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Sam Adams

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Sam Adams is a critic and staff writer for Slate. His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Entertainment Weekly, and many other publications.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
zi (2026) 73% EDIT “Drawing heavily on Agnès Varda’s Cléo From 5 to 7, with a little Chris Marker and Wong Kar-wai thrown in for good measure, it can feel sometimes like a vibe in search of a story, but the vibes are often exquisite.” – Slate Feb 2, 2026 Full Review Time and Water (2026) 91% EDIT “The movie forces us to ponder what remains after we’ve left this earth, and what kind of planet we want to leave behind.” – Slate Feb 2, 2026 Full Review Run Amok (2026) 72% EDIT “Its star makes sure we feel what the movie can’t find words to say.” – Slate Feb 2, 2026 Full Review One in a Million (2026) 100% EDIT “Though Isra’a and Tarek’s relationship can be painful to witness, the movie’s complicated and unpredictable arc is a poignant reminder that life always has more in store.” – Slate Feb 2, 2026 Full Review Night Nurse (2026) 77% EDIT “Night Nurse has some first-film wobbles that grow more severe as the plot progresses but in a genre with too few recent entries and even fewer good ones, it’s a glass of water in the desert.” – Slate Feb 2, 2026 Full Review The Musical (2026) 57% EDIT “Alexander Heller’s screenplay is too broad for the comedy to cut as deep as it wants to, but Brill’s performance has acid in it as well as bile, a self-lacerating edge that’s just slightly more fascinating than it is repellent.” – Slate Feb 2, 2026 Full Review The Lake (2026) EDIT “What makes this more than a standard issue-driven documentary is Ellis’ subtle but insistent tracking of the role religious faith plays on both sides of the debate. ” – Slate Feb 2, 2026 Full Review Josephine (2026) 98% EDIT “The fact that de Araújo based the story on her own experience shouldn’t be what defines this accomplished and deeply thoughtful film, but it only increases the sense of awe that she so fully and fairly captures.” – Slate Feb 2, 2026 Full Review The Best Summer (2026) EDIT “Davis’ movie is chaotic and rough-hewn, and the performances and songs seem chosen almost at random, but it’s a precious time capsule, and a must for anyone who cares about the bands or the time.” – Slate Feb 2, 2026 Full Review Everybody To Kenmure Street (2026) 100% EDIT “Framing the movie through the hourslong standoff between police and protesters, Bustos Sierra departs from that ticking-clock narrative to fill viewers in on the history behind the apparently out-of-nowhere show of support.” – Slate Jan 29, 2026 Full Review Buddy (2026) 81% EDIT “The movie’s hilarious and unsettling disjunctions come from the way it introduces genuine menace into Buddy’s world without needing to rewrite its rules, because the menace was already bubbling just under the surface.” – Slate Jan 27, 2026 Full Review Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2006) 100% EDIT “It restores Thurman’s performance to a unified whole rather than presenting it in two disconnected halves, allowing us to see her career-defining work in one gloriously unbroken arc.” – Slate Dec 8, 2025 Full Review The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo (2025) 92% EDIT “The Stringer goes to great lengths to investigate the question of where Nick Ut was on that road, constructing a timeline of events and plucking his blurry silhouette out of the background of photos focused on other subjects.” – Slate Dec 3, 2025 Full Review The Running Man (2025) 63% EDIT “It sparks to life only for brief periods.” – Slate Nov 14, 2025 Full Review The Perfect Neighbor (2025) 99% EDIT “A chilling and provocative look at the limits of policing, particularly when the laws the police are called to enforce present more of a problem than a solution.” – Slate Nov 4, 2025 Full Review TRON: Ares (2025) 53% EDIT “Ares has all the reflectiveness of an earnings call. ” – Slate Oct 14, 2025 Full Review Megadoc (2025) 98% EDIT “Megadoc is fascinating in its own right. ” – Slate Sep 23, 2025 Full Review The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) 95% EDIT “A filmmaker who has worked in both fiction and documentary—and been nominated for both international-film and documentary Oscars—Ben Hania periodically reminds the audience just how faithful the re-creation they’re watching is. ” – Slate Sep 19, 2025 Full Review Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (2025) 98% EDIT “The difficulty of connection, the fact that Farsi has to grab every chance to talk even if it means propping a phone up on her laptop screen or squatting on the floor of a rented room, becomes a powerful through line.” – Slate Sep 19, 2025 Full Review Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025) 100% EDIT “A thrilling, roof-shaking blast.” – Slate Sep 10, 2025 Full Review Honey Don't! (2025) 45% EDIT “Half a dozen or so good jokes notwithstanding, the movie is a slog, shockingly bereft of even the Coens’ baseline virtues. ” – Slate Aug 25, 2025 Full Review DEVO (2024) 85% EDIT “It’s about as comprehensive as a brief history of a band’s 50-year career can be.” – Slate Aug 20, 2025 Full Review My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow (2024) 100% EDIT “Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part I—Last Air in Moscow grabs you from its opening frames and, despite its substantial length, never loosens its grip on your soul.” – Slate Aug 16, 2025 Full Review Weapons (2025) 93% EDIT “It’s a creepy, nasty good time, with scares that will make audiences jump in their seats and a few that will leave them profoundly unsettled. ” – Slate Aug 6, 2025 Full Review Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 (2025) 82% EDIT “It’s dazzling and terrifying, a guide to a political movement that has been gathering steam for decades and shows no signs of letting up. ” – Slate Aug 6, 2025 Full Review
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