Can “Babygirl” Breathe New Life Into a Retrograde Genre? Can “Babygirl” Breathe New Life Into a Retrograde Genre?
The movie, starring Nicole Kidman, operates at the level of the female gaze. Its inversion of erotic thriller tropes leads to fascinating but, at times, tepid results.
Jan 16, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
The Only Relationship That Matters in “Challengers” The Only Relationship That Matters in “Challengers”
What truly matters in Luca Guadagnino’s sexed-up tennis thriller is not the love triangle at its center but all the details that surround it.
May 1, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
This “Barbie” Is in Crisis This “Barbie” Is in Crisis
Greta Gerwig tackles philosophical questions that are more daunting than a film based on a children’s toy can handle. It results in a strange, uneven, but beautiful movie.
Jul 26, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
What “The Last of Us” Could Never Do What “The Last of Us” Could Never Do
The HBO series exposed all the limits of video game adaptations.
Apr 20, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
The Beautiful and Useless Return of “Avatar” The Beautiful and Useless Return of “Avatar”
James Cameron has spent a fortune to bring audiences back to Pandora. Was it worth it?
Feb 8, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
The Brutal Verisimilitude of “The Northman” The Brutal Verisimilitude of “The Northman”
Robert Eggers’s latest work, a Viking epic, pushes his obsessive and detail-oriented filmmaking to its limit.
Jun 30, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
The Patience “Euphoria” Demands The Patience “Euphoria” Demands
While the HBO show is polarizing and easy to critique, it still manages to expand the genre of teen drama.
Mar 23, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
The Infinite Possibilities of “Macbeth” The Infinite Possibilities of “Macbeth”
Sparse and beautiful, Joel Coen’s Shakespeare adaptation focuses on why we continue to return to this story of power and downfall.
Feb 22, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
Denis Villeneuve’s Humanistic “Dune” Denis Villeneuve’s Humanistic “Dune”
His adaptation was the first to understand the scale—both intimate and epic—the sci-fi novel required to translate to film.
Nov 27, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
Inside the Hell That Is “The Many Saints of Newark” Inside the Hell That Is “The Many Saints of Newark”
All of the things that worked in The Sopranos make its prequel a remarkable slog of a film.
Nov 18, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz