Shari Springer Berman

In Vladimir (2026), Rachel Weisz’s professor is having a midlife crisis, and her frequent fantasies begin to repeat themselves. We were amused by Weisz’s difficult professor, though the repeated fantasies wore down our patience. The performance keeps the series worth trying, even when the storytelling grows uneven. It is a useful place to begin with Shari Springer Berman, a director drawn to awkward company and alert to what actors can do with it.

Her collaboration with Robert Pulcini began in documentaries, including Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s (1997), before the breakthrough of American Splendor (2003). In that film, comics, real subjects and actors share the job of telling the story. Conventional narrative features followed, among them The Nanny Diaries (2007) and The Extra Man (2010). We are more interested in that willingness to try different forms than in the studio comedies, where the execution has been less dependable.

Berman’s particular contribution to the partnership is her greater concentration on actors and organisation; Pulcini spends more time on the camera and shots. We would look first at the handling of the cast when asking what she brings to a film. The move into episodic television took her to Succession in 2019 and later Fleishman Is in Trouble (2022). Those shared responsibilities also make us wary of assigning every success or shortcoming of Vladimir to her alone.

The limitation in Vladimir is not that its professor is difficult. That is part of the attraction, and Berman’s taste for such people is something we share. The trouble is being taken back into fantasy so often that it loses its interest, while Weisz keeps finding enough amusement to make the series worth trying. Our recommendation is modest: spend an evening with this professor if prickly company appeals, but allow for some impatience with the way her story is told.