Chief Film Critic
@THR
. Formerly Chief Theater Critic. Previous work published Variety, NY Times, LA Times. Member of
@NYFCC
,
@NatSocFilmCrix
. Opinions my own
My 2023 Top 10
1. Past Lives
2. Poor Things
3. All of Us Strangers
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. Fallen Leaves
6. The Zone of Interest
7. Showing Up
8. Anatomy of a Fall
9. Perfect Days
10. Passages
Honorable mentions + full
@THR
critics' lists below
@MarkHarrisNYC
@AOC
WTF? Even the “who are 50 years her senior” at the end of the opening graf smacks of the disapproving headmaster putting the rebellious student in her place. The starchy establishment tone in so much of the NYT’s coverage lately is just tone-deaf to what’s going on in the country
Just so everyone’s clear, we are definitely going to be talking about the spellbinding PAST LIVES all year: And yes, I’m delighted to be quoted on the poster
S.S. Rajamouli pulls off a surprise
@nyfcc
best director win for the historical action blockbuster RRR, currently the best 3 hours you can spend watching Netflix
Someone on here mentioned the travesty of Isabelle Huppert not winning an Oscar for ELLE. Reminded me how often nominees from non-English-language films lose out to vastly inferior performances by American actors. These are just 4 who should have won. Who am I missing?
Karen Carpenter would have turned 74 today, making this a good time to remember Todd Haynes’ deeply moving SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY. The original and still the best Barbie movie, not to mention a brilliant reflection on the plastic nightmare of American pop culture.
Brendan Fraser gets the role of a lifetime and shatters your heart with it in Darren Aronofsky’s THE WHALE, which seems a sure bet to whip up the Oscar pundits. My
@THR
review of the
#venezia79
competition entry
@DanRather
There's a special place in Hell for Mitch McConnell for so many reasons, but the loathsome disrespect shown for Merrick Garland is high among them
This candid response from the brilliant Tracy Letts to the NYTimes survey of artists' accomplishments during lockdown really hits home. For any of us who have struggled with time management, productivity & focus this past year, it's a relief to read this kind of honesty
Hirokazu Kore-eda picked up the Palme d'Or last time he was here with SHOPLIFTERS. He returns to
#Cannes2022
with BROKER, about another makeshift family on the margins, this time in Korea. My
@THR
review
I doubt Andrew Haigh is capable of making a bad film, but that didn't prepare me for the emotional wallop of ALL OF US STRANGERS, with a performance from Andrew Scott that pulverized my heart. My
@THR
review of the
#TellurideFilmFestival
premiere
Andrew Ahn's delightful FIRE ISLAND does for 'Pride & Prejudice' what CLUELESS did for 'Emma.' The rom-com also does for queer men of color what Jane Austen did for complex women characters. My
@THR
review, ahead of the June 3
#PrideMonth
premiere on
@hulu
Tony Leung Chiu-wai, star of three previous top prize winners at Venice, A CITY OF SADNESS, CYCLO and LUST, CAUTION, will receive a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the festival this fall
Wow. Yorgos Lanthimos' POOR THINGS is a mordantly funny, breathtakingly designed feminist fairy tale about a reanimated woman's odyssey of enlightenment that gives Emma Stone the juicy role of a lifetime. My
@THR
review of the
#Venezia80
entry
My top 10 films of 2021
1. Drive My Car
2. The Power of the Dog
3. The Worst Person in the World
4. Parallel Mothers
5. The Lost Daughter
6. The Souvenir Part II
7. West Side Story
8. Petite Maman
9. Passing
10. The Tragedy of Macbeth
My top 10 films of 2022, plus those of the
@THR
critics team
1. The Banshees of Inisherin
2. Decision to Leave
3. Tár
4. Aftersun
5. Bones and All
6. EO
7. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
8. Armageddon Time
9. The Inspection
10. The Quiet Girl
Loved Sofia Coppola's PRISCILLA for its subtlety, restraint and the pervasive melancholy layered underneath its illusory fairy-tale romance. Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi are both superb. My
@THR
review of the
#Venezia80
premiere
The most anticipated movie of the year, Martin Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, more than lives up to expectations. It's a sprawling epic that holds you enthralled, and a great director expanding his legacy. My
@THR
review of the
#Cannes2023
premiere
Rewatch time. One of the best biopics about a female music artist. Conventional but brimming with heart, thanks to Sissy Spacek’s raw emotionality. With the huge plus of Beverly D’Angelo as Patsy Cline. This movie made me love Loretta Lynn. RIP to a great lady of country music
Luca Guadagnino’s CHALLENGERS is a ravenously sexy good time, the most fun I’ve had at a new movie in months. Zendaya, Josh O’Connor & Mike Faist all deliver power serves and the pounding techno score is an all-timer. Do not miss this. My
@THR
review
Devastating day for Broadway, losing two legendary performers. I was lucky enough to see Hinton Battle in Dreamgirls and The Tap Dance Kid; and Chita Rivera in The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Nine, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and The Visit. RIP
Ate up RIPLEY, Steven Zaillian’s unsettlingly moody, completely distinctive take on Highsmith. Andrew Scott, Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn all superb. Eliot Sumner a revelation. Intoxicating visuals. Heady sense of time & place. And Lucio is a screen cat for the ages. Riveting
Watched BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN for first time in 15 years on my NY-LA flight. Such an exquisite movie. Timeless. Wrecked me all over again. Still one of the Academy’s more lamentable moments that Ang Lee won best director but best picture went instead to the heavy-handed CRASH
Park Chan-wook's masterful DECISION TO LEAVE, a heady romance steeped in noirish mystery, is one of midpoint standouts of the
#Cannes2022
competition. My
@THR
review
This is exactly how you should follow a brainy blockbuster. Cillian Murphy is superb as a haunted man whose psychological wounds are reopened in SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, which opens
#Berlinale2024
on a quiet but powerful note. My
@THR
review
@homemadeguitars
@RayPride
Still waiting for someone to explain how someone who delivers zero for his state and has a 13% approval rating can get re-elected
The ageless Juliette Binoche turns 60 today, and if you haven't yet seen her luminous work in Tran Anh Hung's exquisite hymn to food preparation, love and loss, THE TASTE OF THINGS, you need to get on that
Wow. Todd Field’s thrilling TÁR sets a high bar early in the
#Venezia79
competition, and while I generally leave the Oscars punditry to others, Cate Blanchett’s scorcher of a performance should catapult her to the top of awards forecasts. My
@THR
review
We lost Sam Shepard, a giant among contemporary American playwrights and a screen actor incapable of a false moment, three years ago today. Here’s an appreciation I wrote for
@THR
at the time of his death
The
#VeniceFilmFestival
kicks off with PARALLEL MOTHERS, Pedro Almodóvar's sumptuous melodrama about the intertwined traumas of past and present, starring Penélope Cruz in her best performance since VOLVER. My review for
@THR
:
A never-better Colin Farrell reunites with his always commanding IN BRUGES co-star Brendan Gleeson and director Martin McDonagh on THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, a violently beautiful ballad of broken friendship. My
@THR
review of another
#Venezia79
highlight
Terrific performances from Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong keep you glued in THE APPRENTICE, Ali Abbasi's detailed account of the formative alliance between cutthroat lawyer Roy Cohn and the young Donald Trump. My
@THR
review from
#cannes2024
There's blood & gristle but also sweetness & heart in Luca Guadagnino's BONES AND ALL, a story of fine young cannibals & first love that deftly blends the director's interests in romance and horror. My
@THR
review of the
#Venezia79
competition entry
Some thoughts for
@THR
on the painful loss and dazzling legacy of Angela Lansbury, including the time I made the mistake of mentioning another Mrs. Lovett to her. RIP to a grande dame of the stage, and so much more
An early happy birthday to the irreplaceable Rita Moreno, who turns 90 tomorrow, just as she's hitting screens again in Spielberg's WEST SIDE STORY remake. If you haven't seen this celebratory doc about her remarkable life, you should. My
@THR
review:
Ryan Coogler delivers an emotionally cathartic, deeply respectful salute to Chadwick Boseman and a sequel that remains head and shoulders above the recent Marvel pack with BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. My
@THR
review
Jacques Audiard's exhilarating musical about crime, transformation and redemption, EMILIA PEREZ, was just the kick I needed midway through
#cannes2024
. Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and the divine Karla Sofia Gascón just great. My
@THR
review
A real pleasure to moderate tonight’s Academy Q&A with THE QUIET GIRL writer-director
@ColmBairead
at the beautiful
#CrosbyStreetHotel
screening room, one of my NYC favorites. I love this movie more every time I see it, deceptively simple yet emotionally so layered. Just gorgeous
It's not always the smoothest ride to get there, but a tremendously moving final act makes NO TIME TO DIE a worthy valedictory salute to Daniel Craig in his fifth and final stint as 007. My
@THR
review:
If TOP GUN felt the need for speed, the vastly superior TOP GUN: MAVERICK mostly feels the need for Tom Cruise, delivering slick thrills and self-worship. It's going to make a fortune. My
@THR
review
One reward of covering NY theater is the constant discoveries in a bottomless pool of talent. Justin Cooley, making an assured Off Broadway debut in
@AtlanticTheater
's Kimberly Akimbo, is a real find; stellar vocals, unforced charm, impeccable comic timing, genuine heart
What LOVE, SIMON did for queer representation in Hollywood teen movies the captivating HAPPIEST SEASON, starring the always magnetic
#KristenStewart
and bowing on
@hulu
, does for the Christmas rom-com. I’ll take a glass of that eggnog
Jane Campion takes on corrosive masculinity and repressed sexuality on a canvas of fine-grained Americana in THE POWER OF THE DOG, her first feature after a 12-year break, which does not disappoint. My
@THR
review of the
#Venezia78
premiere:
With OPPENHEIMER, Christopher Nolan has made the kind of big, brainy, cinematic event movie that’s all but extinct from the studios. See it on the biggest screen you can find. My
@THR
review
So tragic about Anne Heche, always a magnetic, flinty screen presence yet a career never given space to flower to its full extent. Loved her in Nicole Holofcener's WALKING AND TALKING, in DONNIE BRASCO, on HUNG & fearlessly facing off with Sandra Oh in the ferocious CATFIGHT. RIP
I’m late to the DRIVE MY CAR party, but wow. The 3 hours of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s unassuming masterwork fly by with a gently seductive rhythm, seamlessly blending Murakami and Chekhov in an intoxicating reflection on love, death and the complexities of human connection. Wonderful
Damnit! No living director has more consistently poured heart and soul into creating magnificent roles for women than Pedro Almodovar. Was really hoping Penelope Cruz would be the one finally recognized with a best actress win. Missed opportunity
#Oscars
As terrific as Sydney Sweeney is in 'The White Lotus' & 'Euphoria,' her heart-stopping work in REALITY is next-level. My
@THR
review of Tina Satter's taut adaption of her verbatim docudrama, 'Is This a Room,' premiering at
#Berlinale2023
Zack Snyder’s wannabe franchise starter, REBEL MOON PART ONE: A CHILD OF FIRE, feels like what you might get by feeding STAR WARS & SEVEN SAMURAI into an AI screenwriting program. My
@THR
review of the turgid Netflix space saga
Thrilled for
@JustinCChang
, a friend and colleague since he started at Variety 20 years ago, fresh out of college. Watching this genuine mensch blossom into one of the best working film critics out there has been a joy. The New Yorker is lucky to have him
I’m always a skeptic about superhero movies, but found BLUE BEETLE an unexpectedly captivating & funny throwback, drawing its strength not just from an alien biotech relic but also from the love of the protagonist’s Mexican American family. My
@THR
review
Aside from a couple advance Sundance reviews I’ll be mostly off Twitter for the next two weeks. Flying back to Australia tomorrow for my Dad’s funeral. One comfort is getting to feed the birds he loved in his backyard one more time. Seems a good way to remember him
The combo of director Pablo Larraín and star Kristen Stewart was always going to yield a distinctive Diana portrait, but SPENCER is stranger and more transfixing than you probably could have imagined. My
@THR
review of the
#Venezia78
premiere:
Celine Song's remarkably assured first feature, PAST LIVES, is far and away the best film I've seen at
#Sundance2023
. Its reflections on love, fate and life-changing choices have been haunting me for days. My
@THR
review
Hate to be one of those people making Oscar predictions way too early, but if Gael García Bernal doesn’t land his first nomination for CASSANDRO, the system’s broken. My
@THR
review of the stirring queer trailblazer portrait, in theaters tomorrow
A brooding Pattman owns the cape and cowl in THE BATMAN, Matt Reeves' gripping grunge noir anchored in a very recognizable contemporary reality of political and institutional distrust. My review for
@THR
John Krasinski thrillingly expands on the world of terrified silence from his 2018 horror hit with the taut sequel A QUIET PLACE PART II, which richly rewards the big-screen, big-sound experience. My
@THR
review:
I swooned for the romantic reunion of Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal's gay cowboys in Pedro Almodóvar's intoxicating queer Western, STRANGE WAY OF LIFE. My
@THR
review of the
#Cannes2023
premiere
Loved moderating an Academy Q&A tonight with director Joachim Trier and his brilliant lead Renate Reinsve for the bittersweet, wistful and deeply affecting WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. A quiet emotional powerhouse that moved me even more on a second viewing. One of the year’s best
Osgood Perkins’ LONGLEGS got under my skin and stayed there. Maika Monroe hasn’t been this freaked out since IT FOLLOWS and Nicolas Cage adds another memorable psycho to his Hall of Fame. My
@THR
review of the serial killer chiller, opening Friday
The most unanimously praised film at Sundance, Celine Song's PAST LIVES, drew a similarly ecstatic reception in its international premiere at the
#Berlinale
today. My
@THR
review of the decades-spanning romantic drama, opening later this year from
@A24
Andrew Dominik’s BLONDE is many things but definitely not bland — a voyeuristic must-see, if only for Ana de Armas’ fearless plunge into the tortured role of Marilyn Monroe. My
@THR
review of the Netflix feature, premiering in the
#Venezia79
competition
Elegance Bratton’s THE INSPECTION, about his U.S. Marine boot camp experience, is a quiet knockout, as is its lead, Jeremy Pope. My
@THR
review of one of the best films about queer Black masculinity since MOONLIGHT, at
#TIFF2022
ahead of
@TheNYFF
Huge congrats to my eminently deserving
@THR
colleague
@SethAbramovitch
on winning the NAEJ Award for best personality profile with his moving Shelley Duvall closeup, two decades after her traumatic experience on THE SHINING. A wonderful read
Such a gift having WHAT'S UP DOC? back on
@CriterionChannl
this month. The great Madeline Kahn's Eunice is an all-time favorite comedy performance. Genius
No doubt I'll get crucified by Chalamaniacs and sci-fi cultists for this, but despite its moments of breathtaking spectacle, DUNE didn't take me where I wanted to go. My
@THR
review from
#Venezia78
:
Count me among the camp thrilled by Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner's reimagining of WEST SIDE STORY. It doesn't displace the evergreen 1961 version, but it brings a pulsing, youthful vitality that's simply exhilarating. MY
@THR
review
This is already an exceptional year for music docs with Edgar Wright's THE SPARKS BROTHERS and Questlove's SUMMER OF SOUL. Todd Haynes' trippy THE VELVET UNDERGROUND might turn out to be the best of them all. My
@THR
review of the
#Cannes2021
premiere:
Penélope Cruz gives her best performance since VOLVER in Pedro Almodóvar’s emotionally charged melodrama of past and present, political and personal, PARALLEL MOTHERS. My
@THR
review of one of the year's standouts, opening Friday
Wes Anderson is in peak Wes Anderson mode in THE FRENCH DISPATCH, his love letter to magazine editors and the foreign correspondents they nurture, featuring a head-spinning ensemble of top talent. My
@THR
review of the
#Cannes2021
premiere:
RIP James Caan. So memorable as antsy Sonny Corleone in THE GODFATHER, a magnetic bruiser in ROLLERBALL, a fine foil for unhinged Kathy Bates in MISERY and electrifying in one of Michael Mann’s best, THIEF (aka VIOLENT STREETS) Read
@THR
’s obit
After 2 years & countless recommendations I finally got around to SLOW HORSES & devoured all 3 seasons. A gripping spy thriller with sharply drawn characters & a heap of dry humor. Gary Oldman priceless. Great work also from Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas & Sophie Okonedo
Why aren't more people talking about the sublime Bridget Everett in SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE? Not to mention Jeff Hiller and Mary Catherine Garrison. Such a beautifully observed contemplation of the complicated mess of home and family. Not an ounce of saccharine. Just lovely
Blood will have blood.
@TheNYFF
gets off to a thrilling start with Joel Coen's visually and psychologically intoxicating take on Shakespeare's Scottish play, THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH, led by Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand in top form. My
@THR
review:
@JoyAnnReid
The Trump base is consistently a great advertisement for healthy mind and body. This guy should be in the dictionary as the textbook Ugly American
Jennifer Lawrence returning to her indie roots is the headline but it's Brian Tyree Henry who elevates CAUSEWAY to an affecting two-hander about the path back from trauma. My
@THR
review of the
#TIFF2022
premiere
Your enjoyment of Baz Luhrmann’s ELVIS will depend on your appetite for Bazamataz, which is dialed up to explosive levels here. My
@THR
review of
#Cannes2022
premiere
Andrew Haigh’s exquisite ALL OF US STRANGERS is emotionally shattering but also strangely cathartic, led by a transfixing performance from Andrew Scott. My
@THR
review of one of the year’s best, in theaters today
Saoirse Ronan's emotionally charged performance and the dramatic Orkney Islands landscapes elevate Nora Fingscheidt's addiction drama THE OUTRUN. My
@THR
review of the
#Sundance2024
premiere