Lara Kristin Herndon

Lara Kristin Herndon is an award-winning writer of both fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Wired, O, The Oprah Magazine and The New York Times.
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RRR

A wild, breathtaking, high-octane action blockbuster from India that’s also a parable about the dignity of mankind and the fight for independence and self-rule.

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Cowboy Bebop

A strange, poignant and funny adventure with amazing music, a talented cast, and beautifully detailed costumes and sets, the live action Cowboy Bebop adaptation makes you nostalgic for the original—hey, guess what’s also streaming on Netflix? All 26 original episodes!

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Last Night in Soho

Last Night in Soho takes horror and coming-of-age tropes and subverts them in a stylish thriller that has more depth than meets the eye.

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Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

With a pretty, beach-y setting, two adorable leads, and a host of beguiling small-town characters, this is K-drama-as-comfort-food.

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Muhammad Ali

There’s no better focal point to examine the turbulent racial, religious, cultural, and political currents that shook America throughout the 1960s and 70s than Ken Burns’ Muhammad Ali. Ali transcended the narrow theater of sport to become, for a time, the most famous man alive.

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Gossip Girl (2021)

With a witty script packed with up-to-the-second cultural references and tear-jerking teen angst, a gorgeous cast, and a sumptuously-lit Manhattan for a backdrop, the show is a diverting addition to the teen-drama pantheon

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Start-Up (Seutateueop)

Every great success starts small. But if you don’t fix the bugs in the source code, they can come back to haunt you later—in life and in start-ups.

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Aggretsuko (Aggressive Retsuko)

What if Pam from The Office was secretly a head-banging heavy-metal girl by night? Created by the team behind Hello Kitty, this animated Japanese series has become an international hit.

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A Watercooler Watch: Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything

Before social media and podcasts, there was one undeniable truth about news-making interviews: if a story mattered, Barbara Walters would be the one to tell it. Landing a one-on-one with her didn’t just mean publicity, it meant you had become part of a national conversation. But while the interview signified that you had made it,

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A Need-to-Know Guide to The Buccaneers

Was life in the Gilded Age all that gilded?  In the HBO Max series, penned by Downton Abbey’s creator Julian Fellowes, the focus is on the class divide between America’s old money aristocrats and new money industrialists, and the often exhausting rules of “society.”  Apple TV’s The Buccaneers, which just returned for its second season,

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A Watercooler Guide to The Phoenician Scheme: Wes Anderson’s Oil-Baron Fever Dream

Wes Anderson films are easy to spot, but not always easy to describe. Watching them feels like stepping inside a handcrafted diorama of history: symmetrical, stylized, and slightly sentimental. From the wry narration and sharp color palettes to his signature whip pans and deadpan dialogue, Anderson crafts cinematic worlds where emotions are bottled then uncorked

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A Need-to-Know Guide to And Just Like That…

It’s been a two year wait, but Carrie Bradshaw and her tribe of fabulous fifty-somethings are finally back with their third season. You’d be forgiven if you lost track of the Sex and the City sequel and its storylines. But with summer’s planes, trains, and automobiles and rained-in weekends, And Just Like That might be

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Bring Her Back

A psychological horror film with standout performances, Bring Her Back isn’t just about summoning the dead, it’s about confronting the parts of ourselves we lose in the process. The Philippou brothers have crafted a film that dares to ask whether the true horror lies in what we’re willing to do in the name of love.

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The Something for Everyone Show: Poker Face is Back

Can’t agree on what to watch together?  Consider putting on your Poker Face. Peacock’s acclaimed mystery-of-the-week series created by Rian Johnson (best known for Star Wars: The Last Jedi and, most relevant here, the Glass Onion films) and starring Natasha Lyonne, is finally back for another season after two long years. That’s great news for

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It’s not HBO, it’s The Pitt: How streamers are embracing old TV network models  

“It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” Remember that old tagline? For nearly all of its history, broadcast television has been fighting against the perception that it’s subordinate to film as a storytelling medium. Television was just media for the masses, as opposed to the more erudite aficionados of cinema (who, by the way, poured into theaters

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Boyhood

Boyhood captures the importance of moments in time as people grow up and contests the idea that any singular moment is defining to your childhood. It’s a film filled with the full breadth of the emotions of childhood, conveying each one delicately to leave you reflecting on its many pensive conversations. 

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Theater Camp

Theater Camp is a treat for those who remember what it’s like to be young and to have a dream, and who haven’t forgotten all the sweat and ambition that comes with it, and how it can feel like the most important thing that has ever happened. The world of AdirondACTS is richly envisioned, and

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Welcome, or No Trespassing

An intriguing time capsule of a film with an original take on the summer camp movie, Welcome, or No Trespassing is also a biting social satire of the autocratic Soviet regime.

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Asteroid City

Asteroid City is like a trip to a resort — it’s fun, colorful, outwardly buoyant and a little soulless, a potent combination that makes it both a pinnacle of Wes Anderson’s style and a slight miss as a narrative picture.

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Riviera

If you’re looking for a glitzy, sexy, escape, Riviera serves up three seasons of a lush, soapy mystery series dripping in yachts, conspiracies, globe trotting art world intrigue, and spy thriller plots that include a somewhat timely Russian threat.

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What AI Can’t Tell You About The Bear S2

The Bear just returned for its second season The Bear Season 2 on Hulu, and we threw a party in Brooklyn, home of star Jeremy Allen White. For the uninitiated, and those unwittingly relying on AI bot reviews, we are talking about the show set in a Chicago sandwich shop – not the movie about

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The Bear S1

The Bear is a fast-tempo character study set behind the scenes of a family-run Chicago restaurant. It invites you in to pull up a chair and watch the drama unfold, but never lets you get too comfortable.

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The Blackening Stars on Busting Tropes and Favorite Films

It may sound like a familiar premise with The Blackening Stars: During a weekend getaway in celebration of Juneteenth, a group of Black friends find themselves stranded inside a cabin, and forced to participate in a game by a disturbed killer.  Jay Pharaoh, Antoinette Robinson, and Melvin Gregg. But this a different movie, and the

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Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Stories about pre-teen girls find a natural rhythm with the hero’s journey. The call to adventure, facing allies and enemies, crossing the threshold of the mortal world—an eleven-year-old girl can experience all of this during one lunch period. When Margaret moves from Manhattan to suburban New Jersey, it begins her harrowing journey through the messiness,

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