If it looks like Alexander Skarsgård is having the time of his life playing Lukas Matsson, the swinging-dick tech mogul trying like hell to outmaneuver the Roy boys — while rocking a gold jacket and limited-edition kicks, no less — in Succession, it’s because he very much is. “I’m havin’ …
Read More »'Barry' Plots Endgame With Most Action-Packed Episode of the Season
This post contains spoilers for this week’s episode of Barry, “A Nice Meal.” “A Nice Meal,” the penultimate installment of Barry, opens with Barry hallucinating after an undetermined amount of time spent wearing the sensory deprivation goggles Jim Moss has placed over his eyes. There is darkness, then a glimpse …
Read More »Remembering Margot Kidder: Hollywood Superwoman and Box Office Queen
I’m an ‘80s baby, so I grew up with Margot Kidder as my Lois Lane, even though I’m not sure that I watched thoseSupermanmovies until much later in life. But the first time IsawMargot Kidder, the first time I really took her all in, was sometime in the ‘90s, when …
Read More »'Master Gardener' Is Paul Schrader Playing With Neo-Nazi Dynamite
A person sits at a desk, in a room so stark and tidy it might belong to a monk or a model prisoner, writing in a notebook. His inner monologue plays as a voiceover, drier than sandpaper; in this case, it’s a horticulture lecture about French and British gardens. If …
Read More »'Killers of the Flower Moon' Is Martin Scorsese's Great American Tragedy
The Osage called it the “Reign of Terror.” Once upon a time, long after they’d been forcibly displaced and sold land in the Oklahoma territories deemed barren and unfruitful, the Indigenous tribe had discovered oil under the ground. And more oil. And still more oil after that. They became rich. …
Read More »What It's Really Like to Dine on 'Top Chef'
By the time the ninth Wellington is served, an audible sigh of relief emerges from the six remaining Top Chef: World All-Stars contestants. The chefs, divided into three teams for the purpose of today’s elimination challenge, look exhausted, and deservedly so. Each team has just prepped, cooked, and delivered three …
Read More »'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' Does Harrison Ford's Indy Dirty
Indiana Jones has fought a lot of screen villains: Nazis, assassins, evil high priests, corrupt rich douchebags, Cate Blanchett, Cate Blanchett’s hair. Yet Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — the fifth movie to feature Harrison Ford’s globetrotting, snake-hating, whip-cracking, fedora-rocking archeology professor — pits our man Indy against …
Read More »8 Craziest 'Mrs. Davis' Moments, From Buffalo Wild Wings to Exploding Heads
This post contains spoilers for the entire season of Peacock’s Mrs. Davis. There may be more thematically rich, artistically audacious TV shows on this spring. There has not, however, been anything that comes close in strangeness, shock value, or delightfully stupid humor than Peacock’s Mrs. Davis, which this week dropped …
Read More »'Fast X' Is So Lifeless It Feels Like It Was Written by ChatGPT
If ChatGPT were to write a feature screenplay it could scarcely be more robotic or soulless than Fast X, the latest exercise from the action franchise that won’t die. This is less a movie than a series of, well, car crashes, many of them spectacular in a rote way but, …
Read More »'White Men Can't Jump': Rapper Jack Harlow Flops Big in Acting Debut
A memorable scene from Ron Shelton’s 1992 hoops comedy White Men Can’t Jump finds a playground baller (played by former NBA great Marques Johnson) fuming after he falls victim to a hustle. First the big guy pulls out a razor. Then he decides he needs something a little stronger, so …
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