Steven Spielberg’s vibrant remake of the 1960s classic doesn’t address our deepest division—the Trump line.
film
Posted inJanuary/February/March 2022
How Buster Keaton Became a Digital Meme
The great silent film actor-director invented much of the language of cinema. It still speaks to us on our cell phones.
Posted inPolitical Animal
Don’t Look (Close) Up
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers from the movie Don’t Look Up. The comet-as-climate-change-metaphor Netflix movie Don’t Look Up clocks in at 138 minutes. The title refers to the slogan of those who refuse to accept the clear evidence that a comet is on a collision course with Earth. Yet, for the first 100 minutes of the movie, […]
Posted inBooks, Featured, Political Animal, Politics
Trapped in Quentin Tarantino’s Memory Palace
If you want to know what the 1960s looked like to a six year old, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, the book, is for you.
Posted inPolitical Animal
Ernest Hemingway, the Darkness and the Light
The Ken Burns documentary shows the old man’s better angels and his unspeakable cruelty.
Posted inPolitics
The Visionary Politics of Nomadland
Chloé Zhao’s film offers a rare depiction of the American working class in the deindustrialized heartland.
Posted inMagazine
The Master of (Self-inflicted) Disaster
Mike Nichols’s films about escaping catastrophe can guide us in the post-Trump era.
Posted inFeatured, Political Animal, Politics
The 1996 Black Lesbian Film That Became Essential Viewing for 2020
Cheryl Dunye’s arthouse classic The Watermelon Woman teaches Hollywood some important lessons.
Posted inPolitics
Spike Lee Tells a Different Vietnam War History
His new film depicts the struggle of black veterans who fought for a country that never treated them right.
Posted inFeatured, Political Animal, Politics
Why I Threw Away My Copy of Gone with the Wind
It’s time to downgrade the racist novel—and film—from cultural icon to artifact.
