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.
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.
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 shares her love of tasteless kitsch in her funny book on pop culture, Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer.
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.
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.
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 reveals the devastating consequences of succumbing to conventions at the expense of one’s own autonomy and well-being.
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?
Craig Whitlock’s searing Afghanistan war book is a jaw-dropping compilation of arrogance and stupidities that nobody wanted to see.
Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s poignant second feature, After Life, explores the vagaries of memory and the permanence of film.
Kobayashi’s The Human Condition demonstrates the impossibility of realizing the ideals of humanism.
