Shirley Li
She covers Hollywood and the shifting culture of the American entertainment industry. She was an editorial fellow at The Atlantic from 2014 to 2015. Before returning to the publication in 2019, Shirley worked as a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly, reporting on film and TV.
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A24 A Love That Can Be at Once Platonic and Romantic
In Past Lives, distance and quiet are key to understanding a soaring intimacy.
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Jeong Park / A24 The Filmmaker Who Knows What’s Wrong With Your Relationships
To Nicole Holofcener, the writer-director of You Hurt My Feelings, every partnership is about figuring out “when to speak up and when to shut up.”
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Peter Kramer / HBO Succession Ends as It Began
The show’s epic finale gave us drama, cruelty, and the cold thud of reality.
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Kailey Schwerman / Showtime Yellowjackets, How Could You?
On the terrible mistake of the show’s Season 2 finale
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Carlos Lopez-Calleja / Disney A Chinese American Show That Doesn’t Bother to Explain Itself
Disney+’s American Born Chinese, based on the best-selling graphic novel, offers a confident take on the second-generation experience.
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Amazon Freevee Jury Duty Is Terrific TV. It Shouldn’t Get Another Season.
The magic of the show is that it doesn’t yet have a formula.
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Claudette Barius / HBO The Sad, Sad Life of Tom Wambsgans
After living to serve, the most pathetic character on Succession finally finds himself on the outs.
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Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times / Getty Why You Should Pay Attention to the Hollywood Writers’ Strike
“For a week or two, it’s kind of annoying ... But after several months, it can be disastrous.”
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Dana Hawley / Lionsgate Why Women Never Stop Coming of Age
The movie adaptation of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret captures the cross-generational power of Judy Blume’s beloved novel.
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David Russell / HBO Succession Unlocks a New Stage of Grief
After acceptance comes the sales pitch.
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Netflix A Comedy About the Misery of Having It All
In Netflix’s Beef, Ali Wong is the antiheroine TV deserves.
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Macall B. Polay / HBO The Unexpected Tenderness of Succession
What a night inside the world’s saddest karaoke room revealed about the Roys
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Searchlight Pictures A Romantic Comedy You Never Want to End
The gleefully inventive Rye Lane is full of good chemistry and good vibes.
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Kailey Schwerman / Showtime Yellowjackets Understands the Horror of Toxic Best Friends
In the show’s second season, bonds formed in adolescence continue to bless and poison the present.
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Apple TV+ Tetris Doesn’t Stack Up
How can a film based on a game about perfectly interlocking pieces be so messy?
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Colin Hutton / Apple TV+ Ted Lasso Is No Longer Trying to Feel Good
In the show’s third season, everyone but Ted is on edge.
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Lacey Terrell / Prime Video Daisy Jones and the Trap of the Love Triangle
How could a show about a chart-topping band care so little about the making of their music?
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Liane Hentscher / HBO How The Last of Us Cherishes a Bygone World
Even as the show moves through a new postapocalyptic reality, it keeps a close eye on what’s been lost.
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Apple TV+ A Show About Mistaking Hype for Progress
In AppleTV+’s new dramedy Hello Tomorrow!, set in a retro-futuristic society, everything shiny is useless.
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Bleecker Street A Sensitive Movie About a Literary Oddity
A new film about Emily Brontë offers a fresh, provocative look at the misunderstood Wuthering Heights author.
