Reviews
The Crown Season 5 Review: Tragedies to Come Hang Heavily Over the Penultimate Installment
The Pitch: In Season 5 of The Crown, one unifying theme stands out — being royalty is not a good time. The stately Netflix drama’s penultimate run of episodes has now clearly reached the beginning of the end, as Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton, succeeding Olivia Colman) faces her age, Prince Charles (Dominic West, succeeding Josh O’Connor) and Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki, succeeding Emma Corrin) face their infamous divorce, and Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce, succeeding Tobias Menzies) faces… getting really into carriage racing. As grey and somber as ever, the fifth season continues the show’s march towards the one seismic event that will shake Britain to its core. But it takes its time, while continuing to explore both the symbolic power of the royal family — as well as the diffi...
I’m a Former Video Store Clerk and I Think Netflix’s Blockbuster Deserves to Go Bankrupt
It’s not a good sign that Blockbuster, a workplace sitcom set inside a literal metaphor for late-stage capitalism, feels the need to call out the problem with its premise seven minutes into the pilot episode. “Isn’t it ironic that the small business taking a stand against the big corporation in this scenario is actually a franchise of a once-huge corporation, named after the exact type of big corporate movies that killed off smaller movies?” Blockbuster employee Eliza (Melissa Fumero) says, as her boss Tim (Randall Park) tries to rally his underdog staff. I’m admittedly coming to the show with a bias, as a former video store clerk who spent about two and a half years behind the counter of independent stores — stores that always struggled to compete with the Walmart of the industry. But des...
This Year’s Treehouse of Horror Proves There’s Still Life Left in The Simpsons
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Simpsons, Season 34 Episode 6, “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII.”] The popular attitude for decades now is that The Simpsons, Fox’s beloved, iconic, and seemingly undying animated tentpole, is past its prime — despite regular renewals year after year, as a critic there very rarely feels like much urgency in checking in on the show. However, “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII,” arriving in the show’s 34th season, is full of genuine surprises, the least of which being that the annual anthology of horror tales seems like the show has found a spark of new creative energy. Okay, it’s primarily the second two parts of the episode which inspire that statement — not that the initial story, “The Pookadook” is bad, but it’s a pretty straightforward riff on...
When We Were Young: The Festival That Almost Wasn’t
After an eleventh-hour cancellation on Saturday, October 22nd for high winds just moments before the gates were set to open, the debut edition of the When We Were Young festival blasted off Sunday, October 23rd, welcoming 60,000 emo and punk fans with a stacked lineup of 65 acts. The black-clad masses poured inside the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, previously home to hip-hop fest Day N Vegas, around 10:00 a.m., while winds continued to gust and the temperatures dropped well below forecast. Located at the corner of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, a prime spot in the corridor between the Strip and Downtown, the famed Bonanza Gift Shop served as the backdrop of the dual Pink and Black stages, which switched off headlining acts until a stunning closing set by My Chemical Romance. Advertis...
Iron Maiden Bring the “Beast” to Newark, New Jersey: Recap, Photos + Video
Iron Maiden are set to wrap up their extensive “Legacy of the Beast World Tour,” with the latest North American leg having kicked off last month in El Paso, Texas. The ongoing run made a stop in Newark, New Jersey, at a packed Prudential Center on Friday (October 21st), featuring support from Within Temptation. The worldwide outing, which began in 2018, comes to an end at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, on October 27th, with tickets available here for the last couple shows. Iron Maiden are on the road in support of their 17th studio album, Senjutsu, and the UK heavy metal legends made sure to bring a few new tunes to Jersey, kicking off their 15-song set with the album’s title track, while also showcasing “Stratego” and “The Writing on the Wall.” Fans pumped their fists in the air as the b...
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Is a Horror Anthology Haunted By Creative Freedom: Review
The Pitch: A racist scavenger (Tim Blake Nelson) uncovers the ultimate score in the storage locker of a dead Nazi. A desperate grave robber (David Hewlett) gets more than he bargained for on his latest excursion. A medical examiner (F. Murray Abraham) autopsies a dead body from a mine explosion and finds a passenger hiding within the flesh. An awkward, frumpy bank teller (Kate Micucci) is tempted with the secrets of beauty by a mysterious skin cream. An art student in 1909 (Ben Barnes) grows obsessed with the horrific paintings of a strange new colleague (Crispin Glover). A desperate man (Rupert Grint) searches for his dead twin sister through the veil of spiritualism. A reclusive billionaire (Peter Weller) gathers a group of illustrious talents to view his latest otherworldly find. A...
House of the Dragon Season 1 Wasn’t Perfect — But It Was a Worthy Heir to Game of Thrones
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of House of the Dragon, “The Black Queen.”] Probably the most unintentionally hilarious part of House of the Dragon’s first season finale came at the very end, if you were watching with subtitles on: When Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), having just learned of her son’s death, turned away from the fire to reveal her grief-stricken face, the captions acknowledged a shift in composer Ramin Djawadi’s score like so: [Vengeful music plays]. It was funny because the captions really didn’t need to say anything — D’Arcy’s face said it all. It was all a jaw-dropping capper to a largely gripping season of television, because as we come to the finale, it can be said: If the goal was to create a new series that would please even ...
George Clooney and Julia Roberts Reunite in Seaweed-Thin Romcom Ticket to Paradise: Review
The Pitch: David (George Clooney) and Georgia (Julia Roberts) are two hugely successful, extremely divorced people, with 19 years of bitter animus between them. In fact, the only times they even see each other are for the major milestones in the life of their daughter, Lily (Kaitlin Dever), and even then they can’t help but snipe at each other through forced smiles. But they’re forced back into each other’s orbits when Lily shacks up with a handsome seaweed farmer (model Maxime Bouttier) on her post-graduation trip to Bali, and invites them to her whirlwind wedding on the Indonesian island paradise. Recognizing that throwing her career away for idle island living and a guy she’s just met is a Bad Idea, the two plot to sabotage the wedding from the inside. Along the way, though, t...
In Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson Rejects the Hero Part of Being a Superhero: Review
The Pitch: Thousands of years ago, in the fictional Middle Eastern kingdom of Kahndaq, an evil king enslaved his people to mine for a precious ore. One young boy rose up to challenge the king, and his bravery was noticed by some wizards with the ability to grant the pure-of-heart awe-inspiring powers. (Cool idea for a superhero origin — definitely sounds familiar.) Stories about what happened to the boy once he was able to harness those powers and defeat the king are vague, but the resulting hero, known as Teth Adam (Dwayne Johnson), was not heard from again. Until the present day, that is, a time when Kahndaq is largely under the control of outside mercenaries who are also trying to mine for the unobtanium vibranium adamantium eternium there. Despite their strict control, the mercenaries ...
Clerks III Is an Invitation Inside Kevin Smith’s Heart
Kevin Smith’s best films have always been his smallest and most personal works; as a filmmaker, his legacy is a fascinating one, as his attempts at more mainstream Hollywood flicks have never been as creatively successful as the films he increasingly makes specifically for his loyal fanbase. This comes out specifically in the Clerks series, which Smith seems to use as a way of processing big turning points in his life: The original Clerks, of course, was all about the malaise of being in your 20s and not being sure about what to do with your life (its success solving that latter problem for Smith, at least initially). Clerks II, arriving during the middle portion of Smith’s career, focuses a lot on what it means to settle down, get married, start a family, and embrace what you love doing, ...
Lil Baby’s It’s Only Me Is Mired in Mediocrity
Following up the biggest album of your career is tough sledding for any artist. But for rappers? It’s something only Houdini might pull off with ease. Hip-hop is always about what you’re doing now, not what you did yesterday. Just one false move takes you from relevant to irrelevant at the drop of a quarter, nickel, or dime. Lil Baby finds himself in that very unenviable position. 2020’s My Turn was, in a word, massive. Baby not only refined his hit-making skills but improved his rapping technique and writing. Since its release, Baby found himself the focus of a documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. So yeah, Lil Baby finds himself in a bit of a moment. It’s Only Me, out Friday, October 14th, is the result of all that pressure, success, and newfound lifestyle for the...
Armageddon Time Review: James Gray’s Coming-of-Age ’80s Drama Proves Unsatisfying
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: James Gray, an experienced outer-borough tour guide, brings us closer to his own Queens past in Armageddon Time, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama (though he says he wasn’t aiming for that genre; more on that later). The film follows 12-year-old aspiring artist Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) as he struggles with school, makes a friend in his classmate Johnny (Jaylin Webb), clashes with his parents Irving (Jeremy Strong) and Esther (Anne Hathaway), and takes solace in the love of his grandfather (Anthony Hopkins). The 1980 presidential contest looms in the background; at one point, kids at a posh private school start an impromptu chant for Reagan at the mere mention of elections, just before an assembly ...
