Mid by Midwest: "Babbitt," reviewed.

Matthew Broderick in Babbitt. (Teresa Castracane)

My Washington City Paper review of Babbitt, a Matthew Broderick-anchored adaptation of a Sinclair Lewis novel that premiered at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse last year ahead of its current STC engagement, is here.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Joker: Folie à Deux"

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga need to talk. (Warner Bros.)

I saw The Silence of the Lambs again at the Alamo Drafthouse two nights before I saw Joker: Folie à Deux, which reminded me of author Thomas Harris’s Silence sequel novel (and Ridley Scott’s film adaptation, after Silence director Jonathan Demme declined to return) Hannibal in the way it wants to punish those who loved 2019’s Joker.

I didn’t. But I liked Folie à Deux even less. And I’m still higher on it than my conversation-mates Joelle Monique and Glen Weldon!

The Centrists Cannot Hold: "Mister Lincoln" and "Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground," reviewed.

Tony Award winner John Rubinstein in Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground. (Maria Baranova)

My joint review of Ford’s Scott Bakula-starring production of Mister Lincoln, and of Olney’s show about the president elected four score and seven years after his assassination, Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, is up at the Paper of Record.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Megalopolis"

Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel, above the fray. (Lionsgate)

Aisha, Glen, Bedatri and I recorded this dissection of Megalopolis a mere 12 hours after the screening ended, which we all acknowledged is not time enough to process an overstuffed epic that Coppola has been working on in some capacity for more than half his life. Fun conversation, though.

"Megalopolis," reviewed.

Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in Mr. Coppola’s opus. (Lionsgate)

My Washington City Paper review of Megalopolis, the opus Francis Ford Coppola has been contemplating for more than half his 85-year life, is here. Not the last version of this film we’ll see, I expect.

Just Say Nay: "Cracking Zeus," reviewed

Nicole Ruthmarie and Charles Franklin IV in Spooky Action’s Cracking Zeus. (DJ Corey Photography)

Greek myth and anti-drug messaging collide in Cracking Zeus, a new(ish) play by Christopher T. Hampton that has some intriguing ideas but doesn’t fully cohere in Spooky Action’s production despite several strong perfomrances. My Washington Post review is here.

The Lions in Winter: "Wolfs," reviewed.

Brad Pitt and George Clooney play a pair of lone Wolfs (sic). (Apple TV+)

Eighteen years after my debut as a Washington Post contributor, my debut was a WaPo film critic comes with a fun piece on Wolfs, the pluralization-punking reunion of lions-in-winter George and Brad.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Rebel Ridge"

Don Johnson and Aaron Pierre can’t just get along. (Allyson Riggs / Netflix)

I had fun chopping up Jeremy Saulnier’s smart, human-scale revenge (and also cilvil asset forfeiture) thriller Rebel Ridge with old pal Glen Weldon and new pal Marc Rivers. I was never onboard with the Michael-B.-Jordan-as-Superman movement, but Aaron Pierre as Kal-El? I’m here for it.