“I’m a boring 17-year-old white girl,” Syd tells us early in Netflix‘s new I Am Not Okay With This, before adding, “I’m not special, is what I’m trying to say.” But a few episodes later, she warns us, and herself: “If I rage, bad things happen.” Rage is a threat …
Read More »'Uncut Gems': Adam Sandler's Wild Ride Should Net the Actor an Oscar
Adam Sandler is Hollywood’s biggest contradiction. Though his comedies range from pretty good (Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore) to god-awful (Grown Ups, Jack and Jill), they have amassed more than $3 billion at the box office. The SNL-alum-turned-production-tycoon got rich by repeating himself. See (or don’t) his Netflix hit Murder Mystery …
Read More »'Doctor Sleep' Review: 'Shining' Sequel Haunted By Ghosts of Horrors Past
Stephen King legendarily hated the classic 1980 film Stanley Kubrick made of The Shining — a fact that made it hard for writer-director Mike Flanagan to get King’s seal of approval to film Doctor Sleep, the bestselling 2013 sequel to his haunted-hotel magnum opus. Besides, readers of the novel may …
Read More »'Dickinson' Review: A Heroine Out of Time and a Show Out of Whack
“My god, you will ruin the good name of Dickinson!” This is Edward Dickinson (Toby Huss), father of Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), in the debut episode of the Apple TV+ series that bears their family moniker. Dickinson is a mess, albeit an entertaining one. But it’s unlikely to ruin the good …
Read More »'Monos' Review: Rebels Without a Cause, or a Chaperone
They have names like Rambo, Bigfoot, Wolf, Dog, Lady, Smurf, Swede, Boom Boom. They live, for now, up in the hills of Colombia, high enough that clouds roll in and blanket the fields during pick-up soccer games. (Just to make things interesting, they all play blindfolded.) They have kidnapped an …
Read More »'The Spy' Review: Sacha Baron Cohen Goes Undercover — This Time Not for Laughs
In Netflix‘s new six-part miniseries The Spy, Sacha Baron Cohen plays Eli Cohen, an Israeli intelligence agent who spent years in the Sixties undercover in Syria under the name Kamel Amin Thaabet. It’s a big dramatic showcase for an actor best known for broad sketch-comedy characters like Borat and Ali …
Read More »'The Loudest Voice' Review: Russell Crowe's License to Ailes
Credit where credit’s due: The Loudest Voice, Showtime‘s seven-part miniseries about the rise and fall of Fox News chairman/alleged chronic sexual harasser Roger Ailes, is dedicated to living up to its name. From the moment that Russell Crowe‘s jowly, handsy version of the political consultant-turned-conservative kingmaker shows up in a …
Read More »'The Perfection' Review: A Symphony of Revenge, Bowed and Plucked With Rage
You do not spend six seasons crafting a character like Girls‘ Marnie Michaels — ambitious, artistic, self-centered, self-defeating, romantically confused, musically inclined, very flawed, very human — without leaving a certain impression on viewers. And if you’re smart like Allison Williams, you then find a role that takes advantage of …
Read More »'Abby's' Review: Raise a Glass to This Charming Sitcom About A Backyard Bar
“Abby’s is filmed in front of a live outdoor audience,” co-star Neil Flynn says at the start of each episode of this charming new NBC comedy about an unlicensed bar run by the title character (Natalie Morales) in her backyard. (It’s shot on the same studio back lot as Wisteria …
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