Fellini’s ‘La Strada’ Is a Lament for the Downtrodden
Fellini’s fable about an innocent clown roaming postwar Italy with an abusive strongman, La Strada, has the romance of his later epics but a more potent sense of tragedy.
Chris Barsanti
Chris Barsanti is an habitual scrivener on books and film for the lucky readers of PopMatters, Film Journal International, Film Racket, and Publishers Weekly, and has also been published in The Chicago Tribune, The Millions, The Barnes and Noble Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and New York Film Critics Online. His books include Filmology: A Movie-a-Day Guide to the Movies You Need to Know, Eyes Wide Open 2013: The Year's 25 Greatest Movies (and the 5 Worst), and The Sci-Fi Movie Guide: The Universe of Film from 'Alien' to 'Zardoz'. His writings can be found here.
John McWhorter’s Polemic ‘Woke Racism’ Covers Controversial Issues with Snark Gnarled by Outrage
John McWhorter’s pushback against the antiracist orthodoxy of Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi lands palpable hits but is too scattered to win the match.
‘Ratcatcher’ Shows People, Not Poverty Porn
Lynne Ramsay’s gutting, eerily beautiful first film, Ratcatcher, shows a director refusing to let the impoverished circumstances of her characters define them.
‘The Velvet Underground’ Film and the Exploding Lou Reed Inevitable
Todd Haynes’ audiovisual blast delves into the creative combat that birthed America’s first great avant-garde rock ‘n’ roll band, the Velvet Underground.
Artistry and Humanity Clash Quietly in ‘Bergman Island’
In the inside-out drama Bergman Island, a filmmaker couple vacationing in Ingmar Bergman’s old home find the lines between their work and their lives blurring.
‘The Afghanistan Papers’ Reveals How Not to Fight a War
Craig Whitlock’s searing Afghanistan war book is a jaw-dropping compilation of arrogance and stupidities that nobody wanted to see.
Pablo Larraín’s ‘Ema’ Is a Lusty Dance to the Death
Pablo Larraín’s Ema conveys his usual hypnotic and sinuous flow of sight and sound, but it’s delivered here with a more modernistic, punchy antagonism
‘All the Streets Are Silent’ Celebrates the Cross-Fertilization of Hip-Hop and Skateboarding in Pre-Gentrification New York
Elkin’s All the Streets Are Silent shows how skate crews and rappers picked up the mantle of guerrilla art and commerce in the post-Warhol and Basquiat years.
In ‘Stillwater’ a Red-State American Galumphs Through Marseille
Tom McCarthy’s Stillwater is straightforward but not didactic about the unthinking privilege of its blue-collar protagonist and the damage he causes.
The Tragedy of Never Enough in ‘Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain’
Morgan Neville’s documentary about celebrity chef and travel writer Anthony Bourdain, Roadrunner, is loving but clear-eyed.
The Power of Alternative History in Barry Jenkins’ Series’ ‘The Underground Railroad’
Barry Jenkins’ beautiful and brutal adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s alternative history, ‘The Underground Railroad’, indulges in compelling retro Afrofuturism.