‘Amrum’ Presents Wartime Distress with Visual Grace
Fatih Akin’s visually beautiful wartime drama, Amrum, turns a child’s survival into a memory handed from one talented filmmaker to another.
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‘The Betrayal’ Returns in All Its Nihilistic Glory
Like its filmmaker Tokuzô Tanaka, The Betrayal has been largely sidelined by other jidaigeki (historical) and chanbara (samurai) films in Japan’s traditional canon, but this revelatory new release rewrites the record.
‘Eddington’ Is a Feverishly Funny Neo-Western Provocation
No major film since Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction has tackled the culture war fray with the force, specificity, and humor of Ari Aster’s Eddington.
‘True Detective: Night Country’ Finds Comfort in Darkness
At the edge of civilization where True Detective: Night Country is set there is no promise of salvation, only carnal vengeance and some comfort in the darkness.
Author and Podcaster Rax King Is Irresistibly Cheeky in ‘Tacky’
Author and podcaster Rax King shares her love of tasteless kitsch in her funny book on pop culture, Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer.
MIKA’s ‘Last Party’ Is a Glorious Celebration
With over 100 classical musicians and choristers, MIKA has ventured to the Royal Opera of Versailles to re-record orchestral versions of his biggest hits.
’70s TV Horror/Mystery ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’ Keeps Crawling from Its Grave
Horror-mystery TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker has a sour take on society that hasn’t dated since the ’70s; hence, its eternal afterlife.
Bob Dylan Would Dig Michael Gray’s ‘Outtakes’
Michael Gray is the Bob Dylan of Dylan studies, a man whose Dylan criticism has done more to augment and illuminate Dylan’s art than all of his rivals combined.
Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘Inseparable’ Resonates in Our Times
Simone de Beauvoir’s Inseparable reveals the devastating consequences of succumbing to conventions at the expense of one’s own autonomy and well-being.
Why Hasn’t Daphne Gottlieb Won a Lambda Literary Award?
As always, Daphne Gottlieb’s excellent Saint 1001 will please all of her readers – hetero and queer. Does that make her work “not queer enough” for Lambda?
‘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.
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ‘After Life’ Explores What Lingers in the Ephemeral
Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s poignant second feature, After Life, explores the vagaries of memory and the permanence of film.