Why I Did Not Watch ‘Hamilton’ on Disney+
Just as Disney's Frozen appeared to deliver a message of 21st century girl power, Hamilton hypnotizes audiences with its rhyming hymn to American exceptionalism.
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In Defense of Enjoying Tom Hooper’s ‘Cats’
Critics and audiences have made much fun of Tom Hooper’s Cats. The laugh is on them.
David Byrne Channels the Weird and the Ordinary in ‘True Stories’
As a piece of both cultural history and film history, David Byrne's True Stories takes its place alongside two other films from the mid-'80s that are also steeped in a surrealistic other-worldly place, Repo Man and Blue Velvet.
The Coen Brothers Tackle Short Story in Film Again with ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs ‘
Not their first foray into bringing the short story form to cinema, the Coen Brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs affirms, sadly, that in this regard, cinema is the lesser storytelling form.
The Coen Brothers’ ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ Is American Myth in Vignette
In the Coen Brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, there's something altogether new about having revisionist western ideas filtered through their rich sense of character, black comedy, and their penetrating awareness of humanity's fatal imperfections.
TIFF 2018: ‘Vox Lux’
Brady Corbet's Vox Lux is a horror movie about the link between hedonism and explosive violence in the 21st century. Don't let anyone tell you differently.
‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’ Is All Party, Not Much Hangover
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again offers a silly, sad, apolitical and ultimately joyful look at love, loss, and embracing the future.
“Break Your Own Dreams”: Ebersole & Hughes on ‘Mansfield 66/67’
Directors P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes delight in the slippery nature of truth in their documentary filmmaking. Like Jayne Mansfield herself, the moment you think you can pin them down, they’ve already danced away to another possibility.
‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Season 3’ Gives a Bruising without Feeling
The show is called Crazy Ex-Girlfriend largely because it spends time dismantling the structure that finds it easier to write women off as "crazy" than to offer them help or understanding.
The Rest Is Silence: Why 1967’s Tribal Rock Musical ‘Hair’ Resonates in These Times
Americans may have been “letting the sunshine in” for the past 50 years, but now the burning sensation is out of control. Revisiting Hair serves as a salve.
America Needs Willy Wonka Now More Than Ever
Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka embodies all the qualities America seeks in a leader these days.