Steven Soderbergh’s New Crime Series Full Circle Is Off to a Bumpy Start
The new neo-noir series Full Circle, directed by Steven Soderbergh, has big ideas to share about class, race, nationality, and crime. But so far it’s a slog to watch.
236 Articles by: Eileen Jones
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Eileen Jones is a film critic at Jacobin and author of Filmsuck, USA. She also hosts a podcast called Filmsuck.
The Bear’s Second Season Is Yet Another Triumph
FX’s second season of The Bear gives both dignity and drama to the realities of work.
RIP Alan Arkin, Hollywood’s Last Brilliant Mensch
Actor, director, musician, and certified New York “red diaper baby” Alan Arkin (1934–2023) was the rare Hollywood talent whose onscreen genius grew out of his own innate warmth and kindness.
Boots Riley’s I’m a Virgo Is a Blast of Fresh Air
I’m a Virgo is a superhero satire about a 13-foot-tall black teenager making his way in Oakland. It’s far more wild and surprising than almost anything we normally see on TV.
Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City Will Please His Fans and Infuriate His Skeptics
Asteroid City dials up the “Wes Anderson” to 11, leaving an emotional void in its wake.
Elemental Takes Pixar’s Propaganda to a Whole New Level
The once great animation studio continues its fall with Elemental, another clumsy Pixar parable about the joy of finding a career.
Jennifer Lawrence’s No Hard Feelings Is a Class-Conscious Comedy That Almost Works
Jennifer Lawrence is a fantastic comic actor. So it’s too bad that No Hard Feelings trades in the raunchy laughs for feel-good sentimental dramedy.
The Crowded Room Is a Mystery Series With No Mystery
The highly hyped new crime series The Crowded Room could’ve been an unsparing take on extreme mental illness in a society that’s never been equipped to deal with it. Instead, it gives away its only source of suspense far too early.
How Hollywood’s Anti-Communist Crackdown Made TV and Movies Bland and Boring
The conformity of 1950s film and television was the result of the successful McCarthyist purge of leftists — and their genres — from the entertainment industry. The life of socialist screenwriter Very Caspary shows how it was done and what was lost.
You Hurt My Feelings Is a Slice-of-Life Comedy for Rich People With No Problems
Even with a cast led by the hilarious Julia Louis-Dreyfus, You Hurt My Feelings struggles to find a single laugh in this comedy of manners about affluent New Yorkers learning the value of “little white lies.”
Long Before Daniel Penny Killed Jordan Neely, There Was Death Wish
It’s been nearly 50 years since Charles Bronson first mowed down New York muggers in Death Wish. But defenses of the recent killing of Jordan Neely suggest that the film’s reactionary, Wild West–style vigilante violence still holds the imagination of many.
Sisu Is Splendid Anti-Nazi Mayhem
Do you want to see a bunch of Nazis get the bloody, gory treatment they deserve in the wilds of Northern Finland? Of course you do. Then go see Sisu.
White House Plumbers Is a Hilarious Take on the Watergate Break-In
In the new series White House Plumbers, a brilliant send-up of the Watergate scandal, Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux star as Richard Nixon’s bumbling covert operators. It’s approaching a Coen brothers level of satiric genius.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Is Pleasant Enough in a Vanilla Pudding Sort of Way
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. is probably a nice, worthwhile coming-of-age movie. But it comes off as a bland fantasy film about a land peopled by smiling denizens in sunny dreamscapes who have such mild problems that they aren’t actually problems.
Robert Redford Knows Too Much
In the 1970s, the public flocked to movies about the US government’s shadowy misdeeds.
Peter Pan & Wendy Is Another Lifeless Disney Remake
Even a respected auteur like director David Lowery can’t save Peter Pan & Wendy, yet another bland live-action adaptation of a Disney classic — this time with a dash of 2020s pop feminism.
Beau Is Afraid Is a Referendum on Director Ari Aster, Cinema’s Latest Wunderkind
Critics adore artsy auteur filmmaker Ari Aster, director of hits like Midsommar and Hereditary — they’re even willing to pretend his new surrealist comedy Beau Is Afraid is hilarious. It’s not.
Dead Ringers Resurrects Old-Fashioned Body Horror for Prestige TV
In the reboot of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, Rachel Weisz plays twin gynecologists slowly unraveling. The gorgeous, chilly atmosphere — and Weisz’s double performance — are mesmerizing.
Harry Belafonte’s Promising Career as a Film Star Ended Before It Really Began
Harry Belafonte, who died earlier today at age 96, was well known for his groundbreaking music career and civil rights activism. But in his early years, he appeared poised to become a major film star. We revisit two of his forgotten early classics here.
Beef Is a Portrait of Our All-American Rage
Beef tells the story of a chance road-rage encounter that blossoms into a modern feud. Director Lee Sung Jin says it’s about “how hard it is to be alive,” but the show’s cross-class fantasy logic points at the powder keg of growing alienation in our society.