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Dylan Roth

Dylan Roth

Observer

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A Star Trek short makes the best case yet for digital de-aging

If you want to make a cinephile cringe, “digital face replacement” is the phrase that pays. “Digital de-aging” and “deepfake” will do the...

previous day 4

Polygon

Dylan Roth

‘Laid’ Review: Sex, Death And One of the Year’s Best Comedic Characters

Stephanie Hsu shines as a party planner who discovers everyone she goes to bed with is dying in seemingly unrelated freak accidents in this...

wednesday 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim’ Review: A Generic, Hobbit-Free Tolkien Tale

This Lord of the Rings anime feature film is mostly rote medieval fantasy that lacks the widespread appeal of Peter Jackson’s trilogy.

13.12.2024 2

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘The Sticky’ Review: Margo Martindale Shines In Serviceable Heist Comedy

Margo Martindale has been one of Hollywood’s most reliable character actors since the late 1980s. She’s featured in Oscar-winning dramas and...

06.12.2024 6

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘A Man on the Inside’ Review: Comfy, Heartfelt Television

Any review of a work from television producer Michael Schur is going to include the word “warm.” A writer and producer on the outrageously popular...

21.11.2024 20

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Arcane’ Season 2 Review: One of the Best Animated Series Ever Made

There’s never been a series quite like Arcane , and there might never be again. Based on League of Legends , a wildly successful video game...

09.11.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Venom: The Last Dance’ Review: Brainless and Disjointed

The Venom film series is one of the weirder phenomena to emerge from the superhero movie boom. Based on the popular Spider-Man...

25.10.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

Vampire Sitcom ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Loses Some Bite in Final Season

As the outlandish vampire comedy returns for one last season, the magic is waning.

21.10.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Anora’ Review: One Of The Funniest, Saddest, Best Films Of The Year

Director Sean Baker has made a name for himself telling unvarnished stories of poverty in America. His films, like Tangerine and The Florida...

18.10.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Smile 2’ Review: Funhouse Horror That Does The Trick

Two years ago, Smile was a pleasant surprise: a solid supernatural horror movie that lived up to its ubiquitous marketing. ( Planting actors...

16.10.2024 6

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Shrinking’ Season 2 Review: Jason Segel’s Therapy Comedy Expands Its World

Most sitcoms are driven by their characters’ unwillingness to confront their flaws. In 'Shrinking' the characters are all actively working on...

15.10.2024 7

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Review: A Shocking Movie—Shockingly Bad, That Is

Joker , a Todd Phillips film very, very loosely based on a handful of pages from Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland,...

04.10.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Mr. McMahon’ Review: WWE Docuseries Is Part Celebration, Part Exposé

The tagline for Mr. McMahon —the new documentary series from Netflix, Tiger King producer Chris Smith and 30 for 30 creator Bill...

26.09.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘The Penguin’ Review: A Fun Gangster Series, No Interest in Superheroes Required

Colin Farrell is excellent reprising his role from 'The Batman,' but this HBO series belongs to Cristin Milioti as the terrifying yet sympathetic...

18.09.2024 7

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘The Front Room’ Review: A Horror-Comedy That Isn’t Quite Either

The Front Room , the new horror-comedy from filmmakers Max & Sam Eggers and A24, boasts a strong premise and a game cast, but it’s not particularly...

06.09.2024 8

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘English Teacher’ Review: Promising New Sitcom With Room For Improvement

Last year, writer and actor Brian Jordan Alvarez went from cult comedian to social media sensation. Alvarez made some waves back in 2016 with The...

03.09.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘AfrAId’ Review: An AI Thriller So By The Numbers It Could Have Been Written By AI

The proliferation of digital assistants, advanced chatbots, smart home devices, and other so-called AI products has led to a new wave of sci-fi...

31.08.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Terminator Zero’ Review: This Anime Series Takes The Franchise Someplace New

James Cameron’s original 1984 The Terminator is a perfect synthesis of brainy sci-fi, gruesome horror, nail-biting suspense and clever character...

29.08.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Alien: Romulus’ Review: A Damn Good Monster Movie

Like the Terminator , Alien is a franchise in which no new installment stands a chance of being the best. The fight here is for third place,...

14.08.2024 5

Observer

Dylan Roth

Hank Azaria and His Springsteen Cover Band Prove It (Part Of) All Night

I attended my first Bruce Springsteen concert, in utero, in 1989. Raised in New Jersey by a record store owning father who has seen Springsteen live...

02.08.2024 5

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Trap’ Review: A Serial Killer With Daddy Issues

American cinephiles of a certain age (namely, millennials) are unlikely to pass up a new M. Night Shyamalan movie. A popcorn auteur and then an...

02.08.2024 20

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Review: Crowd Pleasing Pops, No Substance

I went into Deadpool & Wolverine surprisingly optimistic. This is, after all, the only Marvel Studios feature due out this year, a respite from...

24.07.2024 50

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Cobra Kai’ S6 Review: In Its Final Season The Series Picks Itself Up Off the Mat

Part One of 'Cobra Kai' Season Six has all the hyperbolic teen drama, tightly choreographed action and cringe-inducing comedy that fans have come to...

19.07.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Sunny’ Review: Rashida Jones And a Robot Friend Try to Solve a Mystery

For decades, artificial intelligence served a lot of narrative purposes: a symbol of humanity’s hubris; a metaphor for God, childhood, or otherness;...

10.07.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘MaXXXine’ Review: Throwback Horror Gets a Little Stuck In Its Hot Tub Time Machine

In 2022, A24 and writer-director Ti West delivered the one-two punch of X and Pearl , a pair of horror films about cinema, sex, violence and...

06.07.2024 3

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘The Bear’ Season 3 Review: Is It Worth It?

Are Chef Carmy’s outsized expectations worth the chaos they cause? One thing is clear: as the show evolves into more of an ensemble piece, 'The...

28.06.2024 3

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ Review: A Horror Prequel With a Surprisingly Tender Heart

Instead of just another high-adrenaline creature feature, this prequel from writer/director Michael Sarnoski delivers something much more refreshing...

27.06.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘The Watchers’ Review: The Shyamalan Dynasty Gets Off To A Slow Start

It’s become a cliche to goof on that 2003 Newsweek cover that declared M. Night Shyamalan “The Next Spielberg,” just in time for his critical...

07.06.2024 9

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘The Acolyte’ Review: A Star Wars Show That’s Halfway Special (Which Beats the Average)

If you’re not a die-hard Star Wars fan, it’s likely that LucasFilm’s recent output of Star Wars shows will have totally lost you. With a few...

05.06.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Eric’ Review: Benedict Cumberbatch In a Good (Not Great) Netflix Thriller Series

Several mysteries unravel across this series, which is part thriller, part family drama, and part the story of a dad haunted by a blue furry monster...

29.05.2024 30

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Review: The Best Franchise Reaches New Heights

After a seven-year hiatus, a new cast and creative team kicks off a new trilogy with one of the strongest films in the Planet of the Apes series.

10.05.2024 40

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Doctor Who’ Review: A Zany and Colorful Romp (With A Bit of Nightmare Fuel)

The Fifteenth Doctor—portrayed by Ncuti Gatwa of Sex Education fame—is the most bubbly and vivacious incarnation to date.

09.05.2024 50

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘The People’s Joker’ Review: A Trans Journey Through Gotham City

Shot over five days, this very indie movie stars writer-director Vera Drew as Joker the Harlequin and borrows liberally from the Batman universe to...

08.05.2024 70

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘I Saw the TV Glow’ Review: Moody, Interesting, No Fun

Sometimes calling a film “challenging” is code for “I don’t like it, but I don’t want to sound stupid or uncool for not liking it.” My...

06.05.2024 30

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Abigail’ Review: Goofy Self-Aware Horror With a Blood Sucking Ballerina

Though Universal’s attempt at a cinematic universe—a horror equivalent of the MCU—was buried with 2017’s The Mummy , the studio has been...

18.04.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Fallout’ Review: A Post-Apocalyptic Adventure With a Sick Sense of Humor

It’s reductive to refer to every big-budget TV adaptation of a popular video game as “[studio]’s answer to The Last of Us .” But there is...

11.04.2024 30

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ S5 Review: Final Season Is Its Best

Star Trek: Discovery occupies an interesting place in the celebrated franchise. It was the first Trek series of the streaming era, the first to...

03.04.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ Review: Tag-Team Monster Wrestling

This past winter, writer/director Takashi Yamazaki and Japanese studio Toho unveiled Godzilla Minus One , a rich, character-driven parable about...

28.03.2024 20

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Sugar’ Review: Colin Farrell Neo-Noir Series Is a Long Reveal

Watch the trailer for Sugar and you’ll see what appears to be a fairly ordinary neo-noir set in present day Los Angeles centered around a...

28.03.2024 20

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Immaculate’ Review: Sydney Sweeney Takes (Bloody) Aim at Being an Object of Worship

The Internet at large is very weird about sydney sweeney. For a while, she merely attracted the typical scrutiny and fixation of a magnetic young...

20.03.2024 3

Observer

Dylan Roth

Kristen Kish On Becoming the New Host of ‘Top Chef’

There’s an episode of 30 Rock in which comedy writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) decides to play hardball when negotiating a talk show development deal...

19.03.2024 4

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Road House’ Review: Jake Gyllenhaal In A Bloodthirsty Meh

Back in January, Road House director Doug Liman announced that he would be boycotting his own film’s SXSW premiere to protest Amazon’s...

19.03.2024 6

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘3 Body Problem’ Review: Netflix Sci-Fi Thriller is Binge Worthy and Brainy

Five years after their goal-line fumble of the massively popular HBO series Game of Thrones , writer-producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are...

13.03.2024 7

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Elsbeth’ Review: Catching Criminals The Cute, Colorful Way!

In 2009, producers Robert and Michelle King brought us The Good Wife , one of the last great broadcast network dramas. Launching under the guise of...

28.02.2024 5

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Lisa Frankenstein’ Review: Twisted, Horny, And Bloody Fun

In some ways, Lisa Frankenstein feels like it arrived on a time machine from the year 1989. To begin with, it seems like a movie that began as a...

07.02.2024 40

Observer

Dylan Roth

Got Time For Pure Cinema? Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Travels Back to Theaters

Early in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller Tenet , a scientist (Clémence Poésy) demonstrates the film’s bizarre time travel gimmick for...

02.02.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

The Five Most Underrated Episodes Of ‘The Sopranos’

What does it mean for an episode of The Sopranos to be “underrated?” David Chase’s generation-defining drama is one of the most immaculate...

19.01.2024 8

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘I.S.S.’ Review: A Sci-Fi Thriller Without Gravity

There’s something exciting about deliberately small science fiction stories. Sci-fi, after all, can be as much an intellectual exercise as an...

17.01.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘True Detective: Night Country’ Review: Mystery, Misery, Horror, And An Endless Night

True Detective , the anthology mystery series that captivated HBO viewers back in 2014, returns this weekend for its first new season in five years....

12.01.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

‘Echo’ Review: Exactly The Sort Of TV Show Marvel Should Be Making

Are there still casual Marvel Studios fans? If you believe the doomsayers in the press ( I’m one of them ), the superhero movie boom has finally...

11.01.2024 10

Observer

Dylan Roth

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