Early in Lena Dunham’s bittersweet Sharp Stick, which goes wide this week, two young women are treated, yet again, to their origin stories. Their mother, Marilyn (Jennifer Jason Leigh), believes in ritual. Treina (Taylour Paige) is the biological daughter of a stranger Marilyn met and befriended some years ago, who …
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In an episode of Netflix’s new drama The Sandman, two characters discuss a shared fondness for the works of William Shakespeare. One of them objects to a recent King Lear production that drastically altered the story, while the other assures him, “The great stories will always return to their original …
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If anyone deserves a sitcom, it’s Jo Koy. The definition of a working comic, the stand-up comedian tours constantly, hits all the late-night shows, and pumps out special after special, selling out theaters all the while. And yet, Koy has never been able to break out of his (presumably quite …
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There are violent crimes committed in A24’s disappointing new slasher, Bodies Bodies Bodies, including a machete to the neck and a tumble down the stairs like something out of HBO’s The Staircase. But none of this bloodletting is as grievous as the crime committed by the movie itself, which takes …
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“A long time ago, it is said,” an unseen voice says, “a monster came here.” The year is 1719; neither Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Jesse “The Body” Ventura will be so much as a glimmer in anyone’s eyes for centuries. The place is the Northern Great Plains of what will one …
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Let us now praise Brad Pitt. Or rather, the whole repertory company of Brad Pitts — the leading man who chased kooky character-actor roles, the matinee idol who stopped worrying and learned to love movie stardom, the wild-card outlier, the endlessly snacking comic relief, the grungy sex symbol, the All-American …
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Not Okay wastes no time telling us that its central character, a vapid Insta-famous charlatan named Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch), is a bad person. Like, not a single second: Before the movie has even begun, a disclaimer pops up that warns of “flashing lights, themes of trauma, and an unlikable …
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Early in Nope, Jordan Peele’s thrilling new horror movie, a woman named Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer) tells a story. She and her brother OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) are horse handlers and ranch owners by trade, who parlay their animal wrangling skills on TV and film shoots, which is where we meet …
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The improbable second life of Friends as Gen Z’s favorite streaming show raised many questions about why a sitcom that debuted before most Americans had heard of email would prove so resonant with a young, tech-savvy audience. Or, perhaps the low-fi nature of Monica, Chandler, and company’s interactions answered those …
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They were two actors, who happened to briefly meet in the New York office of their mutual manager; the beautiful blonde from Georgia said she initially “hated him,” what with this blue-eyed Greek god looking so damned gorgeous in his seersucker suit. But let’s not kid anybody — it was …
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