After Darren Aronofsky’s dizzying, delirious mother!, an adaptation of a quiet one-set stage play seems a formally conservative turn. But The Whale, adapted for the screen by playwright Samuel D.…
Something is afoot in The Menu, a film that is very obviously about more than just food. It follows a group of distinguished guests invited to Hawthorne, a fine dining…
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a funeral. In its opening moments, T’Challa’s sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) learns that a disease has taken her brother’s life, and the scene’s eerie, matter-of-fact…
The Banshees of Inisherin takes place in Ireland, which is a breath of fresh air not only because the island is green and gorgeous but also because Martin McDonagh, the…
We first hear from Lydia Tár, living legend and conductor extraordinaire, at an onstage Q&A celebrating her latest batch of achievements. During an engaging and intelligent but smugly showy answer,…
Halloween Ends sounded like sweet surrender after Halloween Kills, the cruel, moralistic middle chapter of Michael Myers’ latest rampage. The 2018 reboot was good fun, but Kills, ever the high-minded…
Smile is at nearly every moment exactly what you think it is. Written and directed by Parker Finn and based on his short film Laura Hasn’t Slept, it’s a high-concept…
Blonde is torture. Not for the viewer, necessarily—though your mileage may vary—but for Marilyn Monroe, whose life the film distills into a series of tragedies. Marilyn (born Norma Jeane) was…
See How They Run, a murder mystery set in 1950s London, is a little too self-assured. Its opening monologue complains that murder mysteries are too samey: “you’ve seen one, you’ve…
Barbarian understands that the central thrill of horror is not wanting someone to go in there. Those alarm bells go off almost immediately, when Tess, a young woman traveling for…
Over the summer, a slew of visual effects artists came forward with claims that Disney and its subsidiaries have been abusing VFX teams for years. From overworking artists to the…
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. may sound like a faith-based film, but don’t worry—it’s not here to preach! It’s a mockumentary/comedy-drama about a megachurch pastor and his wife staging…
