Emily Is Not the Biopic Emily Brontë Deserves
Emily Brontë is one of the most uniquely brilliant women writers who ever lived, the perfect subject for a feminist biopic. She deserves better than the shallow pop feminism of the new movie Emily.
212 Articles by: Eileen Jones
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Eileen Jones is a film critic at Jacobin and author of Filmsuck, USA. She also hosts a podcast called Filmsuck.
Party Down Is Back and Starkly Funny About Our Terrible Times
The first two seasons of Party Down were both honest and affectionate as the series satirized the lives of Hollywood aspirants working dead-end jobs. The show’s long-delayed third season retains that winning formula.
65 Treats Bad Health Insurance as a Permanent Factor Across Space and Time
While 65 starring Adam Driver isn’t a good movie, it does paint a dystopian portrait of terrible health insurance across the universe that is, unfortunately for us Americans, all too believable.
Audiences Crave Gruesome Black Comedy. Cocaine Bear Delivers.
Cocaine Bear, a pretty mediocre black comedy about a bear that goes on a cocaine-fueled rampage in 1980s Georgia, is wildly successful with critics and audiences alike. It’s testament to a real craving for dark, gruesome, off-the-chain laughs right now.
Hello Tomorrow! Is Old-Hat Retrofuturism
Apple’s new series Hello Tomorrow! tries to milk Mad Men postwar pathos from a Jetsons premise. But “difficult men” prestige TV has run out of gas.
Women Talking’s Pop Feminism Can’t Confront the Messy Reality of Women’s Oppression
Sarah Polley’s film Women Talking depicts the brutal true story of rape in a Mennonite colony. It’s a poor fit for the oversimplified, “you go, girl” feminist message of its framing.
Knock at the Cabin Summons a Half-Baked Apocalypse
M. Night Shyamalan’s latest low-budget horror movie, Knock at the Cabin, is so overstuffed with exposition that even the end of the world is a letdown.
Poker Face Is the Working-Class Columbo We’ve Been Waiting For
Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne’s new detective show, Poker Face, is a brilliant working-class riff on Knives Out.
The Pale Blue Eye Is So Incoherent, It’s Almost Impressive
There’s a real dearth of Hollywood adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. Unfortunately, The Pale Blue Eye is far from the film that Poe deserves.
You Don’t Have to Suffer Through Avatar: The Way of Water. Just Don’t.
For three whole hours, Avatar: The Way of Water evokes Important Issues — imperialism, colonialism, racism, sexism, ransacking the environment for commodifiable resources — in the silliest, shallowest way possible.
Babylon Is So Bad It Will Hurt Your Brain
It’s not really clear what Damien Chazelle is trying to accomplish in his latest, Babylon. The movie is so awful that he should probably be banished from Hollywood.
Emancipation Is an Action Melodrama That Is Highly Missable
There aren’t enough films depicting runaway slaves fighting off Southern racists on the way to freedom. So when that premise is wasted on a terrible movie, as it is in Will Smith’s Emancipation, it’s a great tragedy.
The New Robert Downey Sr Documentary Is More Annoying Than Avant-Garde
Robert Downey Jr’s documentary tribute to his father, Sr., wants to mimic his dad’s avant-garde filmmaking. But the film lacks coherence, and its subject and filmmaker’s obscene wealth gets in the way of making that case.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Is Morbid and Off-Putting
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is handsome and well-crafted. But the film’s intertwining of traditional Catholicism, Fascism, and dysfunctional families with gooey sentimentality makes a stew of ingredients that don’t go well together.
Violent Night Is a Ho-Hum Holiday Hit
With Violent Night, we were promised a deranged, Santa-meets-Die–Hard flick shorn of holiday schmaltz. Instead, the action-comedy just another soppy movie about the Christmas spirit.
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.
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.