The Dance of Male Forms in Claire Denis’ ‘Beau travail’
Claire Denis’ masterwork of cinematic poetry, Beau travail, is a cinematic ballet that tracks the sublimation of violent masculine complexes into the silent convulsions of male angst.
identity
“I’ll See You Later”: Repetition and Time in Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘All About My Mother’
There are mythical moments in Almodóvar’s All About My Mother. We are meant to register repetition in the story as something wonderfully strange, a connection across the chasm of impossibility.
‘Trans Power’ Is a Celebration of Radical Power and Beauty
Juno Roche's Trans Power discusses trans identity not as a passageway between one of two linear destinations, but as a destination of its own.
Does Inclusivity Mean That Everyone Does the Same Thing?
What is the meaning of diversity in today’s world? Russell Jacoby raises and addresses some pertinent questions in his latest work, On Diversity.
‘Memento’ Is the Movie of the Attention Economy
We are afraid of time, and so like Leonard in Memento, we kill it, compulsively and indiscriminately.
‘When All Else Fails’, Rely Upon Your Wit
Rayyan Al-Shawaf's When All Else Fails is politically complex, and its humor is razor-sharp.
Nora Krug’s ‘Belonging’ Could Serve as a Model for Understanding Collective Responsibility
In graphic novel Belonging, Nora Krug takes a single idea – her family's involvement in the Second World War and Nazi Germany – and pursues it with relentless, forensic determination.
Social Media and Identity Formation in Bo Burnham’s Film, ‘Eighth Grade’
Rather than moralize, critique, or make grandiose statements about "digital natives", writer-director-wunderkind Bo Burnham brilliantly visualizes what it means to live in a world in which social media is omnipresent.
Loss of Memory and Divided Identities in Psychological Thriller ‘I Know My Name’
It's risky to build the success of a genre psychological thriller on the incorporation of psychological therapeutic techniques. But in Cooke's hands, it works.
How the Nobel Committee and the Great American Read (Among Others) Got Philip Roth Wrong
A sense of bitterness remains for those of us mourning the loss of this final great literary lion of the 20th century.
The Deconstructive Irony of Ortberg’s ‘The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror’
This collection gives us Ortberg's trademark gender-swapping, flipping of accepted norms of good vs evil even while blurring the line between them, and startling backstories that do not always reveal underlying motivations but definitely add dark, ironic humor.