Comedy

The Drama on HBO Max — Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and the Cringe Comedy Hiding Inside a Wedding Movie

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  For most of its first hour, The Drama behaves. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play Emma Harwood and Charlie Thompson, a couple a week away from their wedding, and the film hands you the movie the trailer sold: two of the most photographed actors alive, a gorgeous engagement, the low comic hum of a big … Read more

The Hawk: Why Will Ferrell’s Golf Comedy Is Netflix’s Number One and Rotten Tomatoes’ Punching Bag

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  Lonnie Hawkins lives in a tour bus. He was the number one golfer in the world in 2004, and then he stood over the kind of putt he had been making his whole life and did not make it, and the twenty-two years since have been a long argument with that afternoon. When we … Read more

The Instigators — Matt Damon and Casey Affleck’s Heist Is Bad on Purpose

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  For twenty years, fans have wanted Matt Damon and Doug Liman working together again. The Bourne Identity launched both of their careers in 2002, and The Instigators, now the number one movie on Apple TV+, is their reunion: a Boston heist comedy that Damon’s own production company handed to Liman as a script. What … Read more

The Devil Wears Prada 2 — The Magazine Is Dying, and Miranda Doesn’t Know What She’s For

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  Somewhere in The Devil Wears Prada 2, Miranda Priestly picks up her own September issue, the object the entire fashion calendar once bent itself around, and remarks that it has gotten thin enough to floss with. The line is played for a laugh. It is the truest sentence in the film. Twenty years ago … Read more

Little Brother Review — John Cena, Eric André, and the Favor That Comes Back Wanting to Be Family

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The setup of Little Brother is older than most of the people streaming it: a man builds a perfect life, and someone from his past arrives to wreck it. What makes this particular version worth ninety minutes is the fine print, the reason these two men know each other at all. Decades ago, John Cena’s … Read more

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair — A Nostalgia Revival That Actually Works

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 Most TV revivals are a bad idea wearing a beloved name. They show up two decades late, trade on your affection, and leave the original looking a little worse for the visit. Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is the rare exception. The four-episode revival landed on Hulu in April and immediately became the … Read more

Eddie Murphy — The AFI Tribute Is Overdue, and It’s Bigger Than Comedy

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  The room at the Dolby Theatre in April was a who’s who of American comedy, and that was the point. Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Kevin Hart, Tracy Morgan, Arsenio Hall, Kenan Thompson, Mike Myers, Spike Lee, Stevie Wonder — they came to hand Eddie Murphy the 51st AFI Life Achievement Award, and … Read more