Neal Pollack

‘Spider Noir’ Is the Strangest Spider-Man Yet

June 5, 2026 Neal Pollack 0 Comments 1930s New York, alternate universe, Amazon Originals, Amazon Prime Video, art deco, black and white cinematography, Brendan Gleeson, comic book adaptations, comic book television, Crime Drama, Edward G Robinson, Electro, film noir, Genre Television, Humphrey Bogart, Jack Huston, James Cagney, Karen Rodriguez, Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Marvel adaptation, Nicolas Cage, Nicolas Cage performances, noir fiction, Pop Culture, Prime Video, private detectives, Pulp Fiction, Sam Fuller, Sandman, Spider Noir, Spider Verse, Spider-Man, Streaming Television, superhero television, superhero TV, Television Review, The Black Cat, The Lizard, TV criticism

Nicolas Cage does his best Humphrey Bogart as a webslinger who’s also a hardboiled 1930s private eye

Featured Stories FILM

Should We Be Flocking To See ‘The Sheep Detectives’?

May 15, 2026May 19, 2026 Neal Pollack 0 Comments adaptations from novels, Agatha Christie, animated animals, Babe, British cinema, Bryan Cranston, cgi animals, Charlotte's Web, children’s movies, Chris O'Dowd, comedy drama, cozy mystery, Craig Mazin, detective stories, Emma Thompson, family films, film criticism, Hugh Jackman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Knives Out, Kyle Balda, leonie swan, Molly Gordon, murder mystery films, Nicholas Braun, quirky british towns, Succession, talking animal movies, The Bear, Three Bags Full, whodunnit

Hugh Jackman and ‘Cousin Greg’ star in this cinematic hybrid of ‘Babe’ and ‘Knives Out’

Streaming TELEVISION

‘Margot’s Got Money Troubles’ is Actual Money for Apple+

May 8, 2026May 8, 2026 Neal Pollack 0 Comments Apple TV, Apple TV Plus, Bodhi, character driven drama, comedy drama, contemporary TV, dramedy, Elle Fanning, Emmy buzz, entertainment, Euphoria, Family Drama, feminism, feminist television, Gen Z culture, Greg Kinnear, Hollywood, Marcia Gay Harden, Michelle Pfeiffer, millennial culture, modern sexuality, motherhood, Nick Offerman, Nicole Kidman, OnlyFans, parenting, Pop Culture, prestige TV, rufi thorpe, Sex Education, sex positivity, sex work discourse, Shyanne, single motherhood, streaming culture, Streaming Television, streaming TV, Television Review, television series, TikTok culture, TV criticism, TV review, women on television

Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman, Nicole Kidman, Marcia Gay Harden and more star in an Emmy-destined show

Featured Stories FILM

Boodled by the Art and Artists of ‘The Christophers’

April 29, 2026May 13, 2026 Neal Pollack 0 Comments art world films, British actors, contemporary cinema, Ed Solomon, film review, Ian McKellen, indie cinema 2026, James Corden, Jessica Gunning, Michaela Coel, Steven Soderbergh, The Christophers

Steven Soderbergh comes out of retirement yet again to direct Sir Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel

FILM

‘The Stranger’ Turns Existentialism Into Something Dangerous

April 26, 2026 Neal Pollack 3 Comments absurdism, Albert Camus, Algiers 1930s, arthouse cinema, Benjamin Voisin, best films 2026, black and white film, book adaptation, Camus adaptation, classic literature, colonial history, colonialism, culture criticism, existential philosophy, existentialism, film adaptation, film criticism, film reviews, foreign film, François Ozon, French Algeria, French cinema, French New Wave, Italian neorealism, Jean-Paul Sartre, media analysis, Meursault, movie reviews, Orson Welles adaptation, philosophy in film, Pierre Lottin, postcolonial themes, race and identity, Rebecca Marder, The Cure Killing an Arab, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Stranger, violence and morality

François Ozon’s elegant Camus adaptation finds new urgency in colonial Algiers

Streaming TELEVISION

‘The Pitt’ Season 2: A Postmortem

April 17, 2026 Neal Pollack 0 Comments ensemble cast, Gerran Howell, healthcare drama, hot doctor trope, ICE storyline, Isa Briones, Katherine LaNasa, Max TV series, medical drama, Noah Wyle, Patrick Ball, political TV, Prestige Television, Shawn Hatosy, Taylor Dearden, The Pitt, The Pitt Season 2, TV review

Taking stock of Noah Wyle and HBO Max’s hot docs

FILM

‘The Drama’ Uses Vomit in Place of Emotion, That’s Just the Start

April 10, 2026April 10, 2026 Neal Pollack 1 Comment Alana Haim, Boston films, controversial films, dark comedy, European cinema, film criticism, film review, Indie Film, Kristoffer Borgli, Mamoudou Athie, Millennials, Robert Pattinson, romantic comedy satire, The Drama, Zendaya

Kristoffer Borgli wants to skewer modern romcom conventions but ends with a smug exercise in millennial self-loathing

Book and Film Globe Podcasts FILM

BFG Podcast #202: SXSW, ‘Project Hail Mary,’ and Guy Fieri’s ‘Tournament of Champions’

March 23, 2026March 23, 2026 Neal Pollack 1 Comment America's Culinary Cup, Apple TV Plus, astronauts, Austin Texas, BFG Podcast, Book and Film Globe, CBS cooking show, Dan Friedman, Elle Fanning, Festival Coverage, festival culture, Film festival, film review, flashback narratives, food competition shows, Food Network, Guy Fieri, HBO comedy, Larry David, live music, Margot's Got Money Troubles, media criticism, Neal Pollack, Nick Jonas, Omar Gallaga, Once film, Paul Rudd, podcast episode, power ballad, Project Hail Mary, Robert Dean, science fiction, Sing Street director, South By Southwest, space movies, SXSW 2026, Top Chef, Tournament Of Champions, TV previews

Neal Pollack, Omar Gallaga, Dan Friedman, and Robert Dean talk food, film, and the future of humanity

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As for the Audiences, Just ‘Fackham Hall’

March 19, 2026March 23, 2026 Neal Pollack 1 Comment adult humor, agatha christie homage, airplane inspiration, bechdel test parody, blazing saddles reference, british comedy, british manor setting, comedy film review, comedy writing, Damian Lewis, downton abbey parody, Emma Laird, fackham hall, farce, film satire, genre parody, hbo max streaming, irreverent comedy, jimmy carr, katherine waterston, lady gaga joke, locked room mystery, mel brooks influence, netflix comparison, period drama spoof, slapstick comedy, spoof film, tailor swift pun, the naked gun, thomasin mckenzie, tom felton, trainspotting reference, wordplay jokes, young frankenstein comparison, zucker brothers style

Jimmy Carr’s ‘Downtown Abbey’ parody has been overlooked so far

Book and Film Globe Podcasts Featured Stories FILM

Who Will Win the Oscars? A Special BFG Podcast

March 12, 2026March 13, 2026 Neal Pollack 0 Comments Ana de Armas, Benicio del Toro, Bugonia, First Man, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, One Battle After Another, Oscars, Sinners, The Oscars

Neal Pollack and Stephen Garrett run the rule over this year’s contenders and also savage ‘The Bride!’

FILM

Pixar’s ‘Hoppers’ Is a Looney Tunes Eco-Fable

March 9, 2026 Neal Pollack 0 Comments animated films, beavers, Beaverton fictional city, Bobby Moynihan, Daniel Chong, Dave Franco, deep ecology, eco activism stories, environmental movies, Gavin Newsom parody, Hoppers, Jesse Andrews, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Looney Tunes influence, Meryl Streep, Pacific Northwest setting, Piper Curda, Pixar, Pixar Animation Studios, Pixar movies, Pixar style storytelling, robot animals, Rube Goldberg inventions, science fiction comedy, urban wildlife, Wallace and Grommet style, wildlife conservation

Mabel and her beavers bring a dam fine film to Disney’s pantheon

Baz Luhrmann Gives Elvis, Belatedly, the Role of His Lifetime

March 2, 2026March 5, 2026 Neal Pollack 5 Comments Baz Luhrmann, Colonel Parker, concert films, Elvis Presley, EPiC Elvis Presley in Concert, Las Vegas shows, music documentaries, Priscilla Presley, rock and roll movies, Tom Hanks

In ‘EPiC,’ lost concert footage captures Elvis Presley at the height of his sweaty, charismatic power.

Featured Stories FILM

Welcome to the AI-pocalypse

February 26, 2026March 3, 2026 Neal Pollack 0 Comments Charlie Booker, Gore Verbinski, Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple, Matthew Robinson, Michael Peña, Sam Rockwell, Terry Gilliam, Zazie Beetz

Gore Verbinski is back with a nutso kind of ‘Black Mirror’ movie

Featured Stories FILM

New On Criterion : David Cronenberg Gets Lost in ‘The Shrouds’

July 8, 2025July 13, 2025 Neal Pollack 0 Comments David Cronenberg, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, The Shrouds, Vincent Cassel

Serious themes about grief and the carnality of death become muddled in a talky cyber-conspiracy

CREATORS Writers

Pollack Out

June 20, 2025June 20, 2025 Neal Pollack 8 Comments

My time at Book and Film Globe has ended, and the world weeps

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