Reviews
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania Is Goofy Delicious Fun: Review
In the latest MCU installment, delightful weirdness wins the day. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania Is Goofy Delicious Fun: Review Liz Shannon Miller
The Last of Us Episode 5 Was the Most Brutal, but Most Important Yet
What does it actually mean to "Endure and Survive"? The newest episode of the HBO drama puts it into focus. The Last of Us Episode 5 Was the Most Brutal, but Most Important Yet Eddie Fu and Liz Shannon Miller
You Season 4 Review: The Wildest Season Yet, and Hopefully Not the Last
In the Netflix series' return, Joe Goldberg's got a new beard, a new address, and some new problems. You Season 4 Review: The Wildest Season Yet, and Hopefully Not the Last Liz Shannon Miller
Sharper Review: Apple TV+ Scores with Twisty New York Neo-Noir
No one is who they seem in the appropriately sharp drama film coming to Apple TV+. Sharper Review: Apple TV+ Scores with Twisty New York Neo-Noir Mary Siroky
Not Dead Yet Review: Gina Rodriguez Charms in ABC Supernatural Comedy
The Jane the Virgin star anchors the new series, which has the potential for a long life. Not Dead Yet Review: Gina Rodriguez Charms in ABC Supernatural Comedy Liz Shannon Miller
You People Review: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill Star in a Funny and Refreshing Update of a Familiar Tale
The new Netflix film, featuring Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill, succeeds with its realistic portrayal of race issues — and killer jokes. You People Review: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill Star in a Funny and Refreshing Update of a Familiar Tale Paolo Ragusa
Sundance Review: The Hilarious and Authentic Theater Camp Takes Center Stage
This review is part of our coverage of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The Pitch: “You need to know that only 3% of people make it. The rest end up in a mental facility — or a Go Go box in Hell’s Kitchen.” Welcome to AdirondACTS, a cozy, scrappy theater camp where such nuggets of wisdom are imparted upon young thespians. Over the course of the summer, we see the minutiae of theater camp play out in a mockumentary-style film, sharply directed by Nick Lieberman and Molly Gordon (both making their feature directorial debuts). First framed as a documentary following AdirondACTS founder Joan (Amy Sedaris), things begin to go awry when she falls into a coma — a result of “the first Bye Bye Birdie-related injury in the history of Passaic County” — leaving former campers, best friends, and devote...
Sundance Review: Jonathan Majors Is Here to Pump You Up and Bum You Out in Magazine Dreams
This review is part of our coverage of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The Pitch: Killian Maddox (Jonathan Majors) wants one thing, and one thing only: To be remembered. Following in the footsteps of his idols (including one he writes to regularly, played by four-time Mr. Universe Michael O’Hearn), he’s committed himself to bodybuilding, shoving down 6,000 calories of chicken breast and pumping iron morning, noon, and night. He practices his poses in front of cameras, molds his physique to near perfection, rips through steroids like they’re Diet Cokes. He chugs protein shakes while watching porn, but doesn’t masturbate — whether that’s due to steroid-induced impotence or some unstated facets of his sexuality, we don’t yet know. He competes in amateur bodybuilding competitions, but ju...
That ’90s Show Review: A Sweet, Low-Stakes Revival of a Tried-and-True Formula
The Pitch: 17 years after the Formans shuttered their basement doors forever, a new era of revels, reefer, and joyrides is unfolding in Point Place, Wisconsin — this time on Netflix, rather than Fox. That ’90s Show follows Eric Forman (Topher Grace) and Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon)’s daughter, Leia Forman (Callie Haverda), as she spends the summer crashing with her grandparents, the inimitable Red and Kitty Forman (played by Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp, respectively). Now in the era of grunge-influenced fashion, Alanis Morrissette, warehouse raves, and disposable cameras, That ’90s Show introduces a new era of fun-seeking basement dwellers: Ashton Kutcher’s Michael Kelso and Mila Kunis’ Jackie Burkhart are mostly out of the picture, but their son Jay Kelso (Mace Coronel) a...
Hunters Season 2 Review: An Uneven, But Never Boring, Conclusion to the Prime Video Series
The Pitch: If there’s one thing most of us can agree on, it’s that Nazis are bad. But what kind of justice does a Nazi deserve? That’s the ethical question underlying the second and final season of Hunters, the Jordan Peele-produced and very peculiar Prime Video thriller series about a ’70s-era vigilante force formed around one goal: track down all the Nazis who evaded persecution after World War II, and use the efficiency of bullets to stop them for good. Created by David Weil, Hunters is coming to a close after only 18 episodes, which somehow seems simultaneously like too many episodes and too few. But while suffering from writing issues and a lack of consistency in tone, there are moments of dialogue, performances, and in one case an entire episode which reveal the underlying potential ...
The Last of Us Review: HBO’s Video Game Adaptation Is Too Loyal to Its Source Material
The Pitch: The video game adaptation remains an albatross around the neck of many a film and TV producer. For every Silent Hill, there’s a dozen or so Wing Commanders; TV’s no different, even as recently as last year’s weaksauce Halo series for Paramount+. But HBO hopes to break the mold with The Last of Us, their prestige-drama take on the acclaimed Naughty Dog game of the same name. If you’ve played that game, or its divisive sequel (or watched The Walking Dead or any other zombie media over the past few decades), the premise is pretty familiar: The world has been ravaged by a deadly plague that kills millions and turns them into flesh-eating monsters (covered in mutated Cordyceps fungus), and the desperate survivors scramble to stay alive and maintain their huma...
M3GAN Will Dance and Slash Her Way Into Your Horror-Loving Heart: Review
The Pitch: Gemma (Allison Williams) works as a roboticist at a toy company, Funki, that churns out monstrous-looking hybrid versions of every kid’s ultimate companion –– a Furby, Tamagotchi, and Neopet all rolled into one. But while Gemma’s job revolves around the needs of children, she’s unfortunately ill-equipped to take in her recently orphaned nine-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), whose parents died in a tragic car accident. Feeling overwhelmed with the responsibility of having to care for a young, grieving child while feverishly trying to meet work deadlines for her demanding boss (Ronny Chieng), who expects a new toy prototype imminently, Gemma decides to kill two birds with one stone. What if she perfects her latest AI-powered invention, M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android)...
