Stories in Motion

Kate and Rooney Mara star as twin sisters who talk, move, and love in perfect unison in Werner Herzog's completely unhinged "Bucking Fastard." We talk through the film's commitment to its bizarre premise, why Herzog treats these characters with real tenderness instead of turning them into spectacle, and whether the constant detours into myth and whimsy help or hurt the story at i...

Mohsen Gharaei's "Falling House" turns a condemned Tehran home into a none-too-subtle symbol of collapsing patriarchal control, as a prison guard locks up the women in his life rather than lose his grip on them. We talk through the film's strong central metaphor, Farhad Aslani's slow turn from gentle giant to controlling tyrant, why it can't escape comparisons to "Th...

Danny Boyle and James Graham team up for "Ink," a flashy, theatrical look at how Rupert Murdoch and editor Larry Lamb turned "The Sun" into a tabloid juggernaut. We break down Jack O'Connell and Guy Pearce's electric performances, why the film's second half loses steam, and whether this story of ambition and moral rot has real awards season legs.

We're kicking off our Venice Film Festival 2026 coverage with the Horizons section opener, "The Girl With the Leica," a genre bending look at Gerda Taro, the photojournalist whose work helped create the legend of "Robert Capa." We dig into the film's collage style blend of drama and archival footage, Emilia Schüle's performance, and why this festival opener might be...

FX's "Adults" stumbled through a rocky first season, but Season 2 course-corrects hard. We talk about the new "Marathon Day" origin episode, the show's evolving love triangle between Paul Baker, Anton, and Issa, and why leaning into classic sitcom tropes actually saves this one. "Adults" Season 2 is streaming now on Hulu.

Fall TV is stacked, and we're breaking down the 28 shows we're most excited about. Zoe Kazan reimagines Steinbeck with Florence Pugh in "East of Eden," Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer head to "Blade Runner: 2099," and "Yellowjackets" wraps up its final season. Plus: Mike Flanagan tackles "Carrie," Tommy Lee Jones and Betty Gilpin join "The Lowd...

Fall movie season is loaded, and we're breaking down the 54 titles we can't wait for. From Denis Villeneuve closing out his "Dune" trilogy and Tom Cruise going full arthouse with Iñárritu's "Digger," to Cannes standouts like "Fjord" and "La Bola Negra" finally hitting theaters, plus "Avengers: Doomsday," Laika's "Wildwood,&quot...

HBO's new DC drama "Lanterns" wears its influences right on its sleeve, from "Watchmen" to "True Detective" to "Friday Night Lights." We break down why Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre's mismatched-partner dynamic works so well, how the show digs into race and the burden of "earning" a Green Lantern ring, and why all those familiar reference...

We're counting down our list of the 100 greatest sequels ever made, and the choices are wild in the best way. We dig into how "Magic Mike XXL" landed the top spot over "The Godfather Part II," why "2046" and "The Last Jedi" made the cut, and the rules we set for ourselves (and immediately broke) to define what counts as a sequel in the first place. From...

Dominic Sessa's turn as young Anthony Bourdain in "Tony" is a genuine star-making performance. We dig into Matt Johnson's kitchen-set biopic, set during Bourdain's real 1975 summer in Provincetown, and talk about why it works as both an origin story and a coming-of-age gut punch. Plus: Antonio Banderas as the mysterious Chef, Emilia Jones as the girl he can't have, and wh...

Tom Holland delivers his most emotionally raw Peter Parker yet, grieving Aunt May, aching over a MJ who doesn't remember him, and fighting a mind hopping villain who might be the franchise's most human yet. We talk Ruffalo's Hulk cameo, that secret Avengers and X Men crossover everyone will be buzzing about, and whether "Brand New Day" finally proves less can be more after th...

Barbera drops his Lido lineup and it's stacked — McDonagh's back with Malkovich and Rockwell in Chile, Zeller pairs Bardem and Cruz for a doomsday thriller, and Boyle opens the fest with Guy Pearce as Murdoch. Oh, and Oasis has a documentary. We break down the buzziest titles, the wildest premises, and who's actually walking away with the Golden Lion.

Vulture just dropped its ranking of the 100 most powerful directors in Hollywood — and the results might surprise you. Nolan on top, no shock there, but who's really jockeying for the No. 2 and 3 spots? We break down the tiers (IP Guys, A24 Boys on the Rise, the Old Guard), argue about the snubs, and debate whether "power" and "talent" are even the same thing anymore.

The Toronto International Film Festival just unveiled its Gala and Special Presentations slate, and it's loaded. We break down the buzziest titles heading to TIFF 51 — from Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or winner "Fjord" to Danny Boyle's "Ink," plus new work from Almodóvar, Kore-eda, Chris Rock, and a wave of Cannes and Sundance carryovers. We also talk through the...

Christopher Nolan's  The Odyssey  is the most spectacular film of the summer and leaves you slightly, inexplicably unmoved, which is the exact and only problem with it. Matt Damon as a crushed, grizzled Odysseus is inspired. Samantha Morton's Circe is extraordinary. The cyclops sequence is one of the year's best setpieces. We talk about why Nolan's structural genius and the emotion...

Sony's plan to pull hundreds of titles from PlayStation libraries is the latest reminder that "buying" digital movies and shows was never really ownership. We dig into why physical media has shifted from nostalgic hobby to consumer self-defense — from Zaslav-era streaming purges to the "Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies" DVD rescue — and what it means when preserving pop cult...

"The Pitt" leads with 25 nods, "Hacks" sets a comedy record with 24, and "Widow's Bay" surprises with 19. We break down the biggest snubs (Stranger Things, Sydney Sweeney, The Bear's cast) and surprises from Emmy nomination morning, plus what's new for the Sept. 14 ceremony hosted by Mariska Hargitay.

Twenty shows, two critics' lists, one impossible ranking argument. From the Soviet space race thriller  Star City  to the return to Gilead in  The Testaments , plus  The Pitt 's Emmy-sweeping second season and a vampire rock opera with  The Vampire Lestat  — we run down the best television of the year's first half, unranked and completely unfiltered.

We're halfway through the year, and the multiplex actually has a pulse. From Baz Luhrmann's electrifying Elvis concert doc to the criminally under-seen  Is God Is , plus  Toy Story 5 's victory lap and the $200M horror sleeper  Obsession  — we run down the ten films defining 2026 so far, and argue over which ones deserve way more attention before awards season locks in.

Moshe Rosenthal's  Tell Me Everything is one of the best Israeli films we have seen in years. A boy witnesses the edges of his father's secret in a pool bathroom in 1980s Tel Aviv, and the film follows what that costs both of them across nine years. It is a film about fear, shame, and the silence they enforce on everyone they touch, queer or not. We talk about the structural diptych, the e...

Steven Spielberg's  Disclosure Day  is a whistleblower alien chase thriller that is really about a 79-year-old filmmaker fighting back against cynicism with the only weapon he has ever had. Emily Blunt is extraordinary, the freight train setpiece is the best Hollywood action sequence of the year, and the script can't always earn the optimism the direction insists on. We talk about where th...

Kane Parsons is twenty years old, came from YouTube, and has made the best horror film of the year.  Backrooms  takes the liminal space internet meme and turns it into an Ejiofor-anchored psychological freakout about a divorced furniture store owner who walks through a wall and keeps walking. We talk about what makes the film so effectively unsettling, why the monsters are its least frightening el...

Eligibility ends May 31st, nominations voting opens June 11th, and the Emmy picture is finally coming into focus. This week's update: "Pluribus" is the drama front-runner nobody saw coming, Rhea Seehorn is long overdue and the predictions agree, and "Beef" is eating the limited series category alive. We run through every category — who's surging, who's fading, and w...

Fifty-two films in ten days. We break down everything that mattered at this year's festival, from Cristian Mungiu's devastating Palme d'Or winner Fjord to the quieter miracles nobody saw coming. What Cannes 2026 said about grief, complicity, and the stubborn case for cinema.

Film fifty-two of the festival and Léa Mysius'  The Birthday Party  is the competition disappointment of the final days. A home invasion thriller with Herzi, Magimel and Bellucci that explains itself into irrelevance. We talk about what the Bellucci subplot promises and doesn't deliver, why Herzi deserved a better film, and what happened to the renegade filmmaker who made The Five Devils.