Contributor, The A.V. Club. Caroline Siede is a pop culture critic in Chicago, where the cold never bothers her anyway. Her interests include superhero movies, feminist theory, and Jane Austen novels.
With BlacKkKlansman being hailed as Spike Lee’s “most accessible and narratively satisfying movie in more than a decade” (to quote The A.V. Club’s review), this is the perfect time for burgeoning cinephiles to acquaint themselves with the iconic director. And this new 14-minute video essay from…
Crazy Rich Asians isn’t a musical, but it feels like one. Frequent dance-movie director Jon M. Chu, who made a couple of the Step Up sequels, films the opulent world of Singaporean elite as if they might break out in song at any moment. A zippy montage of social media gossip feels like a modern…
That Jim Halpert became one of TV’s most beloved leading men is even more impressive when you consider he started out with a pretty embarrassing haircut. To be fair, Jim’s floppy, unkempt hair was clearly an intentional choice designed to give The Office the realistic, unglamorous feel of a…
When she’s not using the Transformers franchise to explain the basic tenets of film theory (no really, it’s a great series), video essayist Lindsay Ellis is busy establishing herself as one of our foremost interpreters of Disney films. Ellis has both a personal passion for and a scholarly interest…
It is a truth too infrequently acknowledged that Jennifer Lopez is one of our most talented living performers. Lopez’s status as a multi-hyphenate means she often gets discussed as a generic “celebrity” in a way that undermines her genuine talent as both a musical entertainer and, especially, an actor. Although Lopez…
The 2008 Pixar classic WALL-E has a pretty straightforward message: Take care of the Earth or it will become a trash-filled environmental disaster zone. But in this new 12-minute video, Matt Patrick a.k.a. MatPat of the YouTube channel The Film Theorists complicates things by digging into the…
She may be strict about soggy bottoms, but famed baker and former Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry knows how to cut loose too. At this weekend’s UK music festival Camp Bestival, Berry made a surprise appearance during headliner Rick Astley’s set, joining him onstage for a brief drum solo. And while the…
Blunt, sardonic, and—at least in the 1993 Addams Family Values film—surprisingly woke, Wednesday Addams is the perfect icon for these bleak modern times. And a new letter published in The New Yorker reveals how she got her name. The letter is a response to The New Yorker’s July story called “The Addams Family Secret,”…
“Iconic” is a word people often use to describe the music of James Bond. Like the clothes, cars, and gadgets of the early films, John Barry’s original 1960s arrangements feel like immutable elements of the franchise’s titular character. It just isn’t Bond if you don’t hear that certain chord progression. In the second…
It’s one thing to build a real-life Simpsons house as a publicity gimmick. It’s another to figure out what to actually do with it afterwards. Mental Floss published a fantastically detailed history all about the infamous “real-life Simpsons house,” a perfect replica of 742 Evergreen Terrace that was built for a 1997…
It’s no secret that Quentin Tarantino loves movies. In fact, “overenthusiastic film nerd” is pretty much his whole brand. And the YouTube channel Now You See It explores that fact in an 18-minute video essay about Tarantino’s genre-hopping oeuvre. Made up entirely of film clips and pre-existing interviews, the video…
Comedian and director Bobcat Goldthwait is the latest Hollywood figure to weigh in on Disney’s decision to fire writer/director James Gunn from the upcoming Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3. That decision came after a targeted campaign led by “alt-right” Twitter users including Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich unearthed…
Profiles of Billy Joel frequently paint him as a cynical depressive, but according to Joel himself he’s actually a “happy-go-lucky guy.” That quote comes from a new interview with the musician, published as part of Vulture’s “In Conversation” series. In honor of the singer’s record-setting 100th concert at Madison…
The first Iron Man film debuted with such phenomenal confidence that it set the template for a whole new kind of superhero movie storytelling. Twenty films later, Marvel is still largely building on the template of that original Iron Man film for its ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the success of Iron Man…
This post discusses plot points from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
One of the best moments in the goofy, feel-good movie musical Mamma Mia! finds a trio of old friends donning the gaudy costumes of their girl-group youth. And it turns out that image reflects the creation of Mamma Mia! as well. It was a trio of women who created the 1999 stage musical and its 2008 big screen…
It’s 3 p.m.! Let The A.V. Club briefly make use of the waning hours of your productivity with some pop culture ephemera pulled from the depths of YouTube.
Writer Maria Bustillos first connected with Anthony Bourdain after she wrote a lengthy piece for Eater diving into his early career as a crime novelist. Bourdain tweeted his appreciation for the article, which inspired Bustillos to ask for an interview with Bourdain for her blockchain-backed, “alt-worldly” website …
