Kyle Smith

New York

Film Critic at The Wall Street Journal

Theater Critic at The New Criterion

Film critic for @wsj and theater critic for @NewCriterion.

Articles

“Dated Angst," by Kyle Smith

2 days ago | newcriterion.com | Kyle Smith |Robert Erickson |James Bowman |Douglas Murray

T-shirts for sale in the lobby at Angry Alan, the new play by Penelope Skinner (at the Studio Seaview through August 3) are printed with the legend “Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man.” Experience suggested I turn around and leave immediately, but duty compelled me to stay. The slogan comes up during the play, which is a sort of stage equivalent of a feminist T-shirt.
‘Elio’ Review: Pixar’s Accidental Abduction

1 week ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

Some of us feel alone in this world, but not necessarily in all worlds. Take “Elio,” a misfit pre-adolescent boy who lost his parents and is being raised by his aunt, a major in the Air Force who monitors space debris at a high-tech military base. Elio would like very much to be abducted by aliens and forget about everything that went wrong on this planet.
‘28 Years Later’ Review: Danny Boyle’s Bloody Zombie Bore

1 week ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

“28 Years Later” imagines a Britain that has become so overrun by a zombie virus that few who haven’t been infected are left. Not unreasonably, Europeans have strictly quarantined British islands to keep anyone from emigrating to spread the savagery-inducing disease to the continent. Welcome to the Hotel Britannia: You can freak out any time you like, but you can never leave.
‘28 Years Later’ Review: Danny Boyle’s Bloody Zombie Bore

1 week ago | flipboard.com | Kyle Smith

Following 2002’s ‘28 Days Later’ and 2007’s ‘28 Weeks Later,’ the gore-soaked third installment of the franchise, starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes, is short on wit and narrative coherence. “28 Years Later” imagines a Britain that has become so overrun by a zombie virus …
Opinion | ‘Jaws’ 50th Anniversary: Spielberg’s Hollywood Sea Change

1 week ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

Mr. Spielberg’s ingenious filmmaking is still a marvel; it was the first of what turned out to be the most lucrative string of mega-hits any director ever delivered, “1941” notwithstanding. And yet “Jaws” was a disaster production.
‘Materialists’ Review: Dakota Johnson’s Matchmaker in the Middle

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

The actress stars alongside Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans as a woman caught between two very different men in a new film from ‘Past Lives’ director Celine Song. Celine Song’s debut film, “Past Lives,” was a sincere, heartfelt and moving drama about a happily married woman who nevertheless wondered how things might have turned out if she hadn’t been separated from a boy with whom she had a childhood bond.
‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Review: A Toothless Tale From DreamWorks

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

Mason Thames and Nico Parker are the miscast stars of writer-director Dean DeBlois’s good-looking but deadly dull live-action remake of the 2010 film. Crowds showed up for Beauty, the Beast, Lilo and Stitch, so why not Hiccup and Toothless? Released by DreamWorks Animation in 2010, “How to Train Your Dragon” now gets the live-action remake treatment that has been central to Disney’s movie slate for the past 15 years.
‘Hollywood High’ Review: How Teens Took Over the Screen

3 weeks ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

From James Dean’s rebellion to the high-school vampires of ‘Twilight,’ Hollywood has defined—and been defined by—teenage style and culture. Reality shapes the movies, and the movies reshape reality, which makes its way back into film. In the 1950s, for instance, widespread dismay, sensational media coverage and even congressional hearings revolved around the crisis of juvenile delinquency, which yielded a spate of what’s-wrong-with-young-people features, many of them cheesy and laughable.
‘The Life of Chuck’ Review: Tom Hiddleston’s Disjointed Dance

3 weeks ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

The actor plays a jovial accountant in Mike Flanagan’s time-twisting, sentimental adaptation of Stephen King’s novella. “I contain multitudes,” wrote Walt Whitman. “Yeah, but I can force about six different genres into one story,” replies Stephen King. “The Life of Chuck” is an overstuffed suitcase of a movie, one that comes off as a bit graceless and misshapen with all of the cramming and jamming.
‘The Phoenician Scheme’ Review: Wes Anderson’s Latest Loopy Father Figure

4 weeks ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

The director’s thematic and aesthetic obsessions remain intact in his new film, starring Benicio del Toro as a rogue businessman and estranged parent and featuring Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston and many others. Aside from Sofia Coppola and her princesses in gilded cages, Wes Anderson might be the filmmaker who is most obsessively focused on a single theme.