Charlize Theron comes out blazing in Bombshell. But the first thing you notice about her deep-dive performance as former Fox News host Megyn Kelly is that you don’t see Theron at all. Through voice, posture, wardrobe, and the genius prosthetic makeup of Kazu Hiro, Theron is Kelly. It’s a marvel …
Read More »'Richard Jewell': Clint Eastwood Defends Truth, Justice and an Innocent Man
Clint Eastwood, pushing 90 adds a new addition to his gallery of unexpected American heroes, — think American Sniper, Sully, and, to a lesser extent, The 15:17 to Paris — courtesy of this tale of Richard Jewell, a do-gooder who was first celebrated and then unjustly vilified by the FBI …
Read More »'Frozen II' Review: Disney Sequel Is a Frosty, Fun Follow-Up
When the animated musical Frozen skated into the multiplex in 2013, it grossed a record-breaking $!.27 billion in cold cash. Let it go? Hell, no! Six years later, Disney delivers an uneven but sensationally entertaining sequel to the Oscar winner that pulls out all the stops. The songs, again by …
Read More »'The Morning Show' Review: Apple TV+ Rises But Doesn't Shine With Starry New Drama
Billy Crudup doesn’t have the biggest part in The Morning Show, but he has the most entertaining one. As Cory Ellison, a broadcast network entertainment president placed in charge of the news division despite a total lack of experience in the area, Crudup gets to smirk enigmatically as Cory’s underlings …
Read More »'Country Music' Review: Ken Burns' Epic, Essential Look at an American Artform
Country Music, Ken Burns‘ PBS docuseries on a musical journey that spans from hollers to honkytonks to hit parades, is a whole lotta things. It’s long, which is a given when you consider the authorship — clocking in at a shade over 16 hours, this eight-episode megillah’s running time falls …
Read More »'City on a Hill' Review: Boston-Set Crime Drama Runs on Wicked-Good Acting
An early episode of Showtime’s new Nineties-set Boston drama City on a Hill opens with two characters discussing the classic children’s book Make Way for Ducklings (set in Boston Public Garden) and the city’s 1980s school-busing controversy. The only way the series — produced, of course, by Ben Affleck and …
Read More »'Last Black Man in San Francisco' Review: Race, Gentrification and an Instant Classic
(This piece originally ran on January 28th, as part of our 2019 Sundance Film Festival coverage.) You can tell that The Last Black Man in San Francisco, the debut feature from director Joe Talbot, is something special within its first five minutes. It isn’t just the opening moments, in which …
Read More »'State of the Union' Review: A 10-Minute Fix for a Broken Marriage — and TV
“Discussing a malfunctioning marriage is depressing and time-consuming,” Rosamund Pike’s Louise tells her husband, Tom (Chris O’Dowd), late in Sundance’s excellent and experimental new series State of the Union. The show, reuniting the High Fidelity team of writer Nick Hornby and director Stephen Frears, aims to prove her wrong on …
Read More »'Missing Link' Review: Animated Bigfoot Buddy Comedy Feels Slightly M.I.A.
Ah, the early 20th century — when being a “famed seeker of mythical creatures” was still a feasible career option! This is how Sir Lionel Frost (voiced by Hugh Jackman) plans to distinguish himself among London’s professional explorers, by procuring evidence that prehistoric beasties still walk, crawl, swim and slither …
Read More »'Greta' Review: Isabelle Huppert Steals This Stalker Thriller
It’s irresistible whenever Isabelle Huppert plays someone dangerous (see her Oscar-nominated role in Elle). As the title character in the English-language Greta, a thriller directed with mirth and malice by the Irish provocateur Neil Jordan, the great French actress is up to demented, delicious mischief. And Chloë Grace Moretz, doing …
Read More »