Ron Howard’s Disappointing Hillbilly Elegy
by Gracy OlmsteadWe are owed better films about Appalachia and the Rust Belt—about the “back row Americans” who are at once incredibly ordinary and incredibly extraordinary. Continue Reading »
We are owed better films about Appalachia and the Rust Belt—about the “back row Americans” who are at once incredibly ordinary and incredibly extraordinary. Continue Reading »
A recent documentary on abortion, Divided Hearts of America, invites conversations rather than condemnations. 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 »
For Yaakov Smith, a transgender person who lives and teaches in Jerusalem, Orthodoxy is a bit like the exaggerated femininity of the drag queen. 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 »
Eric Gill and Roman Polanski are both guilty of revolting crimes. But should we be punished by being deprived of the results of their undeniable talent? Continue Reading »
North by Northwest’s style is so impeccable, its tone so effervescent, that many viewers fail to grasp the film’s seriousness. Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter, did not help when he described the film as an insubstantial caper in the vein of James Bond, “something that has wit, . . . . Continue Reading »
Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life tells the story of Austrian martyr Franz Jägerstätter and his wife Fani, who suffer as one body even when they are apart. Continue Reading »
The movie Yesterday imagines a world without The Beatles. Continue Reading »
The pro-choice movement has thrived because of its extraordinary ability to mask what it’s really about. Continue Reading »