Film and TV Criticism

How the ‘Hacks’ ensemble brought new depths to the dynamic comedy

Backstage: “Without venturing into spoiler territory, let’s just say that [Jean] Smart and [Hannah] Einbinder share a scene that’s so raw and emotional that you’ll forget ‘Hacks’ is about standup comedy; their exchange feels more like something out of ‘Marriage Story.’ Both actors access facets of their characters that viewers haven’t seen before. Einbinder pulls tearful, vindictive rage out of Ava, while Smart knifes the audience in the gut with little more than a well-placed tremor in her voice. The effect is jarring, and it makes for amazing television.” Read the article.

The slapstick sting of 'Anora'

Turning Out: “I am going to hire a medium to channel classic Hollywood director Preston Sturges. For you see, he is very dead, but he needs to watch ‘Anora.’ … Ani remixes a few different Sturges dames. She’s trying to cross class lines at the altar, like Claudette Colbert in ‘The Palm Beach Story.’ She’s a ‘fallen woman’ who doesn’t fit into her lover’s world, like Barbara Stanwyck in ‘The Lady Eve.’ She’s a hard-luck romantic entangled in a marriage license mess, like Betty Hutton in ‘The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek.’” Read the review.

The cast of ‘A Complete Unknown’ transcends imitation

Backstage: “[Timothée Chalamet’s] characterization is raspy and droll, but never a caricature. He gives Dylan a watchful stoicism that transforms by degrees. First, he’s preternaturally confident as a Midwestern nobody with a guitar. Then, he’s arrogant and disengaged when he reaches superstar status.” Read the article.

Rawr, next question: To love 'Kraven the Hunter,' embrace the soft, stupid animal within

Turning Out: “It’s a superhero movie in the way that Mormonism is a denomination of Christianity. All the recognizable pieces are there, but arranged all weird. For instance, this Spider-Man movie has no Spider-Man, so Kraven has to be Spider-Man. He quips. He realizes that with great power comes great responsibility. He gets his powers from an animal bite, except instead of a radioactive spider — I swear — it’s from a magic lion. He crawls on walls. He’s Peter Parkour.” Read the review.

Oscars 2024: What each first-time nominee brings to the battle for gold

Backstage: “After the credits roll, you can’t stop thinking about Mollie Burkhart—her eye rolls at the flirtations of Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio), her bemused ‘sheesh,’ the delirium she experiences in her sickbed, and the creeping betrayal on her face when she discovers her husband’s treachery. This uniquely American tragedy needed [Lily'] Gladstone’s earthy humanity to bring it to life. A win for the actor would be historic (she’s the first Indigenous woman to be nominated in the category) and would also honor an exceptional performer emerging from indie obscurity.” Read the article.

You're telling me these bats are gay? In ‘Interview with the Vampire,’ horror that felt too real

Turning Out: “The works of Anne Rice never enticed me, since I don’t own any lace collars. When I first heard that AMC adapted her books into an ‘Interview with the Vampire’ TV series, I thought, ‘The Lord hasn’t put that calling on my heart.’ But then I heard the show’s bloodsuckers did a lot of gay kissing. I love being pandered to, yet I didn’t expect this show to come for me so hard.” Read the essay.

9 LGBTQ+ performances that deserve Emmy nods

Backstage: “‘Hacks’ is one of the gayest shows on TV; you don’t let Jean Smart wear that many sequins if you’re going for a hetero vibe. [Hannah] Einbinder—who, like her character, identifies as bisexual—is the breakout star … She further plumbs the depths of her character’s self-sabotage on Season 3, as Ava painfully fumbles her relationship with her girlfriend and continues to explore the ever-present tension she shares with veteran standup comic Deborah Vance (Smart). The two are nominally professional(ish) colleagues; but Einbinder adds rich layers of subtext to her smart-alecky, yearning performance with her portrayal of Ava’s devotion to her fabulous mentor.” Read the article.

The rage of 1,000 Lauras Dern: Finding permission to feel angry, quietly, in 'Little Women'

Turning Out: “Contrary to popular belief, I am neither the sainted mother to four young girls coming of age in Civil War-era Massachusetts, nor am I the Academy Award-winning star of films like ‘Blue Velvet’ and ‘Jurassic Park.’ I am creation’s most beautiful idiot: a human boy. And yet, the line ‘I’m angry nearly every day of my life’ cuts me to the bone.” Read the essay.

Good at being bad: 8 actors who deserve Emmy nods for playing the villain

Backstage: “If you’re going to play one of literature’s most infamous sociopaths, you’ve got to reinvent the weasel wheel. [Andrew] Scott is up to the task on Steven Zaillian’s ‘Ripley,’ the latest adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley.’ The serene cheekiness the actor brought to his ‘Hot Priest’ on the Emmy-winning ‘Fleabag’ melts away to reveal a lizard slithering around an Italian villa, wide-eyed yet dangerous. His deceptions are impulsive, each one a twisted survival reflex.” Read the article.

Emmys 2024: Long shots & legends who could steal the spotlight

Backstage: “The first season of ‘Shōgun’ was, frankly, clouded with testosterone. So all hail Anna Sawai, who shines at the center of the action as Lady Mariko. The actor holds together this tale of political intrigue in feudal Japan as a noblewoman who acts as a translator between Toranaga and Blackthorne. Sawai presents a picture of feminine placidity, even as rage and a desire for sexual agency roil beneath the surface. Her performance made ‘Shōgun’ appointment TV.” Read the article.

In 'The Green Knight,' heads roll, especially yours

The lurid, leering disaster of 'The Whale'

Austin American-Statesman: “Where ‘The Whale’ pratfalls into real tragedy is its arrogant belief that it's Doing Something Clever, daring the viewer to gaze upon the abject existence of a depressed, morbidly obese man and not be a little repulsed. ‘You're no better than the society that casts people aside for their differences!’ the film grabs you by the shirt and says, shaking you like a vending machine withholding the last Coke Zero. Read the full review.

SAG Awards 2023 Voting Guide: ‘Barbie’ ensemble

Backstage: “Let’s just get this out of the way: Margot Robbie will forever be Barbie. Not in a typecasting sort of way, hopefully, but because one of Hollywood’s most undeniable modern stars took on a mythic, impenetrable role — that of an 11 ½-inch plastic icon whose name is synonymous with troublesome beauty standards — and breathed pop culture-defining, box office-shattering life into it.” Read the review.

In 'Everything Everywhere All at Once,' Michelle Yeoh fights for her lives

Austin American-Statesman: “The smallest decisions ripple across a lifetime. We know this, because of perennial Walmart DVD bin tenants like ‘Sliding Doors’ and ‘The Butterfly Effect.’ Now, thanks to ‘Everything Everywhere All the Time,’ we also know that confessing your love to Jamie Lee Curtis can make you an all-seeing, all-knowing time god.” Read the full review.

Ben Affleck celebrates the sole of Michael Jordan at SXSW premiere of 'Air'

Austin American-Statesman: “Once the POV of Deloris Jordan is allowed to shine fully — and the film does gloriously unfurl Deloris' impact, making ‘Air’ so much more complex — it disrobes the narrative the rest of the film sold. ‘Sold’ is the perfect word, because as modern workers each day wake up more and more to the greed and predation of American corporate capitalism, the ick of rooting for executives to close a big-budget merchandise deal creeps in.” Read the full review.

‘Evil Dead Rise’ is the mother of all horror movies

Austin American-Statesman: “The film will leave audiences thinking about the power of maternal bonds, for good and ill. Also also, they will exit the theater wondering how it would feel to have your scalp ripped off your head. It's like when you go to the bank to open an account and they give you a toaster, too.” Read the full review.

SAG Awards 2023 Voting Guide: ‘I’m a Virgo’ ensemble

Backstage: “For such a large role, Jharrel Jerome also made smart smaller choices. In the first episode, ‘You a Big Mothaf*cka,’ he was literally wide-eyed, a naif wearing a constant expression of wonder. As he learned about the wonders of the world (such as buffets) and its woes (such as vomiting after going too hard at a buffet), his face shifted into self-consciousness. By the finale, a confident voice emerged.” Read the full review.

'Bottoms' is the most unhinged film we've seen at SXSW, and it's gonna change everything

Austin American-Statesman: “‘Bottoms’ verges on dada at times, but like, if Salvador Dali was more interested in the homoeroticism of high school football than melting clocks. Or maybe Jackson Pollock is the fine art bell to ring, so gleefully does the stage blood splatter as nubile young sociopaths wallop each other silly in the name of school spirit.” Read the full review.

'The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent': Nicolas goes into his Cage

Austin American-Statesman: “Nicolas Cage is half rocket fuel, half beard, half cosmic being and half dedication to remaking the accepted cadence of American English. The math works out. Sorry if it's too advanced for you. That wasn't meant to be smug — the precise calculus behind Cage's persona and enduring cinematic charm eludes me, too, and I won't try to wrestle with God during South by Southwest.” Read the full review.

'X' brings sex, violence and holy ghosts to the cinema of sin

Austin American-Statesman: Director Ti West transports us to 1979 Houston, a post-‘Debbie Does Dallas’ world where sexual libertines sit under the same oil refinery shadow as holy rollers. Wild child Maxine (Mia Goth) is going to be a star, damn it, by hell or high water. Considering the movie, you get the sense it will be hell.” Read the full review.

'Nomadland' is a film for all of us left out in the cold

Austin American-Statesman: “When you do get the chance to watch this film — at the heart of which beats the thrum of a humanity that capitalism can bruise, but not destroy — I hope you’re able to see it with a new empathy.” Read the full review.

'Godzilla vs. Kong': An ode to a monkey and lizard screaming at each other

Austin American-Statesman: “I want to see the monkey and the lizard scream at each other like they're doing community theater production of ‘Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ I want to see the monkey do sign language and then get into an underwater choreography battle with the lizard, like if Busby Berkeley directed Shark Week.” Read the full review.

Emma Stone rocks the frocks, but the story in ‘Cruella’? Woof

Austin American-Statesman: “Who is ‘Cruella,’ a coming-of-age movie about a woman who grows up to skin Dalmatians, for exactly? I have seen the movie; I have no idea. I do know that stars Emma Stone and Emma Thompson spend 134 minutes chewing on scenery like it’s made of rawhide.” Read the full review.

Come to ‘Boys State’ for Austin scenery, stay for social horror

Austin American-Statesman: “Watching ‘Boys State,’ it didn’t take me long to think, ‘Boys are a mistake.’ I can say this, as I was once a teenage boy. I am intimately familiar with the genre. … It’s all fun and games and charming Capitol rotunda shots until “Boys State” inevitably mutates into ‘Lord of the Flies’ for the Fox News era. An election season, mock or not, is about both high hopes and crushing crashes back down to terra firma.” Read the full review.