‘I Love Boosters’ Is Not the Critique of Capitalism It Claims to Be
Director Boots Riley and critics interpret I Love Boosters as an anti-capitalist, if not revolutionary, tale. Quite the opposite, in fact.
capitalism
Beef’s Cooked-in Class Anxiety Turns Up the Heat
If Beef Season 1 gave you a tension headache that you refused to placate by turning off the television, Season 2 is even more addictively high-stakes, tightly wound, and explicit in its view.
2025 Marks Pop Music’s Gilded Age
Embracing craft alongside vulnerability in the 2020s, pop music reaches the apex of its powers in 2025 by reveling in its own glamorous facade.
Capitalism’s Moral Rot in Three New York-Centered Films
Capitalism’s moral rot is tracked in three NYC films: from heroin dealers who risk arrest to insider traders who risk indictment to men in masks who risk nothing at all.
Outland’s Labor Politics Are As Brutal as Jupiter’s Moon
Sci-fi western Outland is literal in its depiction of corrupt corporations and worker exploitation, but it won’t give easy answers.
‘Pretty in Pink’ and the Death of the Left
Pretty in Pink‘s key moments show that John Hughes’ film is neither conservative nor leftist. Rather, it is an exploration of the death of the left.
‘Anora’, (Sex) Work, and the Fantasies of Genre
Sean Baker’s Anora illustrates how sex work – a working-class job – is a dance between creativity and commerce, art and artifice.
Championing Change: Eddie Ahn’s Graphic Memoir ‘Advocate’
With his graphic memoir Advocate, Eddie Ahn invites readers to contemplate the complexities of pursuing social justice within a profit-driven world.
Getting High on Your Own Supply: ‘Scarface’ as an Allegory of Capitalism
Scarface implies that under capitalism, “getting high on your own supply” is inevitable, as the system is based on the exploitation of dissatisfaction.
Breaking the Habit: Can the US Kick a Century of Drug Dependence?
In Quick Fixes, Benjamin Y. Fong explores America’s stubborn addiction to drugs and looks beyond failed drug wars for a way to break the habit once and for all.
Succession’s Final Season of Satire and Calamity Offers No Parting Panacea
Succession, HBO’s most lauded release of the decade solidifies its place as one of TV’s best dramas, even though it shares nothing positive about our capitalist world.
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ and the Politics of Genre
In genre-busting sci-fi Everything Everywhere All At Once, the multiverse is not a genre but a metaphor that invites audiences to think about the complexities and politics of genres.