Leonard Bernstein Deserved Better Than ‘Maestro’ Netflix somehow managed to turn the most talented, beloved, and complex American musician in history into a two-dimensional domestic villain. Daniel Lelchuk 16 Jan 2024 · 9 min read
To Save Us All From Satan’s Power William Friedkin’s horror classic is 50 years old. George Case 26 Dec 2023 · 7 min read
How Superhero Franchises Are Killing Original Cinema Most new movies feature neither good storytelling nor innovative filmmaking. Instead, they rely on the nostalgia of ready-made fan bases. Jacob Bielecki 7 Dec 2023 · 7 min read
History on Horseback: Napoleon Bonaparte The French emperor and military commander played a pivotal role in an epochal transformation. Ralph Leonard 4 Dec 2023 · 16 min read
Black Progress and Black Rage A new biopic about Bayard Rustin and the New York Met’s opera about the life of Malcolm X celebrate very different notions of black struggle. Joshua Muravchik 30 Nov 2023 · 8 min read
Hollywood Autocrat A newly restored Blu-ray release of ‘Foolish Wives’ offers a welcome reintroduction to one of cinema’s most gifted and eccentric artists. Jaspreet Singh Boparai 13 Oct 2023 · 12 min read
Israel’s Everywoman at War Helen Mirren’s Golda Meir offers a profile of greatness in the face of overwhelming adversity. Michael Oren 8 Sep 2023 · 16 min read
How Accurate is Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’? A nuclear engineer reviews the blockbuster film. Robert Zubrin 1 Aug 2023 · 10 min read
Dare to Be Brilliant Nolan’s kaleidoscopic biopic may be his most ambitious picture to date. Brad Strotten 27 Jul 2023 · 4 min read
Bob Ross, Populist Artist A Netflix documentary and a new film about the beloved American TV painter explore a life marked by popular success and personal betrayal. Julia Friedman 19 Jul 2023 · 10 min read
“Be Vigilant, America” Two forgotten films from 1942 about Japanese internment offer a window into the shameful nativism of wartime America. Thomas Doherty 6 Mar 2023 · 10 min read
A Bore of a Blockbuster Next time, one hopes, James Cameron will focus as much on the story he tells as the means he uses to tell it. Allan Stratton 19 Jan 2023 · 7 min read
The Radicalization of the Film Canon Sight and Sound’s 2022 poll is a sign of the times. Adrian Nguyen 18 Dec 2022 · 13 min read
Startling Intimations of Greatness As we await the release of Woody Allen’s 50th feature film, his biographer looks back on the career of one of America’s great cinematic artists. David Evanier 21 Nov 2022 · 26 min read
Ken Kesey and the Rush to Deinstitutionalization Whatever the literary strengths of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the book has done much to harm both the mentally ill and their communities. Stephen Eide 14 Nov 2022 · 11 min read
