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Howard Hughes Makes [Lewis] Milestones in Hollywood Silent Movies
Producer Howard Hughes and director Lewis Milestone’s Two Arabian Knights and The Racket, now restored and on Blu-ray, made splashes at the box office and at the first Academy Awards.
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Sex, Violence, and Politics Soak Nagisa Ōshima’s ‘Cruel Story of Youth’
Nagisa Ōshima’s Cruel Story of Youth prefers to understand its protagonists rather than evaluate them, reserving its verdicts for the social structures that define them.
Claude Sautet Forged an Admirable Path in Character-Study Drama
Many of Claude Sautet’s films were pointed comments on how even the most assured families can be the victims of upheaval when cultural codes are challenged.
Every Christopher Nolan Film Ranked from ‘Batman’ to ‘The Odyssey’
Christopher Nolan, today’s most ambitious director, lets us have our cake and eat it too by mixing avant-garde daring and maximalist spectacle.
‘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.
Satire Is No Longer Critical; It’s Inspirational
Satire meant to critique corporate greed and the dark side of masculinity has instead inspired a new kind of performance identity.
‘House of Cards’ Is a Faux-Hitchcock Thriller
House of Cards looks like a million francs in Techniscope and Technicolor and plays like a picture Hitchcock forgot to make.
‘The Second Twin’ Ooh-La-Las the 1960s French Murder Mystery
As a whodunit, The Second Twin is a nifty tease whose resolution might surprise you, unless you pull yourself away from the dazzle long enough to analyze the story.
Ichi the Killer’s Scar Couture
Ichi the Killer transcends gangster archetypes, becoming a model of how agony can be elevated to art and self-destruction a powerful form of self-expression.
The Best TV of 2025 You May Have Missed
These best TV shows you may have missed include a show that’s ludicrously funny, one filled with scattershot mayhem, one that’s brutal and macabre, and a surreal comedy.
Joker’s Prophecy About American Neoliberalism
Joker provides a keen understanding of the deleterious effects of American neoliberalism, which the authors dismantle in Send in the Clowns with a mordant deadpan wit.
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.