“How does a film which opens with the protagonist putting a dog in a trash compactor and then racially harassing a neighbor turn into a romcom with an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes? Jack Nicholson. That's how.”

“The inherent contradiction at the heart of the Piaf in the film- a vulnerable, charismatic, childlike mirage of personas- renders her as unknowable to herself as to her audiences.”

“Midnight Express established Stone’s characteristic mode of controversial, lurid storytelling about real world events — a style sometimes described as ‘unflinching’ in a time before provocation became the ubiquitous currency of social narrative.”

“Like all good ‘content’, He’s All That is peddling not a story but numbness, using two familiar, comforting triggers for the Netflix-native generation: disdain and nostalgia. The bland acting, the insipid plot, the cringeworthy Frito-pushing all are calibrated for the Gen-Z viewer blasting themselves with content from three-odd screens at once, without fully engaging with any of them.”

“The agonizing spectacle of the rival “queens” dueling it out for a sliver of control over their corner of society- armed with Judy Garland quotes and Bette Davis imitations- gains more than the average big-budget stage production might from its ensemble of Hollywood actors, for whom the central theme- the dual joy and repression of performance- seems all too believable.”

“Jordan’s strategy allows the film to operate on multiple planes of interpretation for a broad audience: depicting both the gravity of people’s pain, and the comic, ridiculous nature of the social predicaments and prejudices which create it.”