Critical Darlings

This week, we’re holding a seance in a Dress Barn™ with Mother Mary! Directed by David Lowery and starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Cole, this two-hander sees a pop singer and her former designer revisiting the rift that severed their early creative partnership, with spooky results.

The film goes wide on April 24th, so with extra spoiler guard rails, we’ll discuss the film, its heightened language, and the unusually depicted supernatural elements. We’ll also discuss Lowery’s filmography, contemporary Hathaway, and Michaela Cole’s trajectory.

Finally, we’ll discuss fictional pop singers on screen. From Vox Lux to Spice World, A Star is Born, and Kpop Demon Hunters, why are they so tricky to depict?

Next week, we will be discussing a film about a literal angel named Michael. Not the Nora Ephron film, unfortunately.
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This week, we’re confessing the worst thing we’ve ever done with Zendaya and Batman himself with The Drama. The twist premise of A24’s newest hit throws a grenade into the idyllic romance of a beautiful couple in Boston in the days before their wedding. The movie hinges on the question of whether we can really know the people we love, but the premise, the worst thing Zendaya’s character has ever done, is what audiences are talking about. Is it a purposeful provocation or an empty one?

We discuss the movie’s masterful marketing campaign and how it harnesses its premise as an extension of A24’s edgy branding. Beyond the marketing, much of the movie’s success must also be credited to Zendaya’s stardom. We go deep on her career and her big 2026 lineup before digging into director Kristoffer Borgli’s work as a provocateur, and ponder the current state of provocation in Hollywood today, before giving our recommendations for the week.

Next week, we’re off to the English countryside, discussing Mother Mary.
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This week, it's The Mario Galaxy Movie! The second film in the Nintendo/Illumination franchise is already a global hit despite less than stellar reviews. It is nevertheless a fascinating film: an amalgam of stunning animation and music, full of hyperactive action, with little interest in the typical conventions of narrative storytelling, and like, plot.

On this episode Alison and Richard, along with producer Benjamin Frisch, discuss the film, its beauty and weirdness, offer a sidebar on Shigeru Miyamoto as-artist, and delve into the history of video game adaptations.

We discuss producer Ben’s longstanding trauma related to the 1993 Super Mario Bros. adaptation, and the evolution of video game films from the schlocky but individual adaptations of the past to the more controlled franchise model of today. Finally, we expose Dr. Mario for his quackery, scold the Mario babies, and recommend some further viewing and listening.

Next week, we will be revealing the worst things we’ve ever done, over dinner, with The Drama.
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This week we’re eating the rich with two new horror films that share devilishly similar premises: Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come and They Will Kill You both feature women fighting back against satanic cults run by rich elites in order to protect an estranged younger sister, written with wry humor aimed at the ultra-wealthy. Neither film did particularly well critically or at the box office, but they raise a fascinating question for Critical Darlings: Has the Trump-era social satire horror film finally run out of steam?

In this episode, Richard and Alison trace this specific strain of metaphor-driven social horror, deconstruct it, and try to distinguish it from socially aware classics like Rosemary’s Baby. From racial allegories like Get Out, the trauma-informed The Babadook, class satires like The Menu, and alternate-reality anthology TV like Black Mirror, we ask why the recent crop of these types of movies are starting to feel so creaky, while less directly metaphorical films like Weapons feel more fresh.

Next week, we’re trading our cult robes for overalls as we hop on a Launch Star and blast off with our best friends Mario, Luigi, and of course Birdo, to orbit The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.'

Read and subscribe to Richard's newsletter at ⁠Premiere Party,⁠ and read Alison at ⁠Vulture.

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Beam me up…Rocky!? Critical Darlings is back, from outer space, in our new feed, talking about the first blockbuster of the year. Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller for Amazon, is a family-friendly science fiction film about Ryan Gosling on a risky space mission with a cute alien pal. The movie is a critical and commercial success and feels livelier than so many would-be blockbusters. But what is it about Hail Mary that works where last year’s Gosling-led The Fall Guy failed? Is this the return of the ’80s-era cute puppet friend movie? Is Gosling the hottest middle school teacher ever?

Alison and Richard also get into the film itself, with sidebars on Gosling and Lord and Miller’s filmographies, and dig into Amazon’s upcoming film slate, James Bond, and whether the studio could become a significant player in a post-Paramount-merger landscape. Finally, we check in on the vibes around The Mandalorian and Grogu and Alison’s newest crush, Rotta the Hutt.

Read and subscribe to Richard's newsletter at Premiere Party, and read Alison at Vulture.
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