The Mediocrity Feedback Loop
If leading media critics don’t expect much, filmmakers won’t deliver much.
Charlotte Allen
· 15 min read
Art & Culture
A collection of 850 posts
Deprograming Patriotism
‘The Technological Republic’ is a searching indictment of a culture that has lost sight of its metaphysical horizons and now seeks an escape from history.
Brian Stewart
· 11 min read
It Don’t Worry Me
Robert Altman’s ‘Nashville’ is fifty.
Matt Hanson
· 7 min read
Disco Inferno
Disco Demolition Night was an early episode of culture and counterculture being saddled with far greater political significance than they deserved.
George Case
· 10 min read
The Art of Not Quite Listening
Ian Penman has published an eccentric new book about Erik Satie, a French surrealist composer and celebratory nuisance with a tiny oeuvre and massive influence.
Thomas Larson
· 9 min read
Hell in North Germany
A riveting new book by American historian Lynne Olson re-examines the story of Ravensbrück, the Nazis’ notorious concentration camp for women.
Ron Capshaw
· 12 min read
Purity, Profit, and Politics
How journalism exchanged the duty to inform for an ethic of customer satisfaction.
Steve Salerno
· 23 min read
Creative Writing in the Age of Trump
The assumption that once drove creative writing—that interior life deserves as much respect and interest as the latest bump in relations at the White House—no longer obtains.
Daphne Merkin
· 8 min read
Joys Known Only to the Insane
In Hereditary and Midsommar, Aster's characters search for their place in the world—and can only find it by embracing evil.
Samuel Kronen
· 11 min read
The Forgotten Ford
Before Han Solo and Indiana Jones, there was another Harrison Ford, a star of silent cinema.
Christian Kriticos
· 15 min read
Fan Service vs Geek Service
From the Iliad to Mission: Impossible, creators have wrestled with the question of how much universe-building is too much.
Stewart Slater
· 9 min read
Gonzo Bros
Twenty years after his death, what Hunter S. Thompson’s legacy—or lack of it—tells us about literature and manhood in our current moment.
Frank Celia
· 29 min read
Literary Prozac
Matthew Gasda’s new novel unfolds in a haze of empty dialogue and overwrought introspection.
Brad Strotten
· 7 min read
Theatre of Blood
Seduction and submission in the work of the Marquis de Sade.
Yuki Zeman
· 19 min read
Playing with Helpless Dead Puppets
‘Ragtime,’ E.L. Doctorow’s forgotten novel of Progressive Era New York, is a reminder of how much American politics have changed over the past century.
Josh Allan
· 9 min read