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USA Today
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
'Angry Alan' review: John Krasinski plunges into the manosphere
'Angry Alan' review: John Krasinski plunges into the manosphere Show Caption Hide Caption John Krasinski, Natalie Portman talk 'Fountain of Youth' car chase John Krasinski, Natalie Portman reveal they were genuinely frightened while shooting car chase in 'Fountain of Youth.' NEW YORK — Modern men are in a crisis. A quick Google search will warn you that guys are feeling more isolated, depressed and suicidal than ever before. One of those gents is Roger (John Krasinski), a perfectly mediocre and seemingly innocuous fortysomething. Roger is now a dairy manager at Kroger after losing his plum desk job at AT&T. He's divorced but has a steady girlfriend, and a teenage son whom he sees every so often as long as the child support checks clear. Roger is also deeply insecure and consumed by a grievous pastime: He's a fanatical, card-carrying men's rights activist. His chilling descent — from lonely new convert to even lonelier zealot — is the provocative subject of 'Angry Alan,' an incisive and pitch-black comedy for our current dread-filled hellscape. Written by British playwright Penelope Skinner, and grippingly directed by Sam Gold ('An Enemy of the People'), the spiky one-man show opened off-Broadway June 11 at Studio Seaview. It's a politically incorrect minefield that most Hollywood agents would chuck right in the trash, as Roger rants and pontificates about sexual assault victims, the mainstream media and his own narrow views of gender. It is to Krasinski's credit that he'd choose to come back to theater with an original work that is both challenging and potentially rife for misinterpretation. As Roger, the 'Jack Ryan' star cleverly inverts his all-American, good-guy persona, creating a character who is eager to be liked yet not above reproach. Imagine 'The Office' prankster Jim Halpert, but with an extreme case of Joe Rogan-induced brain rot. When the play begins, Roger has just tumbled down a digital rabbit hole of the fictional Angry Alan, an Andrew Tate-like messiah who preaches that 'most men are intrinsically good,' and it's the so-called 'gynocracy' that is keeping them down. Through his anti-feminist videos and blog posts, Roger feels that finally someone understands the inadequacy and frustration he's been harboring for years. And so, he plunges further into the manosphere: donating money he doesn't have to unspecified 'male mental health' causes, and attending a seminar on 'Reclaiming Your Masculine Power.' He invites his buddy Dave to an Angry Alan men's rights conference, but Dave is down-and-out after harassing a woman at an office Christmas party. 'All this 'Me Too' business is very simple until you actually know the guy who gets accused,' Roger shrugs. At times, the production feels like the most stomach-churning TED Talk you've ever been subjected to. Krasinski spends most of the 85-minute runtime in Roger's drab, suburban living room (claustrophobically rendered by design collective Dots), clicking through photos and talking points like a rage-baiting snake-oil salesman. Skinner toes a gossamer line of attempting to understand the root of Roger's pain, but stops short of rubber-stamping his bigotry and entitlement. For the most part, she succeeds in making Roger's tangents at once frighteningly familiar and preposterous to the point of parody. (In one moment, he whines about the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' phenomenon, questioning why the modern American woman 'wants to be president and she wants to be spanked on the bottom.') Krasinski returns to the New York stage for the first time since 2016's "Dry Powder," after years spent straddling popcorn action movies ("Fountain of Youth") with directorial passion projects ("A Quiet Place"). Monologuing for an hour and a half is no walk in the park, but the genial A-lister tackles the task at hand with aw-shucks charisma and confidence. It's an ingenious stroke of casting that instantly endears the audience to Roger, even as his behavior becomes increasingly manic and unhinged. Krasinski will knock you sideways as the play hurtles toward its shocking finish, revealing impressive new shades as an actor that we haven't seen from him before. "Angry Alan" is a Molotov cocktail, igniting difficult conversations about how we got to our present-day American nightmare. It's messy and imperfect and offers no easy answers, forcing theatergoers to confront the fragile-egoed monsters lurking just behind their laptop screens. "Angry Alan" is now running at Studio Seaview (305 W. 43rd Street) through Aug. 3.
USA Today
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
'Angry Alan' review: John Krasinski is brilliantly disturbing as a men's rights activist
'Angry Alan' review: John Krasinski is brilliantly disturbing as a men's rights activist Show Caption Hide Caption John Krasinski, Natalie Portman talk 'Fountain of Youth' car chase John Krasinski, Natalie Portman reveal they were genuinely frightened while shooting car chase in 'Fountain of Youth.' NEW YORK — Modern men are in a crisis. A quick Google search will warn you that guys are feeling more isolated, depressed and suicidal than ever before. One of those gents is Roger (John Krasinski), a perfectly mediocre and seemingly innocuous fortysomething. Roger is now a dairy manager at Kroger after losing his plum desk job at AT&T. He's divorced but has a steady girlfriend, and a teenage son whom he sees every so often as long as the child support checks clear. Roger is also deeply insecure and consumed by a grievous pastime: He's a fanatical, card-carrying men's rights activist. His chilling descent — from lonely new convert to even lonelier zealot — is the provocative subject of 'Angry Alan,' an incisive and pitch-black comedy for our current dread-filled hellscape. Written by British playwright Penelope Skinner, and grippingly directed by Sam Gold ('An Enemy of the People'), the spiky one-man show opened off-Broadway June 11 at Studio Seaview. It's a politically incorrect minefield that most Hollywood agents would chuck right in the trash, as Roger rants and pontificates about sexual assault victims, the mainstream media and his own narrow views of gender. It is to Krasinski's credit that he'd choose to come back to theater with an original work that is both challenging and potentially rife for misinterpretation. As Roger, the 'Jack Ryan' star cleverly inverts his all-American, good-guy persona, creating a character who is eager to be liked yet not above reproach. Imagine 'The Office' prankster Jim Halpert, but with an extreme case of Joe Rogan-induced brain rot. When the play begins, Roger has just tumbled down a digital rabbit hole of the fictional Angry Alan, an Andrew Tate-like messiah who preaches that 'most men are intrinsically good,' and it's the so-called 'gynocracy' that is keeping them down. Through his anti-feminist videos and blog posts, Roger feels that finally someone understands the inadequacy and frustration he's been harboring for years. And so, he plunges further into the manosphere: donating money he doesn't have to unspecified 'male mental health' causes, and attending a seminar on 'Reclaiming Your Masculine Power.' He invites his buddy Dave to an Angry Alan men's rights conference, but Dave is down-and-out after harassing a woman at an office Christmas party. 'All this 'Me Too' business is very simple until you actually know the guy who gets accused,' Roger shrugs. At times, the production feels like the most stomach-churning TED Talk you've ever been subjected to. Krasinski spends most of the 85-minute runtime in Roger's drab, suburban living room (claustrophobically rendered by design collective Dots), clicking through photos and talking points like a rage-baiting snake-oil salesman. Skinner toes a gossamer line of attempting to understand the root of Roger's pain, but stops short of rubber-stamping his bigotry and entitlement. For the most part, she succeeds in making Roger's tangents at once frighteningly familiar and preposterous to the point of parody. (In one moment, he whines about the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' phenomenon, questioning why the modern American woman 'wants to be president and she wants to be spanked on the bottom.') Krasinski returns to the New York stage for the first time since 2016's "Dry Powder," after years spent straddling popcorn action movies ("Fountain of Youth") with directorial passion projects ("A Quiet Place"). Monologuing for an hour and a half is no walk in the park, but the genial A-lister tackles the task at hand with aw-shucks charisma and confidence. It's an ingenious stroke of casting that instantly endears the audience to Roger, even as his behavior becomes increasingly manic and unhinged. Krasinski will knock you sideways as the play hurtles toward its shocking finish, revealing impressive new shades as an actor that we haven't seen from him before. "Angry Alan" is a Molotov cocktail, igniting difficult conversations about how we got to our present-day American nightmare. It's messy and imperfect and offers no easy answers, forcing theatergoers to confront the fragile-egoed monsters lurking just behind their laptop screens. "Angry Alan" is now running at Studio Seaview (305 W. 43rd Street) through Aug. 3.
New York Post
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Angry Alan' review: A commanding John Krasinski takes on YouTube in compelling off-Broadway play
Theater review ANGRY ALAN 85 minutes with no intermission. At Studio Seaview, 305 W. 43rd Street. For nine years, audiences grew to love John Krasinski's mild-mannered Jim on 'The Office': His half-grins, dry confessionals, knowing glances at Pam. Jim was one of TV's nicest guys. And that's what makes the puppy-dog actor's casting in Penelope Skinner's engrossing play 'Angry Alan,' which opened off-Broadway Wednesday at the brand-spankin'-new Studio Seaview, so shrewd. There's instantaneous affection for Krasinski's divorced dad character Roger, sight unseen. In director Sam Gold's production — a rapid-fire slideshow of a man unraveling — he even lives in a sit-com-like shoebox house. After a short honeymoon phase, our devotion to Roger is repeatedly tested, tensely, as the normal-at-first dude grows darker and becomes obsessed with frightening ideologies in a warped corner of the internet. Like watching a terrible news story, we quietly wonder if the same unfortunate fate could befall someone emotionally struggling in our own lives. Freakier still, it absolutely can. Roger has a lot of reasons to be unhappy. His teen son barely speaks to him, an artsy girlfriend has been distant after meeting new like-minded friends and he's landed a job at a grocery store since getting let go from a lucrative gig at AT&T. The downcast dad finds some solace in 'Angry Alan,' a YouTuber who rails online about men being given the old heave-ho by what he believes is now a women-run world. 3 John Krasinski plays Roger in 'Angry Alan.' Jonny Cournoyer Initially, Rog's takeaways from the channel are innocent enough: That more men are depressed today; that fewer are graduating from college; that being a provider is an unnecessarily burdensome male stereotype. But the rhetoric fast turns violent, rage-filled and all-consuming. Those early sparks of sweet Jim are soon snuffed out. Roger still wrings out a laugh here and there, but with increasing discomfort. He pours all his time and cash into 'Angry Alan.' He's glued to his screen constantly and attends a messed-up convention with weirdos in Detroit. He stops paying child support. He keeps damaging secrets from his girlfriend. Eventually Roger's gross jokes make us squirm in our seats. The ever-shifting part takes full advantage of Krasinski's naturally positive vibe, which adds complexity to a chatty fellow who could easily be a pain in the ass. The actor also reveals an unexpected magnetism that TV kept under a bushel. 3 Roger's life unravels after he discovers a charismatic and controversial YouTuber. Jonny Cournoyer Krasiniski is a much more commanding stage performer than I ever thought he'd be, and he capably freight-trains through his almost-monologue while never sacrificing nuance or beats of the story. Gold, who theatergoers tend to associate with pregnant pauses, does just as well with Skinner's gap-free dash as he does with Annie Baker's pot-head grazes. 'Angry Alan,' to be sure, is a good play, not an excellent one. I'm particularly iffy on Skinner's ending. There's a powerful visual reveal, and then the drama's most tender — and, in the case of Krasinski, tenderizing — acting. 3 The play doesn't quite stick the landing. Jonny Cournoyer But the confluence of climactic events happens way too smoothly, too deliberately, and results in more of a thesis statement about the state of gender and masculinity than a believable, gripping interaction. It's OK to be both, however 'Angry Alan' skews too far toward the essay side of things. A moment later, the whole shebang is abruptly over with a snap of the fingers, as if a producer offstage is giving a 'wrap it up!' signal. That said, it's a play that keeps you thinking well after blackout. 'Angry Alan' leads to a contemplative audience.
Bloomberg
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
The Best Movies, TV, Music, Books, Theater and Art Arriving in June
This month is chockablock full of stars on stages big, small and, in the case of the megawatt would-be blockbuster F1 starring Brad Pitt, absolutely massive. There are quieter gems too, if you know where to look. (And we did!) Angry Alan Unlike most other movie stars, John Krasinski isn't going to Broadway. Instead, he'll star on the intimate off-Broadway stage of Studio Seaview as Roger, a mild-mannered man who becomes radicalized by the internet into believing that there's a feminist conspiracy against him (or at least men like him). Written by Penelope Skinner and directed by Sam Gold, the show runs for 10 weeks. June 11–Aug. 3
