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

‘Caught by the Tides’ Review: The Ebb and Flow of Love

6 days ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

Jia Zhangke has audiences dip into slow cinema with his tale, filmed over decades, of a couple pulled apart while searching for meaning and success in rapidly developing China. In “Caught by the Tides,” veteran director Jia Zhangke contemplates a changing nation, the passage of time and the sting of regret in the form of a leisurely, impressionistic tribute to his wife filmed over the course of more than 20 years.
Opinion | Coconuts Still Clopping, ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ Turns 50

1 week ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

The madcap medieval farce virtually redefined comedy with its anarchic mix of wit, absurdity and utter silliness. After a week of shooting “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” in 1974 the results were clear.
‘Thunderbolts*’ Review: Marvel’s Superheroic Shrug

1 week ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

The cinematic universe shows scant signs of creative revival in its latest outing, which stars Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Bored, jaded, tired, out of gas and facing the Void. The script for “Thunderbolts*” begs you to notice how its characters’ internal doubts serve as allusions to the sorry state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So: refunds for everyone who bought a ticket to “Eternals” or “The Marvels”? A public apology for “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”?
‘Rust’ Review: Alec Baldwin Rides Out of a Tragedy

1 week ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

Joel Souza’s film, notorious for the on-set shooting incident that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, proves a generally compelling consideration of the costs of violence. The Old West is a savagely twisted moral landscape: Good men might be mistaken for bad ones, and vice versa.
‘The Accountant 2’ Review: Ben Affleck’s Brotherly Sequel

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

Jon Bernthal joins the series as the sibling to its gun-toting, number-crunching protagonist in a movie that proves looser and more comic than its predecessor. It may not rise to the level of “Garbo Laughs,” but “Affleck Dances” makes for an enticing reason to see “The Accountant 2.” As the titular hero, who has autism and finds it difficult to connect with other humans, Ben Affleck is stiff, literal, humorless and mystified by social customs.
‘Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie’ Review: A Duo’s High Achievements

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

Structured by a drive through the desert, David L. Bushell’s documentary is an entertaining, revealing tribute to the two comics. Tommy Chong and Rich Marin were working together in a Vancouver improv comedy troupe in 1969 when its other members faded away and only a duo was left. But what should they call themselves? Chong and Marin didn’t have much zing. Did Mr. Marin have any nicknames, perhaps? Cheech & Chong turned out to be a most felicitous solution: It sticks in the mind.
‘The Shrouds’ Review: David Cronenberg Peers Into the Grave

3 weeks ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

The term “body horror” was first used, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, in a 1983 essay about Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, and that was before he made the movie that shows a woman giving birth to a maggot (the remake of “The Fly,” 1986), the one about twin gynecologists who use an array of exotic surgical tools that look like torture instruments (“Dead Ringers,” 1988), or the one about people who seek car crashes for erotic thrills (“Crash,” 1996).
Opinion | Snacks Are for After the Curtain Call

1 month ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

We paid to hear Denzel do Othello, not your munching. The place: New York City’s venerable Palace Theatre on a weeknight in early April. The audience is eagerly awaiting Act One, Scene One of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1984 landmark, “Glengarry Glen Ross,” this time starring a freshly minted Oscar winner, Kieran Culkin, as the conniving master salesman Ricky Roma. The time is 7:35. The lights go down. The play begins, and . . . Rrrrrrrip crinkle crinkle goes the bag being torn open behind me.
‘Warfare’ Review: The Hard Realities of Battle

1 month ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

War: long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. “Warfare” is attuned to both sensations. After a squad of Navy SEALs takes over a building in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006, the men take turns serving as snipers, carefully raking their gaze across the villagers looking for warning signs. Ten minutes go by without event. Fifteen. Every second of this is riveting. Then: bedlam.
‘The Amateur’ Review: Rami Malek’s Mechanical Spy Thriller

1 month ago | wsj.com | Kyle Smith

On a superspy scale from, say, 001 to 007, Charlie Heller rates about a negative 005. That’s how many floors underground his office at CIA headquarters sits. As played by Rami Malek in “The Amateur,” this desk nerd uses his knowledge of an agency coverup to try to blackmail superiors into letting him have a go at fieldwork. Sure, responds the senior officer. And maybe Charlie would like an Aston Martin and a jet pack as well?