April Wolfe

Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys on The Americans; Credit: FX

The Americans, Stranger Things and the Harm of Our Sanitized ’80s Nostalgia

April Wolfe
On first glance, Netflix’s Stranger Things and FX’s The Americans have absolutely nothing in common. One is a nostalgic, sci-fi, family-friendly romp through Steven Spielberg’s cerebellum. The other is a series of hardened, complex moral quandaries in Cold War America. What they do share, however, is the same time period,......
Credit: Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

The Hollow Point's Hollowness Makes It More Deadly — to Watch

April Wolfe
Even for a proud B movie, this is ridiculous: Gonzalo Lopéz-Gallego’s The Hollow Point imagines a small town on the U.S.-Mexican border where the only Latino person is a cartel plant (John Leguizamo) sent to murder the white folks who sold the Mexicans bullets. The script, written by newcomer Nils......
Credit: Courtesy of Gravitas Ventures

Today's Teens Face Today's Confusion in the Romantic Comedy Slash

April Wolfe
How often has a mainstream film tackled the real-life anxieties of the kind of questioning teens who turn to Tumblr and Reddit to learn the facts of life? Mostly because it’s complicated and uncharted territory, a lot of adults just don’t get it. The flourishing variety of gender and sexual-preference......
Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Denzel Washington Brings August Wilson's Masterwork to the People

April Wolfe
I shouldn’t have to explain why Fences, the August Wilson play set in the 1950s and now adapted for the screen, is important. If you’ve stepped anywhere near the theater — and I mean the playhouse here — you’ve read, seen, or heard about it. Wilson, who didn’t study theater......
Credit: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

Natalie Portman Thrills in Pablo Larraín’s Impeccable Biopic Jackie

April Wolfe
In the pantheon of American First Ladies, Jacqueline Kennedy was no Eleanor Roosevelt. She didn’t push for policy, didn’t relinquish her pillbox hat to walk among the needy, didn’t travel to foreign countries as an ambassador and certainly didn’t advise her husband on matters of war. Jackie Kennedy’s role was......