It takes a long time for Crispin Glover to show his (unsmiling) face in The Smiley Face Killers, a disquieting new thriller penned by acclaimed novelist (and notable contrarian) Bret Easton Ellis, but it’s worth the wait. Glover is absolutely terrifying as the black-clad stalker of an athletic college student (9-1-1:…

One of the three people who directed 76 Days, a documentary portrait of the COVID-19 crisis in Wuhan, is credited only as Anonymous, perhaps due to some legally problematic association with the hospital where most of the film was shot. That seems apropos in another way, though: Virtually everyone who appears on screen…

It finally happened. For nearly a decade, since The Avengers came out and crushed all expectations, people have been wondering when Marvel’s utter dominance of the box office would end. That dominance did end in 2020, but then, so did the box office. The superhero-movie apocalypse that has appalled so many filmmakers…

Musa Hadid, the mayor of the Palestinian city of Ramallah (pop. 40,000), is not an imposing guy. Accoutered in a business suit and caterpillar mustache, the middle-aged former engineer spends the early scenes of David Osit’s documentary Mayor in visits and meetings, variously dealing with the sitcom absurdities of…

Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: For the final Watch This series of the year, we’re again highlighting some of the best movies of 2020 that we didn’t review.

Imagine an all-powerful artificial intelligence with full access to the world’s entire digital grid and archives, pitted against a talented and charismatic comedian in a battle to save humanity’s soul and avert a global apocalypse. Combing through a daunting number of possibilities for that premise, the new comedy…

Hollywood and Broadway have spent decades locked in a vicious cycle: Blockbusters from both have spent more money on lavish spectacle, which has in turn required enormous ticket sales to justify the investment, leading to bigger budgets to attract a larger audience, and on and on it goes. Yet that common ground…

Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: For the final Watch This series of the year, we’re again highlighting some of the best movies of 2020 that we didn’t review.

In Stardust, which hit VOD over the weekend, Emma’s Johnny Flynn plays a struggling David Bowie, let loose on the road in America with no work visa, no shows, and just a cantankerous publicist played by Marc Maron to keep him company. Touted and derided for being a Bowie movie with no Bowie songs, Stardust aims to…

The condemned: To Your Last Death (2020)

Streaming libraries expand and contract. Algorithms are imperfect. Those damn thumbnail images are always changing. But you know what you can always rely on? The expert opinions and knowledgeable commentary of The A.V. Club. That’s why we’re scouring both the menus of the most popular services and our own archives…

Streaming libraries expand and contract. Algorithms are imperfect. Those damn thumbnail images are always changing. But you know what you can always rely on? The expert opinions and knowledgeable commentary of The A.V. Club. That’s why we’re scouring both the menus of the most popular services and…

Streaming libraries expand and contract. Algorithms are imperfect. Those damn thumbnail images are always changing. But you know what you can always rely on? The expert opinions and knowledgeable commentary of The A.V. Club. That’s why we’re scouring both the menus of the most popular services and our own …

Streaming libraries expand and contract. Algorithms are imperfect. Those damn thumbnail images are always changing. But you know what you can always rely on? The expert opinions and knowledgeable commentary of The A.V. Club. That’s why we’re scouring both the menus of the most popular services and our own …

Streaming libraries expand and contract. Algorithms are imperfect. Those damn thumbnail images are always changing. But you know what you can always rely on? The expert opinions and knowledgeable commentary of The A.V. Club. That’s why we’re scouring both the menus of the most popular services and our…

Streaming libraries expand and contract. Algorithms are imperfect. Those damn thumbnail images are always changing. But you know what you can always rely on? The expert opinions and knowledgeable commentary of The A.V. Club. That’s why we’re scouring both the menus of the most popular services and our own …

Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: David Fincher’s Mank, about Herman J. Mankiewicz’s work on Citizen Kane, is coming soon to Netflix. Before it drops, check out these earlier films penned by some of…

For most of his life, Theodor Geisel, the children’s author who used the name Dr. Seuss, wouldn’t license his books for the screen. Geisel had written the 1953 musical film The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T., and he’d hated how it turned out. (He called it a “debaculous fiasco.”) But one guy changed his mind. Chuck Jones,…

Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: David Fincher’s Mank, about Herman J. Mankiewicz’s work on Citizen Kane, is coming soon to Netflix. Before it drops, check out these earlier films penned by some of…

Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: David Fincher’s Mank, about Herman J. Mankiewicz’s work on Citizen Kane, is coming soon to Netflix. Before it drops, check out these earlier films penned by some of…