Quillette (Page 1)

A cartoon black cat with big eyes on what looks like a gondola in Venice.

The Eerie Beauty of ‘Flow’

Gints Zilbalodis’s beautiful dystopian story feels like the start of a new era in cinema, or at least the invitation to one.

Roy Wayne Meredith III

4 Dec 2024 · 5 min read

An actor in Roman costume with a gold crown. He is a man in his 50s, blonde hair, blue eyes wearing purple and gold.

Savage Entertainment

A new version of Tinto Brass and Bob Guccione’s notorious 1979 film ‘Caligula’ provides a valuable record of one of the most fascinating disasters in cinema history.

Jaspreet Singh Boparai

14 Nov 2024 · 30 min read

Adam Driver as Caesar Catilina and Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero.

Megalopolis: Bloated, Outré—and Brilliant

Like a Hieronymus Bosch painting, it’s chaos alright—but it’s a dazzling chaos.

Ralph Leonard

13 Nov 2024 · 8 min read

Adam Driver is a white man in his early 40s.

Decline and Folly

‘Megalopolis’ and the rise and fall of Francis Ford Coppola.

Oliver Jia

13 Nov 2024 · 13 min read

A family photo collage featuring a happy girl toddler in a summer dress and black and white photos.

The Baby Gate. A Memoir.

So that’s how a fatherhood ends. A few UPCs, like those you find on packs of toilet tissue, delivered via email.

Steve Salerno

8 Nov 2024 · 23 min read

Michael J. Fox in Bright Lights, Big City, in a suit, at a restaurant, talking to an older man, holding wine.

‘Bright Lights, Big City’ at Forty

Jay McInerney’s debut novel was the first work of fiction to explore yuppie culture, and its success changed American publishing.

Kevin Mims

6 Nov 2024 · 16 min read

A creepy blurred photo of a person's face and a furry hood.

The Psychologisation Pandemic

Denial of “invisible” suffering is bad science and worse ethics.

Samuel Kronen

4 Nov 2024 · 18 min read

A woman in a yellow coat stands in front of a row of lockers. She is attractive, fifties, carries an expensive handbag.

All Hail the New Flesh

For all its decorative asides about predatory male sexuality, ‘The Substance’ is most coherently understood as a morality tale about the folly of feminist illusions.

Charlotte Allen

1 Nov 2024 · 11 min read

An image of a bell curve and a woman’s face.

Why Is Most Journalism About IQ So Bad?

It is easy to create a negative image of intelligence research because most people know very little about the topic. But distorting intelligence research does a disservice to the field’s hard-working scientists and the general public.

Russell T. Warne

30 Oct 2024 · 13 min read

A sad-looking teen boy with light brown skin, of African American appearance.

Racial Disparities and Child Protection

The politicisation of medicine has had terrible unintended consequences.

Naomi Schaefer Riley

30 Oct 2024 · 8 min read

Sonny Side Up

Al Pacino’s personal life has been a bit of a train wreck, but his new memoir leaves no doubt that acting has been the most important thing in his life.

Kevin Mims

28 Oct 2024 · 21 min read

Lale Gül is a beautiful woman in her late 20s or early 30s with long black hair and a middle eastern appearance.

Reading Nietzsche in Amsterdam

Lale Gül’s autobiographical novel about a young Muslim woman living in the Netherlands has led to death threats and ostracism. But it is a work of admirable intelligence and courage.