genre has always explored teenage sexuality. More often than not, it is a genre filled with thoughtful ideas, discussing topics about teenage sexuality that are held taboo in society. Nicholas Colia’s feature debut, Griffin in Summer, an awkward and staid comedy, covers the topic of inappropriate sexual crushes …
In the first minutes of They’re Here, we meet Cookie, a sympathetic old lady from New York who enthusiastically talks about her past experiences with Unknown Flying Objects (UFOs). She answers the directors, Daniel Claridge and Pacho Velez, saying she was taken fourteen times, only in her current home. Cookie …
2022’s Venice Film Festival opened with the Noah Baumbach directed White Noise, a quirky and chaotic genre-mash up. It is a visually enrapturing film about a family surviving a toxic event while grappling with the feeling of impending doom and the mundane cataclysm of their lives. Adapted from Don DeLillo’s …
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 …
In Hit Man, Richard Linklater’s latest film, the beloved director teams up with his star Glen Powell to write a script loosely based on a stranger-than-fiction news feature by legendary Texas Monthly reporter Skip Hollandsworth. It should be stressed that the real story, while remarkably gripping, does not go quite …
In an unprecedented move, the Cannes Film Festival jury awarded the Best Actress prize this year to the four actresses of Emilia Pérez – Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz. This is almost as startling as French writer-director Jacques Audiard making a primarily Spanish-language musical about …
2024 has been characterized by a scarcity of animated releases, but with a good standard of quality thus far. From the rich, complex Orion and the Dark to the fun, touching IF, I’ve enjoyed most animated flicks – whether hybrid or full – up to this point. Despite growing up …
Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos need each other. Through Ms. Stone, Mr. Lanthimos has an entry into Hollywood and the chance for his work to go mainstream worldwide, and through Mr. Lanthimos, Ms. Stone gets the art-house credibility usually denied to actresses whose careers began in teenage sex comedies. But just because they make quite a pair, that doesn’t mean the work …
Other reviews compare Anora to Pretty Woman, but this is a bad mistake. The world has moved on considerably since 1990, and these days, capitalism is now second to oligarchy. Oligarchs are people for whom life is to be lived without consequences because their incredible wealth means anything, or anyone, can be bought. …
It’s been a long time since Cate Blanchett got weird. She’s played unlikeable, she’s played dark, she’s played strange, but not since Heaven in 2002, in which German director Tom Tykwer got her to shave her head and bomb the Italian police, has Cate Blanchett got weird. But Cate Blanchett is also one of the very rare actors in …
Calling a TV show “underrated” can feel like simplistic praise. With the cavalcade of streaming content, viewers will always have what they call “underrated” favorites. These favorites can still lead to numerous Emmy nominations and critical praise. MAX’s television show Hacks has had thirty-two Emmy nominations and six wins. Seasons one and …
Quentin Dupieux, the director of The Second Act (Le deuxième acte), who was also the writer, cinematographer, and editor of The Second Act, thanks his own brain in the credits. This is entirely what should be expected from Mr. Dupieux, whose works are – and this is meant as an extreme compliment – completely insane. He tends to work …
Satirical and meta comedies can be hard to deliver effectively. Classics like Monty Python and The Holy Grail, The Truman Show, and the overall work of Mel Brooks revolutionized the concept. Now, those comedies have been ushered in for a new generation. Films like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Cocaine Bear, and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story took …
Ryan Gosling can do no wrong when picking roles, as each film he stars in becomes something special. From comedies such as Crazy, Stupid, Love, and The Nice Guys to more dramatic roles such as in Lars and the Real Girl, The Notebook, and La La Land, every film is memorable, mainly due to his acting. With a slew …
Author/Vietnamese-American Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer is a spy novel unlike any other. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book balances many different themes and ideas. Following an unnamed narrator, it tells a story that is equal parts political thriller, romance, and occasional comedy. That helped make the novel a resonatory and powerful piece of …
Apple TV+ knows its strengths, focusing on the science fiction, comedy, and drama sections on its home page. Ted Lasso has noticeably been a huge hit, and seeing Apple TV+ lean into some of the funniest actors of our day has been a boon for them. Acapulco is the latest success for the streamer. …