“Money is the greatest evil of all” is a familiar, relatable idea, and Mike White’s limited series “The White Lotus” adapts that observation of late-stage-capitalist ennui into uncomfortable, revealing, insightful, and empathetic scenarios on an island full of privileged people who are varyingly aware of how rarified their air really is. The cast that White…

Leos Carax‘s “Annette,” which opened the 2021 Cannes Film Festival today, begins by demanding complete attention from its audience. An announcer tells viewers that if they want to sing, clap, laugh or fart, they should do so only in their heads. “Breathing will not be tolerated during the show,” he adds. The line got at…

The film starts with various voices answering a phone call. “Hello?… hello?…” These are all young voices, but just how young? Is mid-twenties, approaching-thirty considered young? How much time has passed since these people talked to each other? In the case of this film, these people probably haven’t seen each other in well over a…

Tim Robinson’s sketch series “I Think You Should Leave” was a special kind of lightning in a bottle for Netflix—not uncommon for a “Bird Box”-like genre movie, but certainly unusual for a sketch comedy series. You could see the following by the abundant memes made from it, and the entertainment websites that devoted more coverage than usual…

With the exceptions of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, no American filmmaker had a greater influence on the industry as it shifted to a blockbuster mentality in the 1970s and 1980s than Richard Donner, who passed away on July 5 at the age of 91. However, when the histories of that time are recounted, he…