This was by far the toughest of these lists to write, and not just because the research took so much longer than I anticipated. Many of these reviews are challenging to access now, and I spent a lot of time cursing at paywalls as I dug through old archives and hit a lot of dead links. A few reviews are not on this list simply because the podcast or publication in which it originally existed has been lost to time. This feature would not have been possible without the Wayback Machine, for which I am eternally grateful. Frankly, serious critical reviews of any kind are getting much too rare. Most of the entries below are movie reviews, but there are reviews for a few other things as well, including a fictional review of a fictional restaurant.
I tried to keep a balance between the positive reviews and negative ones, putting more emphasis on the thoughtful longform pieces. Some of these reviews were chosen by the critics themselves, because in a few cases I knew I wanted the reviewer on the list but had trouble picking a specific piece. David Ehrlich, for example, has claimed his favorite review that he's written is the one for "Personal Shopper," and I can't find any reason to disagree with him.
As with all the lists in this series, there are 25 entries, but only the top ten get writeups. In the interests of keeping this list more navigable, I'm simply listing the critic and what they reviewed, and leaving off the actual titles of the reviews as some of them get confusing. I'm also leaving off the publications in most cases, as a few went through name changes or got sold off to other companies, and untangling those webs is not something I'm keen on spending more time doing.
Justin Chang, "Oppenheimer" - I didn't particularly like "Oppenheimer," and I didn't see what Justin Chang saw in the film - and more importantly what he and others didn't see in the film. However, I came to appreciate what Christopher Nolan was doing more after reading Chang's passionate analysis of "the radical subjectivity" of "Oppenheimer" and the complicated cultural and historical waters that a biography of this kind has to navigate.
Manohla Dargis, "The Dark Knight" - I had the hardest time picking a review for Dargis, but I finally settled on her meticulously constructed positive review of "The Dark Knight," because it does such a thorough and thoughtful job of articulating all the reasons why the film stood out from the blockbuster crowd. While I enjoy the critics with entertaining writing, it's the ones who can really put together a strong argument that I find indispensable.
David Erhlich, "Personal Shopper" - It's a brave reviewer who puts so much of themselves in their reviews, and it doesn't get more personal than this. Ehrlich grapples with the death of a loved one while writing about "Personal Shopper," a singular ghost story. Along the way, he also interviews star Kristen Stewart and filmmaker Olivier Assayas and contributes his own musings on the nature of film, interpersonal connections, and modern technology.
Roger Ebert, "Synecdoche, New York" - I planned to write about Ebert's fantastic "Grave of the Fireflies" review, only to discover it was published a few months too early for this list. I also considered some of his legendary pans, such as the ones for "Pearl Harbor" or "The Human Centipede." But I went with the "Synecdoche, New York" review, because it is a film we both loved, and Ebert was always at his best championing the movies that he loved.
Film Crit Hulk, "The Last Jedi" - There have been so many writeups on what happened with "The Last Jedi" and the "Star Wars" fandom, but Film Crit Hulk's reasonably-sized rave about "The Last Jedi" and the very, very, very long follow-up piece he wrote for The Observer about the fan backlash are really all you need to understand what happened. The length is typical for Film Crit Hulk, a critic who could not have existed in his current form pre-internet.
Hbomberguy's review of The Nostalgia Critic's review of "The Wall" - The video essay is sometimes a very good vehicle for reviews, and Hbomberguy's takedown of The Nostalgia Critic's musical parody of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" has become one of the most notorious. It's not just a review of a review, but a review of a reviewer's entire modus operandi, and it's a scathing one. In fact, it bears a few similarities to the next entry on the list, which brings up to…
Andrea Long Chu, A Little Life and other works by Hanya Yanagihara - As someone who hasn't been much of a reader, particularly of prestigious modern literature, Andrea Long Chu's description of the misery-porn plot of A Little Life sounded too tasteless and ridiculous to be real. The accompanying critique is lengthy, merciless, very well written, and I'd feel sorry for Yanagihara if it weren't for her book's evisceration clearly being so richly deserved.
Emily St. James, "Mad Men" - To be specific, these are the AV Club reviews that St. James wrote as the show was airing weekly in the 2010s. Long form television recapping and reviews really only happened with the advent of the internet, and I knew I had to represent them on this list somehow. So, I'm picking St James's "Mad Men" reviews, because I read them as I binged the show, and I find that I can't mentally separate the two experiences. I know I'm not alone.
Pete Wells, Guy Fieri's American Kitchen & Bar in Midtown Times Square - I don't know anything about food, but this is a very entertaining piece of writing and well worth revisiting.
Stephanie Zacharek, "Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door" - Finally, I think this is the only major negative review I've found of Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," a film that Zacharek uses to contrast against in her rave for Shiniciro Watanabe's "Cowboy Bebop" feature - an obscure science-fiction anime romp aimed at adults. I disagree with her conclusions, but agree with most of her arguments and deeply appreciate her willingness to make them.
The next fifteen:
David Denby, "Ida" and "Detropia"
Phil Hoad, Yoshitaro Nomura's "The Demon"
Charlie Jane Anders "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen"
Noah Antwiler "Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge"
Anthony Lane "Air"
Wesley Morris, "The Help" and "The Fast and Furious" movies
Jenny Nicholson, Star Wars Galaxy's Edge hotel
The Oatmeal, Twilight
Nathan Rabin, "Megalopolis"
Alan Sepinwall "The Sopranos" and "Atlanta"
A.O. Scott, "Joker"
Lindy West, "Sex and the City 2"
Mark Kermode,"Sex and the City 2"
and
"Top Gear," a green Ford Fiesta
Anton Ego, Gusteau's Restaurant
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