Nick Schager

United States

Entertainment Critic at The Daily Beast

Entertainment Critic @thedailybeast / @beastobsessed Member: @nyfcc, @TheNSFC, @CriticsChoice, @ofcs Endlessly opinionated

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Articles

Buzzy Movie ‘Sinners’ Is Worst Kind of Vampiric Bloodbath

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Nick Schager |Kevin Fallon

Music may traditionally soothe the savage beast, but in Sinners, it rouses the world’s devilish monsters to emerge from the darkness, sing a menacing song or two, and feast on the living. Pairing director Ryan Coogler with his Black Panther and Creed leading man Michael B. Jordan, this original period-piece nightmare, in theaters April 18, has style and swagger to burn, as well as a couple of tantalizing ideas buried beneath its gory surface.
The Hit Comedy That’s Making TV So, So Much Gayer

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Kevin Fallon |Nick Schager |Andrew Crump |Clare Donaldson

“ Don’t say it! Don’t f---ing say it! Don’t you f---ing say it, because I’ll hunt you down!”Nathan Lane is yelling at me in jest. Well, I hope in jest. Certainly in jest? He’s reached that kettle-whistle boiling point that’s become his comedy trademark; you can practically see the steam coming from his ears in the Zoom screen when we talk.
What in God’s Name Is the New Jesus Movie ‘King of Kings’?

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Jesse Hassenger |Clare Donaldson |Barry Levitt |Nick Schager

Somehow, Jesus returned. That’s both a glib summary of what happens in the new Easter-season animated movie The King of Kings and a description of this cut-rate attempt by Angel Studios to revive the Biblical epic. Angel became an unexpected industry player on the strength of its smash hit Sound of Freedom a few years back, and has been regularly releasing faith-based entertainment ever since.
‘The Rehearsal’ Is the Undisputed Craziest Show on TV

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Nick Schager |Kevin Fallon

Tom Cruise may be Hollywood’s king of death-defying stunts, but he’s got nothing on Nathan Fielder, who concludes Season 2 of The Rehearsal with a feat of mad, mind-boggling genius guaranteed to leave viewers stunned, terrified, and laughing out loud—as well as, surprisingly, deeply moved.
Walton Goggins and Pedro Pascal Shine in This New Dramedy

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Nick Schager |Kevin Fallon

There may be no greater fear in Hollywood than obsolescence, and that terror courses throughout The Uninvited (April 11, in theaters), an exceptionally funny and sad story about movie industry ambition, regret, and bitterness over things both abandoned and lost.
‘Drop’ Is a Nightmare That’s the Perfect Date-Night Movie

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Nick Schager

First dates are hit or miss, but few turn out as horribly as Violet’s (Meghann Fahy) evening on the town in Drop. Wading back into the dating pool following the death of her husband, the newly single Chicagoan winds up in a world of 21st-century trouble in Christopher Landon’s thriller, which goes for Hitchcock-via-De Palma and throws in a dash of Trap for good giddy measure.
‘Warfare: The Most Nerve-Rattling War Film in Years

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Nick Schager

Every military encounter with the enemy is a war unto itself, and Warfare immerses itself in one such skirmish in real time and with harrowing, up-close-and-personality intensity. Having imagined a fictional domestic conflict with last year’s Civil War, Alex Garland shifts his attention to a foreign battle with his latest, a based on-true-events drama co-directed by Ray Mendoza, whose experiences as a Navy SEAL during the Iraq War are the basis for its blistering and brutal action.
Jon Hamm Steals From Rich Friends to Stay in the One Percent

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Nick Schager

Rich people have problems too—and Your Friends & Neighbors wants viewers to really, truly care about them, via the story of a New York hedge fund manager whose downward spiral lets him recognize the emptiness of his upper-crust suburban existence and compels him to rob acquaintances of their prized possessions.
Viola Davis Plays Kamala Harris in a ‘Die Hard’ Movie

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Nick Schager

G20 is a fairy tale from another era, employing every trick in the 1990s action playbook while imagining a Black female President who unites the world and saves her family through valiant a**-kicking.
The ‘USS Callister’ Sequel Is the Only ‘Black Mirror’ Episode Worth Watching

2 weeks ago | thedailybeast.com | Nick Schager

Given the generally lackluster nature of its cautionary tales about technology, it will surprise few that Black Mirror is mostly underwhelming in its seventh season, with chapters ranging from the cute and semi-clever (“Common People”), to the sketchy and ho-hum (“Eulogy,” “Plaything,” “Bête Noire”), to the nonsensical and intolerable (“Hotel Reverie,” which stands as this run’s unqualified nadir).