Why didn’t William Friedkin get much credit when he was alive?
There’s more to the late director than The Exorcist and The French Connection
Culture
The good, the bad and the ugly in books, exhibitions, cinema, TV, dance, music, podcasts and theatre.
August 3, 2023
The Real Housewives of the Picket Line
Reality TV stars have been Hollywood’s fallback option of late. During these writers’ and actors’ strikes, that could change
August 1, 2023
Paul Reubens lived life on his own terms
His strange talent was one that Hollywood could never quite handle
July 31, 2023
Cardi B is dangerous with a mic — literally
Throw something at the rapper and she will retaliate…
Barbenheimer, strikes and Hollywood’s uncertain tomorrow
The future of cinema is up for grabs
July 26, 2023
The dishonesty of Netflix’s Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate
Its conflation of small-‘c’ conservatism and fascism is not only morally dubious but historically dishonest
July 25, 2023
Allan’s big moment: discontinued doll’s price rises thanks to Barbie
The eBay value of Ken’s friend is skyrocketing
Elon Musk slams Barbie, echoing the right’s lamest pundits
Aren’t the joyless dullards meant to be on the left these days?
The Hollywood strikers have a Schrödinger’s Cat problem
Why streaming viewership figures are crucial to the residuals debate
July 24, 2023
Oppenheimer and the triumph of Christopher Nolan
The director has made a lot of people a lot of money, so he is allowed to do what he likes
Mick Jagger at eighty: the beginnings of a Rolling Stone
No other major rock star is as obviously a product of his time and place as the Stones frontman
July 23, 2023
Japan deserves to see Oppenheimer
The country as a whole is far less bitter about World War Two than many Americans think it is
Oppenheimer’s passenger
Christopher Nolan and Cormac McCarthy’s fissile Westerns
July 19, 2023
Why What We Do in the Shadows works
A vampire sitcom that doesn’t suck
July 17, 2023
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back
Books and ArtsWith a new Netflix documentary and series, the actor is ubiquitous once again
Jane Clark Scharl delivers artful truths in Sonnez Les Matines
Books and ArtsThe play is, alas, unlikely to attract a large following in the theater
The brilliant, underappreciated work of Germaine Richier
Books and ArtsDespite her institutional recognition in France, Richier is not as well-known outside her native country as she deserves to be
Inside the traditional art revolution
Books and ArtsThe cultural hegemony of contemporary abstract art is slowly beginning to crack
Tom Cruise must run to save the world
He runs because that is what he is there for, because it is who he is, because he is a creation meant always to be in motion
July 14, 2023
What’s happening with the SAG-WGA strike?
We may be seeing the death throes of cinema as we know it
July 12, 2023
Little-known singer keeps hating on Taylor Swift’s ex Matty Healy for clout
More people know Rina Sawayama for her rants about microaggressions than her (actually pretty good) music
July 10, 2023
Napoleon heralds the return of the man’s movie
The recreations of the battles of Austerlitz and Waterloo, among others, look peerless
July 8, 2023
How does Kathleen Kennedy still have a job at Lucasfilm?
Time for Disney to give her a gold dial of destiny
July 7, 2023
How movie execs are ruining comedies
Workaholics star Adam Devine says that studios regularly ask ‘Yeah but why should we make this movie now?’
The new Rock Hudson doc shows the fun side of Hollywood’s Golden Age
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed also presents a beautiful portrait of the gay man behind his straight character
July 5, 2023
Sound of Freedom goes where mainstream Hollywood doesn’t dare
It shares with Taken a belief that vulnerable, impressionable children should not be allowed out of their parents’ sight, for fear of the worst happening
June 28, 2023
Can James Gunn deliver a pro-American Superman?
David Corenswet has been cast as the iconic DC Comics hero, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane
With Flamin’ Hot, Hollywood again makes a hero of the businessman
Remember when Big Business was the bad guy?
June 27, 2023
Glamorous is prestige TV’s first post-woke show
While And Just Like That… is heavy-handed, a rival show teaches, but never preaches
