Matthew Schmitz

She Said, a film that follows two New York Times reporters as they hunt Harvey Weinstein, debuted in October to rave reviews. Variety described it as “tense, fraught, and absorbing.” The Washington Post deemed it “engrossing, even galvanizing.” The New York . . . . Continue Reading »

In the summer of 2020, HBO removed Gone with the Wind (1939) from its streaming service. The move came in response to an op-ed by John Ridley, screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave (2013), which charged that the film “glorifies the antebellum south,” “romanticizes the . . . . Continue Reading »

In 1891, Charlotte ­Perkins Gilman announced the extinction of the Angel in the House. Gilman, author of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” was one of many feminist writers who had struggled to eradicate this image of meekness and domesticity, which defined what it meant to be a respectable woman in the . . . . Continue Reading »

What Éric Rohmer said of one of his characters could be said of him as well: He was committed to “redoing all of ­Rousseau in reverse.” His films are anti-­romantic. They reject romantic notions of liberation and autonomy. They critique the cult of romantic love. They warn against a romantic . . . . Continue Reading »

Readers of John Cheever’s stories, most of which appeared in the New Yorker before being collected in a Pulitzer-winning book in 1978, regarded the author as “the Ovid of ­Ossining,” the artist who showed the riches and wonders of suburban life. Alert to the transcendent in the . . . . Continue Reading »

In the mid-1940s, Hollywood began to make a new kind of crime film. Combining sex and violence, lust and greed, the “noir” was distinguished by the darkness of its themes and photography. Double ­Indemnity (1944) was, as a critic noted in the New York Times, “the first of the . . . . Continue Reading »

Unlike most other ­supporters of same-sex marriage, Douglas ­Laycock has spoken out in defense of Americans compelled to bake cakes or arrange flowers for same-sex weddings. This is cause to admire him, and to doubt his arguments. For he presents his own view of religious freedom as uncomplicated . . . . Continue Reading »

In May 1989, protestors in Tiananmen Square erected a plaster statue of the Goddess Democracy. For almost a week, it faced off against the giant portrait of Chairman Mao that hangs from the Gate of Heavenly Peace. The juxtaposition seemed to sum up the choice facing China: communist rule or liberal . . . . Continue Reading »

Unless religious leaders reopen the churches, they will appear to value earthly above eternal life. Continue Reading »

In America, most right-leaning pundits espouse some form of “classical liberalism,” a theory that stresses free markets, individual rights, and the inviolability of private property. The more libertarian defenders of this theory stress its individualistic aspects, while the more traditional seek . . . . Continue Reading »