Why is Netflix Giving Us a Wednesday Addams Who Wants to Feel Feels?
Netflix’s new Addams Family show puts Wednesday’s teenaged emotional life front and center — and suffers for it.
217 Articles by: Eileen Jones
Eileen Jones is a film critic at Jacobin and author of Filmsuck, USA. She also hosts a podcast called Filmsuck.
Before They Ran the Reds Out of the Studios
The screwball comedy The Devil and Miss Jones exemplifies how pro-worker Hollywood was just on the eve of McCarthyism.
The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s Portrait of Himself, Is a Self-Indulgent Slog
Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical The Fabelmans is a dull, self-indulgent victory lap for the most victorious filmmaker in history.
Glass Onion Is the Rare Movie for the Whole Family That Doesn’t Suck
Director Rian Johnson follows up on his 2019 crowd-pleaser Knives Out with Glass Onion, this time taking aim at an Elon Musk–esque billionaire and his frenemies. Unfortunately, Netflix has ensured you only have a week to see it with an actual crowd.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Can Salvage Your Holiday Weekend
Written by Weird Al himself and starring Daniel Radcliffe, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a biopic parody that mocks the prestige form at every turn. It may very well save you from the worst interludes of family togetherness this weekend.
Now Do the Much Better, Real-Life Version of My Policeman
The new movie My Policeman, starring Harry Styles, is inspired by novelist E. M. Forster’s 40-year relationship with policeman Robert Buckingham that began in 1930. The details of that romance are stirring — much more so than what we get in the film.
Triangle of Sadness Is as Absurd as 21st-Century Capitalism Is
Triangle of Sadness is more than a little over the top at times. But so what? Unlike every other movie at the theaters, it’s over the top in its scathing portrayal of the ugly realities of contemporary inequality.
Go See The Banshees of Inisherin Right Now
In Bruges’s director Martin McDonagh reunites with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson for a story of an Irish friendship gone sour. And it’s easily the best new movie I’ve seen in forever.
Why Would Netflix Bury a Film as Wonderfully Imaginative as Wendell & Wild?
Wendell & Wild is gorgeous, daringly creative, and stunning to watch. Yet Netflix has put almost no effort or resources into promoting the film.
The Killer Isn’t the Only Murderer in The Good Nurse
In The Good Nurse, a serial killer’s murders are disguised by the frequently nightmarish workings of hospitals in a for-profit health care system.
Tár Is Stuck in the Muck of Its Own Highbrow Artiness
Todd Field wants you to think his new movie Tár is a critique of the pretentiousness of the high art world. But the movie is actually trapped in that suffocating world and can’t find a way out.
They Live Is a Timeless Anti-Capitalist Horror Classic
It’s never a bad time to revisit John Carpenter’s 1988 classic They Live, a hilarious sci-fi thriller that skewers the inequality of the neoliberal era and offers an iconic depiction of capitalist ideology.
Amsterdam Is a Mess and a Bomb and Also Sort of Interesting
Credit to David O. Russell for trying to make a movie, Amsterdam, that’s unique and compelling. He didn’t really succeed, but at least he tried.
Angela Lansbury Was a Brilliant Actor and a Comrade
Angela Lansbury, who died this week at 96, was a proud socialist who achieved enormous success in film, theater, and TV. Yet her astonishing range was botched by the Hollywood studio system — preventing her movie career from flourishing even more.
Blonde Is Marilyn Monroe Abased All Over Again
Based on Joyce Carol Oates’s novel, Andrew Dominik’s film Blonde ignores the assertive and hardworking real-life Marilyn Monroe and instead gives us a lurid tale of perpetual victimization.
Sidney Poitier Was an Icon. But Oprah Winfrey’s Documentary Sidney Is Too Worshipful a Tribute.
The new Oprah Winfrey–produced Sidney Poitier documentary, Sidney, is a gushing tribute film, not a fully rounded portrait of a human being who had weaknesses to go along with his many strengths.
Don’t Worry Darling Is Dull Female Gothic Aided by Scandal
Director Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling is a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes celebrity scandal, helping to keep an otherwise forgettable film in the public’s consciousness.
Pearl Is a Heartland Horror Fit for Our Times
Martin Scorsese loves Ti West’s “demented Disney film,” Pearl — and you will too.
The New Tom Hanks Pinocchio Is a Clumsy, Awkward, CGIed Mess
Disney’s remake of its 1940 animated classic Pinocchio is just as bad as you’ve heard.
Bling-Bling TV
As standards of living fall at the bottom and rise at the top, the only thing to do is watch TV about the trivial problems of the phenomenally rich.