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See My Options Sign UpLovia Gyarkye
Arts & Culture Critic
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Lovia Gyarkye is the Arts and Culture Critic at The Hollywood Reporter, where she reviews film, TV and the occasional Broadway show. Previously, she was an editor at The New York Times‘ monthly print section for kids and a researcher for The New York Times Book Review. Her essays and reviews have been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vogue and The Nation.
More from Lovia Gyarkye
Hollywood Reporter Critics Pick the Best Films of 2023
A romantic collision of past and present, a subversive feminist fairy tale, a metaphysical ghost story, an epic retelling of a horrific footnote in American history and a sublime anti-rom-com are among this year’s highlights.
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Critics’ Conversation: The Great Film Performances of 2023
THR film reviewers delight in an assortment of deliciously unlikable lead turns, single out stars delivering career bests (a wild Emma Stone, a wily Natalie Portman) and celebrate new and rising talents from various corners of the globe.
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Critic’s Notebook: Female Rappers and the Visibility Trap
From Megan Thee Stallion’s new single to the latest season of Issa Rae’s 'Rap Sh!t,' recent pop culture highlights a conundrum for women in hip-hop as undersupported players and overscrutinized subjects.
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‘Candy Cane Lane’ Review: Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross Can’t Redeem Reginald Hudlin’s Bizarre Holiday Comedy
The stars play a married couple whose determination to win a neighborhood house-decorating contest puts them in the path of a vengeful elf.
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‘Leo’ Review: Adam Sandler Is an Advice-Dispensing Lizard in Netflix’s Animated Charmer
The actor voices a curmudgeonly class pet in this Netflix coming-of-age musical about fifth-graders facing their last year of middle school.
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‘Wish’ Review: Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine Voice a Disappointing Tale of Two Disneys
Disney's latest animated offering — a celebration of the company's centennial anniversary — introduces Asha, a headstrong 17-year-old determined to save her kingdom.
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‘Tiger Stripes’ Review: In Malaysia’s Oscar Entry, Puberty Is a Nightmare
Amanda Nell Eu's Cannes Critics' Week prize-winning feature follows three middle-schoolers whose bodily changes are accompanied by creepy happenings.
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‘The Marvels’ Review: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani Are a Winning Trio in Nia DaCosta’s Heartfelt MCU Sequel
In the highly anticipated follow-up to 'Captain Marvel,' three heroes find their fates and powers intertwined.
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Critic’s Notebook: Three Debut Features Give Depth and Dimension to Black Mothers
A.V. Rockwell's 'A Thousand and One,' Savanah Leaf's 'Earth Mama' and now Raven Jackson's 'All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt' are revelatory dramas that shape and shade more complex screen representations of Black mothers.
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‘The Queen of My Dreams’ Review: A Charming and Fanciful Debut Tackles Mother-Daughter Relationships
In Fawzia Mirza's film, a queer Pakistani Canadian girl ('Sex Lives of College Girls' star Amrit Kaur) struggles to reckon with the chasm between her and her mother.
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‘Orlando, My Political Biography’ Review: A Playful and Cerebral Doc Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Radical Novel
Spanish philosopher Paul B. Preciado helms a documentary that links the eponymous hero of Woolf's 1928 novel to a multigenerational group of 25 trans and genderqueer people.
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‘Something You Said Last Night’ Review: A Sensitively Observed but Insufficiently Probing Family Drama
A young trans woman goes on vacation with her caring but overbearing Italian family in Luis De Filippis' debut feature, executive produced by Julia Fox.
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