Alex Garland's Provocative Men Asks: Are Men OK?
A surrealist nightmare of gender terror from one of Hollywood’s most distinctive directors.
Movies
Review: The Batman
The movie's whole idea seems to be that if Batman truly wanted to make Gotham a better place, he'd find some other way to do it, perhaps involving politics.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Isn't Strange or Mad Enough
A Sam Raimi fun house burdened by the Marvel universe's not-so-glorious purpose
The Northman Is a Bloody, Brutal, Brilliant Viking Revenge Epic
No moral judgment, just Viking honor, pagan ritual, and inevitable death.
Surfers Chase Freedom in Cuba
Havana Libre tells the story of Cuba’s underground surfers struggling to practice their sport.
Morbius Is a Superhero Vampire Movie That Really Sucks
Jared Leto stars in a not-quite-Marvel film that inadvertently demonstrates the strengths of the MCU.
Nathan Rabin: Why Gen X Is Super Media-Literate
The Joy of Trash author talks about how D.A.R.E., bad TV, Weird Al Yankovic, and 9/11 created a generation of ironic idealists.
Nathan Rabin: Confessions of a Trash-Culture Connoisseur
Nathan Rabin celebrates The Joy of Trash—and Gen X irony and cynicism—one terrible movie, book, and TV show at a time.
Be Like Chris Rock
The comedian won last night's Oscars by telling bad jokes, dealing with the consequences, refusing to escalate or apologize, and doing his damn job.
The Batman Wrestles With a Gloomy, Problematic Billionaire Version of Batman
It's a Batman movie that seems distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of Batman.
The Awful Uncharted Raises the Question: Are Video Game Movies Art?
Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg star in another timid, lifeless video game adaptation.
Death on the Nile Is a Lifeless, Plodding Take on Agatha Christie
Kenneth Branagh's murder mystery lacks glamour.
Jackass Embodied Gen X's Casual Indifference to Authority
Beneath all the harm, humiliation, and non-consensual hair-shaving was a love of freedom.
Kat Rosenfield: Meet Joe Rogan's Dumbest Fans
The novelist and essayist attacked CNN's handling of Neil Young vs. Joe Rogan—and promptly drew the ugly ire of the podcaster's admirers!
A Hero Is a Movie in Which Everyone Both Is and Isn't a Hero
A new Iranian thriller is both an elaborate social parable and an extended advertisement for the U.S. bankruptcy system.
The New Scream Is a Meta-Horror Film About Meta-Horror Films
Part sequel, part reboot, it's a slasher-film hall of mirrors.
The Eternals
The film is suffused with the patronizing notion that good superheroes are benign despots who know what's best for the rest of us.
Review: Licorice Pizza
Squalls of flak suddenly surround one of the year’s most loveable movies.
The Matrix Resurrections Is Less a Sequel and More a Bizarre Thinkpiece About The Matrix's Legacy
It's the strangest, most meta sequel of the year.
Spider-Man: No Way Home Is a Spider-Man Movie About How Much You Enjoyed All the Other Spider-Man Movies
It's the two Spider-Mans meme in $200 million movie form.
We Keep Going Back to The Matrix
How a generation was redpilled by a nerd power fantasy about defining yourself in the digital age
Steven Spielberg's West Side Story Is a Dazzling Bit of Americana
It’s a moving story about immigration and assimilation, and one of the best movies of the year.
Penny Lane: Can 75 Million Kenny G Fans Be Wrong?
The HBO documentary Listening to Kenny G brilliantly explores the gulf between market success and critical acclaim.
The Best of Cold War Culture
Books, films, and more related to the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Diversity Can't Save Eternals. It's a Cosmic Disaster.
Marvel's latest superhero epic is a boring movie about boring people.
Dune Is an Epic Love Letter to Classic Science Fiction
This is Denis Villeneuve's movie, but it's fully Frank Herbert's Dune.
The French Dispatch Is a Profoundly Great Film About the Nature of Art and Freedom
A twee, fussy, brilliant movie from a pathologically twee and fussy director.
The Last Duel Is More Than a Medieval #MeToo
Ridley Scott's jousting film is also a slyly subversive take on cultural perspectives.
No Time To Die Gives Us a Not-Quite-Woke James Bond
Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007 is a reckoning with everything that made Bond who he is.