Jesse Hassenger

Jesse Hassenger is a film and pop‑culture critic whose work at the Guardian centers on movies, genre cinema, television and how entertainment reflects wider cultural shifts. His coverage balances close attention to craft with an interest in the forces shaping contemporary viewing, from technology and franchise logic to awards campaigning and political satire. He writes criticism and essays that treat horror, blockbusters, animation and prestige drama with the same seriousness, while keeping an accessible, conversational tone. Beyond the Guardian, he maintains a substantial freelance portfolio, contributing film and culture writing across a range of US outlets.

Film and genre criticism

Hassenger’s core work for the Guardian is film criticism, with a steady run of reviews of new releases across horror, genre thrillers and documentary. Recent Guardian notices include pieces on Godzilla Minus Zero, a new Resident Evil film and the concert documentary Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, where he weighs spectacle against emotional and thematic coherence. His Guardian Metacritic slate also covers titles such as the rebooted Faces of Death, an installment of Insidious: Out of the Further, the thriller 72 Hours and the slasher Ice Cream Man, reflecting a particular familiarity with horror and adjacent genre work. In these pieces he tends to map how filmmakers use pacing, set‑pieces and effects, and how much invention they bring to well‑worn formulas.

That interest in genre extends to his other outlets: at Polygon, for example, he writes about possession stories, shark thrillers, creature features and superhero sequels, often situating new films within decades of horror and action cinema.

He also engages with franchise and nostalgia‑driven filmmaking, including animation and long‑running series, examining how sequels handle tone, character and contemporary concerns like digital life and surveillance. His writing on comic‑book movies and extended universes at Polygon and GQ looks at how studio habits, fan service and narrative sprawl affect individual films and the larger ecosystem. Across platforms he tends to favor detailed scene analysis and genre history over industry gossip, making his pieces useful for readers trying to understand where a movie fits in the broader landscape.

Television, streaming and satire

Alongside film, Hassenger covers television and streaming projects for the Guardian, including long‑running series that intersect with politics and current events. His commentary on South Park in the Trump era dissects how the show’s satire functions as a response to a second presidential term, paying attention to tone, targets and the limits of topical comedy. He writes about how animation and other series handle recurring jokes, moral framing and audience fatigue, and how they manage to stay sharp or lose their edge over time.

In other outlets he picks apart streaming trends and niche series, treating them as part of the same entertainment system as theatrical releases.

Across TV coverage he often tracks the relationship between platforms, fandom and the kinds of stories that thrive in a crowded environment, whether that means horror‑adjacent limited series or revived properties with new casts and formats. His approach is to link individual episodes or seasons to longer arcs in television history without losing sight of performance, writing and direction moment to moment.

Broadway and live entertainment

Hassenger also reviews live theatre connected to film and television, an extension of his interest in how stories move between mediums.

BroadwayWorld’s critic index shows multiple Guardian‑branded reviews of Broadway productions such as stage versions of Dog Day Afternoon, the musical adaptation of Schmigadoon! and a transfer of Every Brilliant Thing, indicating regular coverage of high‑profile New York runs. He writes about how these productions reinterpret familiar screen narratives, the challenges of translating cinematic rhythm to the stage, and the performances that make or break such adaptations.

His InsideHook feature on the “endless loop” of Broadway and Hollywood “remusicals” further underscores his interest in remake culture across both stage and screen.

Pop culture, awards and cross‑beat writing

Beyond straight reviews, Hassenger writes essays for the Guardian and elsewhere on the personalities and institutions that shape entertainment. His Guardian column on Oscar season’s “least likable character” treats awards campaigning as a narrative in itself, examining the run of abrasive figures and difficult stories populating a particular year’s race. Another Guardian feature on Hulk Hogan approaches the wrestler as an era‑defining entertainment brand, tracking how off‑ring fame and revelations complicated his public image.

At InsideHook he has written about aging indie rock and about Broadway–Hollywood musical recycling, situating those subjects within larger shifts in taste, nostalgia and industry economics.

His professional bios consistently describe him as a writer and editor whose criticism spans film, TV and pop culture, with longstanding roles shaping movie coverage and a wide list of contributing outlets. He is part of the movies editing team at Paste Magazine and a regular contributor to Polygon, InsideHook, GQ and the Daily Beast, among others, which keeps him in conversation with multiple audiences and formats at once. He also co‑hosts a horror‑focused podcast, reinforcing his deep engagement with the genre and giving him another venue to explore how scary movies work and why they resonate.

Across these platforms, the through‑line is an interest in how popular entertainment - especially horror, franchises and animation - reflects contemporary anxieties while still functioning as accessible, sometimes playful genre storytelling.